2.2 The classical theory of metaphor

There is a general consensus among the researchers in metaphor study that“any serious study of metaphor is almost obliged to start with the works of Aristotle”（Ortony 1998:3）. Aristotle's theory is generally regarded as the classical one.His discussion of the issue, principally in his two erudite works:Poetics and Rhetoric, has remained influential to this day（ibid）. For some self-evident reasons, these two monumental works have been handed down from generation to generation mainly in the form of versions of translation and commentary（Harris & Taylor 1989:20-34; Halliwell 1987; Golden & Hardison 1989; Kennedy 1991;Grube 1958）.Naturally, the corollary turns out to be that these translated versions have become the main sources of the subsequent overwhelming majority of criticisms of Aristotle's remarks on metaphor.Admittedly, the present research does not make an exception in this line.

A reading of these translated versions manifests that the central idea of Aristotle's metaphor is found in his two relatively authoritative and extraordinarily influential statements.To well understand Aristotle's main idea about metaphor, we quote them in full as follows.

“Metaphor consists in giving the thing a name that belongs to something else; the transference being either from genus to species, or from species to genus, or from species to species, or on grounds of analogy.That from genus to species is exemplified in‘Here stands my ship';for lying at anchor is the‘standing'of a particular kind of thing.That from species to genus in‘Truly ten thousand good deeds has Ulysses wrought', where‘ten thousand', which is a particular large number, is put in place of the generic‘a large number'.That from species to species in‘Drawing the life with the bronze', and in‘severing with the enduring bronze'; where the poet uses‘draw'in the sense of‘sever'and‘sever'in that of‘draw', both words meaning to‘take away'something.That from analogy is possible whenever there are four terms so related that the second is to the first as the fourth to the third; for one may then metaphorically substitute the fourth for the second or the second for the fourth.Now and then, too, they qualify the metaphor by adding on to it that to which the word it supplants is relative.Thus a cup is in relation to Dionysius what a shield is to Ares. The cup accordingly will be metaphorically described as the‘shield of Dionysius', and the shield as the‘cup of Ares'.Or to take another instance:As old age is to life, so is evening to day.One will accordingly describe evening as the‘old age of the day'—or by the Empedoclean equivalent; and old age as the‘evening'or‘sunset of life'.It may be that some of the terms thus related have no special name of their own, but for all that they will be metaphorically described in j ust the same way.Thus to cast forth seed-corn is called‘sowing'; but to cast forth its flame, as said of the sun, has no special name.This nameless act, however, stands in j ust the same relation to its object, sunlight, as sowing to the seed-corn.Hence the expression in the poem, “sowing around a god-created flame”.There is also another form of qualified metaphor. Having given the thing the alien name, one may by a negative addition deny of it one of the attributes naturally associated with its new name.An instance of this would be to call the shield not‘the cup of Ares', as in the former case, but a‘cup that holds no wine’”.

（Poetics 21 from Harris & Taylor 1989:31-32）

Clearly, Aristotle does three things in this lengthy and oftencited quotation, which offers us a general picture of his notion of metaphor.First, he defines metaphor as“giving the thing a name that belongs to something else, ”it is the“transference of a term from one thing to another.”Second, he considers that this transference is realized in four channels, namely, “from genus to species, or from species to genus, or from species to species, or on grounds of analogy.”To Aristotle, the transference can be made between different entities, i.e., things from different domains.Lastly, Aristotle throws light on the two qualifications for a metaphor to be a metaphor.According to him, a metaphor is qualified by“adding on to it that to which the word it supplants is relative”; and another form of a qualified metaphor is one that, when having been given the thing the alien name, it may, by a negative addition, be denied“one of the attributes naturally associated with its new name”.To put in Black's words, “The negation of any metaphorical statement can itself be a metaphorical statement”（Ortony 1998:34）.

In addition to the preceding frequently quoted remark, another, probably the most influential account of metaphor ever provided, is Aristotle's brief and insightful statement as follows，

“It is a great matter to observe propriety in these several modes of expression—compound words, strange （or rare）words, and so forth.But the greatest thing by far is to have a command of metaphor.This alone cannot be imparted to another; it is the mark of genius, for to make good metaphors implies an eye for resemblances.”（Poetics 22 from Cameron &Low 2001:72; Kittay 1989:2; Hu 2002:178）

In this brief statement, Aristotle emphasizes the importance of using“unusual words”with propriety for creating the best writing style.And it is in this context that he touches upon the relationship between metaphor and genius.

The two previously quoted statements give a clear and panoramic picture of Aristotle's view of metaphor, which have evoked a veritable plethora of comments and conj ectures from many, if not all, metaphor theorists.They believe that Aristotle views metaphor as primarily decorative and ornamental in nature.It is not necessary; it is just nice（Glucksberg 1989:126）.More eyecatching is the nonconstructionists' view that metaphor is unimportant, deviant, and parasitic on“normal”usage（Ortony 1998:2）.Viewed as such, metaphor is called a figure of speech, and its study is confined to literature and rhetoric.The word“metaphor”is thus defined as a novel or poetic linguistic expression where one or more words for a concept are used outside of their normal conventional meaning to express a“similar”concept （Mahon 2001:72; Yu 1998:1; Ortony 1998:202）.

The working mechanism and understanding of metaphor has never ceased to catch researchers'attention.Theoretical studies since Aristotle to the present, according to Searle, can be roughly divided into two types:the comparison view and the semantic interaction view（Martinich 1990: 413; Ortony 1998: 3）. Aristotle's Rhetoric is generally quoted as the source of the comparison view of metaphor, as well as of the view that the topic and vehicle of a metaphor may belong to the same category. Contemporary theorists share this general view and treat comparison as the basic process underlying metaphor comprehension（Glucksberg& Keysar 1998:422）.Theorists constantly voice their viewpoints of Aristotle's theory.For example, Richards claims that, in addition to the topic and the vehicle, Aristotle's notion of metaphor contains another element:the grounds.The original idea or context is the topic, the borrowed idea or notion is the vehicle and the shared element, the grounds（Ortony 1998:3）.For example, in a metaphor such as life is a lottery, life is the topic, lottery is the vehicle, and the grounds are:we don't know what the outcome will be（Charteris-Black 2000:151; see also Murphy 1996:175）.The comparison view of metaphor is often illustrated this way.When we say A is B we mean that“A is like B in certain respects”; in this view, the hearer tries to perceive something in common between two superficially different entities through establishing analogy between them.In this respect, the comparison view sees metaphor as condensed simile and interpretation as requiring identification of what the topic and vehicle have in common（ibid.）.

This sketchy coverage of Aristotle's views of metaphor will serve as a source of the counterevidence for the widespread and arbitrary belief that his notion of metaphor is purely linguistic on the one hand, and the j ustification for his cognitive consideration of metaphor on the other.Before discussing the cognitive concern of Aristotle's metaphor, let's first look at what metaphor is in cognitive linguistics, i.e., the contemporary theory of metaphor. This is necessary because the contemporary metaphor theory is widely hailed as in direct opposition to the classical theory.