The Study Of Language The Nature Of Metaphor

In his book Essay on Man, German philosopher Cassirer Ernest once points out that metaphor or metaphoricity is the fundamental nature of language. The poet Shelly also made out the similar statement. People use metaphor all the time, and at the same time, people also begin to wonder what metaphor is indeed, and what metaphorical thinking is as well as the relationship between language and this thinking. Metaphor, instead of just the decoration of our language, more importantly, is the exterior manifestation of metaphorical thinking, and defines the nature of our language.Language, in nature, is metaphorical. Metaphorical thinking has exerted the most direct and important influences on language, not only on its origin and formation of concepts, but also on its semantic development and other aspects. The thinking pattern of metaphorical thinking adds a strong shade of metaphorical color to the language right from the origin of its growth time. The aim of this dissertation is to try to prove this idea.The dissertation includes six chapters. The first chapter briefly introduces the background information, which includes the present research condition of home and abroad; the purpose of this thesis. Chapter two is literature review, embracing the definition followed by a wholesome summary about different approaches to metaphor. Chapter three, four and five are developed as the backbone of this thesis. In chapter three, the discussion focus is the motivations of the emergence of metaphor, and we will discuss it from four aspects, namely: cognitive, psychological, linguistic and cultural. Chapter four discusses the metaphorical thinking. After introducing its features and functions, we will lay our emphasis on the university, possibility as well as the inevitability of the metaphorical thinking. When talking about its possibility, the discussion will focus on the material basis, the biological basis, the psychological basis and the linguistic basis. When talking about its inevitability, the thesis will focus on four aspects:the interdependent property between old and new knowledge, the limitations of literal meaning of language, the principle of repetition avoidance and the memory rule of human brain. In chapter five, the thesis probes into language and metaphorical thinking from several perspectives, including root metaphor, the relationship between metaphor and metaphorical thinking, supplemented with brief coverage of language and thinking reflected in metaphor. Chapter six is the conclusion chapter, including the results of our research and the limitations of this thesis.