A Cognitive Study Of Metaphors In Frog

Metaphor has been a hot topic in many scholars’ schedules for thousands of years. Thetraditional view of metaphor regards metaphor only as a figure of speech, and it researchesmetaphor on lexical level. The traditional view of metaphor mainly includes the ComparisonTheory and the Substitution Theory. The Interaction Theory proposed by Richards and Blackis considered as the turning point of metaphor research from the traditional view to themodern cognitive view. Since the publication of Metaphors We Live By written by Lakoff&Johnson in1980, scholars have begun to research metaphor from the cognitive perspective.The Mapping Theory proposed by Lakoff&Johnson and the Blending Theory by Fauconnier&Turner are the most influential theories for metaphor research until now.However, there still exist some drawbacks in the Mapping Theory and the BlendingTheory. They cannot explain the specific generative process of metaphor clearly. Therefore,Xu Shenghuan proposes the "Denotation-Connotation Inheritance" theory to researchmetaphor from a new perspective. Besides, Xu Shenghuan has interpreted metaphors from theperspective of intentionality. This thesis proposes a revised analytic framework on the basis of"Denotation-Connotation Inheritance" theory and the concept of intentionality to interpret themetaphors in Frog.For the metaphors in Frog, this thesis will mainly involve three questions. What kindsof metaphors are there in Frog? How are these metaphors generated? Why are thesemetaphors used? For the first question, Shu Dingfang has divided metaphors into two types:similarity-based metaphors and similarity-creating metaphors. However, some metaphorscannot be classified into either of them. They fall in between. Wang Yin classifies them into athird type, which is named as the vague metaphors in this thesis. Therefore, the metaphors inFrog are divided into three kinds in this thesis: similarity-based metaphors, similarity-creatingmetaphors and vague metaphors. This classification is adopted because it is the most suitable one for the current analytic framework. It is known that, in the revised analytic framework,two more factors, intentionality and context, are added. And this classification is actuallybased on different participation of the subject (intentionality of human beings). Therefore, it isused in the present research.According to the researches on the metaphors in Frog, it is found that the"Denotation-Connotation Inheritance" theory is more powerful than previous theories inexplaining metaphor. However, there still exist some shortcomings in the theory. Besides, it isalso found that a metaphor can be interpreted bidirectionally: from tenor to vehicle or fromvehicle to tenor. This can explain a metaphor more deeply and comprehensively.This thesis consists of five parts. Chapter One is a brief introduction to the whole thesis,and it includes the background and motivation of the study, the research questions, the datacollection and methodology, the significance of the study and the organization of the wholethesis. Chapter Two is the literature review of the study, in which not only the previous studieson metaphor, mainly including the traditional view and cognitive view of metaphor research,but also the previous researches on Frog are involved. This chapter aims to provide thereaders with a whole view of metaphor research at present. Chapter Three involves thetheoretical framework of the thesis. In this chapter, the "Denotation-Connotation Inheritance"theory is introduced in detail, on the basis of which the author proposes a revised framework.Some other factors, such as context and intentionality, are added in the new framework.Chapter Four is the most important chapter in this thesis, in which the revised analyticframework will be applied for a detailed explanation to the generative mechanism ofmetaphors in Frog. Chapter Five is the last part of the thesis, which involves the majorfindings, the limitations of the present study and the suggestions for further research.