Metaphor in discourse

隐喻的研究有着悠久而可敬的传统，至少可以追溯到古希腊和古罗马时期。近年来，语言学、心理学和哲学的进步使人们对隐喻的兴趣重新燃起。更具体地说，学者们指出，我们在日常语言中系统地使用传统的隐喻表达(例如：“我正处在人生的十字路口”，“她需要一种新的方向感”)，并声称这些模式反映了传统的思维模式，被称为“概念隐喻”（例如，生活是一场旅行）。这条研究路线已经启发了一些关于隐喻在各种体裁中的常规使用的重要工作，以及文学中隐喻的新奇使用。特别是，有人声称文学作家创造性地利用了我们在日常语言中使用的隐喻。在我的研究中，我研究了隐喻的形式和功能，这些隐喻属于一系列不同的社会文化领域，包括文学、政治、科学、教育和广告。我将对具有代表性的文本样本进行密切的文本分析，并利用被称为“语料库”的大型语言数据库。我的目的是展示以下内容：隐喻的使用中，惯例性和创造性之间的相互作用是许多不同体裁和使用语境的特征，而不是唯一或主要的文学现象；尽管隐喻在不同体裁中具有不同的主导功能（如政治演讲中的说服，教育材料中的解释等），但在个别文本和体裁中，隐喻表达用于各种目的（如在科学文章中，隐喻经常用于说服和幽默以及解释的目的）；这些语料库为隐喻的研究提供了宝贵的资源。我还将指出我的研究对当前隐喻理论的影响，特别是对当前关于“概念隐喻”的观点的影响。

The study of metaphor has a long and venerable tradition, dating back at least to Greek and Roman antiquity. In recent years, advances in linguistics, psychology and philosophy have led to a resurgence of interest in metaphor. More specifically, scholars have pointed out that we systematically use conventional metaphorical expressions in everyday language (e.g. 'I'm at a crossroads in my life', 'She needs a new sense of direction'), and claimed that these patterns reflect conventional patterns of thought, known as 'conceptual metaphors' (e.g. LIFE IS A JOURNEY). This line of research has already inspired some important work on the conventional use of metaphor in a variety of genres, as well as on the novel use metaphor in literature. In particular, it is claimed that literary writers creatively exploit the metaphors that we all use in ordinary language. In my research, I investigate the forms and functions of metaphor in a range of genres belonging to a set of different socio-cultural domains, including literature, politics, science, education and advertising. I combine the close textual analysis of a representative sample of texts with the exploitation of large linguistic databases known as 'corpora'. My aim is to show the following:That interplay between conventionality and creativity in the use of metaphor is a characteristic of many different genres and contexts of use, rather than being an exclusively or primarily literary phenomenon;That, although metaphor has different dominant functions in different genres (e.g. persuasion in political speeches, explanation in educational materials, etc.), metaphorical expressions are used for a variety of purposes within individual texts and genres (e.g. in scientific articles metaphors are often used for the purposes of persuasion and humour as well as explanation);`Those corpora provide an invaluable resource for the study of metaphor.I will also point out the implications of my research for current metaphor theory, and particularly for current views on 'conceptual metaphors'.