On Metaphors In American Modern Sitcoms From The Perspective Of Psychological Factors

Metaphor is frequently used in our life and makes our life full of fun.The study on metaphors has a history of more than two thousand years.Moreover,the research of metaphors abroad started from Aristotle's Rhetorics.With the emergence of the new disciplines,some modern scholars believe that metaphor is not only a rhetoric way,but also a complicated language phenomenon.The pragmatic research of metaphors began in the 1960 s.In 1967,Grice proposed the cooperative principle in the conversational implicature theory and held an opinion that metaphors violate the maxims of the cooperative principle.On the basis of a corpus of American modern sitcoms which amounts to three hundred metaphorical conversations and through Concord Tool of Wordsmith,by means of the method of both quantitative and qualitative analysis,this thesis takes the sitcom Friends as an example,analyzes metaphors in modern American sitcoms and discusses the psychological factors that influence the process of expressing and understanding metaphors based on Grice's conversational implicature theory and Searle's theory about metaphors.Besides,the thesis explains the pragmatic functions of metaphors: metaphors can express ambiguous speeches,improve the speech influence and achieve humor,etc.And moreover,taking the metaphorical expressions in the modern American sitcoms as a corpus,the thesis makes a detailed analysis of the individual personalities,views on life and values as well as emotions that have an effect on metaphors.It introduces the influence of Freud's ego-defense mechanism on metaphors,metaphors in the model of reality and ideal and the reflection of complicated personalities through metaphors.The psychological factors play an irreplaceable and important role in the process of expressing and understanding metaphors.This thesis provides a psychological perspective for understanding metaphors and making use of metaphors.People can choose the right metaphorical expressions to enrich their communication and achieve their communicative purposes.