Evaluation of Plant Metaphors in A Dream of Red Mansions

Xiaoli TIAN

Abstract


This work attempts to evaluate the plant metaphors used in A Dream of Red Mansions, aiming at: 1) Identifying the metaphorical expressions associated with plant used in the book; 2) finding out the correlation between plant metaphors and their evaluation; 3) exploring the experiential bases of the operational model of abstract reason in Chinese embodied in A Dream of Red Mansions, achieved via metaphor mapping the concrete concept – PLANT onto the abstract concept? How is it achieved? The results indicate that the cognitive approach to metaphor postulates that all conventional conceptual metaphors are grounded in our bodily and physical experience. Once a metaphorical mapping is set up, it will impose its structure on real life through the creation of new correspondences in experience. If the metaphor is the message, the conceptual metaphor provides a method of representation through which we may identify its salient features. As a result, the evaluation of the plant metaphors can contribute significantly to our understanding of the plant metaphors within Chinese culture.

Key words: Plant metaphors; Cognitive analysis; Experiential grounding


Keywords


Plant metaphors; Cognitive analysis; Experiential grounding

Full Text:

PDF

References


Biber, D., Conrad, S., & Reppen, R. (1996). Corpus-Based Investigations of Language Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

CAO, Xueqin (1978). A Dream of Red Mansions (Yang Xianyi & Gladys Yang Trans.). Peking: Foreign Language Press.

Deignan, A. (1995). Cobuild Guides to English 7: Metaphor. London: Harper Collins.

Fauconnier, G. (1997). Mappings in Thought and Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Goatly, A. (1997). The Language of Metaphors. London: Routledge.

Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors We Live by. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.

ZHAO, Yangfang (2001). An Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/j.hess.1927024020120303.4300

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c)



Share us to:   

Reminder

  • How to do online submission to another Journal?
  • If you have already registered in Journal A, then how can you submit another article to Journal B? It takes two steps to make it happen:

1. Register yourself in Journal B as an Author

  • Find the journal you want to submit to in CATEGORIES, click on “VIEW JOURNAL”, “Online Submissions”, “GO TO LOGIN” and “Edit My Profile”. Check “Author” on the “Edit Profile” page, then “Save”.

2. Submission

  • Go to “User Home”, and click on “Author” under the name of Journal B. You may start a New Submission by clicking on “CLICK HERE”.


We only use three mailboxes as follows to deal with issues about paper acceptance, payment and submission of electronic versions of our journals to databases:
caooc@hotmail.com; hess@cscanada.net; hess@cscanada.org

 Articles published in Higher Education of Social Science are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY).

HIGHER EDUCATION OF SOCIAL SCIENCE Editorial Office

Address: 1055 Rue Lucien-L'Allier, Unit #772, Montreal, QC H3G 3C4, Canada.
Telephone: 1-514-558 6138 
Website: Http://www.cscanada.net Http://www.cscanada.org 
E-mail: caooc@hotmail.com; office@cscanada.net

Copyright © 2010 Canadian Research & Development Center of Sciences and Cultures