Metaphor Correction in Chinese: A Cognitive-pragmatic Approach

Metaphor correction refers to the linguistic phenomenon in which language users refute an inappropriate metaphor and replace it with a more suitable one. In Chinese, a common metaphor correction sentence is “X bushi M₁, (er)shi M₂” (where M represents a metaphorical expression). This paper begins by examining the formal and semantic characteristics of metaphor correction in Chinese. It then proposes a “Conceptual-pragmatic Model” that explains this phenomenon from the perspective of cognitive pragmatics, and clarifies its meaning mechanism through a case study. Finally, it explores the principles that govern this phenomenon. Metaphor correction involves alternating mappings between two source domains activated by M₁ and M₂ and the same target domain, as well as the contrastive and substitution relationships between the meaning representations (including the metaphorical sense and the derived implicatures) that are formed on this basis. The construction of meaning is constrained not only by the principles of metaphorical mapping but also by the relevance principle and the symmetry principle. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of metaphor correction in Chinese, both descriptively and explanatorily, thereby enriching our understanding of the dynamic use of metaphor in authentic discourse.