Abstract

Metaphor, one of the most important and pervasive semantic phenomena across languages, is the word having metaphorical meanings by means of human cognition from a central meaning or basic meaning to the other extended meanings. Metaphor as the most difficult and charming part of meaning is fundamental to the way human beings conceptualize and extend their knowledge about the world. It has been studied for long from the perspectives of rhetoric and linguistics, with its sign character untouched. Therefore, this paper aims at discussing the formation of it basing on its two static basis, similarity and iconicity, from the perspective of semiotics. Semiotics as the research methodology in social disciplines has large explanatory power. In the frame of semiotics, the formation of metaphor will be better understood.

Key words: metaphor；semiotics; similarity; iconicity

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-1

2. Literature Review-1

3. Introduction of Semiotics-2

3.1 Saussure and semiotics-2

3.2 The metaphor research towards semiotics-4

4. The Static Basis of Metaphor-5

4.1 Similarity between signs-5

4.2 The sign iconicity-6

5. Literal Meaning and Metaphorical Meaning from the Semiotic Perspective-7

5.1 Literal meaning and metaphorical meaning-7

5.2 The semiotic perspective of metaphor formation-9

6. Conclusion-10

Works Cited-11