Conceptual Metaphor and Literary Discourse:A Study of the Implicit Conceptual Metaphor in Somerset Maugham's Rain  

作　　者：REN Shaozeng REN Shaozeng(Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China)

机构地区：[1]Zhejiang University,Hangzhou 310058,China

出　　处：《外国语》2016年第5期2-19,共18页Journal of Foreign Languages

摘　　要：This paper looks into the implicit conceptual metaphor in the short story Rain by Somerset Maugham from a cognitive-functional perspective. The word "rain",with its unusual frequency of occurrence and used in a less common clause structure in the discourse,is obviously foregrounded. But rain is not what the story is about,it is about the protagonist,a missionary,Davidson by name and his relationship with a woman named Thompson. Rain is used symbolically as the source domain,but where is the target domain? The recurrence of "the rain",which forms a metaphoric chain,moves the narrative through its entire structure,beginning with Orientation,through 11 phases in Complication Actions until it reaches Resolution,which takes the form of Davidson's suicide. The ending comes as a surprise to the reader and forces him to look back and re-contextualize the story on the basis of a series of counter-expectancies and linguistic expressions so that he finds the relationship between Davidson and Thompson was not one between a preacher and a sinner,but one between a man and a woman. Linguistic analysis and cognitive analysis bring to light the fact that what made Davidson behave the way he did was not only his religious fanaticism but,more decisively,also his inner urge or desire,which turns out to be the target domain. The fascinating role metaphor and metonymy play in the unfolding of discourse makes it possible to establish the cross-domain mapping of knowledge about rain onto knowledge about desire,so the dominant conceptual metaphor,Desire Is Rain,finally takes shape. This is how the discourse realizes the conceptual metaphor. As the metaphor is implicit,it takes a lot of inferencing to see how the discourse realizes it as it unfolds,and how the metaphor shapes the meaning of the discourse as it gradually emerges. The target domain is implied in order to make the story stylistically unique and heighten the cognitive impact of the short story.This paper looks into the implicit conceptual metaphor in the short story Rain by Somerset Maugham from a cognitive-functional perspective. The word ＂rain＂, with its unusual frequency of occurrence and used in a less com- mon clause stnlcture in the discourse, is obviously fi）regrounded. But rain is not what the story is about, it is about the protagonist, a missionary, Davidson by name and his relationship with a woman named Thompson. Rain is used sym- bolically as the source domain, but where is the target domain.＇？ The recurrence of ＂the rain＂, which forms a meta- phoric chain, moves the narrative through its entire structure, begimling with Orientation, through 11 phases in Com- plication Actions until it reaches Resolution, which takes the form of Davidson＇s suicide. The ending comes as a sur- prise to the reader and forces him to look back and re-contextualize the story on the basis of a series of counter-expect- ancies and linguistic expressions so that he finds the relationship between Davidson and Thompson was not one be- tween a preacher and a sinner, but one between a man and a woman. Linguistic analysis and cognitive analysis bring to light the fact that what made Davidson behave the way he did was not only his religious fanaticism but, more deci- sively, also his inner urge or desire, which turns out to be the target domain. The fascinating role metaphor and me- tonymy play in the unfolding of discourse makes it possible to establish the cross-domain mapping of knowledge about rain onto knowledge about desire, so the dominant conceptual metaphor, Desire Is Rain, finally takes shape. This is how the discourse realizes the conceptual metaphor. As the metaphor is implicit, it takes a lot of inferencing to see how the discourse realizes it as it unfolds, and how the metaphor shapes the meaning of the discourse as it gradually emerges. The target domain is implied in order to make the story stylistically unique and heighten the cognitive impact of the short story.

关 键 词：RAIN CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR discourse linguistic ANALYSIS CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS 

分 类 号：H315[语言文字—英语]