A New Theory of Metaphor

A New Theory of Metaphor is a scholarly monograph by Nie Yan that systematically studies the phenomenon of metaphor in Chinese. It is one volume in the Rhetoric Library series and carries a preface by Wang Xijie. The book treats metaphor as a poetic mode of human expression, thought, and cognition: through a second object that is essentially different from yet similar to a first object, metaphor enables indirect and nuanced understanding of the first object, and this cognitive function is metaphor's essential property. The author argues that metaphor arises from both necessity and possibility and rests on multiple foundations—objective, psychological, cultural, and linguistic. Structurally, the book analyzes metaphor across definition, composition, foundations, logical analysis, structural classification, latent and manifest, zero degree and deviation, function, and use, examining it from three perspectives: rhetorical device, mode of thinking, and mode of cognition. It carefully distinguishes constitutive elements such as tenor, vehicle, ground of similarity, and mode of connection; differentiates metaphor's deep structure from its surface structure; discusses the latent logical principles metaphor follows; and reviews and reconstructs existing classification systems. The author also introduces rhetorical concepts such as zero degree and deviation to explore how metaphor operates between convention and variation, and addresses metaphor's concrete use in language practice. Rigorous in argument and rich in corpus, the book is a representative specialized work in the study of Chinese metaphor.