Conventionality and Novelty of Time Metaphor in English Poetry

George Lakoff等學者主張詩歌中的隱喻多半以習用隱喻爲基礎，但這點仍需有系統地檢視詩歌文本加以確認。本文旨在考察英詩文本以驗證習用隱喻是否果真爲英詩中時間隱喻的基礎。筆者從英詩文本語料推斷出十項時間隱喻基模之要素或特色，在英詩特定的情境中探討這十項要素之習用性與創新性，結果發現英詩中習用與創新的時間隱喻二者間的區別並非絕對的，雖然英詩語料中大多數的時間隱喻帶有習用隱喻之要素或特色，但該要素或特色通常不足以構成新創隱喻之基本原則。

關鍵字

時間隱喻；創新性；習用性；英詩

並列摘要

For cognitive linguist George Lakoff and his colleagues, most poetic metaphors are based on conventional metaphors. But this proposition has yet to be tested by a systematic survey of poetic texts. The present article aims to explore whether data from English poetry are consistent with the idea that most poetic metaphors for time are grounded in conventional ones. From the data for this study, ten schematic elements of time metaphors are extrapolated. The conventionality and novelty of these ten metaphorical elements are then discussed in their respective poetic contexts. The results show that the distinction between poetic and conventional metaphors for time is frequently blurred in English poetry and that, although most of the poems for the present study contain a time metaphor that has a feature of a conventional metaphor, that feature usually is not predominant enough to serve as the fundamental principle of the poetic metaphorization.