The Semiotic Structure and Semantic Composition of English Frozen Similes

英語習用明喻之符號結構與語意合成

謝健雄(Jian-Shiung Shie)

《人文暨社會科學期刊》 3卷1期 (2007/06) Pp. 57-68

https://doi.org/10.7118/JHSS.200706.0057

摘要

明喻在傳統修辭學中自成一類辭格，而學者常將英語習用明喻歸類為一種慣用語。本文探討Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms (1998)中之所有英語習用明喻，共二百二十一例，運用符號本喻體之取徑來析論英語習用明喻之象似符號結構、語意合成性。結果獲得兩項結論。第一，英語習用明喻之象似類比結構大多有從喻體到本體之特色移用現象，這方面之重要發現是：約過半的英語習用明喻有擬物的情形，而擬人之例子極為少見。第二，英語習用明喻由於其象似符號成份之互動，展現相當高度之語意組合性，且其概念、語言成份顯示相當低度之固定性，因此把英語習用明喻歸類為一種慣用語是有問題的。

關鍵字

英語習用明喻 ； 慣用語 ； 符號結構 ； 語意合成 ； 象似本體 ； 象似喻體 ； 類比

並列摘要

In traditional rhetoric, similes form an independent category of tropes. And English frozen similes are frequently treated as a subset of idioms. This article explores English frozen similes on the basis of all the similes (221 altogether) in Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms (1998). Addressed in terms of the semiotic topic-vehicle approach are the semiotic structure of English frozen similes and their semantic compositionality. Two conclusions are drawn from this study. First, the iconic structure of English frozen similes generally involves attribution of feature(s) from the semiotic vehicle to the theme. One interesting finding in this regard is that more than half of English frozen similes attribute nonhuman features to human beings, whereas personifying similes are few and far between. Second, English frozen similes, by virtue of the interaction between the semiotic theme and vehicle, show a high degree of semantic compositionality, and their linguistic constituents display a low degree of fixedness. Thus it is questionable to subsume English frozen similes within the general category of idioms.

並列關鍵字

English frozen similes ； idioms ； semiotic structure ； semantic composition ； theme ； vehicle ； analogy

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