The Role of Metaphor in Shaping Meaning: A Cognitive Linguistic Analysis of English Literary Texts
Keywords:
Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Cognitive linguisticsAbstract
Cognitive linguistics posits that metaphors extend far beyond ornamental rhetoric, functioning as foundational mechanisms of human cognition. This study examines the structural capacity of conceptual metaphors in constructing semantic depth within English literary discourse. By analyzing a curated corpus of late 19th and 20th-century English prose, the research maps source-to-target domain interactions to evaluate how abstract concepts materialize through concrete linguistic imagery. Employing Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) as the primary analytical framework, the investigation quantifies the frequency and conceptual density of ontological, structural, and orientational metaphors. The corpus yielded 340 distinct metaphorical expressions across 50 literary excerpts. The findings indicate that structural metaphors account for the highest semantic resonance, driving 62% of the abstract thematic conceptualization in the analyzed texts. Authors systematically utilize cognitive mapping to manipulate reader perception. Ultimately, the paper demonstrates that the metaphor serves as an indispensable cognitive tool, actively structuring the underlying architecture of literary meaning.
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