A Study On Plants Imagery In Shakespeare’s Plays From The Perspective Of Conceptual Metaphor

Metaphor is not just a rhetorical device, but also a basic way of thinking and cognition for human being. In recent years, the study of metaphor in Shakespeare’s plays is no longer limited in traditional rhetoric. The metaphorical images, such as the animal images and plant images, are constantly drawing the attention of scholars. Shakespeare’s plays are a significant treasure in the history of world literature and are also regarded as a dictionary of botany. The abundant plant images are usually combined with rhetorical devices, bringing vividness and humor to the lines. Such devices have great dramatic function and appreciative value.Based on the literature review, the writer finds that most studies on plants images are from the perspectives of literature or translation. Few are from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. In order to make up for the deficiency of the previous studies that only researched on several typical plants images or discussed plants images and their translation strategy in only individual works, this thesis attempts to systematically analyze the rhetorical devices, cognitive mechanisms and functions of plants images in the Great Four Tragedies:Hamlet. King Lear, Macbeth and Othello from the perspective of conceptual metaphor.The author intends to draw the scholars’ attention to plants metaphors and hopes to explore a new approach to the studies of Shakespeare’s plays, especially that of rhetoric studies. Hence, first of all. plants images and plant metaphors are collected and classified. The statistics shows that there are 91 kinds of plants images in the four tragedies, within which 67 are plants metaphors. Secondly, rhetorical figures are analyzed based on the statistics. The analysis shows that the most typical rhetorical devices, with plant metaphors are symbol, simile, metaphor, and Jieyu, shaping the characters and pushing forward to the plot. Thirdly, the research on the cognitive mechanism proves that plant metaphors illustrate the characters’personality and emotion, indicating their lives, social power, and values. The cognitive mechanism behind the plants metaphors can be summarized into two conceptual metaphors, namely, PEOPLE ARE PLANTS and IDEAS ARE PLANTS. At last, through analyzing the cognitive function of plant metaphors, the author finds that there are four cognitive functions of plant metaphors in Shakespeare’s play:revealing, concretion, emotion, and value.