基于语料库的元语言评述术语“混合隐喻”研究

A Corpus-based Study of “Mixed metaphor”as a Metalinguistic Comment Elena Semino

基于有20亿词汇规模的"牛津英语语料库",对元语言评述术语"混合隐喻"的使用情况进行研究。从该语料库中含"混合隐喻"这一术语的141个例子的上下文语境入手,探讨"混合隐喻"使用者明确关注的"混合隐喻"种类和使用情况。试图揭示:大众理解的"混合隐喻"与学术文献中作为专业术语的"混合隐喻"存在不相一致的现象。基于此,阐述本研究对隐喻理论的启示意义。本文关注不同文类中"混合隐喻"这一术语的使用情况,句法层级与隐喻"混用"的认知关联性,探讨使用"混合隐喻"这一元语言标签背后可能的语用意图。本研究基本证实了一个广为认同的观点:"混合隐喻"这一术语蕴含了对某一语段及其作者的负面评价。然而,在为数极少的例子中,"混合隐喻"这一术语作为一种幽默用法,指对隐喻的创造性使用,语言的这种创造性使用不仅机智诙谐而且效果非凡。

This chapter investigates the use of the expression 'mixed metaphor'as a metalinguistic comment in the two-billion-word Oxford English Corpus. I consider the co-text of 141 occurrences of 'mixed metaphor'in the corpus,in order to shed light on the kinds of uses of metaphors that writers opt to explicitly draw attention to as involving 'mixing'. I show how folk understandings of 'mixed metaphor'include phenomena that do not correspond to the technical use of the term in the specialist literature,and reflect on the implications of these findings for metaphor theory. Some attention is given to the use of the phrase 'mixed metaphor'in different genres,the relevance of grammatical boundaries to perception of 'mixing'between metaphors,and the possible pragmatic motivation for using 'mixed metaphor'as a metalinguistic label. The study broadly confirms the prevailing view that the notion of'mixed metaphor'often involves a negative evaluation of a particular stretch of language and of the speaker/writer who produced it. However,in a substantial minority of cases,the phrase is used humorously to point out what are in fact creative,witty and highly effective uses of metaphor.