A Cognitive Study Of Conceptual Metaphors In English Economic Discourses

The study of metaphor, with a long history in western countries, can be traced back to the age of Aristotle. Traditionally, metaphor was invariably considered as a pure linguistic phenomenon by classical rhetoricians, and the study on it was always confined in the realm of literary works. In1980, with the publication of Metaphor We Live By by Lakoff, traditional views on metaphor were completely overturned. Marking a real beginning of cognitive linguistics, this book initiated conceptual metaphor and emphasized its cognitive values in human cognition systems. Lakoff proposed that not merely a matter of language, metaphor in essence was a kind of thinking or conceptualization. In other words, the processes of human thoughts were largely metaphorical. Providing a brand-new view for the studies on metaphors, conceptual metaphor theory sheds light on the cognitive studies of economic metaphors nowadays.Abstract and complex as the economic discourses are, ordinary readers can get access to them with the aids of conceptual metaphors. For the sake of a better understanding of economic discourses, metaphor, a vital cognitive tool, is always employed to enhance the readability and interests of economic discourses by simplifying some confusing phenomena or terms in them. From the first-hand data collected from the renowned English economic magazines or newspapers (such as The Economist, Business week, and Financial Times) published after2010, the ubiquitousness of conceptual metaphors is beyond our imagination. Thus, a clear and comprehensive analysis on economic metaphors is of great significances for a deeper understanding of economic discourses. By means of qualitative and quantitative analyses, this thesis aims to find out some typical conceptual metaphors employed in economic discourses and some differences in the frequency and interior structures of these metaphors.On the other hand, only uncovering the cognitive functions of conceptual metaphors in economic discourses is not enough. This thesis probes into some pragmatic functions of economic metaphors, in which studies on the cultural significances of economic metaphors are weak links and further investigations are needed. Meanwhile, with the purpose of building an overall awareness of economic discourses, this thesis puts further efforts to emphasize the heuristics of economic metaphors in such fields as translation, teaching, and writing, so as to penetrate into some cultural patterns underneath the language---English.