| Acknowledgements | 第4-5页 |
| Abstract | 第5页 |
| Typographic conventions | 第6-7页 |
| Introduction | 第7-9页 |
| Chapter 1 Historical Retrospect on the Studies of Metaphor | 第9-15页 |
| 1.1 Aristotle: Metaphor as a process of seeking similarities within differences | 第9-12页 |
| 1.2 L.A.Richard: Metaphor as a borrowing between and intercourse of thoughts | 第12-13页 |
| 1.3 M. Black: Metaphor as interaction between the Focus and the Frame | 第13-15页 |
| Chapter 2 Contemporary Studies | 第15-27页 |
| 2.1 Lakoff et al.: Metaphor as a cognitive mechanism to understand the world | 第15-19页 |
| 2.2 Sperber and Wilson: Metaphors as optimal choices in communication | 第19-20页 |
| 2.3 Psychological studies: Metaphors as new categorizations | 第20-23页 |
| 2.4 P. D. Nogales: Metaphor as reconceptualization | 第23-27页 |
| Chapter 3 An analysis of Metaphor from the Cognitive Perspective | 第27-31页 |
| 3.1 Understanding based on bodily experiences | 第27-28页 |
| 3.2 Category, prototype and metaphor | 第28-29页 |
| 3.3 Conventional metaphors that reflect the human cognitive process | 第29-31页 |
| Chapter 4 Experimental Demonstrations | 第31-38页 |
| 4.1 An analysis of the results of psychological experiments | 第31-35页 |
| 4.2 Metaphor as a way through which children construct their category systems | 第35-37页 |
| 4.3 Metaphor as a holistic perceptual product | 第37-38页 |
| Chapter 5 Metaphors in Computer Science, an Illustration | 第38-47页 |
| 5.1 Metaphor as one of the causes of polysemy in language evolvement | 第38-41页 |
| 5.2 Initiative metaphor as a facilitator to new abstract concepts | 第41-46页 |
| 5.3 Conventionalization of novel metaphors | 第46-47页 |
| Chapter 6 Universality of metaphor as a cognitive tool in different cultures | 第47-52页 |
| 6.1 Similar orientational and ontological metaphors | 第47-49页 |
| 6.2 Similar and different structural metaphors | 第49-52页 |
| Conclusion | 第52-56页 |
| References | 第56-58页 |
