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Analyzing the Construction of Concepts with Metaphor Theory
Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Its Existing Problems

Release date: April 3, 2009 16: 16: 56 Author: Source: Li (Beihang University) Hits: 136 Comments: 0.

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About the author: Li, Ph.D., Professor of Foreign Languages Department, Beihang University. Research interests: cognitive linguistics, semantics, metaphor theory, applied linguistics.

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Abstract: G.Lakoff's conceptual metaphor theory is one of the hot topics in cognitive linguistics in recent 20 years. This theory holds that metaphor is a systematic mapping from concrete conceptual domain to abstract conceptual domain; Metaphor is a question of thinking, not language; Metaphor is a way of thinking and cognitive means. These expressions promote the study of conceptual structure in cognitive semantics, the overall development of cognitive linguistics and the interdisciplinary study of metaphor. The study of metaphor at home and abroad tends to be overheated, drowning out the voices of critics. This paper comprehensively analyzes the content of conceptual metaphor and points out its shortcomings in order to arouse scholars' rational thinking.

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Keywords: conceptual metaphor; Conceptual domain; Mapping; cognitive linguistics

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China Library ClassificationNo.: H0-06 | Document IdentificationNo.: A | DocumentNo.:1672-9382 (2005) 04-0021-08.

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Brief introduction of theoretical background

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From the early 1980s to the present, the fastest developing and hottest research in linguistics is probably "cognitive linguistics". One of the hottest focuses in cognitive linguistics should be metaphor. The "fuse" and "oxytocin" of these hot spots or focuses should be attributed to "Conceptual Metaphor Theory" (Lakoff &: Johnson,1980; Leikauf, 1993). This theory holds that metaphor is a systematic mapping from concrete conceptual domain to abstract conceptual domain; Metaphor is a question of thinking, not language; Metaphor is a way of thinking and cognitive means. These revolutionary formulations have promoted the study of conceptual structure in cognitive semantics, thus promoting the overall development of cognitive linguistics. As long as we look at the titles of papers of previous international conferences on cognitive linguistics and the publications of cognitive linguistics in recent 20 years, we will feel the same way about the above description. Therefore, it is an indisputable fact that conceptual metaphor has contributed a lot. However, everything is divided into two, and many things are double-edged swords. The overheated trend of metaphor research at home and abroad is no exception. This overheating trend is particularly evident in China. 200 1 at the first cognitive linguistics conference held in Shanghai, nearly 50% of the papers were about metaphor. It may be more appropriate for us to change the name of the meeting to a metaphorical convention. This overheating itself is easy to form blind obedience. At the same time, this overheated research also drowned out the voices of critics. This paper makes a comprehensive analysis of the content of conceptual metaphor and points out some shortcomings in order to arouse scholars' rational thinking. This paper is divided into four parts. The first part briefly introduces the background; The second part introduces the conceptual metaphor theory in detail; The third part points out some shortcomings of the theory; The fourth part is the conclusion.

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What is "Conceptual Metaphor Theory"?

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The viewpoint of conceptual metaphor theory can be found in Metaphor We Live by, Lakoff &; Johnson, 1980) was first put forward and systematically expounded in modern metaphor theory (Lakoff, 1993). In order to have a preliminary understanding of conceptual metaphor theory, we make a simple comparison between the basic viewpoint of conceptual metaphor and Lakoff's traditional viewpoint of metaphor (see table 1 on the next page). Leikauf's views on "tradition" and "classicism" did not indicate the source (Leikauf, 1993: 204-205). Leikauf himself admits this. Please look at the following quotation (the reference translation is added by the author):

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We tried our best to investigate the main traditional metaphor theories and the differences between our views and them. Our survey is different from most other similar surveys in two aspects: first, we have not tried to tell who advocates what and associate a particular author with a position. Our main interest lies in simply stating our position. Second, (Leikauf & ampTurner, 1989: 136) We tried our best to investigate the main traditional metaphor theories and discussed the differences between our views and tradition. There are two differences between our survey and most previous surveys: first, we didn't explain who holds what views, thus linking specific authors with opinions. Our main interest is only to explain what the traditional view is. Second ...)

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