Abstract: -Today’s cognitive scientific community widely believes that metaphor is more than a rhetorical device, it is important for people to understand something new and has the functions to organize human beings’ conceptual system and develop human cognition. With the rapid development of economy and science all the world over, people show great interest in metaphors in economic discourses. In this thesis, examples are spontaneously chosen from economic literatures, news reports and professional websites. According to a series of working mechanism and Lakoff’s classification of conceptual metaphors, the three most frequent conceptual metaphors in English economic discourses are analyzed from the perspective of cognition, and their explanation function and communication function are found and their practical significance and pedagogical significance are concluded.

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Key words:  Conceptual metaphor； economic discourse； metaphor mechanism； cognition

CONTENTS

Abstract

摘要

1.Introduction.-1

2. Literature Review.-1

  2.1 Conceptual Metaphor Theory-1

 2.1.1 Definition of Conceptual Metaphor-1

 2.1.2 Working Mechanism of Conceptual Metaphor-2

 2.1.3 Classification of Conceptual Metaphor-3

 2.1.3 Characteristics of Conceptual Metaphor-4

  2.2 Previous Studies of Conceptual Metaphors in Economic Discourses-5

3. Metaphorical Analyses of Economic Discourses.-6

  3.1 Spatial Metaphors-6

  3.2 War Metaphors-7

  3.3 “Human Being” Metaphors.-9

4. Conclusion-12

  4.1 Functions of Cognitive Metaphors in Economic Discourses-12

  4.2 significances of Cognitive Metaphors in Economic Discourses-13

Bibliography-14

Acknowledgements-15