Journal of Literary Semantics 32 (2003), 19–34The theory of conceptual metaphor claims that poetic metaphor basically uses
the same cognitive mechanisms as everyday metaphor; and what makes poetic
metaphor look different, however, is its extension, elaboration, and combination
of those mechanisms in ways that go beyond the ordinary. In light of this claim,
the present study focuses on a particular kind of metaphor, synesthetic metaphor,
with data extracted from the novels and short stories by Mo Yan, a preeminent
contemporary Chinese novelist highly acclaimed for his innovation with language.
An analysis shows that his use of synesthetic metaphors (as well as other
metaphors and figures), although very novel and unusual, largely conforms to
some general tendencies found in both ordinary and poetic language by previous
empirical studies. The finding supports the claim that human meaning and understanding
are embodied, constrained by the kind of body we have and how it
functions.
