A Metaphorical Study Of Natural Images In Su Shi’s Poetry

In1980, Lakoff and Johnson put forward the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, whichholds a significant position in the field of cognitive linguistics. The theory argues thatmetaphor is a basic way of language and thinking as well as a fundamental tool ofhuman cognition. Metaphor is one of the most striking features of poetry. Metaphorsimplifies the language, deepens the connotation and beautifies the artistic conceptionof the poetry. Therefore, understanding metaphor is a key part in interpreting poetry.Chinese poetry largely conforms to the conceptual mappings originally derivedfrom linguistic evidence in English. In this thesis, the Conceptual Metaphor Theory isapplied in the analysis of natural images in Su Shi’s poetry and establish metaphoricalmapping mode. The author classifies the metaphorical system into five subsystems,including the plant subsystem, the animal subsystem, the landscape subsystem, theweather subsystem and the moon subsystem according to the characteristics of thesource domain. In each subsystem, the author takes some of Su Shi’s poems and lyricsas examples and discusses the features of the two related domain and the mappingbetween them based on their similarities.In the plant subsystem, three lyrics are quoted to demonstrate how the poetestablishes a mapping mechanism from plants to people. And several similarities arefound between the plants and women. Three typical poems and lyrics are employed inthe animal subsystem, the author finds that animals are referred to as some kinds ofpeople, including the poet himself. Moreover, the features of some organs of animalsshare similarities with profit and fame. As to the landscape subsystem, Su Shiappreciates the landscape and explores life with wisdom by adopting metaphors. In theweather subsystem, the poet establishes different mappings based on the similaritiesbetween clouds and ink, raindrops and pearls, as well as the changeable weather and the changing states of life. And in the moon subsystem, new metaphors are created basedon the similarities between the moon and the poet himself, as well as the moon and life.The thesis focuses on how the metaphors are created inspired from the naturalimages and how the readers apply their cognitive competence to understand themetaphorical mappings in Su Shi’s poetry. It helps readers understand the poet’sthoughts and emotion, and finally the poet’s views of nature and life are concluded. Toanalyze Chinese classic poetry under the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory isa new perspective to study metaphor; Moreover, research on the metaphors in Chineseclassic poetry provides important cross-cultural corpus for the enrichment anddevelopment of Conceptual Metaphor Theory.