A CMB Approach To Poetical Metaphors

In recent years, with the combination of linguistics and literature, especially therapid development of cognitive linguistics, poetry and poetical metaphor havereceived more and more attention for research.However, many former studies on poetry stayed at the traditional aestheticaland cultural level, but there are few cognitive analyses of the interpretation process ofpoetry. And most studies focused on conventional metaphors with a single theoreticalframework, laying less emphasis on novel metaphors. As one kind ofnon-conventional metaphor, poetical metaphor is characterized for its novelty,initiative and aesthetic quality, which make it of high study value and cannot betreated equally with the conventional metaphor. Therefore, this thesis tries to set up anew analyzing model from the cognitive angle based on previous researches, startfrom the subjectivity of poet and reader, explore the comprehension mechanism ofpoetical metaphors, to reveal the language mystery underlying it. The paper takes thepoetry from Li Bai as corpus to study poetical metaphors on different levels.The thesis clearly defines poetical metaphor first, and then sets up anintegrative CMB Model by analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the ConceptualBlending Theory, the Conceptual Metaphor Theory and the Self-negotiation Principle,and then the model is applied to the analysis of the poetical metaphors in Li Bai’spoetry. The interpretation of poetical metaphor is a dynamic process during which thereaders understand the poetical metaphors by means of activation, association,inhibition and inference, on the basis of linguistic context and background knowledgeand ultimately successfully get the metaphorical intended meaning. Through theprocesses of blending, mapping, framing, and other cognitive operations, such as theSelf-negotiation Principle, readers can reason out the optimal meaning of poeticalmetaphors. By argumentation, it concludes that poetical metaphor (here it refers to thepoetical metaphor in Li Bai’s poetry) is non-conventional metaphor, and theunderstanding of it is a cognitive process where the poet constructs metaphor and the readers interpret it. It can’t go without the metaphorical thought, cultural background,life experience and cognitive reasoning. That’s where the specialty and feasibility ofCMB model lies.Personally thinking, the paper has two major findings: first, it established anintegrated model CMB on the basis of Conceptual Metaphor Theory, BlendingSpacing Theory and Self-negotiation Principle to account for the poetical metaphor inLi Bai’s poetry, with three operating principles under the framework to provideguidance for the interpretation process, aiming at the specific characteristics ofpoetical language. Second, it provides a reasonable analysis of Li Bai’s poetry fromthe cognitive perspective. It first made a systemic classification of the poeticalmetaphors on the basis of metaphor categories and the features of Li Bai’s poems.And then a specified cognitive model CMB is applied to give a comprehensiveaccount of the metaphors. It enhances readers’ interpretation and makes contributionsto further researches of Li Bai’s poetry.