英语专业 修辞学论文 Metaphors in Business English 隐喻在商务英语中的应用概要.docVIP

Metaphors in Business English 隐喻在商务英语中的应用 课程论文提交时间：2011年 9月 13日  Abstract This paper introduces some basic concepts and features of metaphors such as different definitions of metaphor, how metaphors work, and the common types of metaphor. However, metaphor is nowadays not only regarded as a figure of speech but also an important tool in culture communication. As one of the most vivid rhetorical devices, metaphor is used quite frequently in language used in different fields in daily life. This study also gives some examples to prove that in the field of business there exist metaphors, which are vital to understand some economic knowledge and certain phenomena better. Key Words: metaphor; source domain; target domain; business; I. Background Knowledge of Metaphor The idea of metaphor can be traced back to?Aristotle?who, in his “Poetics” (around 335 BC), defines “metaphor” as follows: “Metaphor is the application of a strange term either transferred from the genus and applied to the species or from the species and applied to the genus, or from one species to another or else by?analogy.”?To make it clear, we can regard metaphor?as a literary figure of speech?that uses an image, story or?tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea. In classical theories of language, metaphor was seen as a matter of language, and everyday language had no metaphor. But according to Lakoff and Johnson (1993), the word “metaphor” has come to be used differently in contemporary research, and ordinary everyday English in various fields is largely metaphorical. We have found that metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action. This paper gives many examples to prove that in the economy field there exist metaphors, which are vital to understand related economic knowledge and certain phenomena better. A common definition of a metaphor can be described as a comparison that shows how two things that are not alike i