期刊名称：International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature
印刷版ISSN：2200-3592
电子版ISSN：2200-3452
出版年度：2012
卷号：1
期号：7
页码：40-50
DOI：10.7575/ijalel.v.1n.7p.40
出版社：Australian International Academic Centre PTY. LTD.
摘要：The paper is an attempt to investigate the underlying discoursal functions of metaphors in terms of their
contribution to the creation of discoursal coherence in literary text-type. Metaphoric expressions are not
ornamental aspects of speech. Rather they are necessary parts of language. In other words, metaphors are not
additional linguistic elements which are imposed on ordinary language. Rather metaphors are a necessary part of
language and hence they can be considered the core elements of the texts developing and elaborating the topic of
the texts. Following this line of thinking, the aim of this paper is to illustrate in which ways the metaphoric
expressions used within a text are core elements and how they contribute to the development and elaboration of
the topic of the text in literary text-type. We speculate that metaphors within a text, being core elements, are
coherently linked to each other on the one hand and to the topic of the text on the other hand. In this paper, we
want to find out how the metaphoric expressions used in the literary texts contribute to the establishment of local
coherence and enhance the unity of the text in literature text-type. In other words, we are interested to explore
how this relatedness increases the unity of the text and establishes the coherence of the whole text in this
text-type. It is of special interest to find out in which ways the contribution of metaphoric expressions to the
coherence and unity of the text produce literary effect in literature texts. For this purpose a literature text (a poem
by Andrew Marvell) has been selected as our data to be analyzed in terms of the use of metaphors within the text
and their relations to the coherence and unity of the text. Through the analysis of our data, we found out that in
literature text-type, metaphoric expressions are coherently related to each other and these coherent connections
among metaphors and their relation to the topic of the text create the literary effect in literature texts. We also
investigated the degree of metaphoric force of metaphoric elements in our analyzed text. We found out that in
literature text-type the metaphors have strong metaphoric force and this metaphoric force is created not only by
new metaphors but also by the strategic uses of some conventional metaphors.We concluded that metaphor being
a necessary and core part of a text may contribute to fulfill different functions in different texts. In the case of
literary texts, metaphors, in addition to fulfilling other functions, enhance the unity of the text and by doing so
produce literary effect of the text. Besides, on the basis of the analysis of our data, we also suggest that
appearance of metaphors in specific instances of language use is not a matter of text. Rather metaphors directly
evolve from the discourse elaboration process.
关键词：Coherence and unity; conventional metaphors; new metaphors; metaphoric force; strategic use of
metaphors
