摘 要

隐喻现在不仅仅被视为一种语言现象，更是一种思维方式和认识手段。作者收集了 2016 年一年间出版的《经济学人》杂志中“中国”专栏里的所有新闻标题作为研究语料，以概念隐喻理论为基础，通过定性和定量的分析方法，对其中运用的隐喻进行研究。研究发现新闻标题中的概念隐喻被主要分为三类：结构隐喻、实体隐喻和方向隐喻。这些概念隐喻对人们认知过程产生重要引导作用, 帮助读者可以更好地理解文本内容。

该研究具有理论意义和现实意义。它可向中国国内同类新闻报道提供经验， 帮助英语学习者将隐喻知识应用于英语学习中，同时让读者从社会认知角度理解隐喻及其概念系统，了解新闻语篇如何通过隐喻来传达思想观念和意识形态。

关键词：概念隐喻；新闻标题；认知；意识形态

Contents

1. Introduction… 1
2. Demonstration 3

2.1 An overview of theories of metaphor… 3

2.1.1 Conceptual metaphor theory… 3

• • • 1. The definition of conceptual metaphor… 3
      2. The working mechanism of conceptual metaphor… 4
      3. The classification of conceptual metaphor… 5
  1. The conceptual metaphor research of news headlines 7
     1. Data collection… 7
     2. Metaphor identification… 7
     3. Analysis of major metaphors 8
        1. Structural metaphor… 8
           1. Conflict metaphor… 8
           2. Journey metaphor… 9
           3. Construction metaphor… 10
           4. Religion metaphor… 12
        2. Ontological metaphor… 13
           1. Human metaphor… 13
           2. Animal metaphor… 14
           3. Entity metaphor… 15
        3. Orientational metaphor… 15
  2. Significance of conceptual metaphor 16
     1. Cognitive significance 16
     2. Sociocultural significance 18

1. Conclusion… 19

Works cited 20

Bibliography… 21

A Conceptual Metaphor Research of News Headlines

Introduction

in Column “China” of The Economist

“Metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but also in thought and act. Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature ” (Lakoff amp; Johnson, 1980:3). Now metaphor is common in language, appearing widely in different discourses and metaphor study has also become one of the fastest-growing and most significant fields of language study.

In the western world, the study on metaphor enjoys a long history with more than 2000 years, which can be further divided into three stages: rhetorical stage (Aristotle period—1930s); semantic stage (1930s—1970s); cognitive stage (1970s—now).

In rhetorical stage, there are two representative theories. The first is Comparison Theory put forward by the great Greek philosopher Aristotle in his masterpiece Rhetoric and Poetics. He pointed out that metaphor is a linguistic means which compares two objects by saying one object is another based on shared similarities of two different things. After that, Roman rhetorician Quintilian proposed Substitution Theory，which regards metaphorical usage as a rhetorical substitution of literal expression. However, by viewing metaphor as only a rhetorical device for ornamental use, their theories have their own intrinsic defects because they failed to realize that metaphor is not merely a language phenomenon but one of the cognitive features of language closely related to thinking.

In 1936, metaphor study developed into a new level called semantic stage when the famous British scholar I. A. Richard published The Philosophy of Rhetoric. In this book, Richard came up with the Interaction Theory, which means that “when we use a metaphor, we have two thoughts of different things active together and supported by a single word, or phrase, whose meaning is a result of their interaction” (94). Later, Black Max further developed this theory in his Model and Metaphors: Studies in Language and Philosophy in 1962 by explaining the working mechanism of metaphor