隐喻的语篇功能——兼论语篇分析与认知语言学的界面研究

Discourse Functions of Metaphor

以往的隐喻研究主要局限在词汇和句子层面。作为一种语用现象,隐喻是一种语篇组织的重要手段,它起着语篇构建、衔接和连贯的功能。本文拟从功能语言学的角度对隐喻的语篇功能进行研究,从隐喻认知与语篇的界面着眼对隐喻的语篇功能进行初步探索,旨在进一步丰富和完善隐喻的理论研究,试图为隐喻的研究提供一个新的视角。隐喻研究不能仅仅停留在词汇层、句法层,也应该从语篇的层面去研究。从语篇的层面去研究隐喻不但可以揭示隐喻的功能,而且可以阐释语篇信息的发展、语篇组织机制和语篇的衔接、连贯性,从而也能进一步丰富语篇研究的内容,扩大语篇研究的范围。

Previous research on metaphor has been conventionally restricted to the lexical and sentential level of language. In this paper, an attempt is made to put metaphor in the discourse perspective and to investigate its functions at the supra--sentential level of language. It is argued that, as a pragmatic phenomenon, metaphor is bound up with the flow of information in actual linguistic communication, and the continuum of metaphor in ongoing discourse can provide insight into both the mechanisms of metaphor at discourse level and the organization and coherence of discourse.