An Analysis Of Conceptual Metaphore In Fairy Tales

From the cognitive perspective, this paper probes into the metaphors in fairy tales in accordance with the conceptual metaphor theory as well as the features of children’s metaphorical comprehension. In the study, some abstract concepts such as death, time, happiness, sadness, anger and fear from fifteen short fairy tales and two long fairy tales of five famous fairy tale writers are analyzed.This thesis consists of four chapters with the first two chapters focusing mainly on the background, literature review and theoretical foundations of the study. The third chapter is the main body of this thesis. Firstly, conceptual metaphors in fairy tales are selected and analyzed within the theories of conceptual metaphor model, mapping model, metaphor characteristics as well as the features of children’s cognitive psychology. After careful analysis of conceptual metaphors such as DEATH IS RELIGION, DEATH IS SLEEP, TIME IS A CONTAINER AND EMOTION IS PHYSICAL REACTIONS and so on, the author concludes that the conventionality and aptness of metaphors in fairy tales are comparatively high, the metaphors in fairy tales such as DEATH IS HEAVEN and DEATH IS SLEEP can ease the cruelty and bitterness of the society which makes children easily accept the reality; the embodied experience of metaphor is dominant and orientational metaphor is rare. In the last chapter, the author makes the conclusion of the whole thesis including the major findings, significance, limitations and suggestions.