Abstract:

A linguistic method is offered here for the study of figures of speech owing to the change of cognitive relations. First of all, based on a sememe analysis, the three basic concepts are defined, that is, integrant character, possible character, and impossible character, and their inter-relations and representing forms are observed. All the figures of speech which are formed with the change of cognitive relations find expressions in language in order to accept an impossible character. There are four forms of accepting sememe; no/with distance, implicit/explicit, direct/indirect, and positive/negative.

Key words: figures of speech, cognitive relation, sememe analysis, impossible character