What is "meta-" for?

Document Type

Journal article

Source Publication

外国语言文学 = Foreign Language and Literature Studies

Publication Date

2008

Volume

97

Issue

2008(3)

First Page

145

Last Page

152

Publisher

外國語言文學編輯部

Keywords

Qian Zhongshu, two handles and several sides theory of metaphor, metaphor study, cognitive linguistics, rhetoric

Abstract

This paper revisits Qian Zhongshu's theory of vehicular diversity and multivalency in an attempt to question the plausibility and necessity of postulating conceptual metaphors that have dominated so much of our contemporary discussions of metaphor. Using examples from both Chinese and English,it tries to show that conceptual metaphors are nothing more than linguists' meta-metaphorical constructs whose number could proliferate towards infinity due to the polysemic nature of figurative expressions.It also argues that lower-level semantic associations between the vehicle and the tenor are sufficient for explaining the existence or the emergence of a metaphor.

Print ISSN

16724720

Language

English

Recommended Citation

Ding E. (2008). What is “meta-” for? 《外國語言文學 Foreign Language and Literature Studies》, 2008(03), 145-152.

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