A Cognitive Analysis Of Metaphors In The Bible From The Perspective Of Image Schema

Metaphors become an important part of human cognitive mechanism by theadvent of Lakoff and Johnson’s book Metaphors We Live By. The concept of metaphoremphasized in the book is a powerful cognitive tool in the abstract category of ideas inhuman mind; it serves not only as the most basic human cognitive style, but also has ahuge impact on human cognition. At the same time, they put forward the concept ofimage schema when discussing the conceptual metaphor in the book, which became oneof the important concepts in cognitive linguistics. Western linguists have applied imageschema to the analysis of literary works (Freeman,2002, Lakoff and Turner,1989),which affirmed that the image schema theory can be used for the analysis of literature.The Bible, as a classic scripture for the Christians, is the way of salvation that Godmade redemption. God preached message of salvation to the world through The Bible.The Bible is the source of the creation of literary giants. Most of the theologians andlinguists tried to study the language art embodied in The Bible from the perspective ofrhetoric, tried to understand the mysteries that The Bible contained, but it was stillconfined to the rhetorical aspects of language. This thesis aims to analyze biblicalmetaphors from a new angle.Image schema is a meaningful structure generated by human perceptualinteractions and physical movements. This thesis tries to analyze the using biblicalmetaphors from the perspective of image schema of cognitive linguistics. The authoruses the qualitative research. This thesis introduces the concept and classification ofmetaphor and image schema at the same time to deepen the practicability of the imageschema theory applying the image schema theory into the analysis of The Bible.The thesis is just chosen from New Revised Standard Version. The examples aretaken from both the Old Testament and the New Testament. The findings show that The Bible is full of metaphors, which prototypes can be animals, plant or weather and so on.This thesis lets the readers better understand the meaning of metaphors in The Bible andthe foundations of Western Culture. The practicality of image schema theory is provedby using different types of image schema to analyze the metaphors in The Bible. Thestudies on metaphors in The Bible based on image schema enrich the researches onbiblical metaphors. Christians will have a more profound understanding on doctrine dueto the analysis of biblical metaphors. To some extent, the study helps Non-Christiansknow the ideas of Western Culture implied in The Bible. Not only the language in TheBible but the culture about The Bible will be deeply known by the analysis.