A Corpus-based Study of the Weather Term Feng 'Wind' in Mandarin

[[abstract]]The thesis aims to investigate how expressions of the weather term, feng, are used figuratively in Mandarin Chinese. Based on data-driven analysis, we attempt to examine the uses of simile, metonymy and metaphor of feng. The data sources include a corpus data from the Chinese Word Sketch and a blog data from Search Engine Google. In total, 515 tokens of figurative uses from the corpus data and 169 instances from the online blogs are found. In the two data sources, many attributes of feng’s three different phases, including appearing, ongoing and disappearing, are extended to be used figuratively. In the collected data, we do not find pure metaphors, but metaphors deriving from its attributes, leading to metonymy-based metaphor. These metaphors account for more than a half of occurring frequency, while simile and metonymy do not have absolute ranks in frequency. The value revealed in the corpus data tends to be more negative, while it has a strong tendency toward neutral value in the blog data. Simile and metaphor are formed by the mapping from features or structures of feng in source domains onto different target domains. The typical concept conveyed by simile is INTENSITY/FASTNESS, while the typical intended meaning conveyed by metaphor is ATMOSPHERE/VOGUE/STYLE. In metonymy, PART-FOR-WHOLE metonymy and CAUSE-FOR-EFFECT metonymy are found. The typical concepts of metonymy are WEATHER and SCENERY. The boundary between metaphor and metonymy of feng is not clear-cut. Interaction types are more than those proposed by Goossens (1990). Metaphor from Metonymy, Metonymy within Metaphor and Metonymy from Metaphor from Metonymy are identified. These interaction uses, together with metonymy and metaphor are all related to metonymy, which reveals that many concepts may be extended from a more basic level, that is, metonymy. Furthermore, the differences of simile and metaphor include abstractness and the intended meanings stated or not. In the blog data, simile is used as an introductory device to bring in the novel metaphor use. The innovative figurative uses form a continuum between conventionality and creativity. These uses arise from the idiom-like expression used with literal interpretation, domain-mapping expansion, metaphorical entailments and features that are seldom highlighted. The conventional uses can be clearly explained by Conceptual Metaphor Theory, but the innovative ones are better accounted for by Blending Theory. It implies that the two theories may be complementary to explain both conventional and creative uses. It is hoped that through the observation of the two types of data, we can obtain a deeper understanding of how expressions of the weather term, feng, are used figuratively.