隱喻和大學英語詞匯教學

摘要：隱喻不僅是自然語言中普遍存在的一種現象，而且影響我們的思維方式。隱喻作為認知和語言的紐帶，在詞匯學習中扮演著不可或缺的角色。從隱喻入手學習詞匯符合認知規律，可有效的突破傳統詞匯學習的瓶頸，從而幫助學生達到真正意義上的概念流利。

關鍵詞：認知隱喻；概念隱喻；英語教學

中圖分類號：G623.31文獻標志碼：A文章編號：1673-291X（2008）19-0261-02

I.Preface

From the beginning of last century to now，scholars have done much research on metaphor from different angles such as philosophy， logics， linguistics and so on. They find thatmetaphor exists everywhere in people’s daily life， and so does in almost all human language. In 1980， LakoffJohnson’s book Metaphors We Live By was published， from which we know more about the importance and relationship between metaphor and language-studying. In college English vocabulary teaching， teachers will frequently contact with metaphor phenomenon in word learning， grammar and chapters. English vocabulary is abundant， both simple and complicated， many of which are somewhat romantic and mysterious. If a person wants to use a new language well to express himself and communicate with others， he should acquire plenty of vocabulary. So in this paper， I will probe into the significance of metaphor on the vocabulary teaching in college English.

II．The definition of metaphor and some related research

The word metaphor originated from the word metapherein of Greek， in which meta means over and pherein means to carry， and the whole meaning is to carry over. Early more than two thousand years ago， in ancient Greek， Aristotle defined in his book Poetics that metaphor is to use the name of another matter as that of this one. In later 1980s， American scholar Albert indicated that metaphor is a kind of valuable structure of language.

LakoffJohnson use the mapping between source domain and target domain and image schemas to reveal the metaphor phenomenon. Theypointed that our conceptual system is largely metaphorical， and our ordinary conceptual system， in terms of which we both think and act， is fundamentally metaphorical in nature （LakoffJohnson， 1980:3）.

One of the commonest of all types of semantic change is metaphor: applying a word to something it does not literally denote in order to draw attention to a resemblance. According to the development of metaphor theory， Metaphor includes simile， metonymy， synecdoche， irony， allusion and etc. Metaphor is a kind of art of language that describe some association in the process of cognition， also a psychological phenomenon and a thinking course. On the psychological basis of association， metaphor covers three necessary essences: the tenor， the vehicle and the ground. Simultaneously， metaphor contains three main features: First， it comprises the concept which may be totally different with its literal meaning; second， metaphor can endow the abstract notion or implication with concrete image; third， metaphor can make lifeless objects vivid， so as to form certain imagination or express one’s feeling.

III．Metaphor and the Vocabulary Teaching in college English

While entering 21st century， one of the focuses on English-teaching is how to increase the students’ ability of using vocabulary. English teachers are facing the problem of how to help students in-put and out-put word information， how to promote their ability of word cognition. Through the research on a lot of language material， scholars propose that in the expression of words， over 70% comes from conceptual metaphor. Metaphor maps one conceptual structure or image to another conceptual structure or image. There are countless examples in English， e.g: Love is a journey. In fact， people use the source domain Journey to conceptualize the target domain Love.

There are three parts where we can use metaphor for vocabulary teaching of college English:

i．Teaching vocabulary by the metaphorical contrast of English and Chinese

From my own English teaching experience， I find that students often ask me how to grasp the deep meaning of words. Sometimes when they come across a sentence or an article， even there is no so called new words， they still feel difficult in understanding them. We had better use the way of metaphor to teach students vocabulary. If the teacher really wants his students to master a foreign language quite well， first， he canteach English vocabulary by the metaphorical contrast of English and Chinese， or we can say， he should teach vocabulary with the metaphorical way. For instance，the sentence Economy is machinery is a conceptual metaphor， which use our familiar concept machinery to construct the strange and abstract knowledge of economy. By the medium of conceptual metaphor， it won’t be difficult for us to understand such metaphorical expression: to tighten the screws on the economy， the economy is overheating.

ii．Teaching new vocabulary from the angle of metaphor

Second， besides the above， teachers can teach new words from the angle of metaphor. For example， there come many new words with the development of computer science and the internet. Then another example， the word mouse， can be translated as“老鼠”，“鼠標”. The metaphorical implication of these two explanations is that they have similar size， same colour and so on. There are some words like this such as modem（貓）， cyber nut（網蟲）， surf the web（沖浪）. Teachers can divide them into different groups: Group one: combined words， such as software， chat -room， scrollbar， online， backspace. While teaching these words， the teacher can connect them with the vocabulary which students have learned before， so that students could quickly grasp them and keep them.

iii．Teaching the collocation of phrases and verbs with metaphor

Third， the teacher can teach the collocation of phrases and that of verbs with a metaphorical way. In college English vocabulary teaching， take the Up and Down as an example. The word up usually holds affirmative， positive， active meaning，whereas the word down often implies negative， passive meaning. For example， in the sentence I’m really down today， the word down means unhappy. Then， more examples: The phrase the upper strata of society refers to those who are near to the first-class and they lead a rich and stylistic life. An up-market resort refers to the resort where those multi-millionaires always go to. The down-market books refer to those cheap， unqualified ones which the poor people buy.

In a word， when we relate vocabulary-learning to metaphor， it is not a simple category of memorizing words any more， but up to a new field of cognitive semantics and even pragmatics. So after that， when students come across such sentences as Age withered her， or He is a green hand， they won’t feel puzzled or confused， and even really feel joyful during the study. If teachers can put metaphor well into vocabulary teaching， students’ ability of thought and skill of comprehensive analysis will be strengthened. Furthermore， it is a teaching process of students-centered which is good to train them to build up their ability of using English language.

IV．Conclusion

Metaphor， a strong and useful tool for human beings’ cognition about the world outside and inner side， is an important means for foreign language learners to inquire into the cognitive way and the culture of another ethnics .We gradually realize the function of metaphor together with the development of cognitive linguistics. The human language， which exists as the outer symbol that touches the world in a metaphorical way， incarnates its specific property at any time and any where. After people understand metaphor much further， the metaphorical way of college English vocabulary teaching can largely make up for the insufficiency of surficial memory. It can stimulate students to think deeply of the meaning of every word， and on their’s own initiative their efficiency of word-learning will definitely go to the upper stairs， so will their depth of comprehension. In addition， the character of cognition and mapping of metaphor can widen students’ ways of language studying， and then save their time. of course， there is a long way to go for the metaphorical method of word-teaching， so it can not solve all the problems which language learners confront. In the English vocabulary teaching process， teachers should not forget to integrate this method with the traditional way， and do it with the consideration of students’ language standard and their cognitive ability， use metaphor flexiblely.

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Metaphor and the Vocabulary Teaching in College English

DAI Ya-ying

（Hangzhou Normal University， Daiyaying， Hangzhou 310018，China）

Abstract: Metaphor is a ubiquitous phenomenon in the natural language and actually influences our way of thinking. Word learning from metaphor conforms to the law of cognitive science. With the help of metaphor， students can effectively extricate from difficulty in word learning， and achieve a genuine conceptual fluency.

Key words: cognitive semantics; conceptual metaphor; teaching in English[責任編輯 陳 鶴]