A Study Of Conceptual Metaphors In2Broke Girls

Conceptual Metaphor Theory was first proposed by Lakoff and Johnson in theirmasterpiece Metaphors We Live By in1980. They claim that metaphor is widespreadin everyday life, not only in language but also in thought and action. Conceptualmetaphor is a cross-domain mapping of the concrete source domain to the abstracttarget domain.2Broke Girls, as a famous and popular American situation comedy, is full ofconceptual metaphors. This study analyzes the conceptual metaphor in the famousAmerican sitcom,2Broke Girls with Lakoff and Johnson’s Conceptual MetaphorTheory as the theoretical framework and the combination of qualitative approach andquantitative approach as the research methodology. This thesis conducts a study of theconceptual metaphors in the21episodes of2Broke Girls. It is found that there arethree main types of conceptual metaphors in2Broke Girls, namely, structuralmetaphor, orientational metaphor and ontological metaphor. There are also threesubtypes of ontological metaphor: entity and substance metaphor, container metaphorand personification. This study also analyzes the cognitive mechanism behind thoseconceptual metaphors.The result of this paper may provide some help in further understanding of2Broke Girls as well as American culture, especially the culture of the lower class inAmerica. It can provide certain theoretical and practical guidance for the study ofconceptual metaphors in2Broke Girls and other film and television works.Meanwhile, it is also helpful to improve Chinese students’ ability of metaphoricalreading and writing. Besides, it may help Chinese English learners to make a betteruse of language skills in daily communication. For instance, they can use conceptualmetaphors skillfully in presentations or debates to make them more convincing...