《我们赖以生存的隐喻》chapter7-8读后感

wenyikk

Reader: 文心怡
Reading Time: 11-13weeks
Reading Task: Chapter10-11
Summary of the Content：
Chapter 7 (Personification)
Personification is a metaphor that attributes human characteristics (such as emotions or actions) to non-human entities, such as abstract concepts or natural phenomena (e.g., "Inflation is eating up our profits"). It is not merely a rhetorical device but a cognitive mechanism rooted in human experience, enabling us to understand abstract ideas through familiar human behaviors.
Chapter 8 (Metonymy)
Metonymy refers to using one thing to stand for another based on their interdependence (e.g., "The ham sandwich is waiting for his check" uses "ham sandwich" to refer to the customer). This relies on contiguity or causal relationships within the same conceptual domain, serving as an efficient cognitive tool in language.
Evaluation:
The chapters break free from traditional rhetorical frameworks, revealing personification and metonymy as systematic cognitive mechanisms rather than isolated linguistic phenomena. They emphasize the experiential basis of metaphors and the interplay between language and thought, providing a cross-disciplinary theoretical model for linguistics and cognitive science.
The discussion of cross-cultural metaphorical differences is insufficient (e.g., varying personifications of "time" across cultures). The connection with other cognitive theories (e.g., schema theory) is not deeply explored, and most examples rely on linguistic analysis rather than psychological or neuroscientific evidence.
Reflection：
In language learning, it is crucial to recognize metaphorical logic (e.g., the personification in "the foot of a mountain"). In cross-cultural communication, awareness of metaphorical variations (e.g., Western "destiny as a dice game" vs. Eastern "destiny as flowing water") is essential.