A Cognitive Study Of The Images In The Frontier Fortress Poetry Of The Tang Dynasty

The predecessors have carried on a great deal of studies on the images in the TFF poetry from the perspectives of traditional rhetoric,aesthetics,literature and translation studies,which provide a prerequisite and basis for our cognitive studies.However,the predecessors have not elaborated the generation bases and generation motivations of the poetic images,and the roles played by images for the formation of the poetic themes from a cognitive perspective.Based on the previous studies,this thesis tries to analyze the generation bases and generation motivations of images as well as the roles played by images for the formation of the poetic themes.There are three research questions in this thesis:(1)What typical images are there in the TFF poetry?(2)In the TFF poetry,what are the generation bases and generation motivations of the typical images?(3)In the TFF poetry,what roles do these typical images play in the formation of the poetic themes?There are three findings in this thesis:(1)The typical images in the TFF poetry can be divided into three categories according to their attributes: nature images,war images and character images,and there are many sub-images under each of the three images,for example,nature images include the images of “wind”? “frost” ?“ice”? “snow” and other sub-images.(2)In the TFF poetry,the generation bases of images include the experiential bases,cultural model,knowledge structures,attention and salience.The generation motivations are made up of the subjective factors and objective factors.(3)In the TFF poetry,there is a close relationship between the formation of the poetic themes and images.The poetic themes are generated by images under the mechanism of conceptual integration.The thesis is of some theoretical and practical significance:(1)Theoretically speaking,this thesis,based on the cognitive linguistic theories,makes a relatively comprehensive explanation of the typical images in the TFF poetry through a rational thinking pattern.These typical images are interpreted and analyzed by applying the cognitive linguistic theories,which in turn provide a good platform for the application of cognitive linguistic theories and open a new way for literary researches.(2)Practically speaking,this thesis studies the images in the TFF poetry from the perspective of cognitive linguistics by breaking away from the restraint of literature and aesthetics,which promotes the understanding and appreciation of the readers of the poetic images.In addition,the study also provides references for the study of poetry.