A 3D Model for Metaphor in Discourse by Professor Gerard Steen
This is a translation of a Chinese article on a lecture by Gerard Steen
Source: The School of Foreign Languages at South China University of Technology
Date: March the 23rd, 2015
On the afternoon of March the 19th, Professor Gerard Steen, the internationally renowned expert in stylistics from the University of Amsterdam, gave a wonderful lecture on A 3D Model for Metaphor in Discourse in the School of Foreign Languages at South China University of Technology. The staff, including Prof. Wu Jianguo, Prof. Li Yingyuan, Associate Prof. Deng Renhua, and all the postgraduates took part in the lecture. It was chaired by Prof. Qian Shuneng, the vice president of The Translators Association of Guangdong Province, and Dean of the School of Foreign Languages.
Professor Gerard Steen first introduced the concept of metaphor and the Metaphor Corpus founded by his team in the past ten years. His detailed and comprehensive illustration helped all the audience familiar with the history of metaphor studies, that is, the 3D Model for Metaphor.
Then, Professor Gerard Steen explained to the audience the differences of the metaphors between the Chinese and English versions of the sunset by Zheng Xiaoqiong (a famous poet, born in Sichuan, China, in 1980), for their deeper understanding of metaphors. His humor and ingenuity for cultural integration attracted all the teachers and students into the world of metaphors. Meanwhile, Professor Gerard Steen presented the different functions of the texts with and without metaphors and pointed out the prospects of the research. Finally, Professor Gerard Steen claimed that he was open for discussion on any issue and he wanted to share ideas with others.
Gerard Steen, Professor of Speech Communication, Argumentation and Rhetoric at the Department of Dutch at the University of Amsterdam, the founding director of the Metaphor Lab Amsterdam, an expertise centre for interdisciplinary metaphor studies across the humanities and the cognitive and social sciences. His main research interest is metaphor in discourse.
Written by Gao Yu and Li Yudan
Picture 1: Qian Shuneng, Dean of the School of Foreign Languages
Picture 2: Professor Gerard Steen
Picture 3: Xu Ying, one member of the staff
Picture 4: the audience