公共话语中隐喻语言的表意系统研究——基于隐喻的复杂系统分析法

Research on Linguistic Metaphor Systems in Public Discourse——With a Complex Systems Theory Approach to Metaphors

隐喻语言是思维的载体,在公共话语中担任认知方式的表达媒介,是话语分析的重要考察对象。当前,多数聚焦隐喻的公共话语分析基于概念隐喻理论展开。相关研究从具身体验角度考察了公共话语中概念隐喻产生的心理过程,但未描写和解释语境中隐喻语言的表意网络创设。文章采用隐喻的复杂系统分析法,以英文报刊对金砖国家概念的隐喻构建为例,考察公共话语语境中隐喻语言的表意系统性。研究显示,隐喻语言在公共话语语境中自下而上形成系统隐喻、隐喻情节和隐喻叙事,三者环环相扣,受到话语目的、社会文化、语言语境及认知活动的交互施动。研究发现,隐喻的复杂系统分析法能有效捕捉语境中隐喻语言的协同表意,利于揭示公共话语中隐喻语言产生修辞论辩效果的复杂动因。

As the carriers of thoughts,linguistic metaphors serve as the expressive media of cognition in public discourse,and they form an important research perspective in public discourse analysis.Currently,metaphor-led public discourse analysis generally bases itself on Conceptual Metaphor Theory(CMT).Such studies analyze the psychological generation of conceptual metaphors in public discourse from the perspective of bodily experience,but they do not tackle the interconnectedness and systematicity of linguistic metaphors in use.Drawing on a Complex Systems Theory(CST)approach to metaphors,this paper studies linguistic metaphors framing the BRICS in English newspapers,focusing on their systematicity in meaning-making.This paper finds that in public discourse,linguistic metaphors form systematic metaphors,metaphor scenarios and metaphorical narratives in a bottom-up manner,with one leading to another,and such emergence is jointly influenced by discourse purposes,social culture,linguistic contexts,and cognitive activities.This paper concludes that the CST approach can effectively contribute to describing the systematicity of linguistic metaphors in use,and it helps to reveal the rhetorical and argumentative functions of linguistic metaphors in public discourse.