Chapter OneIntroduction
1.1 Background of the Study
As a rhetorical device, metaphor has aroused interests of numerous philosophers andlinguists for over 2017 years. Traditionally metaphor is regarded as a figure of speech orfigurative language in contrast with literal language. The publication of Metaphors WeLive by by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in 1980 signals the all-round beginning ofmetaphor study from a cognitive perspective. Scholastic interests have reached anotherpeak since then. Quite a few experts in American and European academic circle havetaken a new and revolutionary view of metaphor, challenging the long-existingtraditional thinking and perceiving metaphor as fundamental to human thinking process.Contemporary studies demonstrate that metaphor is not only a fundamental methodof human cognition but also conceptual in nature. Lakoff and Johnson point out theimportance of metaphor by stating that:Many people think they can get along perfectly well without metaphor. Wehave found, on the contrary, that metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, notjust in language but in thought and action. Our ordinary conceptual system, interms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature.(Lakoff & Johnson 3)According to Lakoff and Johnson, metaphors are ubiquitous not only in humanlanguages but also in conceptual system. Instead of regarding metaphor as an ornamentaldevice, the cognitive view of metaphor treats metaphor as a way of thinking, a means bywhich people perceive and experience the world, a means of thought and life.
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1.2 Aims of the Study
The role of metaphoric competence cannot be neglected in second languageacquisition, however, relevant researchers in mainland China mainly focused ontheoretical discussions. There are few empirical studies on metaphoric competence;what’s more, the studies on the relationship between metaphoric competence and readingproficiency of college non-English majors are fewer. This study has been designed toinvestigate:
(1) What is the present situation of college non-English majors’ receptivemetaphoric competence?
(2) Do the receptive metaphoric competence correlate with the reading proficiency?And if so in what way?
(3) Do metaphor identification and metaphor interpretation correlate with each otherand with reading proficiency? And if so in what ways?
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Chapter TwoLiterature Review
2.1 Traditional Views on Metaphor
The studies of metaphor are normally grouped under two theory camps: traditionalviews and cognitive ones. The dividing line of these two camps is the position they holdon the identity of metaphor. As Lakoff (12) points out, a major difference between thecontemporary theory of metaphor and classical one is grounded on the oldliteral-figurative distinction.Classical metaphor theories consist of three types, namely, the comparison view, thesubstitution view and the interaction view.Aristotle, the first scholar who conducted metaphor study, treated metaphors asimplicit comparisons between a metaphoric expression and a literal paraphrase based onunderlying analogy or similarity between two or more objects (Shu 28). Metaphorinvolved a comparison or similarity between two objects. Take the metaphor “Life is atheater” for example; life is full of ups and downs, and in a theater there are joys andsadness as ，英语论文网站，英语毕业论文
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