An Analysis Of Meaning Construction Of Animal Farm From The Perspective Of Conceptual Metaphor

Conceptual metaphor is a relatively newly developed cognitive mechanism,the nature of which is to understand and experience one kind of thing through another by mapping what belongs to the source domain into that of the target domain.It overthrows the previous traditional view which divides language use into literal and figurative,and puts forward a new way of conceptualizing the language.It has also been powerfully used in literature for its force of embodiment and strength of explanation.Applying Conceptual Metaphor Theory to the analysis of this political allegory Animal Farm written by George Orwell,this thesis researches the mapping relationship between the animal world and the real world to analyze how the meaning Orwell intended to convey is constructed out of this readily comprehensible allegory.The following two questions are addressed:1.What conceptual metaphors are constructed in the novel Animal Farm?2.How do the metaphors work in constructing the meaning of the novel?In order to give a relatively consummate solution to the above two questions,the author penetrates into this political allegory thoroughly to have a better and deeper understanding of the real meaning that Orwell intended to convey.Then on the basis of Lakoff and Johnson's Conceptual Metaphor Theory,the essential conceptual metaphors that are contributory to the meaning construction are identified and classified and also thoroughly analyzed.The study comes to the conclusion that in Animal Farm,there are three levels of conceptual metaphors respectively concerning the animal images,animal names and situations,which operate all together to construct the meaning of the novel.At the first level,based on the HUMAN BEINGS ARE ANIMALS metaphor,the essential animals in Animal Farm which are the four pigs the old Major,Napoleon,Snowball and Squealer,and the horse Boxer are analyzed.And it is discovered that the “appearance”,“character”,“the eyes”,etc.which belong to the source domain of animals are mapped into the target domain of human beings,through the process of which the meaning is constructed.At the second level,based on the IDENTITIES ARE NAMES metaphor,the names of Napoleon,Snowball,Squealer and Boxer are explored.And it is discovered that by mapping the implications of animal names into the identities of animals,the meaning constructionis successfully accomplished.At the third level,on the basis of the TOTALITARIAN STATE OR THE SOVIET UNION IS ANIMAL FARM metaphor,the “meeting”,“season”,“starvation” and “building of windmill” of the source domain of animal farm are mapped into the target domain of the Soviet Union,through the process of which the meaning construction is accomplished.Generally speaking,the meaning of this political allegory is perfectly constructed out of these metaphors by mapping what belongs to the source domains into that of the target domains.This study not only serves as a supplement to the conceptual metaphor researches,but also contributes to the expansion of the analysis of conceptual metaphor's application.What's more,it can also enrich the researches of this well-known political allegory Animal Farm.