（英语语言文学专业论文）隐喻的关联理论阐释.pdf

iii 中 文 摘 要 隐喻作为一种语言现象普遍存在于我们的生活中，形成我们的概念系统，在人类的思维和认知活动中发挥着重要作用。 隐喻的研究有一个很长的历史。 不同的语言学家从不同的角度给出了隐喻的定义，他们从各自的角度提出了有关隐喻的理论，从而为隐喻的进一步研究提供了理论基础。 本文首先对国内外隐喻研究作了简单的回顾。 在评述隐喻研究前人理论的基础之上，展现关联理论在阐释隐喻方面的独特视角。 接下来，介绍了与本研究相关的几个关联理论的重要概念。这些概念包括相关，语境和语境效果，最佳关联和明示推理交际等。 关联理论认为， 在隐喻和普通话语之间没有明显的界限。关联理论解释了隐喻的工作机制，指出任何话语的命题形式都是一种说话人思想的解释性表达。探讨了隐喻理解的本质，认为隐喻是一种“随意言谈” ，一种非字面表达，一种模糊表达。说话人使用隐喻表达的目的是寻求对其思想的最佳关联表述要求。 从关联理论的角度理解隐喻，隐喻的理解过程基本上与其它话语一致，包括了三个分任务：话语显义的确定；语境假设的建构；隐含的推导。隐喻的含义是听者通过关联推理在话语和语境之间寻找最佳关联， 并根据一系列的语境假设推导出来的，得到一系列弱隐含意义而实现的。隐喻非“字面表达” ，而是一种语言模糊表达，和话语的间接性有关，因此听话人需要根据说话人明示，付出额外的努力寻求话语的最佳关联。 文章结尾部分对本次研究作了总结， 并就与隐喻理解有关的问题作了补充说明，对未来进一步研究提出了建议。 本研究表明，关联理论是解释人类认知的一种理论，它以关联为原则，把认知语境作为基础， 将隐喻理解看成跟其他话语理解一样， 是追求最佳关联的过程，为我们提供了理解隐喻的独特视角。 关键词：隐喻; 关联理论; 隐喻理解 iabstract metaphor as a kind of linguistic phenomenon exists broadly in our daily life. it reflects and forms our concept system. it plays an important role in our daily thinking and cognitive action. metaphor study has a long history. different linguists have given different definitions of metaphor from different angles. they have provided their separate theories and made contribution to this linguistic phenomenon, which provides theoretical grounds for further studies. first, a literature review of research both abroad and at home. on the basis of surveying the prior studies, relevance theory s unique perspective on metaphor was brought up. next, several important concepts of relevance theory are introduced in relation to this study. they include relevance, context and contextual effect, optimal relevance and ostensive- inferential communication and so on. there is no boundary between metaphorical expression and ordinary utterance. relevance theory interprets the working mechanism of metaphor and points out any the propositional form of an utterance is a kind of interpretative expression of the speaker s thought. it explores on the nature of metaphor and regards that it is a kind of “ loose” talk. it is a kind of non- literal expression and vague expression. the purpose of the speaker with metaphorical expression is to pursuit the optimally relevant expression of his thought. metaphor interpretation from the perspective of relevance theory involves three sub- processes: the identification of explicatures; the construction of contextual assumptions and the deduction of implicated conclusion. the meaning of metaphor is obtained through inferring and searching for the optimal relevance between utterance and contexts according to an array of contextual assumptions. metaphor is not literal expression. it is a kind of vague language and connection with the indirect utterance. therefore, the hearer must pay extra processing effort. iifinally, it sums up the finding of the study. moreover it presents factors related to metaphor understanding that have not been discussed in preceding chapter as a supplement. meanwhile, the author points out the deficiency and proposes some suggestions for the future study. this study shows that relevance theory is a kind of cognitive theory, it regards relevance as principle and cognitive context as a foundation, metaphor understanding just as that of an ordinary utterance, is a process of searching for the optimal relevance, which provides us a unique perspective for metaphor understanding. key words: metaphor; relevance theory; metaphor understanding 学位论文原创性声明 本人所提交的学位论文隐喻的关联理论阐释(interpretation of metaphor from perspective of relevance theory) , 是在导师的指导下，独立进行研究工作所取得的原创性成果。除文中已经注明引用的内容外，本论文不包含任何其他个人或集体已经发表或撰写过的研究成果。对本论文的研究作出重要贡献的个人和集体，均已在文中标明。 本声明的法律后果由本人承担。 论文作者（签名） ： 指导教师确认（签名） ： 年 月 日 年 月 日 学位论文版权使用授权书 本学位论文作者完全了解河北师范大学有权保留并向国家有关部门或机构送交学位论文的复印件和磁盘，允许论文被查阅和借阅。本文授权河北师范大学可以将学位论文的全部或部分内容编入有关数据库进行检索，可以采用影印、缩印或其他复制手段保存、汇编学位论文 （保密的学位论文在 年解密后适用本授权书） 论文作者（签名） ： 指导教师（签名） ： 年 月 日 年 月 日 1chapter 1 introduction in daily life, most of us have such experience as we describe a strange object or abstract concept we always associate with our familiar concept. for example, when we talk about a man with a good- tempered and he always speaks in a low soft voice like a woman. we would say “ he is a sheep” . sometimes people would produce surprising associative meaning and creative language. for instance, in poem, there were too many examples. this cognitive process is usually considered as the centre of metaphor. it is a kind of important device of cognition. but what s metaphor? how can a metaphor be identified in the daily used language? how to make out the meaning of metaphor? studies on metaphor in western countries have a long history. aristotle, a greek thinker, presented the“comparison theory” , which laid ground for the development of later metaphor theories. at that time metaphor was only taken as a kind of rhetorical phenomenon. people used it to decorate their language. later, different scholars discussed metaphors from different angles and gave different definitions to it. moreover, they also offered ways to distinguish metaphor from non- metaphor. although some achievements have been made, there still exist problems to be solved. since the 1970s, the study of metaphor changed from original rhetoric level to philosophy, psychology, semantics, pragmatics, cognitive science and foreign language teaching and so on. people recognize metaphor is important in daily life. especially metaphor is studied as a kind of utterance phenomenon in pragmatics, which further develops the study of metaphor. in 1986, dan sperber and deidre wilson proposed relevance theory. it provides a new angle for metaphor understanding. in light of relevance theory metaphor is regarded as a kind of ordinary utterance. this thesis expounds metaphor from the perspective of relevance theory. it extends and develops the previous metaphor 2theories. it provides an effective interpretation for metaphor and shows the nature of metaphor comprehension. 1.1 the purpose of the study the aim of the research is to interpret metaphor from the perspective of relevance theory. in this thesis, the author attempts to answer the following questions: (1)what is the nature of metaphor from the perspective of relevance theory? (2)how is the process of metaphor interpretation from cognitive- pragmatic perspective? 1.2 significance of the study as a kind of cognitive phenomenon, metaphor can help us recognize things around us. our language would become brief, image and vivid with metaphorical expression. metaphor as a kind of linguistic phenomenon exists broadly in our daily life. it plays an important role in our daily thinking and cognitive action. it reflects and forms our concept system. this thesis expounds in detail about metaphor and the process of metaphor understanding from the perspective of relevance theory. we can get some enlightenment for communication and language learning. in human daily communication, there are so many situation that people expess themself with metaphors in order to make their utterance relevance with that topic, which help the communication successfully. how to understand metaphor and get the true communcative intention is very important for the two communicative parties.this thesis analyses the whole process of metaphor understanding in detail and it can help the communication successful. otherwise, for english learner, it is very important for him to be familiar with metaphorical expression. it can not only enlarge his vocabulary but also help him understand the new metaphor which he meets for the first time. during the process of 3learning english, the learner should often find, sum up and accumulate metaphors. it can help the learner know and master the way of thinking and language habit of people whose mother language is english and improve their cross- cultural communicative competence. moreover, cultural factor is unnecessary for metaphor understanding. cultural generality and peculiarity of metaphor between two languages should be taken into consideration fully. it can help us understand metaphor in different language. we should master more background knowledge to help us to understand the metaphorical expression correctly. 1.3 organization of the study this thesis is made up of six chapters: the first chapter begins with introduction which brings up some background information of the study, purpose and significant of the study. chapter t wo is a literature review of metaphor studies done by scholars both abroad and at home. different scholars from different perspectives put forward different views about metaphors. sperber and wilson proposed relevance theory in 1985. this theory plays an important role in expounding metaphors. chapter three gives a brief introduction to some concepts of relevance theory related to the study object of this thesis. they are: relevance, context, contextual effect, optimal relevance and ostensive- inferential communication. chapter four tries to study the metaphor understanding from the perspective of relevance theory. in light of relevance theory, the metaphor is regarded as a kind of descriptive use of language, a kind of “ loose” use of language and a kind of optimally relevant expression. chapter five analyzes three sub- processes in metaphor understanding: the identification of explicatures; the construction of contextual assumptions; the deduction of implicated conclusion. the meaning of metaphor is obtained through 4inferring and searching for the optimal relevance between utterance and context according to an array of contextual assumptions. the last part is a conclusion of this thesis. it sums up the finding of the study, and points out the deficiencies of the study and proposes some suggestions for the future study. 5 chapter 2 literature review metaphor study has a long history. scholars from different perspectives put forward different views about metaphor. they have provided their separate theories and made contribution to this linguistic phenomenon. in this chapter, we will concentrate our attention on those concerned to this study. 2.1 research by western scholars aristotle was the first person who studied metaphor systematically in the history. in his works poetic and rhetoric, there are many discussions about metaphor. in his view, metaphor is to express the same meaning of a word through another one. his interpretation about metaphor is developed into “ comparison theory” , which makes a basis for the development of metaphor theories. as ortony once states “ any serious study of metaphor is almost obliged to start with the works of aristotle” (ortony,1979:3) he regards metaphor as rhetorical device on the lexical level. the main function of it is ornament. this theory shows an important characteristic of metaphor: there is similarity between “ tenor” and “ vehicle” . but the comparison theory can not reveal the nature of metaphor. quintillian, a famous roman rhetorician, put forward “substitution theory” in the first century. he thinks that metaphor is actually a rhetorical phenomenon by using a word or an expression to replace another word or another expression. for instance, in a metaphorical sentence “ liu peng is a wolf” . one of the characteristics of “ wolf” is “ merciless” . the word “ merciless” can be substituted by “ wolf” . from this we can see the speaker want to express the meaning that he is merciless. the metaphorical expression is very novel. this theory takes metaphor as primarily decorative and ornamental language in essence and regards metaphor as rhetoric at the word level. it only expounds the 6metaphorical utterance from the superficial. richards was the first one who put forward the “ interaction theory” . in1936 he published his book the philosophy of rhetoric, in which richards presented interaction theory. it marks the beginning of the period of semantic study on metaphor. richards uses three terms to describe the interactive mechanism of metaphor. they are “ tenor” , “ vehicle” and “ ground” . richards claims that “ the ground” (the similarity between “ tenor” and “ vehicle” .) is needed between “ tenor” and “ vehicle” . but usually it is not easy to find “ the ground” and, moreover, the function of the difference between the two things is the same as the similarity. he also presents the effect of metaphor is not the similarity between “ tenor” and “ vehicle” , but lies in the interaction of all kinds of characteristics between “ the tenor” and “ the vehicle” . moreover, richards points out the meaning of metaphor is the interaction between “ the tenor” and “ the vehicle” . however, he did not discuss the way and basis of this kind of interaction. the interactive theory proves to be futile, as all the words are used metaphorically in the sentences. black develops the semantic views of metaphor on the basis of richards theory. he introduces two terms, i.e. “ frame” and “ focus” . so- called “ focus” is the word or phrase used as metaphorical expression, and so- called “ frame” is the parts understood according to literal meaning. black describes the way of the interaction between “ frame” and “ focus” in metaphor on the basis of richards interaction theory. his view is of great importance to metaphor interpretation. he studies metaphor as a kind of semantic phenomenon, which indicates metaphor study from word level to syntactic level. however, it neglects the function of context. therefore for those sentences that can be understood from both literal and metaphorical ways, which can not be fully described and be explained. for example, (1)he is yao ming. george lakoff and mark johnson, two american linguists, they published their book metaphor we live by in1980. in their book, they put forward “conceptual metaphor” , which includes three kinds of metaphors: they are ontological metaphors, orientational metaphors and structural metaphors. they put forward cognitive theory 7of metaphor. they believed that metaphor was not only a kind of rhetoric device, but also a way of thinking. in daily life, metaphor exists everywhere. as the basic of human cognition, way of thinking, even acting, metaphor is the principle and basic way we live by. “ the metaphor come out of our clearly delineated and concrete experiences and allow us to construct highly abstract and elaborate concepts ” (lakeoff &johnson,1980:105). lakoff applied mapping between source domain and target domain and image schemes to interpret metaphor, and he believes that metaphor is from comprehensible concept of source domain to intangible concept of target domain, i.e. mapping from vehicle to tenor. they bring up a new angle to study metaphor, which reveals the cognitive nature of metaphor. however, in the two authors theoretical frame the context is ignored as well. it becomes a defect of this theory. john searle discusses the metaphor from the perspective of speech acts theory. searle s metaphor theory is set up on the basis of criticizing and negating semantic metaphor view. first he distinguishes two concepts i.e. word or sentence meaning and speaker s utterance meaning and proclaims that “ metaphorical meaning is always speaker s utterance meaning” (searle, 1979:77). he believes that the meaning of metaphor must belong to the speaker s utterance meaning. he points out metaphor interpretation actually explains how to distinguish the meaning of word or sentence and the speaker s utterance meaning. what the speaker has said suggested another kind of meaning. for example, (2) mary is a painting. searle thinks the general form of metaphorical sentence is “ s is p” . (mary is a painting). but its metaphorical meaning is “ s is r” . (mary is very beautiful in appearance). so searle thinks that metaphor theory is to account for the relationship of s, p and r and the other information and principle used by the speaker and the hearer. so it can interpret why the speaker s utterance form is “ s is p” , but it expresses the meaning “ s is r” and how it passes the latter to the hearer. in metaphorical utterance, speaker s utterance meaning is different from the sentence meaning but is in connection with it in different ways. searle s statements on the 8process of metaphor understanding had enlightenment for building up the unity metaphorical theory, but the main purpose is to interpret how it works and how it is understood. he could not give a satisfying answer for the production or working mechanism of metaphor and could not reveal the essence of metaphor. searle is unable to distinguish between metaphorical expression and other non- literal uses of sentences, such as irony, hyperbole. grice gives accounts of the generation of the metaphor on the basis of conversational implicature theory. he argues that the speaker who deliberately flouts the maxim of quality or the maxim of relevance. he suggests that metaphors are floutings or exploitations of his maxims of quality: “ do not say what you believe to be false” (grice, 2002:34). it is a kind of “ categories falsity” phenomenon. in his view, metaphor is a kind of implicature, for what is said is not equal to the speaker s intention. in order to get the true conversational implicature, the hearer must infer the intention of the speaker, which tells us that we can understand the metaphor from the perspective of cooperative principle. but grice did not analyze the metaphor concretely when he expounded the cooperative principle. until 1983, levinson discussed metaphor on the basis of grice s cooperative principle in his book pragmatics. he presents for the first time that cooperative principle is a criterion to judge whether it is the metaphor or not. sometimes the speaker infringes the maxims. however, the conversational implicature it produces is not just a metaphor. levinson believes that grice s view on metaphor only offers us with a partial criterion for the recognition of metaphor and does not reveal the nature of metaphor and expound the process of metaphor interpretation. sperber and wilson on the base of cp, sperber and wilson presented relev