Metaphorical And Metonymical Analysis Of "wind" From The Perspective Of Cognitive Linguistics

Since the publication of Metaphor We Live By written by Lakoff and Johnson in1980,the study of metaphor and metonymy has entered into a new era in cognitive linguistics.Lakoff and Johnson(1980)give a new definition and explanation of metaphor and metonymy,and they also put forward the theory of conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy.They hold that metaphor and metonymy are important means for human beings to think and understand the objective world.Both are closely related to human thinking and exist in almost every aspect of our lives.Although there are some studies on metaphors and metonymies in Hamlet,there is a lack of systematic research on the metaphors and metonymies of “wind” in Hamlet.Based on the theories of conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy proposed by Lakoff and Johnson,the author of this thesis will make a systematic analysis of “wind” metaphors and metonymies in Hamlet in order to explore the types of metaphors and metonymies of “wind” and their underlying motivations.This thesis aims to solve the following questions:1)By analyzing “wind” which appears in Hamlet by using conceptual metaphor theory,the author would like to explore what the major types of metaphors of “wind”in Hamlet are.2)What are the major types of metonymies of “wind” in Hamlet ?3)What are the motivations of metaphors and metonymies of “wind” in Hamlet?Based on the previous research in China and abroad,the author of this thesis chooses Shakespeare’s Hamlet as the text and uses the corpus software AntConc v3.5.7 to count the frequency of “wind” expressions in the script.The author systematically analyzes the conceptual metaphors and metonymies of “wind” from the perspective of cognitive linguistics.It is found that many novel metaphors are found based on bodily experience and influenced by the cultural and ecological conditions.There exist nine types of “wind” metaphors,and the conceptual metaphors of “wind”are listed as follows: ATTITUDE IS WIND,WRATH IS WIND,HELPFULNESS IS WIND,LUCIDITY IS WIND,TROUBLE IS WIND,INFORMATION IS WIND,EVIDENCE IS WIND,QUARREL IS WIND,FAVORABLENESS IS WIND.The underlying motivations of “wind” metaphors have something to do with the three elements of wind: its direction,its power and its movement.And these three elementsare connected with the natural characteristics of wind,especially the uncertainty of wind.It also can be seen that there are three different types of “wind” metonymies in Hamlet.Wind can metonymically refer to strength,direction and movement.Metonymies of “wind” are found to follow the cognitive principles of “concrete over abstract,dynamic over static and whole over part”.Moreover,by analyzing the motivations of “wind” metaphors,the author has also found that the metaphorical uses of “wind” have metonymic basis.Therefore,this study of the concept “wind” from the conceptual metaphor theory and conceptual metonymy theory can enrich the “wind” images in Hamlet and of great significance to enrich the metaphorical and metonymical research of cognitive linguistics to a certain extent.