2。 Literature Review

Metaphor is for most people a device of the poetic imagination and the rhetorical flourish——a matter of extraordinary rather than ordinary language。 However, the fact is that metaphor is pervasive in everyday life。 Metaphor has been a major concern among many scholars, and its history can be traced back to Aristotle and Confucius。 Different definitions to metaphor have been given by linguists, philosophers, logicians, and cognitive scientists。 In rhetoricians’ opinion, metaphor is a figure of speech and a means of ornament for language; in logicians’ words, metaphor is a categorical misplacement。 As far as linguistics is concerned, in An Encyclopedia of Linguistics, “metaphor, belongs to one type of figure of speech, and in metaphor, figurative words, such as ‘is’, ‘become’ etc。 are often used to connect tenor and vehicle”。 

Since metaphor plays an important role in the process of polysemization, we can define polysemy as a process, when the ordinary word in the scource domain cannot find its normal counterpart in the target domain through mapping。 In this way, an inpidual word or phrase can be used to express two or more different meanings。 

However, how do the two or more meanings relate or have connections, people have been studying for long from the perspectives of rhetoric and linguistics, with its sign character untouched。 Therefore, this paper aims at discussing how metaphor comes into being with the static basis of similarity and iconicity and how their meanings are extended based on the theory of semiotics, which will promote the cross of semiotics and linguistic。文献综述

3。 Introduction of Semiotics

Semiotics is the study of meaning-making, the study of sign processes and meaningful communication。 This includes the study of signs and sign processes (semiosis), indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication。 Semiotics is closely related to the field of linguistics, which, for its part, studies the structure and meaning of language more specifically。 The semiotic tradition explores the study of signs and symbols as a significant part of communications。

The importance of signs and signification has been recognized throughout much of the history of philosophy, and in psychology as well。 Plato and Aristotle both explored the relationship between signs and the world, and Augustine considered the nature of the sign within a conventional system。 These theories have had a lasting effect on Western philosophy, especially throughout the scholastic philosophy。 The general study of signs that began in Latin with Augustine culminated in Latin with Tractatus de Signis of John Poinsot in 1632, and then began anew in late modernity with the attempt to draw up a "new list of categories" in 1867 by Charles Sanders Peirce。 

3。1 Saussure and semiotics

Saussure is the "father" of modern linguistics, whose remarkable contribution has been followed by all kinds of different linguistic schools。 Instead of following the trends towards historical linguistics, he put forward that the real research object should be the language with collective psychological traits and social essence。 His series of binary opposites has become the classic paradigm, such as langue and parole, diachronic and synchronic, signifier and signified, etc。 On the basis of that, Saussure obtained the concept that language is a semiotic system, that is to say, language is a hierarchical symbol system, multidimensional relationship system and a pure value system。 Systematic perspective embodies Saussure’s structural thought and has made a profound and extensive influence on the various structural linguistic scholars。 However, Saussure didn’t stop at the pure linguistic category。 He studied deeply and pointed out that “language is a kind of concept of sign system” and “the study of language is mainly about the problem of semiotics”。 Before the existence of semiotics, Saussure had elucidated the relationship between sign and language。 Later, the development of the two has confirmed Saussure’s foresight。 It turned out that all the problems are fundamentally language-related。 The linguistic transition of 20 century’s western philosophy exactly declared that only when solving the bottleneck of language, can the development of various disciplines make a great progress in the future。 In this sense, the combination between linguistics and semiotics is Saussure’s unfilled aspiration。 To be delighted, one hundred years later after the death of Saussure, linguistic semiotics has become an independent subject with the unremitting efforts of numerous scholars。来,自,优.尔:论;文*网www.youerw.com +QQ752018766-