A Corpus-based Study Of Conceptual Metaphors In John Galsworthy's Novel In Chancery

John Galsworthy won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1932 for “his distinguished art of narration which takes its highest form in The Forsyte Saga”,which caused a sensation in various academic circles.In Chancery,the second installment of The Forsyte Saga,shows Soames' s lingering between rational property consciousness and human nature,Irene's resistance to patriarchy,Little Jolyon's reconciliation between over-rational property awareness and sensibility during the divorce between Soames and Irene.This research uses the text version of this novel(96,641 tokens)as the research data with a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate how John Galsworthy conveys his thoughts through conceptual metaphors.With the help of the corpus software Word Smith Tools 6.0,this study adopts Charteris-Black's Critical Metaphor Analysis method and it involves three procedures: metaphor identification,metaphor interpretation,and metaphor explanation.The research results are as follows:First of all,the distribution of three kinds of metaphors is quite different,among which the structural metaphor has the highest frequency(44.8%),followed by the orientational metaphor(31.2%)and ontological metaphor(24%).Among the three parts of the novel,metaphors appear the most in Part II.Secondly,it can be seen that John Galsworthy tends to use metaphors to express his ideologies.In metaphors,John Galsworthy tends to construct abstract emotions,life states,and psychological states of characters through specific familiar concepts such as people,plants,animals,cobwebs and so on.The main target domains can be summarized into these aspects: the awakening of female consciousness,the property consciousness of the Victorian middle class,the suppression of human nature by Victorian culture,and the moral dilemma of British society in the transition period.Finally,the factors involved in the choice of metaphors are analyzed.In the cognitive context of John Galsworthy,he has lived in a Victorian middle-class family and is well aware of the oppression of women by the patriarchal view of the family.In terms of cultural context,Victorian morality has a great restrictive effect on the choice of conceptual metaphors.Through metaphors,John Galsworthy expresses his advocacy of feminism,his critique of middle-class property consciousness suppressing humanity,and his reconciliation thoughts when facing a moral crisis.This research can help readers to understand the novel In Chancery deeper,and enrich the research dimension of the novel,with a view to providing new ideas for future literary research work.