Cognitive Analysis of Conceptual Metaphors in Brush Talks from Dream Brook: A Study based on Conceptual Blending Theory

Conceptual Blending Theory provides a scheme to explain the dynamic characteristics and operational picture of meaning construction of natural language. This paper employs Lakoff & Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Gilles Fauconnier & Mark Turner’s Conceptual Blending Theory as a foundation. It combines the Metaphor Identification Procedure developed by Pragglejaz Group to systematically identify and classify conceptual metaphors in the humanities section of Brush Talks from Dream Brook (420 entries). The research found that structural metaphors are relatively less common, followed by orientational metaphors, with ontological metaphors being the most frequent. Further analysis of the most representative subcategories of these three major classes of metaphors is conducted through exemplification. By dissecting the projection, alignment, and integration of concepts across four mental spaces, the research attempts to elucidate the meaning construction and conceptual integration of these conceptual metaphors.