The Patentiality Of Metaphors In Structuring Arguments In Discourse

This thesis reports a study on the patentiality of metaphor in structuring arguments. Discourse researchers have verified the great interpretative power of metaphor within cognitive field. However, it is still unclear how metaphors structure arguments or reasoning in discourse. This thesis is to probe into this issue via a case study on causal arguments about the global financial crisis. The possibility of metaphors occurring in clusters found in previous researches is also explored in this study. With data from Fault Lines, this study identifies linguistic metaphors, clarifies conceptual metaphors, and sorts out the systematic relationship between metaphor and argument. Subsequently, metaphor clusters are examined, and their occurring features and functions are discussed. Overall, the analysis of metaphor and argument are carried out within the framework of conceptual metaphor theory and discourse dynamics approach.Major findings are listed here on. Firstly, sixteen conceptual metaphors about financial crisis are identified, which are interrelated into a systematic relationship. Secondly, a systematic corresponding relationship can also be established between metaphor and argument. Furthermore, three primary conceptual metaphors, namely ECONOMY SYSTEM IS LIVING ORGANISM, ECONOMY SYSTEM IS ENTITY and ORIENTATIONAL METAPHORS can be generalized and three systematic metaphors, namely ECONOMY SYSTEM IS BIOLOGICAL SYSTEM, ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT IS LIVING ENVRIONMENT and ECONOMIC ACTIVITY AND STATE IS LIVING ACTIVITYA AND STATE, are inferred to trace the major topics in discourse. Furthermore, an overarching metaphor ECONOMY SYSTEM IS GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE underpins the overarching(conclusive) argument. Finally, metaphor clusters are found indeed to exist in the argumentative discourse characterized by conceptual coherence, metaphor dominance, novelty, topicality and declaration of metaphor use. Moreover, they play both macro-function and diversified micro-functions in unfolding arguments.In conclusion, the findings of this study provide evidence to establish a systematic structure of metaphors and metaphor clusters used in argumentation, thereby facilitating the empirical verification of metaphor theory and shedding new light on discourse metaphor study.