摘要

人类对隐喻的研究大约已有两千多年的历史，现代的隐喻研究已经是一个多学科研究的领域范畴。尤其是20世纪80年代以来，以莱考夫和约翰逊为代表的认知论，提出了概念隐喻的命题，使隐喻发展成为“隐喻狂热”(metaphormania)。综观各种关于隐喻研究的理论可以发现，人们已经对隐喻进行了多角度和多学科的研究，并广泛用于语言学研究的各个方面。
古典主义隐喻理论认为隐喻是一种修辞手段，主要用于文学作品中，尤其强调隐喻在诗歌中的作用。然而，随着认知语言学的兴起，现代隐喻理论则认为隐喻是人生经验的结果，而且是人类对抽象概念进行推理、理解的主要机制。本文以莱考夫和约翰逊阐述的概念隐喻为理论支撑，对中国媒体中最常用的知识产权隐喻现象进行了较为系统、全面的分析，进而探讨隐喻的本质与认知功能。
本文在著名中文月刊杂志《今日科技》中选出2006年2月这一期，在其八篇语篇中收集了相当数量的知识产权隐喻的表达式，并按照它们的源域进行分类、找出其中的概念隐喻。接着本文分析了语篇中概念隐喻的隐喻表达式、源域以及隐喻对理解抽象法律概念和法律现象的作用。
本文研究发现知识产权隐喻以下结论：
(1)在汉语中，隐喻是知识产权相关语篇中理解抽象法律概念和现象的主要机制; (2)人类对知识产权的隐喻源于人体经验，包括脆弱的事物、战争、个人财产、工具、个体之间的角逐、人、资源、文化象征等。
文章研究有助于我们了解知识产权语篇中隐喻的普遍性及其作用，同时也巩固了现代隐喻理论的一些观点。本文在知识产权隐喻方面的研究发现对法律专业的学生学习、英语专业在类似领域隐喻的研究有一定的参考价值。

关键词：知识产权， 概念隐喻， 文化形态， 认知
 
ABSTRACT

Human beings have studied metaphors since more than 2,000 years ago, and modern metaphor has been a multi-disciplinary research subject. Especially since 1980s when Lakoff and Johnson raised “Conceptual Metaphor” theory, the study in this field has been developed into metaphormania. As we know, studies in metaphor have been multi-disciplinary, and metaphor has been widely applied in the pragmatics studies.
In the traditional metaphor theory, metaphor was viewed as a figure of speech and mainly used in literary works, especially in poems. However, with the rising of cognitive linguistics, the contemporary theory of metaphor emerges in which metaphor is viewed as product of life experience and a main mechanism for human being to perform abstract reasoning and comprehend abstract concepts. It is based on the contemporary cognitive view of metaphor that this thesis studies metaphor of intellectual property in Chinese media. This paper presents a comparatively thorough and systematic analysis of the most common metaphors of intellectual property in the Chinese media on the basis of the contemporary theory of metaphor studies mainly raised by Lakoff and Johnson to explore the nature and cognitive function of metaphor.
This study is done on a corpus of 8 texts about intellectual property selected from an eminent Chinese monthly magazine – Science & Technology Today of February, 2006. In this thesis, dozens of metaphorical expressions are collected and classified in accordance with their source domains. Then the thesis analyzes the metaphorical expressions, source domains and functions of conceptual metaphors in the comprehensions of abstract legal concepts and phenomena.
From the study, the author finds the following conclusions:
(1) In Chinese language, metaphor has become a major mechanism in texts of intellectual property when people try to understand them.
(2)    The metaphors that people use to explain intellectual property come from people’s life experience, including brittle objects, wars, beneficial possessions, tools, physical aggressions, human beings, resources, cultural symbols etc.
The thesis proves to be helpful in our understanding towards the ubiquitousness and functions of metaphor in the texts of intellectual property. Meanwhile, it has reinforced some views claimed by the contemporary theory of metaphor. This study could be considered as a reference for law majors and English majors who would study metaphor in relevant fields.

Key words: intellectual property, conceptual metaphor, cultural pattern, cognitive