关联理论视域下的隐喻研究:问题与展望

The Controversies and Prospects of Metaphor Research from the Perspective of Relevance Theory

在隐喻认知研究中,关联理论(Relevance Theory, RT)的隐喻观独树一帜。以Sperber和Wilson为代表的经典RT把隐喻义归于隐义,而以Carston为代表的新RT则认为隐喻义属于显义。RT的隐喻研究范式在涌现特征、循环论证、隐喻动因、与其他理论整合性、实证研究、语料多样性等方面面临很多问题与挑战。对这些问题和挑战进行梳理分析,并对将来的发展趋势做出展望,将有助于促进RT范式下隐喻研究的融合与深入。

In cognitive approaches to metaphor, the framework of Relevance Theory(RT) has been attracting more and more scholarly attention. Classic RT argues that metaphors are used to convey a series of strong or weak implicatures, while new RT holds that metaphoric meaning should be attributed to explicatures. This paper points out that the research on metaphor under the framework of RT faces many controversies and challenges concerning issues such as the emergent issue, the circular issue in methodology, the motivation of metaphor, the compatibility with other research theories, empirical studies, and the diversity of data. The paper also presents possible developments in this field in the future.