《红楼梦》中的“深”“浅”隐喻研究

A Study on the Metaphors of “Shen” (Deep) and “Qian” (Shallow) in A Dream of Red Mansions

摘要: 本文以《红楼梦》为语料，整理出“深”169条、“浅”25条有效语料，结合隐喻理论，系统考察二者从空间原型义向抽象域的投射路径，并分析其文学叙事功能。研究发现，“深”“浅”以容器意象图式为基础，向时间、浓度、社会关系、程度等域拓展隐喻义，其分布与用法既体现了汉语空间隐喻的普遍认知规律，也呈现出近代汉语的阶段性特征。在叙事层面，“深”“浅”隐喻承担着氛围营造、阶层批判、人物塑造与主旨暗示多重功能，是语言机制与文学表达的有机结合。本研究对《红楼梦》空间隐喻本体研究进行补充，拓展汉语隐喻研究视角，也为古典文本阐释、词汇教学提供参考。

Abstract: Taking A Dream of Red Mansions as the research corpus, this paper sorts out 169 valid tokens of “shen” and 25 valid tokens of “qian”. Grounded in conceptual metaphor theory, it systematically examines the mapping paths of the two words from their prototypical spatial meanings to abstract semantic domains, and analyzes their literary narrative functions. The study finds that based on the container image schema, “shen” and “qian” extend their metaphorical meanings to domains of time, density, social relations and degree. Their distribution and usage not only reflect the universal cognitive laws of Chinese spatial metaphors, but also present the phrasal linguistic features of early modern Chinese. At the narrative level, the “shen”-“qian” metaphors perform multiple functions including atmosphere construction, class criticism, character portrayal and theme implication, forming an organic integration of linguistic mechanism and literary expression. This study supplements the ontological research on spatial metaphors in A Dream of Red Mansions, broadens the research horizon of Chinese metaphor studies, and provides references for classical text interpretation and vocabulary teaching.