A Study Of The Conceptual Metaphor In Emily Dickinson's Poetry

Metaphor study has long been a hot topic in linguistic studies.In traditional metaphor theory,metaphor is taken as nothing but a language phenomenon and a rhetorical device.The conceptual metaphor theory was first proposed by Lakoff and Johnson in their co-authored Metaphors We Live By in 1980.This marks the transition of metaphor study from rhetorical device to cognitive approach.According to Lakoff and Johnson's theory,metaphor is not only a rhetorical device but also an important way of thinking.Our conceptual system is constructed metaphorically to a large extent.As an important literary genre and language carrier,poetry contains many metaphors.Employing a lot of metaphors can not only urge the readers to think and imagine but also motivate their emotions.Moreover,metaphor can reify the abstract concepts and make the readers fully understand the author.Hence,how to understand the metaphors has became the key to understanding the poetry.Emily Dickinson,known as “the New England nun”,plays an important role in American literature.Her poetry is known for its vague and obscure language,implicit images and complex structures.Besides,the themes of Dickinson's poetry are various,involving nature,life,love,death,truth,religion,etc.Owing to the differences in descriptive objects,the characteristics of the poet in using metaphors may vary in different themed poems and the metaphors are exerting different functions.Thus,by analyzing the usage of metaphors in different themed poems,we can understand her poetry better.The thesis take the 30 randomly chosen poems of Dickinson as the data for analysis and Lakoff and Johnson's conceptual metaphor theory as the theoretical framework,adopting the integrated research methods which are combined with qualitative method,quantitative method as well as case study.First,the 30 poems will be classified according to their themes and the metaphors in these poems will be found out.The analyzed poems will be exemplified in chapter five in the form of case analysis and the typical metaphorical episodes will be seen as the supporting evidences for the employment of metaphors;Then the quantitative method will be employed to point out the frequency of metaphors in different themed poems;And at last the qualitative method will be used to describe and analyze the statistical data,pointing out the characteristics and preferences of Dickinson in using different types of metaphors in different themed poems and the accordingly generated artistic effects.The study finds out that Dickinson's poems are enriched with creationary and systematic metaphors.Dickinson is inclined to use structural metaphor in her poems about life and death.Through the mapping of concepts,structural metaphor can reify the abstract concepts of life and death to make them easy to understand.Furthermore,structural metaphor also plays an important rhetorical part in her poems and the introduction of them makes her poem more concise;In nature poems,structural metaphor and ontological metaphor(especially the personification)are all in her favor.On the one hand,the structural metaphor may cause the effect of defamiliarization in scenery description.The poet provides us with a new perspective to appreciate the common scenery by connecting them creatively with some seemingly unrelated ones.On the other hand,the personification makes her descriptions of natural scenes more vivid and gives great vitality to her descriptions;In the poems about religion,the poet tends to use structural metaphor.For one thing,structural metaphor has great constructive function.It can help the poet to construct her ideal paradise by means of concrete objects,so as to present her unique views on paradise.For another,the employments of structural metaphor can provide the readers with a new perspective to view things.By pondering the metaphors,readers can break through the shackles of traditional religious views and seek to explore a different paradise.The study can help us know more about the important part metaphor plays in the poetry and understand Dickinson's poetry better;furthermore,the important function of conceptual metaphor theory in analyzing literary works is confirmed.