On The Emotional Metaphor And Metonymy From The Perspective Of Cognitive Construal In Yuan Drama

Emotion is a kind of conceptual representation of human,which involves abundant cognitive means.Meanwhile,metaphor,metonymy and metaphtonymy exist in the representation of emotion as a prevailing conceptual tool and mode of thinking.Previous studies on emotional metaphor,metonymy and metaphtonymy mainly focus on types of emotional metaphor and cultural factors behind it,comprehensive and systematic study on emotional metaphor,metonymy and metaphtonymy from the perspective of cognitive construal is seldom touched upon.Chinese drama begins with the initiation of Yuan Drama,of which exquisite emotional representation and conceptualization is involved substantially.Studies on Yuan Drama center on qu tune investigation,cultural study and linguistic exploration.An incisive investigation on deconstruction of emotional conceptualization in Yuan Drama is urgent to conduct.Based on the Four Great Tragedies in Yuan Drama,the thesis is to explore the emotional metaphor,metonymy and metaphtonymy from the perspective of cognitive construal with a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative ways.Firstly,it explores the classifications of emotional metaphor,metonymy and metaphtonymy in Yuan Drama.Secondly,it conducts an incisive investigation on its distribution and features.Last but not least,the cognitive mechanisms behind emotional metaphor,metonymy and metaphtonymy is studied.The research findings are as follows:(1)there are six categories of emotional metaphor,metonymy and metaphtonymy in Yuan Drama based on 400 items,namely,worry&yearn,anger,sadness,adoration,grumble and happiness.The categories exhibit differentiated distribution and representations in emotional metaphor,metonymy and metaphtonymy:the emotional metaphor in Yuan Drama is represented mainly by dint of worry&yearn metaphor(32.16%),anger metaphor(23.98%)and sadness metaphor(15.79%);the emotional metonymy appears chiefly as worry&yearn metonymy(37.89%),anger metonymy(20.53%)and adoration metonymy(14.21%);comparatively speaking,the emotional metaphtonymy displays a small distribution in Yuan Drama,taking anger metaphtonymy,sadness metaphtonymy and worry&yearn metaphtonymy as its primarily categories of representation.(2)Abundant basic types converge on the constitution of emotional metaphor,metonymy and metaphtonymy in Yuan Drama,namely,organ,plant,weather,abstract concept,animal,human,ornament,scenery and instrument.Meanwhile,there are diverse features of distribution in the basic types.For instance,worry&yearn metaphor is principally composed of organ metaphor(29.09%),abstract concept metaphor(25.44%)and instrument metaphor(12.73%).Adoration metonymy invokes ornament metonymy(51.85%)and organ metonymy(44.44%)chiefly.Anger metaphtonymy mainly gives rise to animal metaphtonymy(33.33%),human metaphtonymy(27.78%)and weather metaphtonymy(22.21%).(3)The interaction of cognitive construl can be used to expound the different types of emotional metaphor,metonymy and metaphtonymy in Yuan.Drama:two-dimension construal,three-dimension construal and four-dimension construal.Of which two-dimension construal deals with the co-occurrence of two dimensions,arising mainly in the conceptualization of positive emotion;three-dimension construal involves the interaction of three dimensions,taking worry&yearn and anger as its principal forms of representation;four-dimension construal relates to the correlation of four dimensions in construal,appearing chiefly in the conceptualization of worry and yearn.The study on emotional metaphor,metonymy and metaphtonymy in Yuan Drama from the perspective of cognitive construal strengthens the explanative power of cognitive construal theory and promotes the interpretation of emotional conceptualization in Yuan Drama.