On The Conceptual Metaphor Of “House” In Naipaul's A House For Mr. Biswas

In 1980,Lakoff and Johnson proposed the theory of Conceptual Metaphor in their book Metaphors We Live By.They believe that metaphor is conceptual and cognitive,and is the mapping from a source domain to a target domain.From then on,study on metaphor has entered a new stage and been included in the category of Cognitive Linguistics.In recent years,the trend of applying linguistic theories to literary study has become increasingly evident,and Conceptual Metaphor has become a hot area of research for literary works.Naipaul is famous for his skill in applying metaphors in his writing.Every seemingly insignificant description in his novel can contain rich metaphorical meanings and even can reveal Naipaul's cultural attitudes and experiences.Therefore,this paper takes A House for Mr.Biswas as the research object to explore the great value of “house” metaphors in Naipaul's works.Based on Lakoff and Johnson's Conceptual Metaphor Theory,according to its working mechanism of “mapping”,this paper analyzes the text of A House for Mr.Biswas and mainly answers the following questions: What are the metaphors of “house” in A House for Mr.Biswas and how are these metaphors applied in the novel? What does the author try to imply through the metaphors of “house”? And what are the creation value and cultural value of the metaphors of “house” in A House for Mr.Biswas?In this paper,the method of literature research,close combination of text close reading and comprehensive analysis are adopted as research methods.Firstly,by reading a great deal of relevant literature and books,the writer aims to comprehensively understand the previous as well as present study and research progress of A House for Mr.Biswas.Secondly,through the method of close reading and comprehensive analysis,the text of A House for Mr.Biswas is analyzed from the perspective of Conceptual Metaphor Theory.At the beginning,the Conceptual Metaphor Theory and its working mechanism of “mapping” is illustrated,which lays a theoretical foundation for the following parts.Then,the paper expounds how the metaphors of “house” are presented in the novel through “mapping” mechanism.Through the study,the paper comes to the following conclusions: Firstly,metaphors of “house” in the novel are distributed into three categories: “HOUSE IS FAMILY POWER”,“HOUSE IS SOCIAL STATUS” and “HOUSE IS NATIONAL CULTURE”.Secondly,through the “mapping” mechanism of Conceptual Metaphor,these metaphors take “HOUSE” as a source domain,and “FAMILY POWER”,“SOCIAL STATUS”,“NATIONAL CULTURE” as target domains.The inner structure and features of the source domain “HOUSE” are mapped to those of the three target domains respectively,being endowed by Naipaul with the metaphorical meaning of hybrid cultural identity and “cultural rootlessness” of the Indian immigrant group in Trinidad.Lastly,metaphors of “house” in the novel can contribute to values for creation and appreciation of the novel in terms of the tension of defamiliarization,the deepening of the theme and the conveying of feelings.Metaphors of “house” also show the cultural value for the Indian immigrants' seeking for cultural identity as well as their culture review.