Identification And Verification Of Deliberate Metaphor Under The Perception Of Audience

Conceptual Metaphor Theory(CMT,Lakoff & Johnson,1980)claims that our conceptual system is basically metaphorical and that all metaphors in language are expressions of underlying metaphors in thought.However,the function of metaphor as a communicative tool was ignored.Thus,it was suggested to add a third dimension to CMT’s two-dimensional model of metaphor in language and thought,namely that of communication(Steen,2008).The three-dimensional model resulted in the formation of Deliberate Metaphor Theory(DMT,Steen,2015).DMT proposes that metaphor is not only regarded as the verbal expression of a potential metaphor in thought,but as a matter of communication between language users.A metaphor is deliberate when the source domain plays a role in the referential meaning of the sentence.Many researchers question about the existence,devised identification method and value of deliberate metaphor.This study starts from the perception of audience to probe into the receivers’ perception of deliberate metaphor and the functions of deliberate metaphor.Research data is the speeches chosen from Chinese EFL learners at intermediate-advanced level representing non-native speakers(NNSs)and TED Talks from English native speakers(NSs)in that speech is commonly regarded as the most complicated form of language(Bizzell & Herzberg,2001)and it possesses the characteristics of spoken and written discourse.Text analysis,questionnaire and comparative analysis are adopted to analyze Chinese EFL learners’ perception towards deliberate metaphor under the guidance of DMT,proving the existence of deliberate metaphor and exploring the functions of deliberate metaphor.Firstly,deliberate metaphors are identified by Deliberate Metaphor Identification Group with MIP(VU)(Steen et al.,2010b)and DMIP(Reijnierse et al.,2018).Then research questionnaires are designed and revised.Participants are postgraduates of English majors who have passed Test Eight for English Majors from a university.Through comparative analysis,the study shows that 1)deliberate metaphors can be perceived by the participants and the deliberate metaphorsperceived by participants and those identified by Deliberate Metaphor Identification Group are slightly various.The number of deliberate metaphors perceived by participants is less compared with Deliberate Metaphor Identification Group.The possible reasons lie in that the participants are not familiar with the all usages of the word and influenced by the familiarity of deliberate metaphor and the other metaphorical words;2)the number of deliberate metaphors perceived by participants in NSs’ and NNSs’ speeches are somewhat different.Deliberate metaphors in NSs’ speeches are more easily perceived by the participants which probably results from various cultural backgrounds of NNSs and NSs and familiarity of deliberate metaphors;3)most of the participants can comprehend the deliberate metaphor and mainly comprehend by context and English knowledge while many of them cannot explain the deliberate metaphors,which may root in the different formation processes of language comprehension and production;the majority of participants hold positive attitudes towards deliberate metaphor.They believe deliberate metaphor has remarkable effects on promoting discourse understanding and the accuracy of text expression.This study verifies deliberate metaphor is psychologically real for actual language users and contributes to the understanding of the discourse in the communication.Perception is helpful to research language.Meanwhile,it also found the ability of using metaphors of Chinese EFL learners is obvious lower compared with native speakers.Therefore,Chinese EFL learners should make efforts to improve their ability of using metaphors which can be helpful to improve their language competency and make their language output more authentic and precise.