2。2 The significance of English vocabulary teaching

     As Harmer (Xiao 67) has pointed, if grammatical structure is the skeleton of the language, the vocabulary is the organs and blood and fresh of it。 Though grammatical structure is mastered, no meaning could be conveyed if the vocabulary has not been used。 Gass (Xiao 67) also supported that vocabulary played a vital role in second language learning or foreign language learning。 Learning a foreign language means learning the words of this language。 Besides, it is insisted that generalized vocabulary teaching is the whole English teaching。 To be specific, teaching vocabulary equals with teaching culture, communication, thought, study and language。 This five equations represent the main idea of vocabulary teaching in English teaching field in China at present。 (Xiao 69) Without vocabulary, students would understand no meaning of a passage, write no good of an essay, and the fundamental thing, grasp no essence of English。 To learn a language, first of all, is to learn its vocabulary。 文献综述

3。 Metaphorical Concepts 

    It is necessary for foreign language learners to understand metaphorical concepts。 Without them, we could understand very little beyond our physical experiences。 The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another。 (Lakeoff and Johnson 5) They hold the viewpoint that metaphor is not merely a matter of words。 Over the left, human thought processes are greatly metaphorical。 And it means human conceptual system is metaphorically constructed and defined。 Since metaphors exist in a person’s conceptual system, metaphors as linguistic expressions are possible。 Therefore, all the metaphors we live by can be recognized as metaphorical concept。

     The case of “TIME IS MONEY” can be shown as a metaphorical concept。

She is wasting my time。

How did your parents spend their anniversary last year?

That poor boy has invested plenty of time in his girlfriend。

I lost lots of time when I was in hospital。

We don’t have enough time to spare for that。

     As one can see, time in the culture is a ponderable merchandise, a limited source that we use to get our goals done。 Among the expressions listed, some refer to money (spend, invest), others refer specifically to limited resources (have enough, waste), and some others to precious commodities (lose)。 All of these are metaphorical concepts。

3。1 Metaphorical concepts and its classifications

In terms of the function, effect and cognitive features of metaphor, it can be pided into explicit metaphor and implicit/opaque metaphor, radical/root metaphor and derivative metaphor。 The so-called explicit metaphor is what people usually know simile。 The root metaphor is regarded as a central concept, from which the metaphors derive are called derivative metaphor。 (Dai 4) Numbers of root metaphors affect human beings’ formation of conceptual systems, cognitive ways and so on greatly, and this kind of metaphors are called as conceptual metaphors by Lakoff&Johnson。 (Lakoff and Johnson 14)。来*自~优|尔^论:文+网www.youerw.com +QQ752018766*

Then conceptual metaphor, or metaphorical concepts, as a fundamental concept in the field of study of metaphor, can be seen as three kinds (Lakoff and Johnson 14-25), that are structural metaphors, in which one concept is metaphorically structured in terms of another; orientational metaphors, cases where one does not structure one concept in terms of another but instead organizes a whole system of concepts with respect to one another and ontological metaphors, also known as entity&substance metaphors, serve various purposes and the various kinds of metaphors reflecting the kinds of purposes served。 The thing we should not ignore is that among ontological metaphors where people regard the abstract and obscure thought, feeling, event and concept as the specific and tangible entity, container metaphor, who sees everything with container, is the most typical and the most representative one。