The Ways Metaphor is Brought into Vocabulary Teaching

LiuYan+++ShenXiang+jing

【Abstract】 The purpose of vocabulary teaching in English is to enlarge breadth and depth of vocabulary and From the point of cognitive metaphor， meaning extension of vocabulary contributes a lot to the vocabulary teaching. The paper tries to sum up ways metaphor is brought into teaching as a means of improving English teaching.

【Key words】metaphor；cognition；concept metaphor； metaphorical vocabulary

It is well known that the purpose of vocabulary teaching in English is to enlarge breadth and depth of vocabulary. English is not only rich in vocabulary but every single word has several meanings. However， the relation among meanings of polysemy is not arbitrary but well-grounded with certain semantic extension. If studying the origin of words， we easily find that there is metaphor functioning. So， students are required to think about similarity of several related meanings of one word while the teacher should explain connotation and denotation （or metaphor or metonymy） of some words to students so as to enable them to get the command of development and evolvement mechanism of the meanings as well as to improve their reading comprehensive ability. And， the teacher should also cultivate students' metaphorical ability， an ability equal to that of grammar and of communication.

There are ways to insert metaphor into English teaching， especially words teaching.

I .To introduce metaphorical thinking mode to students

On the basis of linguistic evidence， we have found that most of our ordinary conceptual system is metaphorical in nature. But， metaphor is just superficies in language use. What indeed works is concept metaphor rooted in our conceptual system. Therefore， the teacher should first get use of research achievement in metaphor and explain what concept metaphor is， then analyze its phenomenon to spark their interest for thinking upon it.

Take 'surf 'as an example. It is hard to tie 'surfing' with Internet before 'surfing the Internet' came into being. The expression has intangibly got extension and accepted metaphoric meaning of 'surf ' ， highlighting features of Internet. And 'Time is money ' is widely-used concept metaphor and 'waste time'， 'run out of time '， 'save time'， 'spend time' ect. as well in English， so is it in Chinese. We understand and conceptualize 'time' as the kind of things that we do for 'money'.

Meanwhile， metaphor， a cognitive and thinking way， shares similarities among cultures but differences in specific language expressions. If students know spatial metaphor about 'UP and DOWN'， they would have a skillful mind of collocation and formation of phrases. 'UP' implies anything positive ，and 'DOWN' negative. So， the teacher should make the extension and explanation of 'UP and DOWN'， on the basis of which students have the idea that why 'UP and DOWN' can possess the meaning of 'happy and unhappy'. Only when they comprehend its metaphoric meaning do students can get across the true meaning of such collocations.endprint

Anyway， conscious training of students' metaphoric thinking enables them to learn how to speculate and organize language phenomenon with metaphor， facilitating them to improve their conceptual fluency.

II. To know culture features of each metaphor implied

Our knowledge of the world is influenced by the environment we live in the same as metaphor is confined to history， customs， belief， value standard， etc.， showing obvious national culture feathers. English learners have to strengthen their understanding of culture and cognitive mode of the target language.

Students should learn hoe English and Americans think and have an eye on cross-cultural comparison in vocabulary metaphor to compare the differences between English and Chinese for a correct use of words.

III. To combine cognitive context with metaphor vocabulary

To this end， the teacher should lead students to associating contextual knowledge with similarity theory of metaphor to use the analyzing approaches of metaphorical meaning of words.

In short， to some extent， students try to reproduce metaphors in the mind by a certain means in foreign language learning under the guidance of teachers. To learn language is first to form thinking mode of the language that is being learnt， thus students have the tendency to do the actively apply new words to proper concepts in the cognition. Consequently， twice as much as can be accomplished with half the effort in learning.

參考文獻：

[1]Lakoff， G. & M. Johnson. Metaphors We Live By [M]. Chicago： The University of Chicago Press，1980.

[2]候奕松.隱喻研究與英語教學[M].北京師范大學出版社. 2011.

[3]王寅.認知語言學[M].上海外語教育出版社.2006.endprint