New persective of the metaphor of cognitive function.docVIP

New perspective of the metaphor by Zhanghang 张杭 Class：英语091 Student Number：0座机电话号码 School of Foreign Languages Changzhou University June 2012 New perspective of the metaphor Introduction In the long history of rhetoric study, metaphor has been regarded as the deviation in rhetoric and the study on metaphoric cognitive functions provides a brand-new perspective to the study of metaphor. The cognitive study of metaphor can be traced to 18th century. In 1725, Italian philosopher and rhetoric G.Vico discovered cognitive functions in his New Science. However, it is Lakoff and Johnsons Metaphor We Live By that regarded the study of metaphor as one of the important branches of cognitive linguistics. Metaphor is considered as the way we live by and the basis for human cognition, thinking, experience, language and even acts. 1.1 The definition of metaphor Metaphor is different from simile; it is not shown by “like” or “as”. However, it is rhetoric to compare similar things. Metaphor is figure of speech; it uses one to refer to another indirectly, and expresses the language, culture, and psychology. And Max Black classified the definition into three views. Substitution view：with an expression replaced another which equals in the meaning, and it only has the surface meaning that results in the formation of the metaphor. In tradition, most rhetoricians and literary critics all hold the view. It is obvious that the view has many defects, which mainly manifested in that it is difficult to determine the exact type. Comparison view：metaphor is the similarity of two things, that is to say, it is just the abbreviation of simile. This theory is in line with people’s intuition. When people say A is B, we just think A compared to B, many rhetoricians and literary critics also agree with it. But with careful consideration, what characteristics did A compare to B? Black think comparison view’s defect is vogue almost empty. In Brown’s terminology “man” is labeled with the main idea of