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Comparative Study On The Temperature Metaphors In Tang Poems And Song Lyrics

Posted on:2016-08-09Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:Q S LiangFull Text:PDF
GTID:2335330488481337Subject:Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
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Tang Poems and Song Lyrics are dazzling pearls of ancient Chinese literature, and they are parts of China's outstanding literary heritage. They have received considerable attention about perspective of the aesthetics, images, literature schools, translation and so on. However, the researches on temperature metaphors in them are rare. This thesis takes temperature words in Tang Poems and Song Lyrics as the object of study and makes a systematic corpus-based study of them from the perspective of conceptual metaphor. According to the comparison of metaphors and images of temperature words between Tang Poems and Song Lyrics, the analysis of the reasons for similarities and differences is given from the perspectives of bodily experience, historical background and culture.According to the cognitive linguistics, physical experiences are basic groundings of human's abstract conceptual system, and people typically conceptualize the abstract in terms of the specific. As the basic experience of humans, the temperature concepts can be mapped onto other domains by means of metaphor. In order to conduct a systematic contrast, the temperature words are divided into two categories in this thesis: temperature words of heat sensation and temperature words of cold sensation. The data collection is based on Quan Tang Poems and Quan Song Ci, and the works of 14 well-known writers such as Li Bai, Du Fu, Liu Yong and Li Qingzhao are chosen as the data. The systematic study in the thesis leads to the following findings:(1) There are 9 target domains of temperature in temperature metaphors of poetry: vision, emotion, attitude, temper, social status and power, relationship, state of things, disease and situation. Most of target domains reflected in temperature metaphors of Tang Poems and Song Lyrics are the same, but the relationship domain, which exists in Song Lyrics, is not found in Tang Poems. When reflecting a target domain of temperature, different mappings are showed between Tang Poems and Song Lyrics sometimes. For example, in the state of things domain, most of examples are of mapping DESOLATION IS COLD in Tang Poems while most examples are of mapping STATIC STATE IS COLD/CHILLY in Song Lyrics.(2) Cold concepts are used more frequently than warm concepts both in Tang Poems and in Song Lyrics. Furthermore, cold concepts are used more frequently in Song Lyrics than in Tang Poems.(3) Temperature words of cold sensation mostly denote negative concepts such as bad emotions and indifferent attitude both in Tang Poems and Song Lyrics. In Tang Poems, temperature words of heat sensation mostly denote negative concepts such as anxiety and hardship of life; however, in Song Lyrics, temperature words of heat sensation mostly denote positive concepts such as pleasant emotion and gentle temper.(4) The coincident human experience, the universal cognition of world, language inheritance, historical backgrounds, personal experience and poetic styles cause the similarities and differences.In general, the temperature metaphors in Tang Poems and Song Lyrics are analyzed and compared in this thesis with exhaustive quantification statistics. It reveals the characteristics of temperature metaphorical conceptual system and reflects the features of heat images and cold images in Tang Poems and Song Lyrics, and the underlying reasons are also explored. This thesis further testifies the opinion that human beings' cognitive development is based on their bodily experiences and daily life, enriches the studies of metaphor from cognitive aspect to some extent, and provides cognitive linguistics theory for further researches on Tang Poems and Song Lyrics in the aspects of appreciation, translation and so on. In addition, understanding the temperature metaphorical implications of poetry would be helpful to understand these poems better for foreigners, meanwhile, it contributes to the development of the Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, and thus helps to popularize Chinese and spread Chinese ancient culture effectively, deepens the impact of Chinese culture on the world, promotes cultural exchanges and cooperation between the Chinese nation and the various nationalities of the world.
Keywords/Search Tags:Temperature words, Tang Poems, Song Lyrics, Conceptual metaphor
PDF Full Text Request
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