Grammatical Metaphor in Chinese;Yang Yanning

Yang Yanning [+–]

East China Normal University

Professor, Director of Researh Center for Theoretical Linguisitics
School of Foreign Languages
East China Normal University

The book discusses the identification, categorization and deployment of Grammatical Metaphor in Chinese and compares these aspects of Grammatical Metaphor in Chinese with those in English. In addition, Grammatical Metaphor in Chinese looks not just at ideational but also at interpersonal Grammatical Metaphor with corpora consisting of both written texts and spoken discourses. This will provide a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon and set up a framework for further analysis of the interaction between two types of Grammatical Metaphor.

Chapter 1

Introduction [+–] 1-10

This chapter provides an introduction to the contents of the book and explains the theory and methods underpinning the research. 1.2 Research objectives 1.3 Research methodology 1.4 Outline of chapters

Chapter 2

Research Background [+–] 11-45

Chapter 2 reviews previous studies of GM which provide a ready vocabulary for understanding the remapping of semantics and lexicogrammar in language. The review illustrates that the relevant literature can be divided into four parts, namely exploration of the nature of GM, categorization of GM, semogenic research of GM and contextual research of GM. This survey of literature creates a theoretical background for the study and, more importantly, clarifies the main issues to be explored in the following chapters. 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Exploring the nature of GM 2.3 Categorization of GM 2.4 Semogenic research of GM 2.5 Contextual research of GM 2.6 Conclusions

Chapter 3

A framework for the functional analysis of Chinese [+–] 46-95

Chapter 3 develops a framework for the functional analysis of Chinese in order to discuss how semantic meanings are realized by lexicogrammatical categories in Chinese. The framework is set up in the theoretical background provided by SFG and previous studies of Chinese. Given that the grammatical terms originally created for English analysis are used in the framework, all the descriptive categories involved are identified by examining their functions in the semantic system of Chinese. The framework consists of the systematic descriptions of Chinese clauses in experiential, interpersonal, and textual dimensions. The descriptions in these dimensions end up with realization statements for the Transitivity, Theme, Mood systems in Chinese. The framework also includes the descriptions of grammatical categories above and below clause in Chinese. The grammatical structures of clause complex and various types of group/phrase are examined for this purpose. 3.1 Objective and approach 3.2 Analysing Chinese clause from experiential perspective 3.3 Analysing Chinese clause from textual perspective 3.4 Analysing Chinese clause from interpersonal perspective 3.5 Analysing grammatical units above and below the clause in Chinese 3.6 Summary

Chapter 4

Identification of grammatical metaphor in Chinese [+–] 96-123

Chapter 4 discusses the identification of GM in Chinese on the basis of the grammatical framework developed in Chapter 3. It first defines the motifs of GM identification by reexamining the nature of the phenomenon. Transgrammatical semantic domains are then investigated to describe how semantic units and grammatical categories are remapped in Chinese. Following this, the chapter identifies the congruent and metaphorical realizations of semantic units in ideational and interpersonal domains in Chinese. In order to facilitate the identification of GM instances in Chinese, the chapter also introduces three linguistic phenomena which are critical for the construction of metaphorical expressions in the language. 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Motifs of GM identification in Chinese 4.3 Semantic stratum in Chinese 4.4 Transgrammatical semantic domains in Chinese 4.5 Congruent and metaphorical realizations 4.6 Critical lexicogrammatical phenomena for GM identification 4.7 Summary

Chapter 5

Categorization of grammatical metaphor in Chinese [+–] 124-163

Chapter 5 is dedicated to the categorization of ideational and interpersonal GM in Chinese. The metaphorical expressions within the ideational metafunction are categorized according to the 13 types of shift from one semantic element to another. Each category of ideational GM is further specified by describing the grammatical movements involved. Interpersonal GM in Chinese is classified respectively in terms of metaphor of mood and metaphor of modality. Metaphor of mood is divided by identifying the metaphorical realizations of various speech functions of command, statement and question. Metaphor of modality is differentiated by examining the metaphorical realizations of four types of modality, namely probability, usuality, obligation and inclination in Chinese. 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Framework for categorization of GM in Chinese 5.3 Categorization of ideational GM 5.4 Categorization of interpersonal GM 5.5 Summary

Chapter 6

The use of grammatical metaphor in written Chinese [+–] 164-204

Chapter 6 discusses the distribution and deployment of ideational GM in Chinese by analysing a corpus collected from scientific textbooks. Based on the categorization of GM in Chapter 5, this chapter explores how the various categories and subcategories of ideational GM and the GM syndromes in Chinese are distributed. The discussion in this chapter shows that the distribution of ideational GM instances in Chinese is not random, but rather it is motivated by the inherent features of the language. This chapter also investigates how the deployment of GM in Chinese is affected by the context of genre and language development. 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Language material and data collection 6.3 Data treatment 6.4 Results and interpretation 6.5 Summary

Chapter 7

The use of grammatical metaphor in spoken Chinese [+–] 205-227

Chapter 7 is concerned with the use of interpersonal GM in spoken Chinese. It reveals the distribution of differet types of interpersonal GM through an analysis of a large spoken Chinese corpus. This chapter establishes a framework for the description of social factors involved in the creation of spoken Chinese discourses by making reference to register theory in SFL. Based on the framework, the chapter investigates the way Chinese speakers choose different types of interpersonal GM in their conversations with respect to the topic of a discourse and the social relations between speakers and hearers. 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Spoken language and grammatical metaphor 7.3 Corpus selection and corpus analysis 7.4 Overall distribution of interpersonal GM categories 7.5 Distribution of interpersonal GM across registers 7.6 Summary

Chapter 8

Comparison of grammatical metaphor in Chinese and English [+–] 228-259

Chapter 8 provides a comparison of ideational GM in Chinese and English and explains the GM differences concerned from the perspective of typology. This chapter first describes the typological variation between Chinese and English in terms of three variables most relevant to the lexicogrammatical realization of semantic meaning. The metaphorical expressions in the two languages are then compared to show how they differ in terms of GM structure, GM categorization and GM deployment. The differences defined are explained by attributing to the distinctions between Chinese and English in the typological variables involved. 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Typological differences between Chinese and English 8.3 Differences between English and Chinese in ideational GM 8.4 Summary

Chapter 9

Conclusions and future directions [+–] 260-268

Chapter 9 summarizes the conclusions reached in this book and gives a theoretical discussion about the application of the findings of this study. 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Conclusions

End Matter

References [+–] 269-273

This is the first comprehensive study of Grammatical Metaphor in the Chinese language. As the most important theoretical innovation of Systemic Functional Linguistics in the past three decades, Grammatical Metaphor has been extensively studied in relation to the English language. There has been very little research describing and analysing in depth the phenomenon of Grammatical Metaphor and other languages. The book discusses the identification, categorization and deployment of Grammatical Metaphor in Chinese and compares these aspects of Grammatical Metaphor in Chinese with those in English. In addition, Grammatical Metaphor in Chinese looks not just at ideational but also at interpersonal Grammatical Metaphor with corpora consisting of both written texts and spoken discourses. This will provide a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon and set up a framework for further analysis of the interaction between two types of Grammatical Metaphor.

Index [+–] 274-275

Pre-Publication Reviews

Well-written, neatly-structured and well-organized; it is sound both theoretically and methodologically; its arguments are forceful, and the description and the analysis are detailed and its findings are significant.
Professor Huang Guowen, Sun Yat-sen University, China

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Grammatical Metaphor in Chinese

Yang Yanning [+–]

East China Normal University

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Yang Yanning [+–]

East China Normal University

Table of Contents

Recent ArticleEye movements of online Chinese learners

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