An Analysis Of Song Of Solomon From The Perspective Of Concept Metaphor

In the year1980, Lakoff and Johnson put forward the revolutionary theory of conceptual metaphor in their epoch-making works Metaphors We Live By. From then on, the study of metaphors entered a new period and was brought into the the scope of cognitive linguistics. The theory of conceptual metaphors holds the idea that metaphor is conceptual and cognitive and is the mapping from a concrete conceptual domain to another abstract conceptual domain. The new theory of conceptual metaphors has caused a sensation throughout the academic circles, what is more, there comes a stirring of interest in doing research in conceptual metaphors from the angle of cognition all over the world and up to now, the cognitive linguistics is still what the linguistists are keen on.This thesis conducts a tentative research on the metaphors applied in the works Song Of Solomon, on the basis of the theory of conceptual metaphors in order to summarize the metaphors in it systematically as well as illustrate their cognitive process.This thesis consists of introduction, main body which covers three chapters and conclusion.The first part is the introduction in which the history of the metaphor study, its current situation and its value for analyzing Song Of Solomon are referred to. People started to treat metaphor as the rhetoric device and finally developed into the conceptual metaphor theory, metaphor experiencing many different period. Song Of Solomon is a typical black literary works full of metaphors, as a result, it can be recognized as a classical text to analyze the theory of metaphor. However, up to now, to analyze Song Of Solomon from the angle of metaphor systematically is rare, which is also the innovation of this thesis. That can attract more readers to analyze more literary works from new perspectives and their deep meanings.The main body is made up of three chapters:Chapter I begins with the development of metaphors, the birth of concept metaphors, classical views and cognitive views on metaphors. Next, the main content of Song Of Solomon and the its feature full of metaphors are touched, which provides good material for metaphor study. Concept metaphors possess four elements:source domain, target domain, experiential basis and mapping; metaphors can be classified into three kinds:structural metaphors, orientational metaphors and ontological metaphors. Structural metaphors refer to cases where one familiar and concrete concept is used to structure another relatively strange and abstract concept; orientational metaphors use spacial concepts such as up-down, inner-outside, front-after, far-near, deep-low and center-periphery to understand non-spacial concepts; ontological metaphors mean that people employ simple yet specific and physical objects to recognize more complex concepts, that is, to comprehend abstract concepts through mastering features of entities. Concept metaphors have two main features, namely, systematicity and coherence.Chapter II mainly covers the embodiments of structural metaphors, orientational metaphors and ontological metaphors in Song Of Solomon. This chapter adopts the study method of corpus and picks out dozens of examples of conceptual metaphors to classify them into structural metaphors, orientatioanl metaphors and ontological metaphors. Structural metaphors are made up of the nomination of characters, flying mythology and other narrative language. Different characters such as Milkman, Macon, Guitar, Pilate, Magdalena and First Corinthians contain different metaphorical meanings:MILKMAN IS GROWTH, DEAD IS AN OBJECT, GUITAR IS MILITANT ALIENATION, PILATE ARE A KIND OF REBELLION, MAGDALENA AND FIRST CORINTHIANS IS AN ASSIMILATION. Different scenes in the tour to the south for gold metaphorize different connotations. Flyings of various black people stand for their hope for freedom and right. Orientational metaphors are applied in the novel in the way of image schema and ontological metaphors are analyzed from two aspects-container metaphor and personification metaphor. These three different kinds of metaphors are analyzed from cognitive view in detail for the purpose of exploring how the features of the source domains are projected onto the target domains and understanding the experience basis of the metaphorical expressions and their embodiments in the novel, which offers a new view and method for studying literary works.Chapter Ⅲ tells us the systematic and coherent features of concept metaphor and their realization in Song Of Solomon. The systematicity of concept metaphor generally reflects on two levels:language level and concept level. The coherence of concept metaphor means the fact that several concept metaphors not only make themselves but also make their metaphorical expressions coherent through their entailment. There are two means of coherence and their realization in the novel, namely, coherence between two metaphors with a same target and coherence across metaphors.The conclusion summarizes the above content and points out the theme of this thesis. From it some findings can be gained, such as American blacks’awareness towards metaphor theory and the science of metaphor theory. The colored people perceive conceptual metaphors deeply owing to their living environment, cognitive basis and the influnce of culture; they are accustomed to discovering similarities between two things, good at expressing one thing by another one, which is the only way for them to survive. Metaphors are closely related with black culture which endows metaphorical expressions with special connations; metaphors can make language vivid, diverse and lively. In order to comprehend the metaphors in the novel better, the unique traditional culture of blacks should be taken into account and as a result, the infinite charm of language must be tasted.