The Functions of Metaphor in Mandarin Pop Song Lyrics

國立中山大學外國語文學系碩士論文

Department of Foreign Language and Literature

National Sun-Yat-sen University

Master Thesis

從偶像劇主題曲探討中文流行歌曲的歌詞隱喻之功能

The functions of metaphor in Mandarin pop song lyrics:

A study of idol drama theme songs

研究生：徐以昕

Yi-Hsin Hsu

指導教授：曾銘裕博士

Dr. Ming-Yu Tseng

中華民國 105 年 1 月

January 2016

Acknowledgements For me, it is unbelievable that this task officially have been done. However, this thesis could not have been completed without all the supports and encouragements from many people. I would like to show my greatest thankfulness here.

First, I want to express my special gratitude to Prof. Tseng Ming-yu. As my advisor, his patience and guidance always leads me, and help me keep going on this tough road. Besides, the insightful perspectives and comments he gave me did help me a lot when I was stuck. It is my pleasure to have an advisor like him. Also, I would like to thank my committee members of the oral defense, Prof. Shie Jian-Shiung and

Assistant prof. Wang Hung-Chun. They offered me precious suggestions that I have not thought before. Those comments enriched this thesis.

Next, I am grateful to my dearest friends. They always stand by my side when I feel frustrated. To Wan-Chan and Han-Yu, I am pleased to have both of you as my roommates in Kaohsiung. Thanks for the things you have done for me during these years. For Ivy, Freida, Chloe, Min, Janice, Ruby, and Peter, I am glad you guys not only comforted me but gave me moderate suggestions when I was in a dilemma.

Last, I would like to express my deepest thankfulness to my parents. They respect me and support what I want to do. To thank their love, I sincerely dedicated this thesis to them.

ii 摘要

隱喻為日常生活中廣泛出現之語言現象，不只單單出現在報紙或雜誌之標題

與內文，也是流行歌曲歌詞中常見的用法。過去關於流行歌詞中的隱喻現象，多

為按年代來探討加以分門別類，較少著重在隱喻之功能。本研究宗旨著重在偶像

劇主題曲（片頭、片尾曲），藉此探討流行歌曲歌詞隱喻之功能。本研究首先藉

由 Lakoff-Johnson 概念譬喻理論（Conceptual Metaphor Theory）與

Fauconnier-Turner 融合理論（Blending Theory）針對三立電視台的五部電視劇的

主題曲中所含的隱喻詳加闡述。在所有隱喻解釋與分析完成後，再加入 Tseng

（2010）所提出的「執行潛在功能的能力（performative potential）」概念探究隱

喻的功能以及主題曲與偶像劇之關聯。「執行潛在功能的能力」說明了隱喻本身

包含了潛在的言語能力，同時兼顧了人際功能（interpersonal）、概念功能

（ideational）、和語篇功能（textual）。透過「執行潛在功能的能力」的概念，對

本研究在解析戲劇主題曲歌詞上提供較為全面的理解。

研究結果顯示，隱喻在歌詞中扮演了重要的腳色。而隱喻在片頭曲與片尾曲

的功能也有所不同。本研究發現，隱喻在不同的主題中（人生、愛情、友誼）都

大量的被運用。在愛情隱喻的部分，本文也發現許多有別於以往的特殊概念隱

喻，如「愛情是犯罪行為」。在隱喻的功能上，片頭曲所包含之隱喻大多呈現了

正向、快樂的情感與人生或愛情的觀點。然而，部分片尾曲之隱喻相較下描述了

較為悲傷的情感畫面或失敗的愛情關係；此差異和歌曲出現之時間點有所相關。

此外，研究結果也間接證實了隱喻並非只具有單一功能，而是多重功能，更會隨

著使用的場合而改變。片尾曲雖含有悲傷隱喻，卻也能藉此帶給觀眾更多期待感

與懸疑效果。最後，此研究也發現，透過主題歌中的隱喻，一首歌能巧妙的與戲

劇劇情產生連結作用，致使聽者（觀眾）更能產生共鳴點。透過上述研究成果，

本文對隱喻在戲劇主題曲上的功能提共了初步的了解。

關鍵字：隱喻、隱喻之功能、歌詞、語言使用、流行歌曲、偶像劇

iii

Abstract

Metaphor is widely used in daily conversations, political debates, newspaper titles, literary works, advertisements and pop song lyrics. However, little research is known in regard to the force behind metaphor in lyrics. In the past, most studies on metaphors in pop song lyrics focused on discussing how metaphors have been used in different times, and categorizing them in terms of various conceptual metaphors. By investigating metaphors in ten Mandarin pop songs which are also Taiwanese idol drama theme songs on SET cable TV, this thesis analyzes the functions of metaphors in them. The methods of analysis draw on several theoretical frameworks. First, to elucidate metaphors in every theme song, both Conceptual Metaphor Theory proposed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980, 1993) and Blending theory developed by

Fauconnier and Turner (1994, 2002) were adopted. Such approaches are aimed at revealing mappings activated by metaphors. Then, to understand the functions of metaphor, we used the notion of performative potential (Tseng, 2010) to analyze the pragmatic force of metaphors. This notion suggests that metaphors potentially comprise verbal energy and can serve various functions. Besides, the concept of performative potential strengthens the interpersonal function of language, and yet the ideational and textual functions are included.

Based on the analysis, we found metaphors play a significant role in lyrics, and there is a discrepancy about metaphorical functions between opening and ending theme songs. This study shows that metaphors about life, love, and friendships are widely used in idol drama theme songs and that often more than one metaphor is used in a theme song. Besides, about love metaphors, innovative conceptual metaphors which have not been discussed before are applied in the theme songs (e.g. LOVE IS A

CRIMINAL ACT). As regards functions of metaphor, the opening theme songs show a happy atmosphere and positive emotion. Nevertheless, some of the ending theme iv songs use metaphors to depict respectively sad scenes in failed love relationships.

Moreover, we prove that the function of metaphor is not fixed. Although metaphors in ending theme songs involve some sad meanings, metaphors serve to add suspense in the lyrics. The function depends on whether a song is played prior to an episode begins or at the end of it. The suspense created by metaphors may make audiences look forward to seeing the next episode. Finally, the study showed that metaphors in theme songs make good connections with drama plots. This cultivates the intimacy between the song and its listeners. By and large, this study aims to offer a better understanding of the functions which metaphors serve in pop songs, especially in drama theme songs.

Key words: metaphor, function of metaphor, language use, pop song, lyrics, idol drama

Table of Contents 論文審定書...... i Acknowledgement...... ii 摘要...... iii Abstract ...... iv List of Tables ...... ix List of Figures ...... x Chapter 1 Introduction ...... 1 1.1 Background ...... 1 1.2 Motivation ...... 2 1.3 Aims ...... 3 1.4 Organization of the thesis ...... 4 Chapter 2 Literature Review ...... 6 2.1 The definition of popular music and its features ...... 6 2.2 Previous studies on metaphor in pop song lyrics ...... 9 2.2.1 Studies on metaphor in pop song lyrics in China ...... 10 2.2.2 Studies on metaphor in pop song lyrics in Taiwan ...... 12 2.3 Summary ...... 14 Chapter 3 Theoretical Framework and Research Data ...... 16 3.1 Functions of metaphor ...... 16 3.1.1 Expressing emotional attitudes ...... 17 3.1.2 Decoration, disguise, and hyperbole ...... 18 3.1.3 Cultivating intimacy...... 19 3.2 Perfomative potential ...... 20 3.3 Overview of two adopted theories: conceptual metaphor theory and blending theory ...... 25 3.3.1 Conceptual metaphor theory ...... 25 3.3.2 Event structure metaphor ...... 29 3.3.3 Ontological metaphor...... 32 3.3.4 Blending theory ...... 34 3.3.5 The rationale of using conceptual metaphor theory and blending theory ...... 38 3.4 Research data ...... 38 3.4.1 Data collection and background...... 39 Chapter 4 Data Analysis and Discussion ...... 43 4.1 Metaphors in opening theme songs...... 43 4.1.1 Opening theme song of Love, Now—“Let’s Run Together” ...... 43 4.1.2 Opening theme song of Love Me or Leave Me—“Only for you” ...... 47

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4.1.3 Opening theme song of Lady Maid Maid—“Trapped by feeling” ..... 51 4.1.4 Opening theme song of King Flower—“Because you are here” ...... 56 4.1.5 Opening Theme Song of A hint of you—“A missing smell” ...... 59 4.1.6 Summary: the performative potential and the functions of metaphors in opening theme songs ...... 63 4.2 Metaphors in ending theme songs...... 66 4.2.1 Ending theme song of Love, Now—“A temporary boyfriend” ...... 66 4.2.2 Ending theme song of Love me or leave me—“Happiness is enough” ...... 71 4.2.3 Ending theme song of Lady Maid Maid—“Children in the heart” ..... 74 4.2.4 Ending theme song of King flower—“Women who are like girls” ..... 77 4.2.5 Ending theme song of A hint of you—“Not be brave” ...... 81 4.2.6 Summary of the perfomative potential and the functions of metaphors in ending theme songs ...... 85 4.3 Further discussions...... 87 4.3.1 Performative potential served by the metaphors ...... 88 4.3.2 Performative potential afforded by the playing time of the song ...... 92 Chapter 5 Conclusion ...... 94 5.1 Summary and implications ...... 94 5.2 Limitations and suggestions for further studies ...... 98 References ...... 99 Appendix: The complete lyrics of ten idol drama theme songs ...... 105

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List of Tables Table 3.1 Mappings of LOVE IS A JOURNEY ...... 28 Table 3.2 The metaphorical difficulties and examples ...... 31 Table 3.3 An overview of the used dramas and theme songs ...... 42 Table 4.1 Mappings of LIFE IS A JOURNEY ...... 45 Table 4.2 Mappings of LOVE IS A JOURNEY ...... 49 Table 4.3 Mappings of LOVE IS A CRIMINAL ACT ...... 52 Table 4.4 Mappings of MIND STATUS IS A COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY, MIND IS A CONTAINER, and AN IDEAS IS AN OBJECT ...... 58 Table 4.5 Mappings of the metaphors of LOVE IS FOOD and TIME PASSING IS MOTION OF OBJECT ...... 62 Table 4.6 Performative potential in the opening theme songs ...... 65 Table 4.7 Mappings of LOVE IS BASKETBALL GAME ...... 67 Table 4.8 Mapping of TIME IS A CONTAINER ...... 70 Table 4.9 Mappings of LOVE IS A JOURNEY and LOVE IS BUSINESS TRANSACTION ...... 73 Table 4.10 Mappings of STORM IS HARD TIMES and SUNSHINE IS OPTIMIS ...... 76 Table 4.11 Mappings of LIFE IS A FLYING JOURNEY ...... 80 Table 4.12 Mappings of LOVE IS AN ELECTRONIC PRODUCT, LOVE IS A PLAY, and LOVE IS A DEAM ...... 83 Table 4.13 Performative potential in the ending theme songs ...... 85

List of Figures Figure 3.1 Mappings of two domains in Event Structure Metaphor (Adopted from Lakoff 1993: 222-223) ...... 31 Figure 3.2 Basic Diagram of Blending Theory (based on Fauconnier and Turner, 1998) ...... 36 Figure 4.1 A temporary boyfriend as a rebound ...... 69

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Background In our daily life, music is indispensable for many people, and when we listen to songlyrics or read them carefully, metaphor is commonly found in pop song lyrics.

Song lyrics, which are not only one part of music but are basically one type of discourse, can be taken as one kind of literary form. To listeners, metaphors in a song may be merely a tool for aesthetics; nevertheless, the frequency of metaphors appearing in pop songs makes us believe there are some other reasons for song writers to apply metaphor in pop songs.

According to Lakoff (1993), metaphor is a major way by which people comprehend abstract ideas and illustrates abstract reasoning. Namely, this is a mechanism of thinking and action. Besides, metaphor is widely used in daily conversations, political debates, newspaper titles, literary works, and commercial advertisements. That is to say, people usually think and act by metaphorical thinking.

One way to find out how we think and experience is by scrutinizing metaphorical language (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003).

Song writers use metaphor to do many things, such as illustrating ideas, representing experiences or expressing emotions simultaneously. The key point of a successful song depends on whether it can strike a chord with listeners or not. To elaborate on the issue, lyrics play an important role. Furthermore, pop music and social culture indeed interact with each other. The change of socioeconomic factors brings different types of popular music (Wen, 1994). Songs can be an epitome of our society. From this perspective, lyrics become a topic worthy of note.

1.2 Motivation

Pop music not only transmits information and entertains the masses but importantly keeps our cultural values and ideologies as well (Shaw & Su 1999, 2002).

As Shaw and Su (2002) state, due to the fact that pop music represents a mass culture, in the west, scholars regard pop music as a social phenomenon and start to investigate it from the 1940s. However, in Taiwan, the issue of pop music did not get much attention until the 1990s (Chao 1990; Liao 1991; Shaw & Su 1999; Tseng 1998; Yu

1995;). To investigate the deep meanings behind the lyrics, metaphor is a useful tool.

Metaphor is related to human’s mental operation. By comprehending metaphor, we can understand the complicated thoughts and processes of human minds (Su, 2005).

Even though pop music has become a research topic, the deep meaning behind the lyrics was not investigated in western or eastern countries. Peatman (1944) finds that songs which were popular in American showed highly homogeneity. In his data, all 90 songs are related to the topic: love. Horton (1957) analyzes more than two hundred pop songs that are mentioned in music magazines and concludes that their topics of the lyrics are about love as well. In both of their studies, however, the researches are not directly related to metaphor. In the east, for example, in Taiwan,

Liao (1991) studies the meaning of pop song lyrics. She focuses on two specific singers’ songs. She founds that the song writers try to show their dissatisfaction with the government at that time. Tseng (1997) discusses the underlying values in

Mandarin and Taiwanese pop songs. Her research data are across six decades from

1940-1990. Although the information of Tseng’s (1997) study is more abundant than that of Liao’s (1991), and the relationship between music and society is interpreted, the role of metaphor in lyrics is ignored.

Recently, metaphor in song lyrics has caught much attention. In regard to metaphor, there are some studies in relation to Mandarin and Taiwanese pop songs 2

(Chang 2008; Wang 2010; Lai 2011; Yu 2012). Chang (2008) studies metaphor in the lyrics of love songs in a diachronic way, between 1990 and 2008. She finds that food metaphor has been used widely in the lyrics of love songs. Besides, this usage reflects

Taiwanese cultural value that bread is the staff of life. Her analysis results have shown that metaphor is one of the most important ways to uncover human thoughts and cultural traits. A similar diachronic study has been done by Lai (2011). She also researches into love song lyrics, but her data are from Taiwanese songs between 1980 and 2010. In Yu’s (2012) account, she chose English pop songs and focused on the emotional metaphor in the lyrics. In terms of Wang’s (2010) study, he tries to explain the abstract concept which is elucidated by Mandarin pop songs, and constructs a

Metaphor Network Model to help readers understand the cognitive process of love in pop song lyrics.

Metaphor in pop song lyrics has been discussed in some studies and most of the studies only categorize metaphors in pop songs (Chao 1990, Chang 2008, Lai 2011,

Yu 2012), but little is known in regard to the force behind metaphor in lyrics. Due to personal interest in pop songs, especially drama theme songs, and the effect of metaphor in them, this study investigates the functions of metaphors in the theme songs of drama. This paper attempts to investigate metaphors in drama theme songs and finds the functions of metaphors in opening and ending theme songs respectively.

Moreover, this study also tries to explain the relationship between metaphor and the current theme songs in our data.

1.3 Aims

The present research will analyze metaphors in theme song lyrics and discuss the metaphorical functions which have been yet unexplored in previous studies. Different from previous metaphor studies on pop songs, the present study investigates drama 3 theme songs and attempts to answer the following research questions.

(1) What kinds of metaphors are used in drama theme songs? Is there any similar

feature among the metaphors in opening theme songs and ending theme songs?

(2) Since metaphor serves various functions in theme songs, are these functions

fulfilled by metaphor or are these functions afforded by the playing time (i.e.

beginning or ending of a drama episode) of the songs only?

(3) What is the relationship between a specific song’s lyrics and a drama that can

make the song become a theme song?

In regard to the first question, the first step before we analyze the functions of metaphors in the drama theme song lyrics, we will elucidate metaphors in every theme song. For the second research question, after the meanings behind the metaphors are explained, the metaphorical functions of opening theme songs and ending theme songs will be further discussed respectively. In this way, we can see if there any similarity or discrepancy among all metaphorical functions in the two types of theme songs. Besides, a theme song is played in two occasions of a drama (e.g. opening or ending), it is vital for us to see whether the playing time of the song will make the metaphorical function different or not. With regard to the third question, although playing a theme song before and after an episode is a convention, we suppose that the song which is selected plays a certain role of its existence. This thesis tries to find the answers through our analysis and discussion to the research questions

(1) and (2). In sum, by linking the three research questions together, the results will show the functions of metaphor in theme songs and briefly explain the relation between theme songs and dramas in the end of the present study.

1.4 Organization of the thesis The present thesis covers five chapters. Chapter Two reviews previous studies on

4 pop songs, not only Mandarin songs but also those of other languages included.

Besides, studies on metaphors in song lyrics will be reviewed in this chapter as well.

Chapter Three introduces adopted theoretical frameworks. Regarding the power of metaphor, functions of metaphor (Goatly, 2011) and the notion of performative potential (Tseng, 2010) are essential when we analyze the force of metaphors.

Moreover, the other two models, Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Blending Theory, as the basic foundation of analyzing metaphor, are included in this chapter. In addition, this chapter will explain our research data, including data collection and data background. Chapter Four analyzes the metaphors and their performative potentials in theme song lyrics in order to respond to the raised questions. Finally, Chapter five will draw a conclusion and point out possible implications of the study and suggest for future studies.

Chapter 2 Literature Review

Since our data are all pop song lyrics, in this chapter, we will introduce what is popular music and review some previous discussions on this topic. In Section 2.1, first, we give the definition of popular music, and the characteristics of lyrics will be pointed out. Before we analyze our data, it is believed that explaining the unique features of song lyrics is essential. In Section 2.2, we review some studies on song lyrics which are related to Chinese songs, Taiwanese songs and even English songs.

Section 2.3 provides a summary of previous studies.

2.1 The definition of popular music and its features

Based on the New Standard Encyclopedia, popular music (pop music) is a kind of song or dancing music which is welcomed by the masses. Indeed, popular song

(pop song) is merely one branch of popular music; however, since “song” is the form most frequently used, when people mention pop music, it equals pop songs now. Most people regarded pop music as a genre opposite to music that has been studied in academia (Su, 2005). Zheng (1992:1-2) defines that pop music is produced by industrial process and consumed; this is a type of popularized music presented through mass media. Tseng (1998:47) agrees with Zheng’s point and add that “so long as any folk music has been played, sung or published in broadcasts, television or movie then it can be counted as pop music”. In short, even though there is no a specific form and clear definition of pop music, it can refer to any type of music that is popular in a period of time.

For many people, there is no value in pop music and pop songs. But, from a sociological point of view, Tseng (1998) believes that there must be some advantages for songs to become popular. She states that songs can influence people and even entice them to attend the same activity. For example, people are willing to get together 6 for their favorite idol—Andy Liu (De Hua, Liu) in 1990s, and the government even tries to invite Hong Kong Four Heavenly Kings (四大天王) to the presidential inauguration day because of their charisma (Tseng, 1998:48). As Cao (2008) points out, “popularity” is built when people share some kind of representative thoughts.

Besides, pop songs will change as time goes by. Hence, scholars consider this phenomenon as a kind of social culture and try to discover transitions of society by investigating pop songs. It is also one of the reasons why pop songs are worth investigating.

Through previous studies, some important features of pop song lyrics have been revealed. Chang (2008: 7) lists three qualities of pop song lyrics. First, pop song lyrics are a kind of language between poetry and daily communication. Second, the topic of pop song lyrics are highly related to people’s life and most of them are about “love”.

Moreover, pop song lyrics are reflections of specific times. They reflect contemporary culture. They are mirrors of our society which can show people’s value.

Yao (1999) conducted a study which focuses on the language of Chinese pop song lyrics. She states that emotion is always the core of a pop song. Pop songs transmit the emotion by telling a story or an experience in a straightforward or a flat style. For example, in Chinese New Year celebration party, the singer sings chou dian shi jian, zhao dian kong xian, dai shang hai zi hui jia kan kan (抽點時間/找點空閒/

帶上孩子回家看看, ‘find some time and take grandchildren to go back often’, p.43).

There is no special rhetorical skill in the lyric. People can strike a chord with these easy words, and understand the experience described in the song. It may be the easiest way for the general public to get the idea in songs. However, sometimes love or emotion can be abstract. To represent abstract emotions, writers use different rhetorical strategies, and metaphor is the most common way. One of the examples she gave is cited below: 7

人生好像一杯濃濃的酒，有的說它甜美，有的說它苦澀。－【秋潮】1

Life is a cup of strong wine. Someone thinks it is sweet; someone thinks it is bitter. －[Tide in the Autumn]

She notes that people’s feelings of life are different to each other but through “the taste of wine” listeners can figure out two attitudes of life. Moreover, it is common in lyrics that people put their emotions on the scenery they have seen as the line “sea is laughing” (1999:44). In fact, sea cannot laugh but people can. Also, Yao indicated that

“extraordinary collocation” appears in pop song lyrics. In lyrics, some inert nouns are collocated with emotional adjectives. She gives two lyrics as examples: 「無情的雨」，輕輕把我打醒。－【無情的雨，無情的你】 “Merciless rain” wakes me up slightly. －[Merciless rain, merciless you]

我們倆的愛情就像「熱情的沙漠」。－【熱情的沙漠】 Our love is like the “passionate desert”. －[Passionate desert] In her viewpoint, this kind of language is imaginative and novel to listeners and may be one of the reasons for songs to become popular.

Nevertheless, not every study regards “extraordinary collocation” as a positive feature in pop song lyrics. Chang (2006) pointed out some existing problems about language use in pop song lyrics and one of them is “extraordinary collocation”. She considers it as a grammatical error. For contemporary lyricists, they aim to achieve aesthetic style and show creativity in their lyrics, rather than paying much attention on

1 As the pronunciation will not influence our data analysis and we focus on “meaning” in our study, we will not give pin yin （拼音） word by word in the song we cite. Instead, we will only translate the meaning of song lyric in English. 8 the general rule of language. She criticizes this phenomenon by saying that lyrics are one kind of language expressing forms; there should be no exceptions. Furthermore, this incorrect use will lower the class of lyrics, and even cause bad impact on the way we use languages.

In the above-mentioned reviews, it is noted that pop song lyrics have their own peculiarities. Because lyricists want to attract masses, they try various styles in writing and metaphor is one of their choices. Moreover, as for songs, we usually

“listen” to them not “read” them; lyricists’ language choices will depend on how easy listeners can understand the ideas and the meanings. Since pop songs are innovative and change in different periods, it becomes a research topic. Section 2.2 will focus on studies on metaphor in pop song lyrics, which is related to my main concern in the present thesis.

2.2 Previous studies on metaphor in pop song lyrics

In the Western context, Peatman (1944) and Horton (1957) have studied popular songs in the past generations. The former focuses on popular music in radio. Peatman

(1944) finds all the pop songs deal with love and categorizes them into three types: happy in love ballads, frustrated in love songs, and novelty songs with sex interest.

Horton (1957) investigates the dialogues mainly concerned with courtship in lyrics.

Although they both study pop song lyrics, their study are not from metaphorical perspectives. In recent years, metaphorical use in the psychotherapy area received scholars’ attention (Tay, 2010, Triggs, Lafferty, Brown, and Tolley, 2011). Still, very few studies use lyrics as their data or their studies have not addressed language use of song lyrics. By virtue of this reason, we will pay particular attention to studies on metaphor in lyrics written in English, Chinese, and Taiwanese.

2.2.1 Studies on metaphor in pop song lyrics in China

Cao (2008) discusses love metaphors in the latest pop songs in China based on the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT). In CMT, conceptual metaphors are written in capital letters, so when we point out her results we will follow this principle. She selects nearly two hundred pop songs which are in the pop chart of gou gou search

（狗狗搜索）to examine the features of love metaphors in lyrics and to further investigate people’s viewpoints of love. In her analysis, she classifies love in seven different conceptual metaphors: LOVE IS PEOPLE, LOVE IS A SUNNY DAY,

LOVE IS A CONTAINER, LOVE IS TASTE/COLOR, LOVE IS WINE, LOVE IS

POISON, and LOVE IS POWER. She claims that the result is contradicted to Sun’s

(2006) study. In Sun’s (2006) study, the results show that people are influenced by our agricultural society. Hence, agriculture-related love metaphors appear in our pop song lyrics, like LOVE IS SILK. However, there is not any metaphorical line which can correspond to LOVE IS SILK or any metaphor related to agriculture in Cao’s (2008) finding. According to Cao’s (2008) conclusion, people’s viewpoints of love have changed. In the past, people emphasized the concept of “pairs” in love, so they compared love with “mandarin ducks” (p.59). But, she finds that people advocate freedom even when they are in love with others now. For example, the line “our love is at ease like birds” (p.59) indicates that even though we love each other, our love will not bind each other. Also, the line “wolves love sheep” presents that lovers do not care about the ending of their relationship but merely care about what they own now.

Last but not least, it is noted that rather than a happy ending, love metaphors describe the sad phenomenon “breaking up” in lyrics, such as “true love is like fallen leaves” and “love is like a kite without a string”. Based on the results of Cao’s (2008) study, metaphors of love can be very diverse on the same topic. The variety of metaphor makes it a rich research source. 10

Chang (2010) compares the metaphors in both English and Chinese love songs.

She analyzes metaphors in both English and Chinese love songs in her study. First, she investigates the similarity of metaphor in English and Chinese love songs. As she points out, there are six kinds of metaphor appearing in both English and Chinese love songs: LOVE IS A JOURNEY, LOVE IS WAR, LOVE IS A PLANT, LOVE IS FIRE,

LOVE IS FLUID IN A CONTAINER, and LOVE IS SUGAR. She further explains that even in different cultures, people use the same way to express the idea of “love” due to the fact that people share the same feelings of love. The similar metaphors in western and eastern countries prove that thoughts and language expressions have a convergence to some degree. On the other hand, she notes that due to potential discrepancy in western and eastern religions, cultures and societies, some specific metaphors are only shown in Chinese love songs. Love is usually compared with social animals (e.g. zhi xian yuan yang bu xian xian, en en ai ai dao yong yuan, 只羨

鴛鴦不羨仙/恩恩愛愛到永遠, ‘do not jealous the deity but wan to love each other forever like mandarin ducks’), moon (e.g. ni wen wo ai ni you duo shen, yue liang dai biao wo de xin, 你問我愛你有多深/月亮代表我的心, ‘you ask me how deep I love you, the moon can represent my heart’), agricultural products (e.g. qing si bi liu si zhang, ren er bi tao hua geng yan, 情絲比柳絲長/人而比桃花更豔, ‘love is longer than the branch of a willow, a person’s looking is more beautiful than a peach’), and serendipity (e.g. you yuan qian li lai xiang hui, wu yuan dui mian shou nan qia, 有緣

千里來相會/無緣對面手難牽, ‘if it is destined, we will meet each other; if not, even though we meet each other, we will not get together’) in Chinese songs (p. 161-162), yet, these descriptions about love cannot be seen in English love songs.

Different from Cao (2008) and Chang (2010), another Chinese scholar Yu (2012) focuses on lyrics written in English only and conducts a brief study of metaphorical language. She focuses on emotional metaphors (i.e. happiness, sadness, love, fear, and 11 anger metaphors) in her data, and tries to provide the explanation of cognitive functions in lyrics from writers’ and readers’ points of view. From the analysis, she believes that writers use metaphors to make lyrics interesting and concrete feelings for lyric readers. What’s more, sometimes lyric writers conceal the true meaning by using metaphor. In other words, metaphor is a way for readers to think deeply. Besides, according to Yu (2012), metaphors in lyrics not only transport writers’ meanings but also evoke readers’ emotions. When a metaphor is created, lyric writers represent their feelings or experiences in lyrics. It also gives readers more space to make sense of lyrics. In this section, we have reviewed some research done in China. In Section

2.2.2, we will review some other studies of metaphorical lyrics in Taiwan.

2.2.2 Studies on metaphor in pop song lyrics in Taiwan

From a diachronic perspective, Chang (2008) investigates how metaphor influences listeners’ thoughts and focus on “love” in Chinese pop song lyrics between

1990 and 2008. As shown in her data, LOVE IS FOOD is the major conceptual metaphor in Chinese pop song lyrics. In eastern people’s perspective, “food” is an essential key element in our life so there is a proverb min yi shi wei tian (民以食為天,

‘hunger breeds discontent’) (p.100). She points out that LOVE IS FOOD reflects our traditional thinking. Regarding other features, she indicates that conceptual metaphor can show different values of love. For example, there are totally two ways of using the metaphor LOVE IS A JOURNEY. To explain this point, she compares two lines

“ou ran xiang feng, huan ying ni ai de lu shang yu wo tong xing (偶然相逢/歡迎你愛

的路上與我同行, ‘we meet coincidently, I welcome you to go with me on the love journey’) ” (p.70) and “xiang dao da ming tian, xian zai jiu yao qi cheng, zhi you ni neng dai wo zou xiang wei lai de lu cheng (想到達明天/現在就要啟程/只有你能帶

我走向未來的旅程, ‘if we want to arrive the next place, we need to move, and only 12 you can take me to the future journey’) ” (p.72). In the former lyrics, love is taken as one event in life. The lyric writer emphasizes one traveler meeting another, and they travel together which means they start the love journey. But for the latter one, two people have to get together then they can start the trip. The lyric writer takes love as an independent event. In other words, the value of love is different in the two metaphorical examples.

Furthermore, she finds that metaphor has the power to persuade people. From a linguistic point of view, when language influences our activities, the speech act is formed (Mey, 1933). Chang (2008) believes that metaphor in pop song lyrics invites listeners to accept their thoughts and feelings even though it is not obvious when compared with metaphor in political advertisements. What’s more, she indicates that interpretations on one metaphor in pop song lyrics would be various. One example is that listeners will have distinctive interpretations when hearing the lyrics gai bu gai ge xia zhong zhong de ke, xun zhao dao di na li you lan tian, 該不該擱下重重的殼/

尋找到底哪裡有藍天 (‘should I take off the heavy shell and look for the blue sky’)

(p.91). In the lyrics, the snail’s shell refers to one’s stress, and the blue sky refers to the aim one wants to achieve. Hence, every listener will not have the same thoughts because one’s self-experience is unique. It presents the significance of metaphor in the research area.

Instead of Chinese pop songs, Lai’s (2011) study is mainly concerned with

Taiwanese pop song lyrics from 1980 to 2010 and aims to investigate love metaphors in the lyrics based on the cognitive metaphor theory. By using C.M.T (Lakoff and

Johnson, 1980), she divides love metaphors into three categories: ontological metaphor, orientational metaphor and structural metaphor. The first result of her study points out silk (e.g. lam lam e cheng soa, chion, lan kiat siong oe, 纜纜的情線/將咱

緊緊結相偎, ‘our love is like a bunch of silk lines to bind us tightly’ (p.198) and plant 13

(e.g. jiat loan e ai cheng, si thian ha siong sui e hoe, 熱戀的愛情/是天下尚水的花,

‘the passionate love is the most beautiful flower in the world’ (p.191) are the most frequently used of love. Besides, when people use the metaphor LOVE IS FOOD, they focus on the perspective of taste and this result seems to confirm with Chang’s

(2008) study. People connect the feeling of love together with a taste of food.

Moreover, the linear and three-dimensional concepts are common used through orientational metaphor, the depiction of opposite features such as deep-shallow (e.g. kam cheng iong chit chhim, 感情用這深, ‘the deep love I give’), thick-thin (e.g. hou hou de qing yi, 厚厚的情意, ‘the thick love’), long-short (e.g. zhi duan qing zhang,

紙短情長, ‘the letter is short but my love is long’), and big-small (e.g. e bo hun toa sio, 愛無分大細, ‘love cannot be weighed’). People illustrate how much lovers are devoted to their loved ones (p.217). As for structural metaphor, LOVE IS A

JOURNEY is the most common one, and from this finding, she further states that metaphor presents a cross-linguistic or cross-cultural concept since the idea LOVE IS

A JOURNEY can be found in both Chinese and English examples. The study also observes the divergence between Taiwanese song lyrics and other languages i.e.

Chinese and English. The word Chang e (嫦娥) does not appear in English metaphors but Psyche and Cupid do. Furthermore, in Taiwanese, people focus on showing jealousness by vinegar, but for western people, they emphasize the precious value of love by the metaphor LOVE IS SALT (e.g., you are the salt of the earth) (p.209).

Namely, the result of Lai’s (2011) study shows that the expression of metaphor is influenced by different cultures and customs, and this idea echoes Chang’s (2010) study.

2.3 Summary

As can be seen in the preceding reviews the metaphorical use, and the 14 characteristics in Chinese, English, and Taiwanese pop songs have been studied, but little research has focused on the function of metaphor. Besides, when discussing metaphor in pop song lyrics, most of them focus on “love metaphor” only. Since metaphor can be used as a speech act (Chang, 2008), presumably, song lyrics are used in a specific place or time to achieve certain purposes. From this perspective, how metaphors in pop song lyrics perform the metaphorical functions would be worth studying. To deal with this relatively little explored question, the present paper pays attention to the force behind metaphor in TV drama theme songs. That is, we narrow down our study by selecting pop songs for TV drama and try to answer our research questions.

Chapter 3 Theoretical Framework and Research Data

This chapter aims to elucidate the main framework this study adopts and to present information regarding data background of this study. First, in Section 3.1, the functions of metaphor discussed by Goatly (2011) will be introduced. And, on the grounds that performative potential (Tseng, 2010) is essential when metaphors’ functions are analyzed in my data, this term and the four characteristics of performative potential will be explained and illustrated in 3.2. Besides, the two methods, Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Blending Theory, which we use to analyze metaphors will be reviewed in Section 3.3. To help readers have a better understanding of the analyses in Chapter 4, we provide the background information of our data and the way we choose our data in Section 3.4.

3.1 Functions of metaphor

To shed light on metaphorical interpretations, Goatly (2011: 153) considers that

Relevance Theory (Sperber and Wilson, 2008) does not precisely express one purpose because the word “relevance” is significant only as one thing is relevant to the other.

Hence, he has related Halliday’s (1994) three metafunction—the ideational, the interpersonal, and the textual to offer 13 functions of metaphor in his book The

Language of Metaphors (2011:155-176); but in section 3.1, I will illustrate only those that can be used in my data. These functions are expressing emotional attitudes; decoration, disguise, hyperbole; and cultivating intimacy. They are particularly related to song lyrics here for some reasons. First, lyricists transmit their emotions and attitudes toward listeners. Metaphor can fulfill their needs. Besides, to make people impressed, using hyperbole metaphor in lyrics is a common way. Furthermore, lyrics usually involve personal experiences; lyricists try to strike a chord with their listeners.

The function of cultivating intimacy is thus indirectly accomplished. The discussion below will also review Goatly’s work and further illustrate it with examples of some song lyrics.

3.1.1 Expressing emotional attitudes

According to Goatly (2011: 165), expressing emotional attitudes is one of the major functions of metaphor. Besides, Richards (1948) has argued that in literature there is a strong connection between words and emotions. Morgan (1979: 146) has proposed a similar view: “The salient properties involved in the metaphor tend to be those with “affective” value. . . that is, some emotion or evaluative aspect.” For example, My love is as a fever, longing still For that which longer nurseth the disease, Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill, The uncertain sickly appetite to please. (Shakespeare, Sonnet 147, as cited in Tseng 2010: 121)

In this sonnet, Shakespeare compares love to a fever, which not only is a disease but also presents a contradictive emotion within this metaphor. Normally, we take a fever as a disease; as a result, we try to cure it. However, Shakespeare wrote that even if the feeling which love brings is painful, he still longs for “love.” In this case, the love-as-a-disease metaphor expresses an emotional attitude.

The affective function of metaphor not merely appears in literary works, but also has been utilized in psychotherapy. Since the common goal of therapists is to comfort their patients, the metaphors they use may involve emotions or induce their patients to express their subconscious feelings. Tay’s (2010) study of metaphor used in psychotherapy shows that the therapist took a race as a source domain to illustrate life.

Tay (2010:450-451) cites a conversation between the therapist and the patient. After

17 the patient shared the difficulties in her life such as her breakup, feeling of her crazy boss etc, the therapist replied “Have you ever seen hurdles before? Like track race?”,

“You know that’s kind of like life’s course is like.”, “Sometimes life presents different hurdles that we have to cross, but that doesn’t mean when we fall and not continue to go toward that.” “Right? You know, just trying to find ways to muster up enough energy to get over these particular hurdles” (2010: 450). This kind of conversation with metaphorical usage obviously involves positive attitudes. Even in a race game, there are many hurdles, runners will use their full strength to cross those hurdles or even kick them down. As a consequence, the metaphor “LIFE IS A RACE” from therapists’ viewpoint can provide patients with courage and confidence, and, meanwhile, implies that patients will conquer every obstacle in the end.

Moreover, Goatly (2011:166) states that since most linguistists’ research questions are posed from a semantic perspective, and they focus on concepts and logic so affective expressions in metaphor tend to be ignored. While semantic theory is based on concepts and meanings in words, the affective dimension is more related to interpersonal issues. For example, both poets and song writers express their experiences, emotions, and feelings in words. To correctly transmit their emotions and make them accessible to listeners, metaphors in lyrics can help in this respect due to the function of expressing emotional attitudes.

3.1.2 Decoration, disguise, and hyperbole

The second function—decoration, disguise, and hyperbole—means that

metaphors in some way are prone to be beautiful and brilliant words. It can satisfy

any two of the three purposes. One is to catch receivers’ attention; another is to

illustrate ideas in a euphemistic way. For example, people use “fell asleep” to

replace the word “die”. The sentence “He fall asleep” is more implicit than “died”. 18

The primary purpose for metaphor euphemism is to evade a negative emotion. As

Goatly cited (2011:168) Pound’s (1936) examples “climbed the golden stair,”

“crossed over the great divide”, “answered the last muster”, and “cold meat party”

are substitutes of eternal sleep, dying, death, and funeral in English. In eastern

culture, there is a similar usage. In Chinese culture, the word “si, 死, ‘die’ ” is taken

as a word of bad luck; therefore, people usually avoid using it directly. By

expressing the same meaning, people will say in another way ta shang tian tang le

(他上天堂了, ‘He went to heaven’ ). This metaphor prettifies the original meaning

of si, (死, ‘die’) is replaced by tian tang, (天堂, ‘heaven’ ), which means paradise in

English. Tseng (2010: 121) states that this function can be taken as a strategy.

Addressers use this strategy consciously so that the metaphorical language can

reflect their emotions and attitudes. Besides, from the words they choose, people can

come up with their attitudes toward topics or issues for discussion. Hence, this

function is interpersonal as well.

3.1.3 Cultivating intimacy

Metaphor can become a way of cultivating intimacy. The understanding of one’s metaphor is based on the knowledge and cultural background shared by both writers and readers; the understanding can build up a sense of intimacy invisibly in a certain group or between two people. When addressees get the correct meaning of metaphor, the relationships and connections between them and addressers are then built. The function appears much more often in fresh and creative metaphors no matter in both literary works and songs. Take (1) for example.

(1) 無聊的時候請你打個電話給我只要你親口告訴我你比較喜歡吃新鮮牛肉

無聊的時候請你打個電話給我雖然我只是魚罐頭卻可以跟你過的比較久【自然捲，魚罐頭，2005】 When you feel bored, please give me a call: Just tell me in person that you would rather eat fresh beef. When you feel bored, please give me a call. Although I am only a fish can, I can live with you for a longer time. [Natural Q, A Fish Can, 2005]

As shown in the song “A Fish Can,” the lyrics imply that the love relationship between two people can last long by using “A Fish Can.” However, listeners must have the knowledge that the expiration date of a can is longer than that of fresh fish or meat; elsewhere, the lyrics may not make sense and may look even strange to those who lack this knowledge of a fish can. In this example, the love metaphor includes people who comprehend the meaning successfully and exclude those who fail to make a connection between love and cans. Because the action of making intimacy and exclusion depends on the relationship between metaphor users and readers, this function is interpersonal.

3.2 Perfomative potential

The term performative potential is proposed by Tseng (2010). It comprises

“verbal energy” and various functions that metaphors serve. Besides, the term

“performative” suggests the presence of a performer and an audience, i.e. metaphor users and readers of metaphor. Tseng also elaborates the four characteristics of performative potential, which is an extended notion based on Goatly’s work on metaphor functions and Halliday’s three functional components of the semantic system (Halliday, 1978).

First of all, the term “performative” represents verbal energy or a force to do

20 something in one metaphor. Indeed, the similar idea has been presented by Mack

(1975). As Tseng stated in his paper (2010:124), Mack(1975) claims that metaphor can be taken as speech act rather than just saying something but can be used to explain, persuade or to do other things, etc. She even raises “three levels of illocutionary force in metaphoring” (Mack, 1975: 248): (1) suppositives, (2) perceptives or suggestives, and (3) implosives. The first one refers to some types of metaphors that are not serious; e.g. she is as happy as a lark. The second type means explaining one’s viewpoint or feelings in daily situations; e.g. Her mind resembles a fig tree (Mack 1975: 238, as cited in Tseng 2010:125). In terms of the last one, speakers intend to force hearers to accept or agree with their points; e.g. The table came alive and dance (Mack 1975: 232).

According to Mack, there is no obvious distinction among the three. The difference is only in their degree of strength. Furthermore, although metaphors have no specific markers which stand for illocutionary force such as probably, slightly, there are still four aspects for us to focus on: addressers’ intention to persuade the addressees to adopt his/her view, degree of metaphoricity, the addressee’s involvement in the act of communication, and the appropriateness of using metaphors in the context of the specific communication (Tseng, 2010:125). These four aspects about the force of metaphor can be characterized and covered by the term

“performative”.

Secondly, the term provided a performativity-based view of metaphor. In other words, it strengthens the interpersonal function of language, yet the ideational and textual functions are not be neglected. The notion of perfomative potential can expand the idea of “meaning potential” suggested by Halliday (1978: 39). According to

Halliday, meaning potential means “what speakers can do and what they mean”, not what they know. From Halliday’s point of view, meaning comprises three components: 21 ideational, interpersonal, and textual (Halliday 1978: 112-113). The three metafunctional components provide various perspectives for people to analyze meanings performed by metaphor. Nevertheless, since this research not only focuses on the meaning of metaphor in the lyrics but also discusses the functions of those metaphors, I believe the term “performative” can fully cover the two purposes.

Whether metaphors are used in a traditional way (e.g. we have to construct a new theory) or a novel way (e.g. a surgeon as a butcher), they can represent people’s experiences and thoughts. Therefore, metaphor has the ideational function. When addressers have employed some metaphors, they have decided what kind of addressees they will have at the same time. For lyric writers, they write songs to express their emotions but when a song is released they have listeners to share their emotions with them. Thus, the relationship between listeners and lyricists is closely connected by the interpersonal component. For example, (2) creates a bound with listeners who have experienced something similar in their love relationships.

(2) 愛是一條曲折的線將你我帶往兩邊分開的兩個人怎麼都不能回到起點在愛情字典裡找不到永遠我們越走越遠兩個世界【孫燕姿，愛情字典，2001】

Love is a meandering line; it takes you and me to an opposite way. For two parting people, it is impossible for us to go back to the starting point. We cannot find the word “everlasting” in our love dictionary. We have gone far and far away and we are being in two worlds, now. [Yanzi Sun, Love Dictionary, 2001]

In example (2), the lyric writer transmits his own opinion about love to listeners via the conceptual metaphor LOVE IS A JOURNEY. In his belief, two lovers are just like on different sides of a line because of the broken relationship, and it is impossible for 22 them to go back to the starting point of their love journey. Those two lines insinuate the writer’s ideology to listeners in a pessimistic way. He does not believe lovers can get together forever.

In terms of the textual component, basically, metaphor is one type of textual performance. Metaphor is especially used in poetic context and for the purpose of aesthetics. Many scholars have pointed out that metaphorical language is one device used by many poets (Kövecses, 2010). One of the famous examples is by Robert

Frost: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less raveled by, And that has made all the difference. (Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken, as cited in Kovecses, 2010: 53) The poem here involves the conventional metaphor LIFE IS A JOURNEY.

Robert Frost objectifies an abstract idea by metaphor and implied that making a decision in life is compared to taking a cross road. Since metaphor becomes a device and enables readers to access a poet’s thought, metaphor can be seen as a performance here. Instead of writing an experience with a direct narration, the figurative language gives reader a way to sense the act of writing skill. The term “performative potential” is dynamic inasmuch as it not only retains the three functional components—ideational, interpersonal, and textual—but also helps to discuss the functions of metaphor.

Furthermore, the third characteristic of performative potential is related to the degree of metaphoricity. The function of metaphor is a matter of degree (Tseng, 2010:

128). Namely, the function of metaphor cannot be delimited clearly. To some extent, most metaphors are hyperbolic. They use extra and exaggerated words to depict a concept or information. Hyperbolic language will enhance people’s memory. Goatly

(2011: 174) claims that hyperbolic metaphors can contribute to several processes at a

23 time. He uses the example to illustrate: “then he moved to a private bar upstairs and trouble erupted” (Daily Mirror, May 8, 1987). The word “erupted” in this example serves two functions. One is catching people’s attention so that their memory can be enhanced. In addition, it involves a strong emotion as well. That is why not all the function of metaphor can be clear-cut. Yet, the performative potential is based on how metaphors are used by addressers in varied texts and what purpose a text serves

(Tseng, 2010:128). In some cases, there may be one primary function that the addresser tends to emphasize. For example, metaphors in literary works may tend to focus on expressing and evoking emotional contents, but for riddles or games, metaphors may be full of humor.

Last, in the performative potential of metaphors, there are many relative but contradictory functions, such as cultivating intimacy versus distancing from the addressee. This phenomenon especially appears in literary metaphors. If users try to be close to addressees, metaphors and their meanings may be more conventional rather than creative and fresh. On the opposite side, some novel metaphors will make readers feel puzzled. When the similarity between source domains and target domains become less, the possibility of misunderstanding will become higher. In other words, the degree of metaphorical languages affects addressees’ understanding. Indeed, the function which a literary metaphor might have depends on how readers consider them.

For other non-literary metaphors, metaphors can be used to explain some proper nouns in specific areas or theory modeling. For example, as Goatly (2011: 156) points out, “many flow equations are closely analogous to Ohm’s law which describes the flow of electrons, and which we will use as a model” (Milburn, J.A., 1979). The example which Goatly cited from Milburn applies metaphor to describe the movement of water in the field of plant physiology. By bringing up the idea of “dual nature of metaphor,” Tseng (2010) considers that the function of a metaphor is not 24 necessarily fixed but subject to change for some reasons. This idea can be applied to analyze song metaphors as well. For instance, to elicit empathy in listeners for the first time when they hear the song is quite difficult. However, listeners may be influenced by words and emotion and derive the meaning behind them gradually.

Metaphors in lyrics sometimes serve the function of reconceptualizing experiences; as a result, listeners will have the chance to make sense of them after they have experienced something similar. As the function of metaphors switches from explanation to puzzling the addressee, the sense of intimacy between the addresser and the addressee will be large.

3.3 Overview of two adopted theories: conceptual metaphor theory and blending theory

In this section, two significant theories will be presented. The influential theory—conceptual metaphor theory proposed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) will be introduced in 3.3.1. Besides, among various kinds of metaphor in Conceptual

Metaphor Theory (hereafter CMT), event structure metaphor (3.3.2) and ontological metaphor (3.3.3) receives particular attention here for the reason that these two kinds of metaphor will be extensively applied to our data. Blending Theory (Fauconnier and

Turner, 1998) will be employed as well (Section 3.3.4) in order to fully account for the complexity of metaphor in song lyrics.

3.3.1 Conceptual metaphor theory

For most people, metaphor is rhetorical tool in literary works. Besides, metaphor may be merely decorative language to them. However, in cognitive linguistic view, metaphors can reflect the feature of language and cognition of human beings. Cognitive linguists take metaphor as a pattern of thought which can be 25 expressed in verbal or nonverbal ways (Lakoof 1993, Lakoff and Johnson 1980, 2003,

Goatly 1997, 2001, Grady 2007, Kövecses 2010). Metaphor is pervasive in ordinary language and across languages. For instance, “My mind isn’t working” is couched in things that do not go right in English expression. Metaphorical usages appear in

Chinese cultural settings too, such as ta men chen jin zai ai he li (他們沉浸在愛河裡,

‘they fall in love’) (cited from Shu, 2007: 115) which means they are immersed in a love river. Instead of saying two people are together directly, by using a metaphor, the meaning is represented in an aesthetic way. Furthermore, take the word “big” for example. “Big” can be metaphorically used as “important” in many different languages such as Hawaiian, Malay, Russian, Turkish, and Zula (Grady, 2007). They have the same usage as an English saying “Today is a big day”, which means today is an important day.

As mentioned earlier, Lakoff and Johnson (1980, 1993) consider metaphor permeates in daily English expression and view metaphor as thoughts and actions; e.g.

“We may have to go our separate ways” and “The marriage is on the rocks.” Lakoff and Johnson (1980, 1993) propose Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT hereafter) with a view to elucidating such metaphorical sentences. In CMT, a metaphor is formed by two conceptual domains: one is the target domain and another is the source domain. People draw a figurative expression from the source domain to understand a more abstract concept called target domain (Kövecses, 2010: 4). Lakoff (1993) states that there are mappings from the source domain to the target domain and, for him, the meaning from the mapping is the main thing in a metaphor and the use of language is the secondary. There are a variety of ways to represent one conceptual metaphor. For instance, the sentence “We are at a crossroad” and “Their marriage is on the rock” have made use of the same conceptual metaphor: LOVE IS A JOURNEY. Apparently, the thinking behind the sentences above is based on the metaphor of LOVE IS A 26

JOURNEY. This is why Lakoff (1993) claims that metaphor is both for thoughts and reasons rather than merely linguistic expressions.

Lakoff (1993:210) asserts that CMT can help us understand some new and imaginative mappings in metaphor since such mappings are part of the concepts in people’s mind. For example, the line “We’re driving in the fast lane on the freeway of love” employs the conceptual metaphor LOVE IS A JOURNEY. When interpreting the line, we generally use our conventional knowledge. First, he explains that driving fast on the freeway is dangerous, but it is exciting for people. Second, due to the fast speed, we may hurt ourselves. Through the conceptual mappings, we get the meaning that this love relationship is hard to last and the two lovers may get hurt in the end.

Let us consider (3):

(3) 陽光在身上流轉，等所有業障被原諒愛情不停站想開往地老天荒需要多勇敢【陳奕迅，愛情轉移，2007】

Sunlight is around me, I am waiting all the negative karma to be forgiven. Love never stops at any station for anyone, How much courage does one need for seeking an everlasting love? [Eason Chen, Love Transferred, 2007]

LOVE IS A JOURNEY is applied to (3) as well. The second sentence ai qing bu ting zhan (愛情不停站 “Love never stops at any station for any one”) implies the two lovers are on their love journey which is non-stop. Their vehicle on the journey is their love relationship. Besides, the line involves the linguistic metaphor (see also

Section 3.3.3 for personification) to represent eternity, which is their ideal destination.

Indeed, time is invisible, untouchable, and abstract. When saying di lao tian huang, (地老天荒, ‘till the end of the world’), people compare the time to the world

(earth), and the passing of time is the circulation of the world. The phrase describes that all things on earth get older which is a property of human being. Hence, the deep meaning of di lao tian huang, (地老天荒, ‘till the end of the world’) refers to a long long time and implies eternity. The mappings in the lyrics are shown in Table 3.1.

Table 3.1 Mappings of LOVE IS A JOURNEY Metaphor Source domain Target Domain LOVE IS A JOURNEY Travelers Lovers Stops The place they want to go

On the other hand, Lakoff (1993: 219) uses Dylan Thomas’s line “Do not go gentle into that good night” as the example for this concept. It reflects three different metaphors together: DEATH IS DEPARTURE, LIFE IS A STRUGGLE and A

LIFETIME IS A DAY. Simultaneous mappings are common in both lyrics and poetry.

In addition to simultaneous mappings, some basic features are mentioned by

Grady (2007). He states that for Lakoff and Johnson, asymmetrical directionality, i.e. unidirectional is one of the most emphasized features in conceptual metaphors. For some conceptual metaphors, the relationship between source domain and target domain is one-way direction. For example, weather that can be used to conceptualize the economic and political situation (recession is a storm), but the reverse metaphor will not be interpretable for us. However, there are still some metaphors like “image metaphors” (Lakoff and Turner, 1989: 89-96) that can be reversed and their meaning is understandable, e.g. waist of an hourglass (Grady, 2007: 193). Kövecses (2010:28) illustrates this notion by giving the example “ANGER IS A STORM” as a metaphor.

It is sensible for people to say “He stormed out of the room” and “The storm was raging for hours.”

Moreover, Grady (2007) states that experiential motivation is another principle

28 of CMT. Take “a sunny disposition”, as an example. There is no direct similarity between the source and the target domain. Nevertheless, our experiences make us combine the concept of mood and temperature together and form this metaphor.

Cognitive linguists have pointed out that people’s close interaction will make their body become warm and that those who have been involved in the interaction will share the feeling of warmth. This accounts for why such a metaphor can be formed and meaningful. After briefly reviewing the basic concepts of CMT, in the next section we are going to introduce the Event Structure Metaphor proposed by Lakoff

(1990, 1993).

3.3.2 Event structure metaphor

In Lou’s (2006) study, he proves that understanding metaphors in a song’s lyrics may be a major factor in understanding the whole song. As event structure metaphor widely appears in our data, in this section, we will elucidate event structure metaphor which is proposed by Lakoff (1990, 1993).

Event structure metaphor is a category beyond structural metaphors which

“enable speakers to understand target A by means of the structure of source B”

(Kövecses, 2002: 37). In terms of structure metaphor, there are “various aspects of event structure, including notions like states, changes, processes actions, causes, purposes, and means, are characterized cognitively via metaphor in terms of space, motion, and force” (Lakoff, 1993: 220). According to Lakoff (1993), event structure metaphors involve some general mappings such as locations, movements, impediments to motions, paths, forces, destinations, and travelers. In event structure metaphor, difficulties are compared to impediments to motions. Take this sentence he ran into a brick wall as an instance (Lakoff 1993: 220). There is a destination where the man wants to go; however, on his way, he meets a brick wall which we call 29 difficulties here and stops him from going further. Example (4) conveys the same idea. (4) 我們之間有一道隱形分隔線你的生活在那邊儘量不問仔細情節怕證實你和她的傳言跨不過這道隱形分隔線不參與你的明天【李佳薇，分隔線，2011】

You live there away from me. There is an invisible separation between us. I am so afraid of verifying the rumor between you and her that I try all I could to avoid asking about you and her. If I cannot stride across this invisible separation, I will not join you tomorrow. [Jess Lee, Invisible Separation, 2011]

In (4), there is an obstacle, an invisible separation, which impedes them from reaching their goal. The two lovers’ pursuit over their lifetime is to accompany each other not only physically but mentally. Nevertheless, it is hard for them to get close to each other because of “yin xing de xian, (隱形的線, ‘the invisible line’). The invisible separation here can be classified into one type of impediments of motion (Lakoff ,

1993) which is metaphorical difficulties: blockages. According to Lakoff (1993: 220), there metaphorical difficulties can be classified into five types: blockages; features of the terrain; burdens; counter-fources; lack of an energy source. Table 3.2 below is to clarify the five metaphorical difficulties which are all the subcategory under the

“impediments to motions”.

Table 3.2 The metaphorical difficulties and examples Metaphorical difficulties Examples Blockages He got over his divorce. 30

He went through the trail. Features of the terrain He is between a roack and a hard place. It is been uphill all the way Burdens He is carring quite a load. He got too many assignments to do. Counterforces She is holding him back. Lack of an energy source We are running out of steam.

Back to event structure metaphor, the idea of mappings is summarized in Figure 3.1

Source domain Target domain

Space Events

Location States

Movements Changes

Forces Causes

Self-propelled movements Actions

Destinations Purposes

Impediments to motions Difficulties

Large, moving objects External events

Journeys Long-term purposeful activities

Travel schedule/a virtual traveler who reaches prearranged destinations at prearranged time Expected progress Figure 3.1 Mappings of two domains in Event Structure Metaphor (Adopted from Lakoff 1993: 222-223)

In all types of event structure metaphor, the two most typical metaphors are LIFE

IS A JOURNEY and LOVE IS A JOURNEY. In Lai’s (2011) study, she observes that in love metaphors, LOVE IS A JOURNEY is mostly used by people. LIFE IS A

JOURNEY should be explained by using the notion that people live for certain

31 purposes or goals and these purposes map onto the destination of a journey. The way to achieve our goals is like choosing a path for our destination, too. In terms of LOVE

IS JOURNEY, it can be seen as a special event in our life. This metaphor utilizes all the structure presented in Figure 1. Although LIFE IS A JOURNEY and LOVE IS A

JOURNEY are regarded as event structure metaphors, there are still discrepancies between them. For LIFE IS A JOURNEY focuses on describing one’s life experience while LOVE IS A JOURNEY emphasizes specific events about “love” in people’s life.

In addition, the vehicle on the love journey is their love relationship. When two lovers are in a good relationship, it refers to the same destination which they are looking for, for they have the same goal in their lives. The difficulties the lovers meet on this relationship will be conceptualized as impediments on the journey.

3.3.3 Ontological metaphor Different from Event Structure Metaphor, Ontological Metaphor uses less cognitive structure but more concrete objects and substances as source domains to compare to abstract target domains (Kövecses, 2002: 38). Based on the definition provided by Lakoff and Johnson (2003: 25), Ontological Metaphor is “our experiences of physical objects and substances provide a further basis for understanding”. The real existence objects and substances can help people make good connections with abstract feelings, events, activities, etc.

In Ontological Metaphor, personification is a most obvious application. It provides human qualities for nonhuman entities such as plants, natural phenomenon, or animals (Lakoff and Johnson, 2003: 25). Through personification people can realize a complicated notion. The best explanation is related to the word “inflation.” It is common to hear people say “we need to knock down inflation.” Inflation is personified not merely as a person here. More specifically, people refer inflation to

32 their enemy. INFLATION IS ENEMY embodies both humans’ feelings of and reactions to this event. Although personification is one “extraordinary phenomenon2”

(Liu, 2011), this creative language is applied in lyrics and literary works often.

(5) is an example of extraordinary phenomenon and personification.

(5) 雨打蕉葉又瀟瀟了幾夜我等春雷來提醒妳愛誰【周杰倫，蘭亭序，2008】

The rain has been striking the banana leaves; The whistling and pattering have lasted for several nights. I await the spring thunder reminding you who you really love [Jay Chou, Orchid Pavilion, 2008]

As shown in (5), in the sentence “wo deng chun lei lai ti xing ni ai shei (我等春雷/來

提醒妳愛誰, ‘I await the spring thunder reminding you who you really love’) ”, the natural phenomenon, the thunder, carries out the activity “reminding” like a person does. This sentence personifies rumbling thunder as an animate being capable of speaking loudly and sending information.

Most of the time, song lyricists not only express their emotions but also tell a story or show their viewpoint of one issue in their lyrics. When they want to achieve this goal, both event structure metaphors and ontological metaphors are essential. The former one, event structure metaphor, helps lyricists draw a whole picture and present the main idea what they want to express in the song. For instances (see Section 3.3.2), when listeners hear the line “There is an invisible separation between us.” they know

2 This term extraordinary phenomenon is in contrast to ordinary phenomenon. It means that a language breaks through the limitation of normal criteria, structures, semantic relationships and logic in order to present a better effect of understanding.

33 that this is a love song. Besides, the way they use event structure metaphor can imply a result of a story. The latter, ontological metaphor, is helpful for lyricists to conceptualize abstract feelings or phenomena. In event structure metaphor or some other metaphors, the abstract feeling may correspond to structures of event and items.

But, a structure may not be concrete enough for people to understand sometimes.

Ontological metaphor can reinforce the analogies or the metaphorical images by means of physical objects, substances, and containers. Listeners can get the meaning of the lyrics when metaphors are understandable and sensible without abstract concepts.

3.3.4 Blending theory

In addition to CMT, Blending Theory (BT hereafter), which is a recent theory proposed by Fauconnier and Turner (1994, 2002) is another theory adopted by our analysis. Although some scholars have claimed that BT and CMT are complementary

(Grady, Oakley and Coulson, 1999, Deschenes, 2009), yet there are still crucial differences between BT and CMT. In CMT, metaphors are analyzed by a pair relationship whereas BT can discuss a metaphor beyond two components. This enables BT to focus on creativity and novel metaphors which sometimes cannot be easily explained in terms of CMT.

To begin with, the essential property—mental spaces in BT have to be explained. The new term “mental space” in BT (Fauconnier and Turner, 2002) replaces the term domain in CMT as well. For Fauconnier and Turner (2002), metaphor is sometimes too complex to interpret within two domains and the meaning that we can derive is not directly from the similarity between two domains. The mechanism of mental space and the whole theory can account for this phenomenon.

According to Fauconnier and Turner (2002: 40), mental spaces are “small 34 conceptual packets”. The construction of mental space is for people to think in a certain way where an understanding is achieved. They state that mental spaces involve assemblies, elements and are structured by frames which organize the knowledge we know (Fauconnier and Turner, 2002: 102). Besides, mental spaces involve the elements and are connected to our knowledge. In other words, they are built up in working memory and combined with the related knowledge in our long-term memory

(Fauconnier and Turner, 2002: 103). Moreover, mental spaces can be built by different sources. Take “Joanne listens to music” as an example. Your knowledge sets up a space including what you know, e.g. sounds, lyrics, and singers. Immediate experience can be another source to structure the space. You see a girl Joanne listening to the music; hence, you build a mental space of this event. Still another, what people say to us is the source to build up mental space. “Joanne listened to the music the whole night” leads us to building up the mental space and this is the first step for us to continue the conversation with others. Wang (2010) has indicated that in the process of writing lyrics, lyricists adopt the notion of mental space to express their thoughts, especially about love. By using a mechanism involving mental spaces, they take many concrete elements to help listeners understand abstract concepts effortlessly.

In BT, the basic model includes four spaces, i.e. two input spaces, a generic space, and a blended space (Fauconnier 1997; Fauconnier & Turner 2002; Grady,

Oakley, and Coulson 1999; Kövecses 2002). First, there are at least two but can be over two in the number of input spaces. The elements in every input space must have partial structures which can correspond to another. In terms of generic space, it “maps onto each of the inputs and contains what the inputs have in common” (Fauconnier and Turner, 2002: 41). For the mappings of spaces, we look into every input space and build up their connections by the similarities. We may map a linear scale in one space 35 onto a linear scale in another. The fourth mental space, blended space (the blend), shows meanings that combine and interact from the input spaces. The basic diagram of BT and how these four spaces work is shown in Figure 3.2

Generic Space

Input space II Input space I

Blended Space Figure 3.2 Basic Diagram of Blending Theory (Based on Fauconnier and Turner, 1998)

Owing to the fact that BT emphasized the way we construct meanings and the process of cognition, this theory can deal a metaphorical expression which the meaning is formed from the properties of two domains simultaneously, for example, the well-known metaphor: The surgeon as a butcher (as cited in Kövecses, 2010: 315).

It may be weird when we consider the profession which saves people as the profession butchering carcass. However, by juxtaposing surgeon and butcher in two input spaces, we can find out that there are partial mappings on each other: cleaver-scalpel, animal (carcass)-human being, abattoir-operating room, and the goal of severing meat-the goal of saving people’s life. Through these sharing properties, we get further meaning in generic space that both a surgeon and a butcher use a sharp tool to “cut” a body for a certain purpose. Finally, in the blended space, there are two roles: a surgeon and a butcher. But, a surgeon here is who uses the scalpel in an

36 unskilled or careless way to patients which can hurt patients. That explains why a surgeon is likened to a butcher in a strong conflict metaphorical usage.

Furthermore, BT not only applies on metaphorical phenomenon but successfully explains the nominal compounds and compositional compounds (Coulson, 1997). For example, the compound “brown cow” (1997:299). When we use this compound, we do not always refer to a cow which is thoroughly brown but can be only a cow with brown fur but white leg. To explain “brown cow”, cross-domain mapping of BT is a good mechanism. In the input space 1 and 2 there are color-brown and the cow’s fur.

When seeing the image, our background knowledge about how to describe the cow will be in the generic space. Finally, we get the compound words “brown cow” in the blended space. Other compound words such as “small lids”, “caffeine headache”, and

“fake gun” (Coulson, 1997:229) can be understood in the same process. Conceptual

Blending theory shows the process of composition.

In Joy, Sherry, and Deshenes’s (2009) study, BT is even used in the analysis of the advertisement. They discuss one of their example, Virgin advertisement, by using the simplex network of BT. From their participants’ who see the Virgin advertisement, they know that people usually think of all companies which belong to Vigin like

“Virgin Music” or “Virgin Travel” as they see the Virgin advertisement says “What are you looking for?” (p.42-43). Joy etl (2009) argues that it means their participants recognize the human kinship metaphor from the advertisement. They illustrate the process of constructing meaning by BT. There are ego and parent in input space 1, and

Virgin and Virgin Music in input space 2. Between the two input spaces, there is an

“abstract parent” and “offspring” idea inside (p.44). People understand the advertisement and get the meaning: Virgin is the parent of Virgin Music. This parent-offspring relation is built because the blended inherits all elements from the input spaces. This study discusses participants’ perception and illustrates the 37 advertisements meaning by BT; in the end, they prove that one’s perception and understanding will influence their desire to consume a product or not.

3.3.5 The rationale of using conceptual metaphor theory and blending theory

From Section 3.3.4, we introduce important features of BT. Besides, from some scholars’ study (Coulson 1997, Grady, Oakley, and Coulson 1999, Joy, Sherry,

Deschenes 2009) we know that BT is useful not merely for explanation of metaphors which is not unidirectional, but for nominal compounds, compositional compounds, and nonlinguistic examples like advertisements. Through BT, we can understand the meaning or specific example whose causal structure from the target is not a straight image from source to target. As for CMT, it emphasizes metaphorical mapping from one domain to another domain, and focuses on conventional and entrenched metaphor.

Namely, CMT and BT have their own advantages in different ways.

Song lyrics are composed with creativity and imagination (Wang, 2010).

Although CMT can explain many of metaphor mappings in our data, it may not be suitable for us to analyze some fresh expressions. Metaphors in pop song lyrics may have various language expressions which people have not seen before. In order to analyze them, BT is adopted.

3.4 Research data

The data for the present thesis focus on the lyrics of ten theme songs and these songs were selected from Idol dramas3 which were all made by SET Cable Station

(三立電視台). We chose five drama which were broadcast during the year 2012-2013.

3 Idol dramas are know as ou xiang ju (偶像劇). This is one kind of subject-matter of TV drama and there is no unified definition of this genre. According to Taiwanese famous director Cai, Yue-Xun, Idol dramas create an imagination but close to people’s real life. It is also the way younger actors act. However, the definition of the word “Idol” will change time by time. Also, it does not mean that only young actors perform in Idol dramas. 38

The five dramas, in the order of their appearance are Love, now （真愛趁現在）, Love me or leave me （我租了一個情人）, Lady maid maid （愛情女僕）, King flower （金

大花的華麗冒險） and A hint of you （美味的想念）. Each of these dramas has two theme songs. One is an opening theme and the other is an ending theme; thus, the total number of our research data is ten songs. The reasons for choosing these dramas and their songs as this present data set are provided as follows. First of all, among the various idol dramas presented in Taiwan, the productions of SET Cable Station have been critically acclaimed and have attracted large audiences. In other words, their dramas are indicative of Idol dramas in Taiwan. Secondly, it is believed that choosing all of the research data from the same productions of one cable TV station can assure the unity of our research data. Besides, those theme songs’ lyrics may share some specific features.

3.4.1 Data collection and background

In this section, the terms “opening theme” and “ending theme” are first explained briefly. Next, due to the fact that there may exist some connections between these theme songs’ lyrics with the whole stories of the dramas, it is necessary to have some simple understanding of the five dramas. The background is helpful for readers to comprehend the analysis of the data in chapter 4; hence, we will briefly give the background of each of the five idol dramas respectively before analyzing their metaphors in lyrics. Indeed, the opening theme is played before every episode starts.

Every opening theme will be played approximately 1.5 minutes and then the new episode starts. The so-called ending theme song is played after the preview of the next episode to make an ending of that present episode. Although they are totally played in different timing, they share one common feature—the videos are accompanied by an opening theme and an ending theme. They will not change with the episode. 39

The opening theme “Yi qi qu pao bu” (一起去跑步 Let’s run together ) and the ending theme “Zhan shi de nan peng you” (暫時的男朋友 A temporary boyfriend) is from the first idol drama Love, now （真愛趁現在）. The plot of Love, Now focuses on a female character who is a workaholic does not want to take a rest even for one day. At the beginning of the drama, her best friend traps her to go abroad and lies to her that she gets cancer. This white lie is just for her to enjoy the vacation. During the vacation, she meets the male main character and a series of events happen to them.

Because she believes that she gets cancer originally, she considers that she is the one who loses the chance and time to own happiness in her life. Hence, she is afraid of accepting the true love which now lies in front of her. This drama tries to encourage people to seize true love. That is also the origin of the name Love, now.

The other two songs “Dou gei ni” (都給你 Only for you) and “Xing fu jiu ha” (幸

福就好 Happiness is enough) are from the drama Love me or leave me (我租了一個

情人). In this drama, there are five main characters. First, one pair of them is going to marry each other. However, because of the failure of her parents’ marriage, the female character is fearful of marriage and has no confidence on her fiancé. Based on this mistrust, she decides to hire a woman to test whether his fiancé will be faithful to her.

The worst thing is that the woman she hired intends to accept this mission and want to take away all the things from the female character including her boyfriend. The following story revolves around this love triangle relationship.

The third drama King flower （金大花的華麗冒險） brings out the opening theme “Yin wei you ni zai” (因為有你在 Because you are here) and ending theme

“Xiang nu hai de nu ren” (像女孩的女人 Women who are like girls). The main plot of this drama interprets the adventure stories after the female character has done a cosmetic surgery and become a substitute of another woman. The woman whom she is going to pretend is an uptown girl but the female character grew up in a poor family. 40

This situation causes her to face lots of challenges that she has never experienced.

That is the reason why the whole drama is called “hua li mao xian” (華麗冒險 splendid adventure). Through various experiences, the female character gets a different point of view on how to get along with people. This splendid adventure can be taken as a period for the character to become mature.

Next, the opening theme song “Gan jue fan” (感覺犯 Trapped by feeling) and the ending song “Xin li de hai zi” (心裡的孩子 Children in the heart) are from the idol drama Lady maid maid （愛情女僕）. The plot of this drama is about the female character who loves the male character very much in the very beginning when they get to know each other. Nevertheless, the male character does not take her concern about him seriously. Besides, he is fickle in love relationships. He forces the woman to do business in his company and makes many unreasonable requests, like ordering her as a maid. Even though she is like a maid, she is still willing to do everything the man asks. She hopes the man will value her love someday. Like many typical idol dramas, Lady maid maid has a happy ending, which means the female and male characters are eventually in love with each other.

The last selected theme songs “Bu ying gai yong gan” (不應該勇敢 Not be brave) and “Mei wei de xiang nian” (美味的想念 A missing smell) are from the Idol drama A hint of you （美味的想念）. Indeed, the theme of this drama is related to the two words mei wei, 美味 which means “delicious” in English. The origin of this story is about three chefs. They are not only in the same occupation but they are good friends. However, they have different ideas concerning their cooking enterprise.

Through many quarrels, their relationship breaks in the end. The female and male characters are descendants of two chefs; nevertheless, they cook at totally different places. The boy is at big restaurant whereas the girl is just at an informal diner.

Incidentally, they meet each other. The female character hopes that she can cook fried 41 rice as the same as her father did before and the man decides to help her. The male character knows that the girl wants to find the tastiest fried rice which is “a missing smell”. The road of searching for the way to cook the delicious fried rice becomes thorny for the reason that the recipe involves too much resentment in the last generation. The whole drama narrates how the main characters improve their skills during the process of finding the recipe and the way they dissolve the resentment and misunderstanding between two families. All the above-mentioned data background provides a context that will help readers make sense of our analysis and discussion in

Chapter 4.

Table 3.3 An overview of the used dramas and theme songs Drama Name Opening theme song Ending theme songs Love, now “Let’s run together” “A temporary boyfriend” 真愛趁現在一起去跑步暫時的男朋友 Love me or leave me “Only for you” “Happiness is enough” 我租了一個情人都給你幸福就好 Lady maid maid “Trapped by feeling” “Children in the heart” 愛情女僕感覺犯心裡的孩子 King flower “Because you are here” “Women who are like girls” 金大花的華麗冒險因為有你在像女孩的女人 A hint of you “A missing smell” “Not be brave” 美味的想念美味的想念不應該勇敢

Chapter 4 Data Analysis and Discussion

After presenting the adopted analytical framework and data background in

Chapter 3 we analyze our data explicitly in this chapter. In Section 4.1, all the metaphors that were used in the opening theme songs will be elucidated. We will then discuss the metaphors in the ending theme songs in Section 4.2. In our analysis, we try to find a conceptual metaphor which can represent the main idea of a song and other metaphors which can help listeners visualize the scene will be called ontological metaphor. Besides, to help our reader understand our analysis, the mappings of the metaphors will be summarized in tables. Last, in Section 4.3, we will show a discrepancy regarding performative potential and functions of metaphors in different settings (i.e. opening and ending).

4.1 Metaphors in opening theme songs

In Sections 4.1-4.5, metaphors will be presented song by song. We cite only the lyrical lines to be analyzed. The complete lyrics of the songs cited from Mojim lyrics website: mojins.com are given in the Appendix. In addition, the data will be analyzed by either Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff and Johnson 1980) or Blending

Theory (Fauconnier and Turner 1994 & 2002). We elaborate the metaphors in the songs and the meaning under those metaphors. After analyzing the metaphor in each song, we will further discuss the performative potential and functions of metaphors. In section 4.1.6, we will summarize the performative potential of the five songs and demonstrate their performative potential.

4.1.1 Opening theme song of Love, Now—“Let’s Run Together”

In the song “Yi qi qu pao bu” (一起去跑步 Let’s run together), the event

43 structure metaphor LIFE IS A JOURNEY is used throughout the song. As the name of the song suggests the song’s lyrics actually compares our life to a race.

(8) 轉一個彎（不需要方向感）沒那麼難（毛細孔會打開）煩惱跟著體溫散去我說為什麼要流淚不流汗一起去跑步請不要說不一起去跑步也許有岔路也許被斑馬擋住至少我們沒有甚麼到不了的路（一起去跑步，真愛趁現在片頭曲）

Let us make a turn (Without any sense of direction). It is not that difficult (Our pores will be opened). Trouble will evaporate with your sweat. I said why you choose to cry, not to sweat. Let us run together; do not say no. Let us run together even though we may meet at a crossroad. Maybe there is a crosswalk. At least, there is no destination which we cannot reach. (“Let’s run together”, the opening theme song of Love, Now)

As reviewed in Chapter 3, the difficulties we meet are compared to impediments to motions in Lakoff’s (1993) theory (cf. Section 3.3.2). The lyricist applies this concept in this song. The words cha lu (岔路 crossroad) and ban ma (斑馬 crosswalk) represent the blockages which are types of metaphorical difficulties in event structure metaphor. Besides, fan nao (煩惱 worry) may be a kind of burden in our mind which can disrupt our progress and impede us from pursuing our goal. The mappings of

LIFE IS A JOURNEY in this song are shown in Table 4.1

Table 4.1 Mappings of LIFE IS A JOURNEY

Source domain Target domain

Destination in a race Purpose in life Worry, crossroad, crosswalk Difficulties in life Keeps running, running together Move on reaching the goal in life

Although the lyricist mentions many blockages which represent impediments in life, he transmits to listeners a positive stance toward these impediments. The lyricist keeps encouraging people: Let us run together; do not say no, Make a turn; it is not that difficult, Trouble will evaporate with your sweat, There is no destination which we cannot arrive, I said why you choose to cry, not to sweat. In the ideational perspective, these four lines not only encourage listeners to run but also imply the deeper meaning: persisting in their goal on the road can help one conquer difficulty in life. Since the whole song is related to LIFE IS A JOURNEY, a race in the song means our life. To run a race continuously indicates that people move on to their life goal even when they meet impediments on the road. The line I said why do you choose to cry, not to sweat transmits the message that no matter what dilemma we are in, we should run (move forward) rather than stop to cry. In addition, he further concludes that as long as we still run, mei you she me dao bu le de lu (沒有什麼到不

了的路, ‘there is no destination which we cannot reach’), which means we can reach our goal in our lives at last. This statement explains that the lyricist’s attitude toward difficulties in life is positive for the reason that he believes the goal will be achieved eventually.

Regarding the main metaphor LIFE IS A JOURNEY, we can find out the performative potential in this song as well. The lyricist compares life to a race journey.

Possibly as we may encounter hurdles on a race, so are there many challenges in our

45 life. However, this metaphor with positive thoughts not only expresses the lyricist’s own belief, but also encourages listeners to overcome the difficulties in life in the interpersonal perspective, as in the following example: We can arrive every destination, Make a turn; it is not that difficult, Trouble will disappear with your sweat, There is no destination where we cannot reach, and I said why you choose to cry, not to sweat. When the performative potential is achieved in the lyrics, the metaphor promotes a sense of intimacy with some people who have been convinced by the same idea. Meanwhile, those listeners who do not agree with the point of view adopted in the song will feel a sense of distance from it. If listeners cannot comprehend the idea and the stance that the song conveys, the intimacy between the song writer and listeners cannot be constructed. The lyrics are performative also in the line “Let us run together, do not say no.” The lyrics indeed are used to persuade listeners to accept the point of view shown in the words.

Moreover, there is a signal in the song to connect unobvious metaphorical words with the idea LIFE IS A JOURNEY. In Tay’s (2010) study, he cited two terms

“signaling” and “tuning devices” (Goatly 1997; Cameron and Deigman 2003) and demonstrated that these are linguistic cues used by psychotherapists to possibly guide metaphor interpretation. For example, in Schiffrin’s (1987) study, psychotherapists use the phrase “I mean” (Schiffrin, p.310) to preface the therapist’s class-inclusive metaphoric repair strategy. According to Schiffrin (1987), “I mean” can be used in two ways: one is to introduce an utterance and the other is to be “highly relevant to interpretation of a speaker’s message.” In this song, the two characters wo shou, 我

說，‘I said’ have the same meaning and function as the phrase I mean. The lyricist uses wo shou (我說, ‘I said’) to be a preface before further illustrating his idea about the metaphor LIFE IS A JOURNEY. Without the words I say, the listeners may not understand the meaning of the previous lines (Let us make a turn. It is not that 46 difficult. Trouble will disappear with your sweat), and what the idea the lyricist transmits. However, when they hear “I said”, they will focus on the lyrics because they know what comes next is the important information. The subsquent two sentences after I said are why you choose to cry, not to sweat. Let us run together; do not say no. Listeners may finally realize that the word “liao han (流汗, ‘to sweat’) ” actually encourages them to run and overcome every difficulty as well since the conceptual metaphor LIFE IS A JOURNEY is a juncture throughout the whole song.

As the metaphor LIFE IS JOURNEY is applied with a series of positive lines in this song, it makes listeners think about their attitudes toward hard time in life. Even if not all of the listeners have the same opinions, the lyrics still convey a cheerful image and positive thoughts about life to listeners. When this song is played at the beginning of the drama, another function of metaphor and all lyrics are brought out.

The metaphor LIFE IS A JOUENEY both expresses emotional attitudes and may also influence the emotion of audience by highlighting the bright side of life; at the same time, audiences can have a joyful mood to enjoy the drama.

4.1.2 Opening theme song of Love Me or Leave Me—“Only for you”

As the first introduced song, event structure metaphor is used again in the song

“dou gei ni” (都給你 Only for you). Here, the lyric writer wrote the lyric based on a man’s point of view. He uses the event structure metaphor LOVE IS A JOURNEY to present a man’s thoughts that he wants to accompany the woman he loves and what kind of love he will give on this journey. Furthermore, the ontological metaphor

LOVE IS FIRE in lyrics makes the property of love vivid.

(7) 我只想要陪妳走就算不牽手都給妳熱的愛燙的心當背影不惋惜還感激這也算親密能關懷守護妳就開心（都給你，我租了一個情人片頭曲）

I just want to accompany you on the journey even though I cannot hold your hand. I will give you all my passionate love and a burning hurt. As a shadow, I don’t regret but feel grateful for this intimacy. As long as I can take care of you and protect you, I will be happy. (“All For You”, the opening theme song of Love Me Or Leave Me)

From the song, dou gei ni (都給你 Only for you), the lyricist wrote the lyric based on a man’s point of view. He uses the event structure metaphor LOVE IS A

JOURNEY to present a man’s thoughts that he wants to accompany the woman he loves and what kind of love he will give on this journey. LOVE IS A JOURNEY is obvious in the first line of the song wo zhi xiang yao pei ni zou (我只想要陪妳走, ‘I just want to accompany you in the journey’). The song presents the male character as someone who wants the girl to accept his love; then, they can start a love relationship.

LOVE IS A JOURNEY can be taken as a special case in life events, but it inherits the same structure of LIFE IS A JOURNEY. This idea corresponds to the plot of the drama Love me or leave me in that the male character proposes to his fiancée which means he hopes to start a marriage with the one he loves. In this event structure

LOVE IS A JOURNEY, the boy and the girl in the lyrics are all travelers on this journey. Additionally the vehicle on this journey is their love relationship. Only if the girl accepts the man’s love will their love relationship be confirmed and will they both be on the same path thereafter. Furthermore, the two people must have a common goal which corresponds to the destination of the journey. If not, they cannot accompany each other till the end of their love journey. The mappings of LOVE IS A JOURNEY 48 are summarized in Table 4.2

Table 4.2 Mappings of LOVE IS A JOURNEY

Source domain Target domain Travelers The man and the woman Vehicles Their love relationship Destination of the journey Their common goal in the relationship

In this song, the lyricist not only applies event structure metaphor—LOVE IS A

JOURNEY— but also embodies the love that a man will show to the woman by the ontological metaphor LOVE IS FIRE. This metaphor appears in the line dou gei ni re de ai ang de xin (都給妳/熱的愛燙的心, ‘give you all my hot love and a burning heart’). As we have stated in Chaper 3, ontological metaphor can reinforce the metaphorical images and here, the metaphor LOVE IS FIRE embodies the property of love by fire. The lyricist maps the properties of fire onto particular properties of love.

Fire not only provides heat for people but also warms people up by its high temperature. Comparing these properties of fire to love, this ontological metaphor embodies the feeling of love in the lyrics. Fire which is always at the high temperature is used to describe mental warmth. When love is compared to fire, it refers to warm love so that listeners can feel the love in a sense of reality. It refers to a feeling one experiences when receiving the other’s love and care. A discrepancy, however, exists between the source domain (fire) and the target domain (love). The former (i.e. fire) indicates physical warmth, while the latter (i.e. love) is mental warmth. In addition to

LOVE IS FIRE, the word bei ying (背影, ‘rear image’) symbolizes a guardian of the woman. Here the lyricist depicts a type of love without any rewards. Even if the man cannot be accepted by the woman and cannot go on this love journey with her, the

49 man is satisfied, protecting the woman by supporting her unconditionally. It is what the lyricist means by the expression dang bei ying (當背影, ‘be your shadow’).

By using LOVE IS A JOURNEY and the ontological metaphor LOVE IS A FIRE together in the song, the metaphorical language creates a concrete image of love and to insinuate the enthusiastic opinion about love to the listeners. We suggest that the performative potential of this song as follows. First, through these two metaphors, the lyricist predisposes listeners to a view that it is good enough that one person accompanies another without a specific relationship. In this song, the lyric writer expresses that it is good enough to stay with a woman (I just want to accompany you on the journey) or be her guardian (become your shadow) even though two people are not lovers. It is a totally different point of view from traditional thoughts. In traditional thoughts, people may consider that they must become important to someone as long as they love that person. Moreover, people tend to ask for reciprocation from the one they love. They believe that the one who receives love will be touched by their affection and be willing to start a love relationship with them. If the situation does not go this way, it means their love is not accepted, and they may be sad or even angry since they fail in this love event. Beside, this performative potential pushes listeners to consider giving and receiving. As listeners accept a new point of view about love, they have an opportunity to consider and tend to think of those meaning in the words. From a textual perspective, the ontological metaphor LOVE IS

FIRE especially provides listeners with a vivid image by showing the feeling of love as heat and depicts the concrete aspects of love. By way of the metaphor, listeners can feel the wonderful love.

4.1.3 Opening theme song of Lady Maid Maid—“Trapped by feeling”

To depict love in a special way, the lyricist uses two innovative metaphors in this song: LOVE IS A CRIMINAL ACT and RELATIONSHIP STATUS IS A BUILDING.

Throughout the whole song, the lyricist compares love to a legal case, which is a more serious situation in life, and tries to make people impressed by using metaphorical words to describe one’s love status.

(8) Oh! Let's go 我認罪我認栽快鎖定我當你的頭號通緝犯你審判你審愛我絕對夠格終身陪你壞放任空窗只為你獨棟我讓直覺情有獨鍾愛是空閨我不讓你獨守不得不愛當生命找到絢爛撥雲見愛我始終相信真愛（感覺犯，愛情女僕片頭曲）

Oh! Let’s go. I’ve leaded guilty; I’ve committed a crime. Please put your focus on me and let me be your wanted criminal. You can judge my crime and make a decision on our love. I have the qualification to be your love and go with you in life. I live without others in a detached house because I am waiting for you. I believe my intuition that you are my only one. Love is a chamber; I will not leave you alone. When you meet the bright and dazzling scene in life, you need to catch it. When the cloud is gone, there is true love. I believe in true love all the time. (“Trapped by feeling”, the opening theme song of Love Maid Maid)

In the lyrics, the structure of love is like a law event and the lyricist uses various words related to crime such as the wanted criminal, to judge, and to plead guilty. The

51 word “suspect” in the title of the song also serves as evidence for the metaphor LOVE

IS A CRIMINAL ACT. To make a difference from common love metaphor, the lyricist gives two lovers two different roles and maps them onto two source domains. On the one hand, a man who is eager for love is compared to the source domain, i.e. a criminal in a law event. On the other hand, a judge is the source domain which is mapped onto a woman who is loved. From this metaphor, it is obvious that the woman takes the lead in a love relationship. The line you can judge my crime and make a decision on our love indicates that the woman perfectly has the right to decide to start a love relationship with the man or not. The man does not force her to accept his love but gives her authority to make a choice. Additionally, this metaphor is applied with a contrary thought about the crime.

The phrase ‘crimes’ has a negative connotation, and it is usually considered a bad situation to be involved in a lawsuit. However, to present how the man desires love from the woman, the lyricist describes a sense in which he is even willing to be a

“wanted criminal”. The man’s crime is convicted only if the woman accepts this love and also focuses her attention on the man. Since this metaphorical usage encourages people, especially women, to love when they meet their Mr. Right, the law event does not refer to a negative phenomenon anymore. Table 4.3 summarizes this event structure metaphor about love.

Table 4.3 Mappings of LOVE IS A CRIMINAL ACT

Source domain Target domain The wanted criminal The man who is eager for love The judge The woman who is loved by the man. A convicted crime An accepted love An established law event A constructed relationship

LOVE IS A CRIMINAL ACT is not the only metaphor in this opening theme song. RELATIONSHIP STATUS IS A BUILDING is another metaphor that conceptualizes one’s love status in “Trapped by Feeling”. In the song, there are many phrases related to a building: du dong (獨棟, ‘a detached house’), and kong gui (空閨,

‘chamber’). The line fang ren kong chuang (放任空窗, ‘I let myself in between relationship’) indeed expresses the meaning that “I am single”, but to emphasize that there is still someone in the persona’s mind the lyric writer compares the relationship status to a part of building. When people see into the window, they will see no others in a room. Besides, the persona chooses to live in a detached house which means he does not want to have too much interaction with others for the reason that he is waiting for the girl who he loves. Furthermore, the line ai shi kong gui (愛是空閨,

‘love is a chamber’) corresponds to the persona’s relationship status again. The character gui 閨 which refers to “chamber” in Chinese. It is a room in a house. To decoratively depict one person’s relationship status, the lyricist avoids using the word

“single” or “dating someone” directly; rather, he refers to one’s mind as a bedroom.

An empty bedroom shows a double meaning that there are no others in his room, and he is still single. When a person is single, it indicates that no one resides in his or her heart. However, if one is dating with someone, or likes someone romantically, it means that this person places somebody in his or her heart. Possibly, people invite others into their chambers when they are close enough. Here in the lyrics, the lexical item kong gui (空閨, ‘empty room’) is concrete for a relationship status and presents that a person is in spouseless status or without a boyfriend or girlfriend. Hence, the function of this ontological metaphor and the words, tung chi fan (通緝犯, ‘wanted criminal’), which is an extension from LOVE IS A CRIMINAL ACT, both express a man’s strong love emotion to a woman. The next sentence I will not leave you alone after the line love is the chamber is the best evidence for this strong love emotion. 53

Also, it persuades the one who is being pursued to accept this love.

Additionally, a mixed metaphor is shown in the line bo yun jian ai (撥雲見愛,

‘when the cloud is gone, there is true love’) is a mixed metaphor (Kimme, 2010: 98).

According to Kimmel (2010:98), mixed metaphor occur in textual adjacency and those metaphors do not share any imagistic ontology or any direct inferential entailments between them. First, this metaphor bo yun jian ai (撥雲見愛, ‘when the cloud is gone, there is true love’) is a transformation from a Chinese phrase bo yun jian ri (撥雲見日, ‘every cloud has its silver lining’). The character, yun (雲, ‘clouds’) is a symbol that refers to forthcoming problems (Żołnowska, 2011). When talking about weather, most people like a sunny day. Clouds, however, may bring rain. For the character ri (日, ‘silver lining’), it refers to optimism and hope. This phrase presents a positive point of view to people—namely, it is an encouragement to people who suffer a difficult time. As long as they hold their hopes, they can find a bright side after darkness. In this song, by changing the word ri (日, sun) into ai (愛, love), the lyricist retains the positive idea of love. Different from the phrase bo yun jian ri

(撥雲見日, ‘every cloud has its silver lining’), the focus of the metaphor changes from life experiences to love events which is a specific event in life. The phrase mixes two metaphorical images—the sky full of clouds, and the clear sky without any cloud.

The lyricist uses clouds to symbolize some problems people will meet in the love road.

It is not easy to meet a right person immediately. Sometimes, love brings to us not only happiness but also pain. However, after the “clouds”, there is true love. The lyricist tries to encourage the listeners not to be afraid on the love road, even though they used to get hurt. We should keep the faith so that we will still have the chance to meet better mates in the end.

The two creative and fresh metaphors, LOVE IS A CRIMINAL ACT and

RELATIONSHIP STATUS IS A RENTAL ACTIVITY, and the phrase bo yun jian ri 54

(撥雲見日, ‘every cloud has its silver lining’), convey a positive and enthusiastic thought to listeners. The two metaphors actually encourage and persuade people to hold onto the chance when they meet their true love. The function of metaphor LOVE

IS A CRIMINAL ACT is to present the notion of facing love bravely. Besides, the use of the RELATIONSHIP STATUS IS A RENTAL ACTIVITY demonstrates the lyricist’s application of the function of decoration in metaphor. The man’s thought about waiting for a woman becomes concrete through the figurative words—the detached house, and the space of bedroom. To further elucidate the lyricist’s view of facing love, the mixed metaphor bo yun jian ai (撥雲見愛, ‘when the cloud is gone, there is true love’) predisposes listeners to the same idea about love as the previous metaphor LOVE IS A CRIMINAL ACT. By using those metaphors in the song, the lyricist expresses his emotion and belief. The frustration from love will not defeat him.

On the contrary, the lyricist considers that the bad experience becomes good nutrition for people to meet a good person next time. Hence, bo yun jian ai (撥雲見愛, ‘when the cloud is gone, there is true love’) serves to transmit this belief to listeners. Another important aspect of the performative potential served by the metaphors involves implying the result and the development of the drama Love maid maid. Due to the fact that this song is played at the beginning of the drama, it establishes a relation between the song and the drama to certain degree. Coincidentally, the blossoming love of the female and the male character corresponds to the meaning in the mixed metaphor bo yun jian ai (撥雲見愛, ‘when the cloud is gone, there is true love’).

Given the background of my data (see Section 3.4.1), the love experience of the female character did not go smoothly in the beginning. Instead, the male character did not regard her favorably. However, her persistent love and devotion lead to a good result. This process corresponds to the implicature of the mixed metaphor bo yun jian ai (撥雲見愛, ‘when the cloud is gone, there is true love’). As a result, both in the 55 ideational and interpersonal perspectives, for the audiences of this drama who are also the listeners of the song, metaphors cultivate the intimacy and hint that even if they have watched part of the plot which they do not like, the story is going to have a happy ending at last.

4.1.4 Opening theme song of King Flower—“Because you are here” Instead of discussing life experience or love in lyrics, the opening theme song of

King Flower describes warm friendship between women. The lyric writer emphasizes a beautiful scene of women’s friendship by using two ontological metaphors: MIND

STATUS IS A CONTAINER and AN IDEA IS AN OBJECT. The two metaphors will be elaborate below the citation. (9) 嘿，我還沒睡隨時都歡迎為你留的空位不打烊不休息 Take my hand 不管是好是壞你都在 Ho~ 我們默契滿載，言語無法明白因為有你在才能改變未來（因為有你在，金大花的華麗冒險片頭曲）

Hey, I have not fallen asleep. I am waiting for you all the time. I leave the space for you in my heart just like a 24-7 store. Take my hand; you always stand by my side. Our rapport is so overflowing in the mind that you can’t describe it in words. Because we have each other, we can change the future. (“Because you Are here”, the opening theme song of King Flower)

The first metaphor is an ontological metaphor (see Section 3.3.3) MIND STATUS IS

A COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY, which is applied in the line “I leave a space for you in my heart just like a 24-7 store”. The meaning behind this metaphor is that one will always stands by her friend’s side whenever she needs help. To make the idea concrete, COMMERCIAL ACTITY becomes the source domain. A commercial

56 activity exists for the demand of consumers. Normally, people go to a convenience store when they lack something. A convenience store like 7-11 or Family mart is a

24-7 store (a store opens for 24 hours a day throughout the whole year) because of the consumer’s needs. Here, this concept is used to describe a considerate and close friendship. Good friends will leave a space for each other in their mind any time as we can go to a 24-7 store whenever we like. In addition, we do not normally use the word

“seat” to describe our space of mind because our heart or mind is a part of body and cannot be seen. However, by making use of the metaphor MIND STATUS IS

COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY, the word “seat” is ontologically mapped onto mind status. The next line “you always stand by my side” corresponds to this metaphorical usage and expresses the same notion of company.

To further present the good aspect of women’s friendship, two metaphors, MIND

IS A CONTAINER and AN IDEA IS AN OBJECT are used. First, in MIND IS A

CONTAINER metaphor, mind is compared to a container filled out by objects with certain weight. Second, the idea is compared to objects in the container. The phrase mo qi (默契) refers to the same idea. When we say you mo qi (有默契) means two people have the same idea in many situations. They can understand and agree with each other. In the lyrics, man zai (滿載, ‘full’) involves another metaphor— AN IDEA

IS AN OBJECT— since only objects can be put into containers which are equal to minds in the song. The full load of a container is hard to explain by words as two friends’ minds is so in sync so others cannot find a good way to describe the chemistry between them. The two metaphors MIND IS A CONTAINER and AN

IDEA IS AN OBJECT embody the idea about the best chemistry between friends in the lyrics wo men mo qi man zai, yan yu wu fa ming bai (我們默契滿載/言語無法明

白, ‘our rapport is so overflowing in the mind that you can’t describe it in words’).

The mappings of three ontological metaphors, MIND STATUS IS A COMMERCIAL 57

ACTIVITY, MIND IS A CONTAINER, and AN IDEAS IS AN OBJECT are summarized in Table 4.4.

Table 4.4 Mappings of MIND STATUS IS A COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY, MIND IS

A CONTAINER, and AN IDEAS IS AN OBJECT Metaphor Source domain Target domain MIND STATUS IS A A 24-7 store People’s mind status COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY MIND IS A A container Mind CONTAINER AN IDEAS IS AN An Object An idea in the mind OBJECT Since the two ontological metaphors are related to warm friendship between women, the performative potential is to articulate a good picture of women’s friendship for listeners to bear in mind from the textual perspective, and to induce happy emotions in audiences before the drama begins. Indeed, various aspects about friendship can be discussed but the lyricist decided to highlight the phenomenon that friends give support to each other rather than the bad side such as cheating each other.

By using the metaphor, the lyricist shows how good friends will support each other and will develop a rapport. Besides, the lyricist emphasizes the power of the friendship by saying that when friends assist each other, they can overcome difficulties and change their future. It is the way the metaphor articulates the visual image of friendship among women. Another performative potential, to influence listeners’ (audiences’) emotion, is based on the playing time of the song. Koelsch’s study (2009) suggests that listening to the music can engage a “mental state attribution” in human brain. Furthermore, with the lyrics, a song becomes more influential in that listeners receive “a semantic voice” (Faber, 2013). In this song, the

58 metaphors show benefits of friendship. As Dubuc (2013) claims, “human memory is fundamentally associative”. We link our memories to something else when they are affiliated. It is believed that the song brings people happy emotion and courage before the drama begins when they think of their friends around them. The performative potential “to induce happy emotion in audiences” can be taken as the reason for choosing this song. The producer of the drama would like his or her audiences to enjoy the drama and to be involved in the fantasy world. To achieve this goal, controlling audiences’ emotion may be the crucial factor. For this reason, the opening theme song plays an important role. The function of the bright metaphor expresses the persona’s thoughts and influences audiences’ emotions at the same time.

4.1.5 Opening Theme Song of A hint of you—“A missing smell”

This song, “mei wei de xiang nian” (美味的想念 A missing smell,) is the opening theme song in A hint of you (美味的想念). The whole song involves two metaphors: LOVE IS FOOD and TIME PASSING IS MOTION OF OBJECT.

Although these metaphors seem to have no direct relationships, they are nevertheless combined together to interpret the same idea about the wonderful feeling of falling in love with someone.

(10) 看彩虹甜點劃過不曾停止過跳動想著妳就像美味的想念一口口吹著泡泡飛過粉色的天空一句句的我愛妳打進妳甜甜的笑容一步步跑向愛的天空大聲對妳說一次次把妳抱進懷裡不讓時間流走（美味的想念，美味的想念片頭曲）

I look at the rainbow which is like the dessert across the sky; My heart never stops beating. The feeling while I am thinking of you is like the taste of delicious food. I will run into the sky of love and talk loudly to you. Blowing the bubble mouth by mouth in front of the pink sky, I will speak my love and make you smile sweetly. I will hug you again and again and seize the time and chance as well. (“A missing smell”, the opening theme song of A hint of you)

To begin with, the first metaphor appears in the song name mei wei de xiang nian (美

味的想念, “A missing smell”) and also the line in this song. This description is indeed a kind of ontological metaphor—LOVE IS FOOD. As Chang’s (2008) study results show, LOVE IS FOOD is the major conceptual metaphor in Chinese pop song lyrics.

The concept of food is used in the lyrics as well. The feeling of missing results from

“love”, and is one kind of abstract feeling in people’s mind. Here, the lyricist uses the word “delicious”, which in Chinese is mei wei (美味) to describe the one feeling of love as something memorable. Feeling is not an entity and not something that can be touched. The lyricist takes feeling as food since only food can be tasted. The feeling and the emotion of missing are embodied by ontological metaphor. Besides, this metaphor has another meaning. The lyricist characterizes the feeling about love as wonderful and pleasant because eating delicious food is also delightful. The whole song shows a person falling in love with another person. The lyricist uses the adjective mei wei (美味, ‘delicious’) which is a positive and a highly praised word to interpret missing. It transmits the good sides of falling in love. Because of this ontological metaphor listeners can imagine the situation and the feeling when they fall in love while they are listening to this song. Furthermore, the special reason that the lyricist likens feeling to food is that this drama is called mei wei de xiang nia (美味的

想念, A hint of you). The theme of this drama is to find a lost type of fried rice. Using

60 this metaphor in the song can make audiences always build up connections with the drama plot. It may be the meaning behind this ontological metaphor.

By using selective words, the song tries to depict a beautiful image about love; e.g. fen se de tian kong (粉色的天空, ‘pink sky’), tian tian de xiao rong (甜甜的笑容,

‘sweet smile’), cai hong tian dian (彩虹甜點, ‘rainbow as dessert’). According to

Rasekh and Ghafel (2011), in various languages, color terms are used literally and metaphorically to convey their associative meanings. Besides, they provide examples of the connotative meanings of color in English such as feel blue (feel sad), to be in the pink (to be in the best condition) and to see red (become angry very rapidly) (2010:

212). In a similar vein, Niemeir (1998) argues that color metaphors are influenced by metonomy since most of the connotative meanings assigned to colors seem to be grounded in reality to some extent. Furthermore, in color psychology, every color has its own special symbolism. For example, pink is a sign of hope in color psychology. It is a positive color which inspires a warm feeling. Pink represents compassion, nurturing and love essentially. Based on these concepts, we can say the phrase pink sky is equivalent to the phrase love sky. This meaning articulates the basic idea of the whole song. When listeners listen to the song attentively, they can find out that the song depicts man who falls in love with a woman at first sight. Hence, the words which the lyricist uses correspond with this theme when the word pink sky co-occurs with two other phrases sweet smile, and rainbow as dessert.

Another conceptual metaphor in this song is TIME PASSING IS MOTION OF

OBJECT. The line bu rang shi jian liu zou (不讓時間流走, ‘seize the time’) applies this conceptual metaphor. As Kovecses (2010) states, this kind of metaphor helps people imagine the concept of time. In this example, the passing of time is compared to liquid such as fluidity of water. The common structure of liquids is that they can flow. The lyricist tries to present the motion of time passing by the motion of flowing. 61

The description helps people to sense the reality as time goes by. Furthermore, the whole line seize the time implies that people whom the lyricist describes will seize both time and the true love. The lyrics describe a person who does not want to miss this chance to catch love. By using this conceptual metaphor in a positive way, the correlation with fen se de tian kong (粉色的天空, ‘pink sky’) and this metaphor phrase bu rang shi jian liu zou (不讓時間流走, ‘seize the time’) is constructed since the implication of pink involves a positive attitude and love. Before elucidating the performative potential of metaphor in this song, we summarize the mappings of the metaphor in Table 4.5.

Table 4.5 Mappings of the metaphors of LOVE IS FOOD and TIME PASSING IS

MOTION OF OBJECT

Metaphor Source domain Target domain LOVE IS FOOD Taste of food Feeling of missing TIME PASSING IS MOTION OF Fluidity of liquid Time passing OBJECT

The analysis above has shown that there is more than one conceptual metaphor in the lyrics. When various metaphors are intertwined in this song, the performative potential of metaphor and the function of metaphor are built up. From an interpersonal perspective, the metaphor LOVE IS FOOD here cultivates an intimacy between listeners and the metaphor. The title of this song and the meaning of the metaphor are all related to the drama plot so that audience will be familiar with the theme of drama gradually after they hear the song several times. Besides, the beautiful image of falling in love also transmits performative potential. As mentioned earlier, the lyricist expresses a happy and pleasant attitude toward falling in love with someone. The 62 figurative language, the color and the metaphor he uses not only possess the function of decoration but also offer a beautiful scene for listeners to imagine. Furthermore, the combination of the metaphors predisposes the listeners to have an open mind about accepting love bravely. This idea is especially obvious in the line seize the time. The line conveys the notion of taking the chance which is already in front of you. All in all, the performative potential can be summarized as follows: to cultivate intimacy between the song and listeners, to serve a beautiful image about love to listeners, and to predispose listeners to an optimistic view of accepting a love relationship with someone.

4.1.6 Summary: the performative potential and the functions of metaphors in opening theme songs From Section 4.1.1 to 4.1.5 we have analyzed the metaphor in the opening theme songs of five dramas. When juxtaposing all the data, we find that there are some common characteristics; namely, some of them share the same performative potential and the functions of metaphor.

Using metaphors in the opening theme song lyrics, the lyricists actually convey a positive point of view on certain issues or events to listeners. For the song, “Only for you”, “Trapped by feeling”, and “A missing smell” are concerned with love. The metaphors which are used in these songs show the beauty of love. In addition, from the interpersonal perspective, they try to push their listeners think enthusiastically about love issues such as facing love bravely, protecting a person behind, and accepting love without fear. Although the other two songs, “Let’s run together” and

“Because you are there”, do not pertain to love, the metaphors used in them still express a positive and bright outlook. The lyric writer of Run Together conveys a positive attitude about life. The metaphor LIFE IS A JOURNEY in the song demonstrates the belief that difficulties in life can be overcome by people. Moreover, 63 the similar idea was conveyed in the song “Because of you”. In the textual perspective, the metaphorical language in “Because of You” depicts the power of women’s friendship. The lyricist conveys that the power of companionship make people change the future. Even though the theme of the songs includes various topics, life, love, and friendship, each of them presents a bright side and a positive attitude by using metaphors.

Additionally, the performative potential of the metaphors in these songs not only expresses the emotion of the lyricist but somehow influences listeners’ emotions.

When the songs are chosen to be opening theme songs, we can be sure that the audiences will hear them; hence, playing the song at the beginning of the drama is a way to influence their emotions. In this case, the lyrics will be the main bridge between listeners and lyricists. The strong metaphorical languages in the lyrics provide a vivid image of love, life and the friendship for listeners. By using concrete and good image from metaphors, the lyrics bring people a relatively positive emotion.

Besides, when these songs become opening theme songs, lyrics cultivate intimacy between listeners and lyricists, and shorten the distance between audiences and dramas simultaneously. The song “Trapped by feeling” and “A missing smell” have proved this point. In these two songs, their metaphors are firmly related to the drama plot. The mixed metaphor bo yun jian ai (撥雲見愛, ‘when the cloud is gone, there is true love’) in the song “Trapped by Feeling” hints the development of the female and the male character in Laidy Maid Maid. It tries to give audiences a hint about the love journey between two characters. Even though their love road would not go smoothly but there is a happy ending.

Another song, “Mei wei de xiang nian” (美味的想念 “A missing smell”) actually owns the same name as the drama. When the opening theme song is named as the same title of the drama, the connection is build up in the very beginning. In 64 addition, the metaphor LOVE IS FOOD in this song corresponds to the theme of the drama A hint of you which is to find a lost fried-rice. By making the connections between metaphors and drama plot, the function of cultivating intimacy is performed.

In the end of this Section, we summarize the performative potential in the five opening theme songs in Table 4.6.

Table 4.6 Performative potential in the opening theme songs

Opening “Let’s run “Only for you” “Trapped by “Because “A missing Theme together” feeling” you are smell” Songs here” Performative To express To create a To insinuate a To To Potentials poitive belief concrete image positive and articulate cultivate (encourage of love enthusiastic a good intimacy listeners to idea to listeners picture of and make overcome the (accept true women’s an difficultie in love bravely) friendship associative life) connection to the drama To express To push the To cultivate To induce To serve a emotional listeners to intimacy and happy beautiful attitudes and think imply (hint) the emotion image influences enthusiastically result of the in about love the emotion about love drama audiences of audiences To cultivate To To intimacy with influence predispose certain listeners’ listeners to people emotion an optimistic view of accepting a love relationship

After classifying the functions of metaphors and performative potential in the opening theme songs, we next analyze the ending theme songs in Section 4.2. As will be shown, there is a discrepancy between the ending and opening theme songs in terms of their overall configuration of performative potential.

4.2 Metaphors in ending theme songs

Next, we attempt to analyze the metaphors in the ending theme songs of those five dramas. After the metaphors in the songs are elaborated, we will further discuss what performative potential is created and demonstrate their functions.

4.2.1 Ending theme song of Love, Now—“A temporary boyfriend”

In Section 4.1-4.5, we explain the meaning of metaphor mainly based on CMT.

However, in the first ending theme song, we will use BT since there is a fresh and novel metaphor, a temporary boyfriend as a rebound in this song

(11) 我隨時投入妳感情節奏隨時給妳場外的援手如果妳還沒死心對妳的前男友我等妳繼續投我願做妳的籃板球我願意當妳的籃板球當一個暫時的男朋友只要妳需要我陪妳過不怕別人怎麼看怎麼說我我願意當妳的籃板球當一個暫時的男朋友不讓妳有一秒鐘寂寞我要填滿妳的現在不排除今後這回合幸福沒有停太久下回合還可以重新來過不一定不一定妳要選我可是我會比妳更執著（暫時的男朋友，真愛趁現在片尾曲）

I will always follow your emotion and give you support out of the basketball court. If you do not give up the hope for your ex-boyfriend; I will be your rebound and waiting for you to shoot. As long as you need my company, I do not care how others see me in their eyes. I am willing to be your rebound just as a temporary boyfriend. 66

I will not let you feel lonesome; I will fill your time from now on, including your future time. Although the happy time is short this round, you still have the chance to own happiness next round. You do not necessarily choose me as your boyfriend but I will be persistent in this love. (“A temporary boyfriend”, the ending theme song of Love, Now) In the song “A temporary boyfriend”, there are many terms related to a basketball game such as chang wai (場外, ‘court’), zhe hui he (這回合, ‘this round’), jie tzou (節

奏, ‘tempo’) and lan ban chiou (籃板球, ‘a rebound’). For the reason that a basketball game is a kind of sports, we consider that LOVE IS A BASKETBALL GAME is used in the lyrics. In a love relationship, men would probably have rivals. As this situation happen, they regard each other as competitors. Their love is compared to a sport game, and there will be only a winner in the relationship because a woman will merely accept one’s love in the end. For example, in this song, the man’s rival is the woman’s ex-boyfriend since the woman has not forgotten her ex-boyfriend (如果妳還沒死心/

對你的前男友). We show the mappings of conceptual metaphor LOVE IS SPORT in

Table 4.7.

Table 4.7 Mappings of LOVE IS A BASKETBALL GAME

Source domain Target domain A basketball game A love relationship Competitors in the game Men who loves the same girl The girl who is thinking of her ex-boyfriend The winner in the game The man who accepts by the woman

For the linguistic expression “I am willing to be your rebound just as a temporary boyfriend”, there are two explanations. The first possible explanation is that we use

CMT to discuss it. Based on the conceptual metaphor, LOVE IS A BASKETBALL

GAME, the boy is compared to a basketball, and the girl is the shooter/player. She is

67 the person who leads the game; namely, she can decide to accept the boy or not.

Beside, according to the basketball rule, a rebound is a missed basket from players and bounces back into the backboard. The nature of a rebound scenario is that everyone gets the chance to grab the loose ball. When the girl gets the ball that missed the basket, and the ball becomes a rebound, this action refers to the meaning of becoming a temporary boyfriend at the same time. For the second explanation, we take the lyrics “I am willing to be your rebound just as a temporary boyfriend” as a linguistic metaphor “a temporary boyfriend as a rebound”. However, there is not any direct similarity between a temporary boyfriend and a rebound. It is also hard to explain the process of meaning construction by two domains. Hence, to explain the causal structure in the a-temporary-boyfriend-as-a-rebound metaphor, BT is adopted.

To analyze the metaphor a temporary boyfriend as a rebound, we can discuss from the following three aspects: people, time and the result. In a basketball game, there are two competitive teams. When there is a rebound, players in any team can grab the ball. “Players in the team” map onto men who court the woman and show their love. In terms of time, the ball only can be treated as a “rebound” for a few seconds (the time it is actually in the air) in the court, this concept matches the meaning of “temporary”. Last, during the course of the game, any time a player misses the basket, the rebound results. In other words, there are many chances for players in both teams to grab the ball. This situation maps onto the uncertain result of being the girl’s temporary boyfriend since she gets so many choices. Moreover, the uncertain duration of being a temporary boyfriend is the same as a rebound in a basked ball competition. The mappings of the metaphor “A temporary boyfriend as a rebound” is shown in Figure 4.1 in Blending Theory.

Figure 4.1 A temporary boyfriend as a rebound

To interpret the song further, the girl in the lyrics just broke up with her boyfriend. However, the man has been waiting for her for a long time. He tries to convince her that she deserves a better man; therefore, and that she does not need to be sad. The lyricist uses the line sui shi gei ni change wai de yuan shou (隨時給妳場

外的援手, ‘to show the man will stay by the woman’s side anytime when she needs him’). Nevertheless, the expression the man is a substitute refers to being “temporary”.

To the woman, his exist is not indispensable, but the man would be delighted to stand by the woman just like a player waiting for a rebound. The description shows a man’s determination to wait for a woman to forget her ex-boyfriend while not minding being a substitute for him.

Besides, the metaphor TIME IS A CONTAINER is used in the line wo yao tian man ni de xian zai bu pai chu jin hou (我要填滿妳的現在不排除今後, ‘I will fill your time from now on, including your future time’). The mapping of this metaphor is 69 shown in Table 4.8. The target domain TIME contains an abstract concept. The passing of the time is not like people’s movement and action which are visible. By the metaphor TIME IS A CONTAINER, the lyricist tries to articulate the length of time.

Since a container is a utensil that can be filled with liquid, the volume of the liquid in the container can be described as being high or low. The lyricist makes use of this notion of container to illustrate time and make the length of time concrete to listeners.

The line I will fill your time from now on, including your future time represents the man’s company with the woman all the time. Although the man’s identity may be a temporary boyfriend, this metaphor TIME IS A CONTAINER adequately shows his willingness to become the woman’s permanent boyfriend in the near future.

Table 4.8 Mapping of TIME IS A CONTAINER Metaphor Source domain Target domain

TIME IS A volume of the liquid in utensil A length of time A CONTAINER

The performative potential of this metaphor presents the decoration of figurative words in lyrics. The lyricist uses a special way (i.e. LOVE IS A BASKETBALL

GAME, a temporary boyfriend as a rebound), telling listeners what a temporary boyfriend is like. The creative metaphor is more appealing to listeners than the traditional metaphor. Additionally, this metaphor is related to the drama plot. The performative potential serves to make connections between the plot of drama Love,

Now and the ending theme song. As stated earlier in Section 3.4.1, in the drama, the female character is a workaholic who does not want to take a rest even for one second.

When her friend deliberately tells her the wrong information that she had cancer, she considers that she can only live for three months. She decides to enjoy the rest of her

70 life, and hopes that she can achieve some goals such as trying things that she has never done before. One of her wishes is to be in love with somebody and enjoy this wonderful love. Meanwhile, she meets a man who has sympathy for her experience.

This man wants to be her boyfriend and does whatever she wants to do together. In the beginning, both of them consider that the woman does not have much time to live.

As a result, the identity “boyfriend” for the man is only for the time being impermanence in the drama. This plot in the drama corresponds to the metaphor “A temporary boyfriend is a rebound” in its ending theme song so that the metaphor not merely serves an aesthetic function but matches the plot in it. Moreover, when the relationship between the metaphor and the drama plot is connected successfully, the intimacy among audiences to this song is cultivated as well.

4.2.2 Ending theme song of Love me or leave me—“Happiness is enough”

Like the opening theme song of this drama (see Section 4.1.1), the ending theme song emphasizes love. Both of them use the event structure metaphor LOVE IS A

JOURNEY. Yet, the two songs depict totally different situations in a love relationship.

In the opening theme song “Only for you”, the lyricist describes a man’s mental status about accompanying a woman on the love journey while the lyric writer shows sad emotions and broken relationship in this song.

(12) 一天一天一天倒數上演一點一點一點慢慢擱淺我們的愛已沒辦法兌現我們的愛可惜沒有終點答應我你要過得比我好只要你幸福就好我可以不計較（幸福就好，我租了一個情人片尾曲）

Day by day, our play will be shown soon. Little by little, it is stranded. Our love cannot be realized. It is pity that our love has no destination. Please promise me that you will live a better life than I do. As long as you are happy, I will not care anymore. (“Happiness is enough”, the ending theme song of Love me or leave me)

The conceptual metaphor LOVE IS A JOURNEY (especially sea journey) describes the predicament in which two lovers meet in their relationship. The metaphorical language is that two lovers are on the same boat on the journey, meaning they are in a love relationship. Unfortunately, the lyricists uses ge qian (擱淺, ‘stranded’) to show that their love relationship cannot go further from the place where they are. The expression ge qian (擱淺, ‘stranded’) can be classified as a type of “features of the terrain” (see Table 3.2 in Section 3.3.2), characterizing the metaphorical difficulties in event structure metaphor (Lakoff, 1993). The situation implies that they face an impediment on their journey and cannot go further, just like the line wo men de ai ke xi mei you zhong dian (我們的愛可惜沒有終點, ‘It is pity that our love has no destination’). Moreover, there is an unconventional ontological metaphor in the line wo men de ai yi mei ban fa dui xian (我們的愛已無法兌現, ‘Our love cannot be realized’). In the line, the word dui xian (兌現, ‘check’) refers to a financial transaction which people cash the check. It involves a conceptual metaphor LOVE IS

A BUSINESS TRANSACTION. Paying with the check is one common method on business occasions. In the lyric, the action is compared to the way to make a promise come true. The promise of love corresponds to the check, and the lyricist conceptualizes the broken promise as a bad check. Hence, when two lovers’ relationship cannot continue anymore, their promises are forsaken at the same time.

This metaphorical meaning demonstrates the failure of their love and their feeling of

72 frustration. The ontological metaphor and the event structure metaphor LOVE IS A

JOURNEY both represent the same notion about the bad situation a couples experience through their relationship. In Table 4.9, we summarize the mappings of two conceptual metaphors which are used in the song.

Table 4.9. Mappings of LOVE IS A JOURNEY and LOVE IS BUSINESS TRANSACTION Metaphor Source domain Target domain LOVE IS A The boat stranded The love relationship JOURNEY on the journey cannot go further LOVE IS A Check The promise of love BUSINESS Cash the check To make promise come true TRANSACTION A bad check A broken promise

In the lyrics, all the metaphorical languages express a sad emotion about the broken relationship of lovers. The metaphor LOVE IS A JOURNEY and LOVE IS A

BUSINESS TRANSACTION present a negative and a sad side of a love relationship.

The journey which cannot go further and the promise keeps transmitting a feeling of frustration from the woman, as depicted in the lyrics; although, at the end of the lyrics the woman says that as long as the man is happy, she will not care anymore. There is a little plaintive emotion involved in those words. Her wish for being together with her lover cannot be achieved; what she can do is leave the journey and see another girl join the journey with the man. In addition, as an ending theme song in the TV drama, the song can be regarded as a bridge that interacts with audiences (listeners). Although audiences feel a sad emotion from this song and the plot, they are willing to wait for the development of the drama to turn into something good in next episode. In other words, when audiences are kept in suspense for the drama, they will be motivated to

73 watch the next episode. Moreover, using the metaphors in a sad aspect, the lyrics catch audiences’ emotion and their attention to the drama. This kind of effect becomes the performative potential of the ending theme song. The performative potential is to a large extent achieved by the fact that it is played at the end of each episode.

4.2.3 Ending theme song of Lady Maid Maid—“Children in the heart” In this song, the lyricist uses a unique method to demonstrate the psychological change from a little girl to a woman. Two conceptual metaphors in relation to weather are used: one is STORM IS HARD TIME and another is SUNNY

IS OPTIMISM (Zolnowska, 2011).

(13) 學會化妝去遮掩些什麼學會先沉默再察言觀色雷雨不來又哪有彩虹呢能自我安慰是必修的課在心裡的孩子常祈禱有天使借一雙翅膀逃離現實（心裡的孩子，愛情女僕片尾曲）

Learning to make up is a way to recover something. To be silent is the first step to observe others’ expression and their words closely. If there is no storm, how will the rainbow come? It is necessary to learn the lesson of self-consolation. The child in my heart always prays for the angel to come, And asks to borrow the wing from the angel to escape from the reality world. (“Child in the heart”, the ending theme song of Laidy Maid Maid)

First, the difference between a girl and a woman is the ability to console herself. A woman has the ability to encourages herself when she experiences hard times. The weather is the source domain for the metaphorical expressions in the song. The two conceptual metaphors STORM IS HARD TIMES and another is SUNNY IS

OPTIMISM are shown by the line lei yu bu lai you na you cai hong ne (雷雨不來/又

哪有彩虹呢, ‘If there is no storm, how will the rainbow come?’). According to

Żołnowska (2011:167), there is “a systematicity of weather concepts” when people use the phenomenon of weather as metaphorical expressions. For example the words cloudy, rainy, foggy, and stormy indicate that some problems appear or bad things happen while the words sunny and sunshine refer to a positive and optimistic perspective. He further provides two examples “Bob lost his job, but somehow his family weathered the storm.” “When she learnt about the old truth, the long lie, she cried out it was a bolt from a clear sky shattering her life.” which contain conceptual metaphor A STORM IS HARD TIMES (Żołnowska, 2011: 173). In our song, the

STORM IS HARD TIMES is used as well. In the line lei yu bu lai you na you cai hong ne (雷雨不來/又哪有彩虹呢, (‘If there is no storm, how will the rainbow come?’). Lei yu (雷雨, ‘STORM’) is a source domain indicating target domain of

HARD TIMES. The storm represents challenges, difficulties, and frustrations that life brings. The lyricist conveys a positive self-belief as the next sentence implies rainbow will show up. This is the second conceptual metaphor SUNNNY IS OPTIMISM

(Żołnowska, 2011: 173). For example, “I mean you are looking back on your childhood you always think of your childhood being sunny days.” (Żołnowska, 2011:

174). This metaphorical expression in the lyrics is identical to the English idiom “Sky clears after rain”. Rainbow appears in the sky after rain, and the weather becomes sunny. The source domain SUNNY is compared to the target domain OPTIMISM and is further aligned with an unspecific but positive feature such as harvests and something to be successful or being happy (Żołnowska, 2011: 176). Weather is daily topic of people’s life, and it can influence people’s mood. Bad weather may evoke our sad emotions but good weather brings happiness and energy to us. Choosing weather phenomenon as the source domain in the lyrics, the two conceptual metaphors make 75 the abstract process of life vivid and more sensible to listeners as summarized in Table

4.10

Table 4.10 Mappings of STORM IS HARD TIMES and SUNSHINE IS OPTIMISM Metaphor Source domain Target domain STORM IS Storm Challenges HARD TIMES Difficulties Frustration which life brings to us SUNNY IS Sunny Good things, OPTIMISM Harvests something to be successful or being happy

Next, the lyricist depicts the psychological change by using the word hua

Zhuang (化妝,‘make up’). For a little girl, it is not necessary to put make-up on her face, yet, a woman uses make-up to beautify herself and is a kind of manner in formal occasions. However, in the lyrics, the word “make up” not merely means to put make up on the face but to describe a sophisticated woman. The word hua Zhuang (化妝,

‘make up’) in the song involves the metaphorical meaning of hiding one’s real personality; namely, the masked personality is “a child in the heart” as the song title suggests. Different life experiences are the key for a person to become mature. At the same time, we have learned how to be diplomatic. The original personality of the woman is not strong enough to face everything in the life by herself. Nevertheless, she wants to show everyone that she has grown up so she starts to pretend she is tough and independent. The word make up actually is a disguise for her vulnerability in the heart. Moreover, the line jie yi shuang chi bang tao li xian shi (借一雙翅膀逃離現實,

‘borrow the wing from the angel to escape the world’) indicates the persona’s eagerness to lean on someone. Although there is no angel in reality, the line shows

76 that the woman still hopes she can rely on someone when she feels tired or frustrated.

That is to say, hua Zhuang (化妝, ‘make up’) are both a symbol of maturity and a disguise for one’s weak state.

The analysis of this song has shown that the performative potential serves to convey a belief to listeners in ideational perspective. From the two conceptual metaphors A STORM IS A HARD TIME and SUNSHINE IS OPTIMISM, the lyricist’s belief is intertwined. The lyricist expresses life may go up and down like the change of weather. Even though we may go through some difficulties, we must have confidence that success comes after the hard time. Using these two metaphors together is a way to encourage listeners to face every challenge in life. Furthermore, the metaphorical expressions of make-up and angel are to make connections between this ending theme song and the drama (see the background in Section 3.4.1). The female character’s love road failed in the beginning. Although she is sad, she does not leave the one she loves and willingly stands by his side as a friend. The way she conceals her real thoughts from the man corresponds to the metaphorical meaning form make up—hiding one’s self. Besides, the angel in the lyrics refers to not only a fantasy scene but also a real person for her to rely on. All in all, the lyrics convey the song writer’s thoughts and emotions about love to listeners, and shorten the distance between audiences and the ending theme song due to the relation between the drama plot and the song.

4.2.4 Ending theme song of King flower—“Women who are like girls”

In terms of this ending theme song, the song title “Xiang nu hai de nu re” (像女

孩的女人, “Women who are like girls”) is a simile in Chinese, but the whole picture of the lyrics is an event structure metaphor—LIFE IS A FLYING JOURNEY.

(14) 77

在雲端飛機就要著陸帶我回到最初飛翔之處看著窗映著我的臉龐那個女孩是否還在我臉上也曾在晴空遭遇過亂流起伏穿過人心幽谷懂得天真是包袱卻不想改變面目受過傷卻不怕再踏上旅途堅持飛我的天真航路我的航路（像女孩的女人，金大花的華麗冒險片尾曲）

The plane is going to land from the top of the sky. It brings me back to my original place. When my face is reflected in the window; I am checking whether this is that girl. I have experienced air turbulences in the sky. After realizing people can be treacherous and deceitful; I think my innocence is a burden. However, I do not want to change my appearance. Even though I got hurt, I am not afraid to go on my journey again. I will persist in my flying journey of innocence. My flying journey. (“Women who are like girls”, the ending theme song of King Flower)

From the above-cited lyrics, there are many words related to a fly journey such as the location of the flight yun duan (雲端, ‘top of the sky’), the status of the flight zhe lu

(著陸, ‘landing’), and the special events happen on the flight—luan liu (亂流, ‘air turbulences’). These words are the components of a flying journey. The whole journey is about a girl’s growth process and her internal struggle during the process in the lyrics. For a girl, the process of becoming mature and grown-up is inevitable. The lyricist uses a flying journey to describe the growth process, and the components of a flying journey are compared to her internal struggle and what she has experienced.

The air turbulence in a flying journey is the source domain to compare to the deceit and treachery which she has met during her growth process in her lifetime. When

78 people experience the air turbulence in a flying journey, they usually feel scared and bushed. This feeling is similar to being betrayed by someone for the first time. A young girl feels lost in this situation in beginning because she treats others sincerely but the world she faces is full of conspiracy. Learning to deal with this situation is vital to the growth process although the girl will be struggle. The line tian zhen shi bao fu (天真是包袱) indicates that the girl wonders if her innocent personality will become a burden after she become an adult. By comparing one’s personality to an entity with weight, the lyricist embodies the struggle emotion in the woman’s mind.

Furthermore, Lakoff (1993:220) points out five metaphorical difficulties and

“burdens” is one type of them (cf. Section 3.3.2). That is to say, they are impediments to motion which will influence the flight on the journey. In this metaphor, the lyric writer demonstrates that the woman’s original personality becomes an impediment to her growth and implies that the innocent personality needs to be abandoned. However, the next few lines show she still wants to be “herself.” It means she does not want to change herself for any external factors and the real world. The lyrics shou guo shang que bu pa zai ta shang lu tu (受過傷卻不怕再踏上旅途, ‘even though I got hurt, I am not afraid to go on my journey again’) show that she does not care that she will hurt herself but stands her ground and keeps going on her journey. Also, the line jian chi fei wo de tian zhen hang lu (堅持飛我的天真航路, ‘I will persist to be innocent on my fly’) symbolizes the woman’s determination even when she faces various challenges in the world. The mappings of LIFE IS A FLYING JOURNEY are shown in Table 4.11.

Table 4.11 Mappings of LIFE IS A FLYING JOURNEY

Source domain Target domain Flying journey Life (especially growth process) Air turbulence The deceit and treachery among people A nonstop journey A determination of moving on

The event structure metaphor, LIFE IS A FLYING JOURNEY, (see Table 4.11) depicts the struggle a woman has while experiencing many things in reality. The performative potential of the metaphor not only expresses the lyricist’s stance but makes a connection between this song and the drama King Flower. First, from the metaphorical meanings in the song, it is suggested that the lyricist intends to maintain one’s true personality. As the song title, xiang nu hai de nu re (像女孩的女人,

“Women who are like girls”) indicates that even if a girl grows up, she still possesses her innocence. The stance of the lyricist also indirectly encourages that people’s personality should not be changed by the world. Additionally, the theme of this song is similar to that of the ending theme song “Children in the heart”. Both of these two songs describe the psychological status during growth process. And, the word na ge nu hai (那個女孩, ‘that girl’) in this song is equal to the meaning of xin li de hai ze

(心裡的孩子, ‘children in the heart’). They particularly represent one’s inner self.

Two different lyricists express the same idea in different words.

Next, the LIFE IS A FLYING JOURNEY metaphor corresponds to the drama plot in King flower. And further, when the meaning corresponds to the drama, it naturally shortens the distance between the song and the audience. King flower narrates a series of stories about a downtown female character who pretends to be an uptown woman (e.g. she needs to change the way she speak because people’s accents in downtown is different from those in the city). Her country mannerisms result in an

80 adventure. When she enters into the big company with the male character, she finds that people around her only emphasize self-profit and the quest for power; it is totally different from the environment where she grew up. The air turbulences in the LIFE IS

A FLYING JOURNEY metaphor can stands for the struggle this female character sees and what happens to her. Besides, in the drama, instead of being affected by the environment, this woman maintains her original personalities which are innocence, kindness and elastic, and infects apathetic people including the male character. The development of the plot is consistent with the lyrics in the ending theme song due to the fact that the lyrics articulate the woman’s persistence in being innocent. The performative potential of the metaphor expresses the lyricist’s stance of keeping an innocent heart in the treacherous society and skillfully establishes a link between this song and the drama. The link between this song and the drama may have an impact on audiences in that they may have a deep memory about the drama plot. Audiences accept the idea of the lyricist from this metaphor; at the same time, the plot, which is related to the song, will flash through their mind. In that case, the drama impresses audiences by using this song at the end of every episode.

4.2.5 Ending theme song of A hint of you—“Not be brave” The song “Not be brave” focuses on the sad side of love with three conceptual metaphors in the song. They are used to depict the situation about losing another one in a love relationship.

(15) 誰關掉了愛情的開關故事剩下一個人對白這戲少了另一半一半的愛還有什麼好看不應該勇敢不顧身去愛一切來太快痛著醒過來受傷才明白幸福另一面就是隨時要準備離開（不應該勇敢，美味的想念片尾曲）

Who turns off the power of love and let the story become a monologue. This play lacks one’s significant second-half, and only shows one part of love; it is not worth watching. I should not have been so brave and have cared about nothing. Bad things come so fast. I awake painfully. After I got hurt, I realized the other end of happiness is that I have to prepare to leave from this love anytime. (“Not be brave”, the ending theme song of A Hint of You)

In the first line of this song, LOVE IS AN ELECTRONIC PRODUCT and LOVE IS

A PLAY are combined together. For the former conceptual metaphor, the lyricists conceptualize a love relationship as the concrete thing: an electronic product. When love relationship exists between two lovers, they communicate with their emotions.

Unfortunately, when one of the lovers wants to end the relationship, the communication between two people will end simultaneously. LOVE IS AN

ELECTRONIC PRODUCT interprets the concept of communication among people.

The breaking love is compared to the electronic product which is turned off. As long as the switch of the product is turned off, it is impossible for the electric current to flow. Hence, it cannot work anymore. This situation is identical to the one in which two people fail to keep the love relationship. Moreover, based on the same idea, the lyricist uses the monologue to describe lost love by the conceptual metaphor LOVE

IS A PLAY, in which the characters are two lovers on the stage as if they were actor and actress in the play. In terms of a play, it is necessary for actors and actresses to converse dialogues on the stage. Through their performances, the story is presented to audiences. However, the line the story becomes monologue is a totally different situation and suggests that the two lovers broke up. Monologue means that only one character speaks on the stage as if a person has lost his or her mate in a relationship.

Both LOVE IS AN ELECTRIC PRODUCT and LOVE IS A PLAY are used to denote

82 the concept of a breaking relationship in this song. To deeply illustrate and transmit sad and lonely emotions to listeners, the lyricists use an ontological metaphor LOVE

IS A DREAM.

LOVE IS A DREAM metaphor is applied in the line I awake painfully. The lyrics want to present the happiness of love is brief and temporary so that the phenomenon of dream is used to symbolize love, especially the beautiful side of love.

In a relationship, the person who is left alone will be sad and hurt because he or she is forced to end the love. To describe the situation, the lyric writer of this song wrote as if people awake from a dream. When we wake up from a dream, we cannot continue to experience the dream, and thus, the story will not go on anymore. What happens in the dream is only illusion. Based on the notion of dream, the song expresses that the sweet memories between two lovers will disappear; therefore, it is ironical for people to be fearless for their love since their efforts will be in vain. Before discussing the performative potential, we summarize the mappings of all the metaphors in the song in Table 4.12.

Table 4.12 Mappings of LOVE IS AN ELECTRONIC PRODUCT, LOVE IS A PLAY, and LOVE IS A DREAM Metaphor Source domain Target domain LOVE IS AN A turned off electronic product A broken love relationship ELECTRONIC PRODUCT LOVE IS A PLAY The actor and actress on the stage Two lovers Monologue Incomplete love relationship LOVE IS A DREAM Good things in a dream Things which are illusion

In this song, the following point is a common one among the three metaphors: from the ideational and textual perspectives, they are all about sad aspects of love.

LOVE IS AN ELECTRONIC PRODUCT, LOVE IS A PLAY and LOVE IS A

DREAM are used to depict a broken love relationship. By using three ontological metaphors, the sad and negative scene in love is interpreted vividly; hence, the song can strike a chord with their listeners. In addition, the ending theme song is performative because the metaphor in the lyrics causes suspense in audiences’ mind.

Although the meaning of this song is filled with sad emotion, audiences may anticipate the next episode in as much as this song is played in the end of every episode. Audiences heard the song as they finish watching the episode. The memory about the plot which they have received is fresh and deep in their mind. As the song involves suspense, audiences’ emotions may intensify more. In other words, the lyrics in the ending theme song will influence audiences’ emotion and attention to some degree.

4.2.6 Summary of the perfomative potential and the functions of metaphors in ending theme songs

In this section, we discuss the performative potential which is shared by the ending theme songs. To make the explanation more clear, the performative potential in the five songs is presented in Table 4.13.

Table 4.13 Performative potential in the ending theme songs

Ending “A “Happiness “Children in “Women “Not be Theme Songs temporary is enough” the heart” who are like Brave” boyfriend” girls” Performative To decorate To depict a To transmit To express To depict a Potential the lyrics negative the lyricist’s the lyricist’s negative side of love belief stance side of love relationship relationship To make a To add To describe To describe To add connection suspense in psychological psychological suspense in between the lyrics status during status during the lyrics the ending (catch a person’s a person’s (catch theme song audiences’ growth growth audiences’ and the emotion) process process emotion) drama To make a To make a connection connection between the between the ending theme ending theme song and the song and the drama drama

From Table 4.13, we cannot find one common characteristic among the five songs but some of them still share the same performative potential.

The metaphors in “A temporary boyfriend”, “Children in the heart”, and

“Women who are like girls” all make a good connection between the song and the drama. In regard to the interpersonal perspective, this also helps the song cultivate the 85 intimacy with audiences. In the song “A temporary boyfriend”, the linguistic metaphor, a temporary boyfriend as a rebound, corresponds to the plot that the male character thinks he can only accompany the female character a few months in the drama Love, Now. The metaphor echoes the drama plot. Second, the metaphorical expressions of make-up and angel in the song “Children in the heart” links to the female character’s situation and eagerness. In order to stay beside the one she loves, the female character disguises her love. This situation matches the metaphorical meaning of the phrase make up. Furthermore, the words angel implies that the female character is longing for someone to lean on. As regards the song “Women who are like girls”, the event structure metaphor LIFE IS A FLYING JOURNEY serves to represent the adventure story of the female character in the drama King Flower. Since this performative potential serves as a bridge to link the ending theme song and the drama together, it is believed that the song can recall audiences’ memory for the drama they have watched. Besides, as the lyrics meaning make sense to the audiences of those dramas, the intimacy between the song and audiences is enhanced.

Apart from making connections between the drama and the ending theme songs, the other two songs lyrics are performative in that their metaphors create suspense.

Both the ending theme songs “Happiness is enough” and “Not to be brave” depict a sad emotion and a negative side of love. In the two songs, LOVE IS A JOURNEY and the other three ontological metaphors demonstrate a bad result in a love relationship; yet, when they are played as ending theme songs, this kind of metaphor create suspense in audiences’ mind. While the song plays at the end of every episode, it merely means the current episode finished not the end of the story unless it is the last episode. The sad and negative side of love not only influence audiences’ emotions but also catches their attentions at the same time. They might have a thought in mind for the plot to become better so that this suspense motivates them to watch the next 86 episode. Another important point is this performative potential is due to the aspect of

“ending theme songs” not the metaphor itself. If the sad and negative metaphor is used in opening theme song, this performative potential will not appear. We will discuss this issue more in Section 4.3.

In addition, the performative potential in the songs “Children in the heart” and

“Women who are like girls” are highly similar. They not only make the connection between the song and the drama as we have mentioned but both of their metaphors describe psychological status during a person’s growth process. In the former, the lyricist depicts a woman who will hide her true personality at times by using the word make-up. The word make-up is a symbol of maturity in that song. In the latter one, the lyricist uses LIFE IS A FLYING JOURNEY to describe the thing people might experience in the process of growth. Using the same metaphor, the lyricist further shows his stance that people should keep their original appearance and personality even when they grow up. The two songs serve the same performative potential even though the metaphors they use are not the same.

4.3 Further discussions In this section, we further discuss the discrepancy in performative potential between the opening theme songs and the ending theme songs. Besides, in this issue, their differences can be separated into two aspects. Most of the metaphors exhibit the performative potential while there is the possibility that the performative potential is attributed to the way we use the song. That is, performative potential takes its specific shape due to a song being an opening theme song or an ending theme song. In 4.3.1, we will focus on the performative potential created by the metaphors. The performative potential which causes by the playing time of the song will be discussed in 4.3.2, and explanations for the situation will be provided.

4.3.1 Performative potential served by the metaphors

In Sections 4.1.1-4.2.6, we have listed types of performative potential of two kinds of theme songs. From the analysis, we know that these songs may influence audiences’ emotion, and lyricists sometimes express their beliefs and thoughts through the metaphor. These functions are in the ideational and interpersonal aspects.

Goatly (2011) has explained expression emotional attitudes in his study and stated it is one of the major functions in metaphor. In our data, we found that the opening theme songs and the ending theme songs involve different emotional attitudes. We consider that expressing emotional attitudes can be divided into positive emotion and negative emotion. On the one hand, metaphors in the opening theme songs tend to create a good and beautiful atmosphere in the song; no matter whether the issues are concerned with love, life or friendship. Based on the analyzed data, take LIFE IS A

JOURNEY and LOVE IS A JOURNEY in 4.1.1 and 4.1.2 for examples.

LIFE IS A JOURNEY is used to provide a positive belief in the opening theme song. The lyricist employs running a race to present our lives. Although we may face some difficulties as if we meet the fence on a running race, we can achieve the goal by keep going on the road. The idea of LIFE IS A JOURNEY includes a positive attitude and a good atmosphere inside the song. The lyricist shows people a good outcome: people can conquer predicaments. Besides, the event structure metaphor,

LOVE IS A JOURNEY in the opening theme song (“All for you”) of the drama Love

Me or Leave Me depicts a beautiful scene of lover’s company. As mentioned in 4.1.2, the song successfully conveys a man’s willingness to accompany his lover company all the time.

On the other hand, compared with the opening theme song in the same drama, the song “Happiness is enough” applies LOVE IS A JOURNEY as well, but this song employs this metaphor to describe a broken relationship (see Section 4.2.2). The line 88

It is pity that our love has no destination and Little by little, it is stranded indicates that two lovers cannot maintain their relationship anymore. The sad emotion is involved in this kind of metaphorical language. In addition, the ending theme song

“Not be brave” uses three metaphors LOVE IS AN ELECTRONIC PRODUCT,

LOVE IS A PLAY and LOVE IS A DREAM to express unideal love: one person winds up the relationship and left another alone. Furthermore, it seems that the persona loses confidence in beautiful love due to the failure from the metaphor LOVE

IS A DREAM. These examples prove expressing emotional attitudes embraces two aspects. The result shows that even though the same topic is discussed in the opening and the ending theme songs, that the way metaphorical language is used will not be identical. Both the performative potential of opening and ending theme songs serve to express emotional attitudes by metaphors in the lyrics. Nevertheless, the opening theme songs induce listeners’ and audiences’ a happy emotion but the ending theme songs transmit a sad emotion to listeners who are also audiences of the drama.

Before the beginning of the episode, the producers would welcome their audiences to enjoy their works in a good mood. In this case, an opening theme song serves as a preface role to a drama. If the opening theme song is sad, audiences could possibly be affected by the negative emotion. If the lyrics in the opening theme songs were sad, it would be hard for audiences to get involved in the drama or they would predict that the drama they are going to watch could be a tragedy. As a result, when producers decide for which song is to be their opening theme songs, they might avoid picking an opening theme song that contains sad and negative emotional attitudes and meanings.

Vernalis (2002: 21) finds that lyrics can be “the hook”. Lyrics can reflect the image or they may prophesy the image which will appear later in the music video. For the opening and the ending theme songs, lyrics have a similar function as “the hook.” 89

Most of the metaphors in theme songs (both opening and ending) make an associative and good connection to the drama. This is another aspect of performative potential which metaphors in theme songs exhibit. In two of the opening theme songs,

“Trapped by Feeling” and “A missing smell”, the metaphors are highly related to the drama. The line bo yun jian ai (撥雲見愛, ‘When the cloud is gone, there is true love’) in the first song represent a part of plot in the drama. In the drama, the female character finally gets the male character’s attention and love after suffering from various hardships. The metaphor makes audiences recall this part of memory in the drama. About the song “A missing smell”, the connection between the song and the drama is built in two ways. First, the title of this song is completely the same as the name of the drama. Second, LOVE IS FOOD metaphor in the song corresponds to the theme of the drama since the background of the drama A Hint of You is about food and beverage.

Making associative connections is not only presented in the opening theme songs, but presented by some of the ending theme songs. Three of the ending theme songs show this performative potential in the metaphor. The linguistic metaphor, “a temporary boyfriend as a rebound”, in the song “A temporary boyfriend” illustrates the plot between the female and male characters. Because both of them misunderstand the female character’s health profile, the male character thinks that he can only date with the woman for a very short period. The notion of time here involves the meaning

“impermanence”, which is identical to the idea “temporary”. Other metaphors in two songs “Children in the heart” and “Women who are like girls” enact performative potential in the same way. The metaphorical meaning of the word make-up in

“Children in the heart” makes people associate with specific plot in the drama. To avoid giving the male character pressures, the female character disguises her feeling to the man. At first, rather than show her love, she prefers to be his friend and helps 90 him with everything. This situation is compatible with the metaphorical meaning of hua zhuang (化妝, ‘make-up’). In terms of the event structure metaphor LIFE IS FLY

JOURNEY in the song “Women who are like girls”, the metaphor is an epitome of the adventure story which the female character experiences.

In our data, only the song “A missing smell” has the same title as the name of the drama; namely, most of time, theme songs are not custom-designed for a specific drama. However, it is believed that the performative potential—making an associative and good connection to the drama—in the metaphorical lines may be one of the reasons why it is chosen as a theme song. When those metaphors are related to the drama to some degree, the function—cultivating intimacy with the audiences—can be achieved in two aspects. Audiences will easily understand the emotion and the meaning that the lyrics contain. In this case, the song would strike a chord with audiences. The intimacy between listeners and lyricists is established. From the drama producer’s viewpoint, audiences’ memory to the drama can be recalled by those correlative lines while they are listening to the theme songs. Meanwhile, theme songs can be a bridge between dramas and audiences. Owing to this performative potential, an invisible profit to a producer of a drama and a song is created.

Last, lyricists use ontological metaphor to create a concrete image of love or articulate a good picture of a friendship in opening theme songs, whereas in some of ending theme songs, performative potential of metaphor is to describe an experience which a person has gone through. The ending theme songs “Children in the heart”

(see Section 4.2.3) and “Women who are like girls” (see Section 4.2.4) describe the psychological status during a person’s growth process. The word make up in the former one is a symbol of maturity. A little girl would make up herself when she becomes a woman. Besides, the metaphorical meaning of make-up suggests that through the growth process she may hide her true personality in front of people. 91

Another song “Women who are like girls” applies the event structure metaphor, LIFE

IS A FLY JOURNEY, to describe a person who will grow up through air turbulence.

In the song, air turbulence stands for people’s deceit and treachery. This kind of metaphor presents a process people might experience. It appears only in our data of these two ending theme songs.

As its name, the ending theme song is played at the end of every episode. In every episode, there must have some processes and developments in the drama plot.

Audiences will feel like they experience some events with the character inside the virtual world while they are watching the drama. This situation matches the performative potential which metaphors in the ending theme song create. After audiences watch the drama, they may find some plots close to the lyrics in the ending theme song. Based on the link between the ending theme song and the drama, the performative potential makes a song more meaningful when it becomes an ending theme song.

4.3.2 Performative potential afforded by the playing time of the song

In Section 4.3.1, we have discussed various performative potential which is realized by metaphor itself. Besides, from such performative potential we have found the discrepancy between the opening and the ending theme songs. In this section, we will focus on one type of performative potential which only appears when the song is an ending theme song.

The metaphors in the ending theme song “Happiness is enough” and “Not be brave” both depict a negative side of love (see Section 4.3.1), but audiences still tend to anticipate the next episode. When people who are not audiences of the drama hear these songs, the negative meaning of love which is transmitted by lyric writers will remind them of some bad experiences they have gone through. For example, it is easy 92 for them to recall the memory of breaking up with someone before. Nevertheless, as a song is played in the end of every episode, the listeners have another identity—audience of a specific drama. In this specific occasion, the performative potential from the sad metaphors will have another effect. Although metaphors in the two songs imply that love relationship is broken between two lovers, when the songs are integrated into the specific dramas, the sad metaphor serves to add suspense in lyrics and in audiences’ mind.

Most of the dramas are cliffhangers in that the story will not be prosaic but may be a novel twist. Hence, even though the metaphorical meanings in the ending theme songs may correspond to the plot coincidently, people can still harbor hopes in their minds because the story will move on next episode. The metaphors in the ending theme songs (see Section 4.2.2 and 4.2.5) intensify the emotion, and audiences are looking forward to a turning point that might show up soon in the drama. When audiences pay attention to the sad part, generally speaking, they would expect the plot to go along nicely. Audiences’ attentions and emotions are caught by this suspense.

However, this kind of effect merely appears when the song is an ending theme song.

Due to the fact that an opening theme song plays a role similar to a preface, if the sad metaphor is applied in an opening theme song, this performative potential will not be created. As a preface, an opening theme song may be an introduction to things that will happen afterward. That is to say, if audiences get the sad meaning from an opening theme song, they might consider it would be equal to the development of the related drama’s plot. For this reason, the sad metaphor does not always serve the performative potential to add suspense. This performative potential depends on the song which involves the sad metaphors is an ending theme song or not.

Chapter 5 Conclusion In the last chapter of this thesis, we provide a brief summary of our findings from the analysis of the ten theme songs among five TV dramas. Besides, we indicate the limitations of the current study and give some suggestions for further related topics in the near future.

5.1 Summary and implications

Metaphor permeates people’s life and can be seen not only in the reading material (e.g., newspapers, magazines) but even in the songs which people hear. This study has aimed to investigate the function of metaphor in pop songs which were especially used in Taiwan TV drama in the opening and ending occasion. In order to keep the unity of our data, the sources of the five dramas were all selected from the same channel—SET Cable Station. There were ten songs: five opening theme songs and five ending theme songs in the study. In the beginning, Conceptual Metaphor

Theory (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980) and Blending Theory (Fauconnier and Turner,

1998) were used to classify and clearly explain the metaphor appearing in the song lyrics. The finding showed that metaphors about life, love, and friendships are widely used in idol drama theme songs. Further, based on the concept of performative potential (Tseng, 2010), we have analyzed the metaphors in the ten theme songs to see their functions, and elucidated the discrepancy of metaphors in opening theme songs and ending theme songs. And, the findings also explained the reason for the song to become a theme song of one drama.

From the comprehensive analysis of this study, we found meanings behind metaphors and their characteristics in theme songs. We also proved that their performative potential does serve different functions on theme songs. Firstly, all theme songs in our data use metaphor to express ideas, thoughts, and emotion. No

94 matter what topic of a theme song is (e.g. life, love or friendship), metaphor is widely used in idol drama theme songs. When talking about life, the event structure metaphor—LIFE IS A JOURNEY is adopted (e.g. “Let’s run together, and “Women who are like girls”). Similarly, event structure metaphor appears in the way of describing the idea of love (e.g. “Only for you”). Moreover, to make the emotion in the song more concrete, it is common to use more than one metaphor in a song. For example, MIND IS A CONTAINER, MIND STATUS IS A COMMERCIAL

ACTIVITY, and an IDEA IS OBJECT are intertwined together to depict friendship among woman (e.g. “Because you are here”). As regards love metaphor, our findings are significantly different from Chang’s (2008) study of metaphors in Taiwan love lyrics. In her study, she concluded that LOVE IS FOOD is the most common used conceptual metaphor in Taiwan love songs. However, LOVE IS FOOD only appears in one song, “A missing smell”, in our data, and there are still many conceptual metaphors about love which have not been mentioned before. For example, to show the hopeless relationship, three unique metaphors—LOVE IS AN ELECTRONIC

PRODUCT, LOVE IS A PLAY, and LOVE IS A DREAM embody the idea in the song “Not be brave”. Besides, in the song “Trapped by feeling” the lyric writer compared love to a legal case by an innovative metaphor LOVE IS A CRIMINAL

ACT that is rarely seen in pop songs. For the other love song “A temporary boyfriend”, LOVE IS SPORT is shown with the creative linguistic metaphor “A temporary boyfriend as a rebound” in the song. From the findings, we can tell that metaphors play a significant role in a song, and conceptual metaphors about “love” are fresh; most of them have not been discussed before.

Secondly, metaphor not only performs an aesthetic function, but do serve other functions that constitute by performative potential. In opening theme songs, the performative potential is to convey a positive and bright viewpoint to listeners, such 95 as the event structure metaphor LIFE IS A JOURNEY in the first opening theme song.

In the lines, ye xu bei ban ma dang zhu, zhi shao wo men, mei you she me dao bu le de lu (也許被斑馬擋住/至少我們/沒有什麼到不了的路, ‘maybe there is a crosswalk, at least, there is no destination which we cannot reach’), it is clear that the lyricist tries to make listeners believe they can overcome the difficulties in life (see

Section 4.1.1). Also, in the song “Trapped by feeling”, the metaphorical usage bo yun jian ai (撥雲見愛, ‘when the cloud is gone there is true love’) encourages people to have the faith and confidence on their love road (see Section 4.1.3). Furthermore, songs can influence listeners’ emotion. In this circumstance, metaphors in song lyrics play an important role. The performative potential of metaphors in opening theme songs lyrics serves audiences a happy and good mood by positive metaphors in those songs. Besides, this performative potential may explain the reason why these songs are used in the beginning of the drama. Since an opening song plays a role similar to a preface to a drama, the song may bring audiences a joyful and energetic emotion. As a result, those bright and optimistic meanings in the metaphors correspond to the requirement of a drama.

Finally, the idea dual nature of metaphor which brings up by Tseng (2010: 129)

(see Section 3.2) can explain that the functions of metaphor in the theme songs are unfixed. Four songs of our data (“A missing smell”, “A temporary boyfriend”,

“Children in the heart”, and “Woman who are like girls”) can serve the performative potential to make an associative connection with drama; yet, this function will be set up only when the listeners are the audiences or the songs are used with the dramas.

Only if listeners understand both the meaning of metaphor and the drama plot can the connection between the two be built. If listeners are not audiences, they will not sense the connection between those metaphors; otherwise, this performative potential will not be shown. In other words, this kind of function of metaphor exists when songs are 96 mainly aimed at the specific group. Moreover, the performative potential afforded by the playing time of the song was correlated to the dual nature: a metaphor has potentially opposing function, and its function may change for some reasons. (see

Section 3.2). Compared to opening theme songs, ending theme songs involve more metaphor with sad meanings (e.g. wo men de ai yi mei ban fa dui xian, 我們的愛已

沒辦法兌現, ‘our love canot be achieved’), but, the sad metaphor in ending theme songs is taken as a suspense which is related to the development of a drama plot (e.g. the ending theme song “Happiness is enough”, and “Not be brave”). Generally, listeners who hear the sad part in the lyrics may recall some bad experiences or unhappy emotion. However, when the song is played in different occasions, it causes another effect. As audiences hear the sad part of lyrics in the end of every episode, they may not focus too much on the sad part because dramas are cliffhangers, i.e. for an idol drama, there is always a climax in the plot or some impediments to a relationship before the whole drama ends because this is the point to make the story more appealing to audiences. Even though the lyrics are sad, they still hope for a happy ending. If the sad metaphor were in the opening theme, audiences would consider the drama as depicting many sad scenes or even containing an imperfect ending. Namely, occasion (i.e. playing time of the song) can influence the performative potential—add suspense in drama theme songs.

Apart from the main findings, this study shows some implications. The findings of the study show the creativity of songs. Pop song lyrics include some innovative metaphors such as LVOE IS A CRIMINAL ACT, LOVE IS A BASKETBALL GAME, and LOVE IS AN ELETRONIC PRODUCT. Even though there are some common conceptual metaphors (e.g. LOVE IS JOURNEY), the linguistic forms which appear in lyrics can be totally different. Moreover, the linguistic expressions in pop song lyrics make the song become fresh (e.g. a temporary boyfriend as a rebound). Fresh 97 expressions provide some imaginative space for readers to interpret when they analyze the meanings behind words.

5.2 Limitations and suggestions for further studies

This study has provided a preliminary study on the function of metaphor in drama theme song lyrics, but it has some limitations. Some suggestions are provided for future studies below.

First, in this study, we selected our data from only one channel—SET Cable

Station (三立電視台). However, it is uncertain whether the TV channel would be a factor of theme songs. Different TV channels broadcast diverse drama. When the style of one drama changes, the feature of theme songs in the drama may not be similar to songs we chose. In that situation, the performative potential and the function of metaphor will possibly change at the same time.

Second, it was a coincidence that in our data, four of these dramas end with a happy ending, and one is an open-ended story. Besides, the five opening theme songs in the data are all cast in a bright viewpoint. It can be another research direction to discuss whether a drama with an unhappy ending will share the performative potential—serve a positive belief in its opening theme song or not.

Moreover, we analyzed theme songs by CMT, and BT. We found out that meanings of metaphor make good connections between some dramas and songs.

Nevertheless, since an opening and an ending theme song are used in a drama, people hear the song and watch the scene on TV simultaneously. To conduct a fuller understanding of audiences’ reception of lyrics meaning, the scene that accompanies by the song needs to be considered.

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Appendix: The complete lyrics of ten idol drama theme songs

1. 一起去跑步/Let’s run together （真愛趁現在片頭曲）作詞：林忠諭作曲：林忠諭編曲：宇宙人

有多久了沒有流汗有多少運動鞋還沒有穿有多少問題在追纏有多少庸人自擾甩不開

轉一個彎(不需要方向感) 沒那麼難(毛細孔會打開) 煩惱跟著體溫散去我說為什麼要流淚不流汗

一起去跑步請不要說不我們的節奏是吸兩口再吐用這樣的速度把地球的忙碌都拋在半路一起去跑步也許有岔路也許被斑馬擋住至少我們沒有甚麼到不了的路 da la~~~~

一起去跑步請不要說不我們的節奏讓夕陽不再哭用這樣的速度把地球的忙碌都拋在半路一起去跑步也許有岔路也許被斑馬擋住至少我們沒有甚麼到不了的路 (那麼多的路~)

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2. 都給你/Only for you （我租了一個情人片頭曲）作詞：姚若龍作曲：陳炯順

我只想要陪妳走就算不牽手我能付出最男人的溫柔是愛卻無求

完美幸福會是哪一種妳可以去追夢去觸碰慢慢懂誰擁抱才感動

都給妳熱的愛燙的心當背影不惋惜還感激這也算親密能關懷守護妳就開心

都給妳最浪漫最奇蹟習慣贏好強卻被體貼給頂替只陪妳聊心情不逼妳做決定還凍傷的心就借住在我懷裡

都給妳最浪漫最奇蹟習慣贏好強卻被體貼給頂替擁著你看流雲變黎明

都給妳最浪漫最奇蹟習慣贏好強卻被體貼給頂替只陪妳聊心情不逼妳做決定只要是甘心愛就沒有不公平

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3. 感覺犯/Trapped by feeling （愛情女僕片頭曲）作詞/作曲：MP 魔幻力量廷廷編曲：MP 魔幻力量、踢依恩

你存在我崇拜逞愛的感覺犯

只要感覺來說愛就愛感覺對說愛就愛 Oh

Let's go 我認罪我認栽快鎖定我當你的頭號通緝犯你審判你審愛我絕對夠格終身陪你壞

我放感覺單打獨鬥放任空窗只為你獨棟

我讓直覺情有獨鍾愛是空閨我不讓你獨守

受傷受害才會懂幸福的難敢恨敢愛感覺犯從不感慨不得不愛當生命找到絢爛撥雲見愛我始終相信真愛

你存在我崇拜逞愛的感覺犯

只要感覺來說愛就愛感覺對說愛就愛 Oh

Let's go 絕版的真命天女復刻我的七情六慾不想愛的知書達禮 Just party, baby

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Let's party, baby

我想衝你的浪徜徉在你的真心話我想跟你 party up party up party up, girl

不知道該怎麼說想要你愛上我不知道該怎麼做想要你感覺我人一生能擁有的真愛不只有一個但一生能遇到的也許就你一個

你存在我崇拜逞愛的感覺犯

只要感覺來說愛就愛感覺對說愛就愛 Oh

I wanna love you now Baby can you give me some more

你存在我崇拜逞愛的感覺犯

只要感覺來說愛就愛感覺對說愛就愛 Oh~

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4. 因為有你在/Because you are here （金大花的華麗冒險片頭曲）作詞：天樂作曲：KATRINA、NOORBERGEN、NICHOLAS F. CARBONE、ANTHONY J. NATOLI、JOHN M. SECOLO、NICOLE、MOULIOUS

Oh~ 因為有妳在 Oh~ 因為有妳在

一百顆星有一百種形狀我們多麼幸運被彼此遇上像夢裡的曾經在現實發光命中注定的朋友讓生活更發亮

無聊的話題或矛盾的心妳替我分擔壞透的情緒嘿我還沒睡隨時都歡迎為妳留的空位不打烊不休息

Take My Hand 不管是好是壞妳都在 Ho~ 我們默契滿載言語無法明白誰說只有愛才能改變未來 Take My Hand 不管成功失敗妳都在 Ho~ 我們笑著釋懷一起罵個痛快因為有妳在才能改變未來

無聊的話題或矛盾的心妳替我分擔壞透的情緒嘿我還沒睡隨時都歡迎為妳留的空位不打烊不休息

Ho~ Ho~ 因為有妳在夢精彩快樂才更圓滿 Ho~ 感謝妳陪在把我寵壞把眼淚擦乾 Ho~

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5. 美味的想念/A missing smell （美味的想念片頭曲）作詞：唐禹哲作曲：唐禹哲

下過雨街道之後奔跑的平行線中從來沒這麼想過竟然會交疊雙手

噢地下道的邂逅一眼看穿的心動妳我之間的悸動不曾停止過轉動

想著妳就像美味的想念一再的呼吸慢慢的向妳靠近

一口口吹著泡泡飛過粉色的天空一點點感動就能打破尷尬的沈默一幕幕羞怯臉孔我捧著妳的臉說一句句的我愛妳打進妳甜甜的笑容

一步步跑向愛的天空大聲對妳說一遍遍永不變的承諾俯瞰著妳我一些些心跳觸動我墜落妳的手中一次次把妳抱進懷裡不讓時間流走一直靠著我

噢下著雨的午後電話亭靠著額頭看彩虹甜點劃過不曾停止過跳動

想著妳就像美味的想念一再的呼吸慢慢的向妳靠近

一口口吹著泡泡飛過一點點感動就能打破

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6. 暫時的男朋友/A temporary boyfriend （真愛趁現在片尾曲）作詞：嚴爵黃婷作曲：嚴爵編曲：洪敬堯

我跟妳說分手不是個盡頭他豬頭怎麼輪到妳難過多囉唆多少人都只會說沒有人肯認真聽妳說妳需要一個人陪妳痛哭不需要每個人的假關注我隨時投入妳感情節奏隨時給妳場外的援手

如果妳還沒死心對妳的前男友我等妳繼續投我願做妳的籃板球

我願意當妳的籃板球當一個暫時的男朋友只要妳需要我陪妳過不怕別人怎麼看怎麼說我我願意當妳的籃板球當一個暫時的男朋友不讓妳有一秒鐘寂寞我要填滿妳的現在不排除今後

這回合幸福沒有停太久下回合還可以重新來過不一定不一定妳要選我可是我會比妳更執著

我願意當妳的籃板球當一個暫時的男朋友只要妳需要我陪妳過不怕別人怎麼看怎麼說我我願意當妳的籃板球當一個暫時的男朋友妳不需要再寂寞我要填滿妳的現在更要到最後

我願意我願意我願意當妳的籃板球當一個暫時的男朋友只要妳需要我陪妳過不讓妳再寂寞不怕別人怎麼看怎麼說我 Oh

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7. 幸福就好/Happiness is enough （我租了一個情人片尾曲）作詞：邱聖倫作曲：邱聖倫

一天一天一天倒數上演一點一點一點慢慢擱淺手中握著那段感情線糾纏的情節

一遍一遍一遍試圖跨越你的我的他的深淵你走向他身邊世界灰了天

我的心已經無法再赦免就算多深愛著你也只能說抱歉

我們的愛已沒辦法兌現還深愛的遣散到地平線聽不見看不見屬於你們那悱惻的纏綿

我們的愛就算不能永遠你說你和他未來會有多美好只要你幸福就好我可以不計較

我們的愛就讓他去兌現還深愛的我記住你的臉聽不見看不見屬於我們的悱惻和纏綿

永遠到永遠守在你身邊

我們的愛可惜沒有終點答應我你要過得比我好只要你幸福就好我可以不計較

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8. 心裡的孩子/Children in the heart （愛情女僕片尾曲）作詞：姚若龍作曲：劉子樂

破滅的美夢一個又一個雖然心很痛卻還是微笑著別人總愛說妳已長大了不能待在幻想裡面活著

學會化妝去遮掩些什麼學會先沉默再察言觀色本來的我呢快不記得我害怕我會習慣不快樂

在心裡的孩子扮大人的樣子一開始有意思後來雙眼總潮濕在心裡的孩子盼誰來講故事讓不安失望暫時靜止

雷雨不來又哪有彩虹呢能自我安慰是必修的課不確定我是變得隨和或累得慢慢放棄了原則

在心裡的孩子後悔曾很固執太好奇許多事不顧後果的嘗試在心裡的孩子常祈禱有天使借一雙翅膀逃離現實不愛看自己哭的樣子

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9. 像女孩的女人/Women who are like girls （金大花的華麗冒險片尾曲）作詞：王振聲作曲：郭文宗

在雲端飛機就要著陸帶我回到最初飛翔之處

看著窗映著我的臉龐那個女孩是否還在我臉上

也曾在晴空遭遇過亂流起伏穿過人心幽谷懂得天真是包袱卻不想改變面目

像女孩的女人不願世故情願拿我真心當作是禮物複雜的世界裡單純的去付出哪怕說認真會輸

像女孩的女人有時會哭受過傷卻不怕再踏上旅途算計的世界裡走自己的腳步也不願入境隨俗算計的世界裡走自己的腳步堅持飛我的天真航路我的航路 WOO

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10. 不應該勇敢/Not be brave （美味的想念片尾曲）作詞：林怡鳳、張簡君偉作曲：張簡君偉

誰關掉了愛情的開關故事剩下一個人對白這戲少了另一半一半的愛還有什麼好看

你帶走了我的幸福感笑容離我遠遠的試探忍住眼淚卻忍不住我瘋狂的想念

孤單的人總是不怕一個人的孤單卻怕在人群中狂歡結束後的不安人越是逃避反而越是放不下這情感

你的習慣從今後讓別的人去習慣你的每個明天我想再也與我無關不是我的我不霸佔

不應該勇敢不顧身去愛一切來太快痛著醒過來受傷才明白幸福另一面就是隨時要準備離開

不應該勇敢急著想逃開身旁黏著甩不開的悲哀你不知道我還在等待

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