| The metaphor study has long been a hot topic in the field of cognitive linguistics. In recent years, the academic circle has witnessed the publication of numerous works with increasing emphasis put on the importance of metaphor and metaphorical competence in the very cause of English teaching in China’s universities. Nevertheless, the application of metaphor in practical linguistic activities does not receive enough and proper attention from the academia. As an attempt to make up the gap, this study is conducted to research into the degree of metaphor use in such practical linguistic activities as prepared and impromptu speeches delivered by college students in China, in the hope of finding the types and patterns of metaphor that are most frequently used.To explore the degree of metaphor use in linguistic activities, this study has taken English speeches as its corpus source, which is one of the most important and specific types of discourse in today’s world. Theories about metaphorical competence, metaphor types and metaphor patterns have been selected to serve as the theoretical basis of this study. While the identification instrument used in this research is MIP, with 60 cases of public speech taken from the “FLTRP CUP” as the research object. All of them are used in a joint manner to discover the frequency, types and patterns of metaphor application in prepared and impromptu English public speeches under the context of discourse.As a result of all those efforts, it is discovered in this study that the frequency and distribution of direct metaphors in public speeches are higher than that of creative metaphors, and that metaphor framing is of particular significance among all the metaphor patterns. Hence, the author holds that the cultivation of metaphorical awareness as well as metaphorical competence among college students in China should be attached with great importance for the sake of promoting their linguistic competence in practical communication to a higher level. |
PDF Full Text Request