A Cognitive Study Of Love Metaphor In Tagore’s Lyrics

The research of metaphor has developed quickly in the last two decades. It isnot only taken as a rhetoric device in language but also a way of thinking or acognitive instrument which helps readers/hearers to grasp implied meanings.Metaphor has been seen as normal and everyday language nowadays, especially in thefield of cognitive linguistics. As one of the essential components of poetry, it makesthe poetry more beautiful and attractive. Therefore, it is an important key to theunderstanding of the poetry. Poets usually use it not only to connect poets and readers,but also help to construct the imagery and salient the theme of poetry. It is the poets’use of metaphor that creates poetry to be more powerful and interesting. Moreover,metaphor can help readers to understand something abstract with concrete terms, andthen figure out what meaning poets want to convey. It allows readers to go beyond theoutward view of the poetry and further into the internal structure of them to grasptheir deep meaning.The thesis uses the conceptual metaphor theory to study love metaphor inTagore’s lyrics. The cognitive analysis of love metaphor in Tagore’s lyrics has asignificant meaning for the construction and comprehension of the lyrics. In order tomake readers get a better understanding of Tagore’s lyrics, the thesis uses theconceptual metaphor theory to illustrate love metaphor in Tagore’s lyrics. The focusof the research is how the cognitive mapping and functions of conceptual metaphor work in Tagore’s Lyrics. The existence of conceptual metaphor of love in Tagore’slyrics can not only make the theme of the lyrics salient, and also construct the lyricimagery. Some methodologies are adopted, for example, qualitative research andliterature analysis. According to the study of conceptual metaphors of love in Tagore’slyrics, the lyrics have been better understood and comprehended. The thesis owns acontribution to the appreciation of Tagore’s lyrics.