Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Research Background
The study of metaphor has a long history, and it has been more than 2,000 years since ancient Greece. Long time ago, people have recognized that human language is full of metaphors, but traditional metaphor theory regards it as a linguistic phenomenon and a rhetorical means. From traditional view, metaphor is the expression of one thing by referring to another thing. From the perspective of etymology, the word “metaphor” in English comes from the Greek word “metaphora”, which is synthesized by “meta” and “pherein”. “meta” means “over” in English, and “pherein” means “to carry” in English. Therefore, the original meaning of “metaphor’ is a kind of movement, which is a process of transformation. This implies that metaphor must involve two things, one is considered as a starting point and the other is considered as a destination. In western researches, the Greek philosopher Aristotle (BC384-BC322) was the first to systematically study the concept of metaphor. He made a definition that “Metaphor is the application to one thing of a name belonging to another thing”. He believed that metaphor is a linguistic means of replacing one word with another to express the same meaning. These two things are in a comparative relationship. And this is the famous Comparison Theory. Marcus Fabius Quitilianus (AD35-AD100) put forward the theory of substitution of metaphor in the field of rhetoric. He pointed out that metaphor is a rhetorical phenomenon and the essence is replacing one word with another. The influence of the theory of substitution and comparison theory continued until the 1930s. Then Ivor Armstrong Richards (1893-1979) proposed the “interaction theory” of metaphor. From then on people’s understanding of metaphor began to change. Richards believed that when people use metaphors, they usually combine concepts that express two different things and the meaning of which is the result of the interaction of these two concepts. Metaphor is originated from the study of rhetoric, but it is not limited to rhetoric. The promotion of metaphor to the field of cognition is the result of the continuous development of metaphor research of many scholars. The study of metaphor has gone through the research process of rhetoric, semantics, and multidisciplinary research with the core of cognitive science, while Conceptual Metaphor Theory emerged in the third stage.
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1.2 Objective of the Study
This thesis is an attempt to analyze conceptual metaphor from cognitive level. The objective of the study is to give a detailed analysis of mechanism of conceptual metaphor in the first season of Modern Family. The reason why this thesis chooses this sitcom as analysis corpus is that the language here is daily and full of cultural resources. It is helpful to explain people’s thinking process with Conceptual Metaphor Theory. And studies on conceptual metaphor at home are relatively few. Moreover, the earliest study of metaphor was focused on poetry, then gradually other literary forms. This thesis aims to explore the working mechanism of conceptual metaphor in sitcoms, through which can guide people’s cognitive process and thinking way.
The main theoretical significance of the thesis is stated from three aspects. Firstly, compared with western countries, there are few researches on metaphor in China. Most of the researches on metaphor are from rhetorical perspective. The study of this thesis is from the cognitive perspective. By analyzing the conceptual metaphors in Modern Family, the universality of metaphors is further proved. It exists not only in people’s daily communication, but also in other fields such as literary works, film and TV programs, advertising discourses, and news discourse. In addition, by analyzing the conceptual metaphors in American sitcom, it provides further evidence for the analysis of metaphor theory in other fields, especially in the field of film and television works, which is helpful to the interaction and development between disciplines.
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Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 Metaphor: From Rhetoric to Cognition
In modern western researches, the term metaphor sometimes refers to metaphorical expression in language, sometimes refers to the thinking mechanism that restricts the metaphorical representation of language, and sometimes refers to the conceptualization process itself (the participation of metaphorical mechanisms in the formation of concepts). The semantic generalization of the term metaphor reflects the deepening of metaphor research, but it also makes it difficult for people to understand the term. The author begins with the rhetorical significance of metaphor and briefly discusses the rationale and process of the meaning of the term metaphor. Through this process, the readers can roughly understand how metaphor evolved from a rhetoric phenomenon into a cognitive way.
2.1.1 The Development of Metaphor
The word “metaphor” in English comes from the Greek word “metaphora”, which is synthesized by “meta” and “pherein”. “meta” means “over”, and “pherein” means “to carry” in English. Therefore, the original meaning of metaphor is a kind of movement, which is a process of transformation. Metaphor comes from rhetorical research, but it is not limited to rhetoric. Cognitive metaphor is the result of the continuous development of metaphor research. Western metaphors have a long history of research. Different scholars from different views and angles have given their own answers to question about what is metaphor and the working mechanism of metaphor. Rhetoricians believe that metaphor is a decorative object of language, a means of modifying discourse, and also a rhetoric; philosophers believe that human language is fundamentally metaphorical, which is the fundamental feature of language, and metaphor makes the understanding of recondite language becomes possible; logicians believe that metaphor is a kind of deviation of language use and a misplacement of categories; cognitive scholars believe that metaphor is the basic way of human cognition, and people understand and master abstract things and concepts through metaphor.
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2.2 Research on Modern Family
Modern Family is a sitcom that is described and photographed in the form of mockumentary. This sitcom is popular both at home and abroad. Especially in China, many English learners regard this drama as a good resource for learning English. In terms of academic research, Modern Family has also attracted the attention of many scholars. When searching Modern Family on cnki.net, 35 articles about subtitle translation and 16 about verbal humor could be found. Other studies are about discourse markers and conflict talk.
Under the guidance of Skopo’s theory, Huang Xiaohong (2012) demonstrated the translation strategies and methods of subtitles by analyzing the subtitles of Modern Family. The authors said that the subtitle translators should aim at catering to audiences’ acceptance, adopt flexible and innovative translation methods and strategies to help the audiences to grasp and understand the plot, and enhance the appeal of the film and television works, thus to promote the exchange and development between different cultures.
Gao Yun (2015) stated that the purpose of subtitle translation is to enable audiences to feel and understand western culture and enjoy the beauty of American drama. By adopting the translation theory, the translator can flexibly reorganize, transform, and change the original work by adding, deleting, combining, and changing according to the needs of the audience. Although the form may be contrary to the original work, it is more authentic. The original works can better meet the needs of the audience and achieve the purpose of transmitting information and culture. Therefore, in a sense, the role of the translation method in subtitle translation is self-evident.
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Chapter Three Theoretical Framework ..................................................... 16
3.1 Definition of Conceptual Metaphor .............................................. 16
3.2 Classification of Conceptual Metaphor ........................................ 18
3.3 Characteristics of Conceptual Metaphor ...................................... 21
Chapter Four Research Methodology .............................. 24
4.1 Research Questions ........................ 24
4.2 Data objective ............................ 24
Chapter Five Results and Discussion ...................................... 26
5.1 Structural Metaphor in Modern Family ........................................ 26
5.1.1 Love Metaphor ......................... 26
5.1.2 Life Metaphor .............................. 30
Chapter Five Results and Discussion
5.1 Structural Metaphor in Modern Family
Lakoff and Johnson assert that “structural metaphors are grounded in systematic correlations within our experience” (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003: 61). There are rich analysis source of structural metaphors.In this part, the author divides the structural metaphor into different themes. The use of structural metaphor makes the theme more distinct.
5.1.1 Love Metaphor
Modern Family is an American drama, whose theme is about family. In this family, there are so many conceptual metaphors, especially the conceptual metaphor themed as love, for it is a family full of love. Love is abstract. Through the use of structural metaphor, love can be delivered better.
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Chapter Six Conclusion
6.1 Major Findings
In the process of writing, the author draws on the relevant research results of metaphor research in Chinese and Western studies and introduces Conceptual Metaphor Theory to analyze the daily metaphors appearing in Modern Family. In this sitcom, people can use figurative means to express the complicated inner feelings and to capture the experiences of life. Metaphor, as an important cognitive means, can help us grasp the unknown concept in accordance with our known one and establish a connection between the two concepts so as to achieve the goal of indulging us in the beauty of language. The English language in Modern Family is mostly about daily language, but there are still many images. The chosen corpus is analyzed under the classification of structural metaphor, orientational metaphor and ontological metaphor according to Lakoff and Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory.
The use of conceptual metaphor enhances the artistic effect in America sitcom. As to structural metaphor, it not only makes audiences feel the theme in depth, but also facilitate character shaping. The theme of Modern Family is love and life, and also inevitable argument. Love is an abstract thing and people cannot understand it deeply not to mention the love on the screen. The actors’ lines embodying love metaphor can express the inner emotion vividly and can also make audiences understand the plot and relationship easily. Life themed metaphor is the second frequent use in Modern Family. There are also some life truths in this sitcom. The characters on the screen always tell some truths about life, which is difficult for people to understand. The language expressed in the way of metaphor can make the telling more persuasive and the audiences will have a deeper understanding to the profound meanings of life. The metaphor about argument is also listed in the structural metaphor part, which can make the idea expressed clearly and make audiences understand the conveying. Characters in the sitcom Modern Family use metaphors to express their thoughts. Every character has his own personality, so every character use different metaphor types to express his meaning. Through the using of conceptual metaphor in language, the audience can better understand the meaning in the back of the characters. And audiences can know the persons in Modern Family better by the use of different metaphorical expressions. What’s more, this usage can make the language vivid and lively.
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