On the afternoon of June 25, with the warm "cloud applause" over the internet, the "Overseas Distinguished Lecture Series" activity sponsored by the school of foreign languages came to a successful end. In the last lecture, Prof. Kövecses mainly elaborated six models of the metaphor system and conducted an overall assessment of the present conceptual metaphor theory(CMT). He asserted that CMT provides a powerful explanation for the polysemy of words, correspondences/mappings between source domain and target domain, cognition and sharing mechanism of metaphor, etc. Meanwhile, he also admitted CMT is currently reduced to a “curious situation” due to some scholars’ doubts and challenges over CMT. At the end of the lecture, Prof. Kövecses responded to the controversial issues concerning its definition, reasoning process, methodology and context. Some of these arguments have not been confirmed, as he stated, some need to be addressed by the extended CMT. Therefore, Prof. Kövecses has just published a new book entitledExtended Conceptual Metaphor Theory, which further contributes to the explanation of justified arguments and provides a fundamental basis for the coming lecture series. After the lecture, Dean Chaoju Yang, on behalf of the School of Foreign Languages, expressed sincere gratitude and thanks to Prof. Kövecses for his insightful and enlightening lectures, and wished everyone present a happy and healthy Dragon Boat Festival.
During this special epidemic period, in order to strengthen the international cooperation and exchange and expand the international academic vision of faculty members and students, the School of Foreign Languages has launched a "Lecture Series on Conceptual Metaphor Theory" by inviting Prof. Kövecses, an emeritus Professor as well a renowned CMT scholar at Roland University in Hungary, to give five consecutive lectures on CMT for teachers and students via Tencent Meeting and Skype. In these five lectures, Prof. Kövecses addressed the origin, development, cognitive mechanism and interdisciplinary applications of conceptual metaphor in detail. With humorous language and vivid illustrations, his lectures covered a wide range of topics, such as basic concepts, interdisciplinary application, typical characteristics, metaphor system and its overall assessment, deepening the students' cognition and understanding of CMT, and increasing our awareness of universality, variability and importance of conceptual metaphor.
The success of this lecture series is inseparable from the high attention and robust support from School of Foreign Languages. Prof. Chaojun Yang, provided continual guidance on the spot, and delivered opening and closing speeches consecutively. With the participation of more than 300 graduate students, faculty members and students, as well as many other domestic scholars and experts, great teaching effect and social impact have been achieved via online communication and interaction with Prof. Kövecses.
Theselecture series is one of the important measures taken by the department to explore academic resources andenhanceits international academic influence. In the near future, our School of foreign languages will keep up with the international academic frontier, further strengthen cooperation with internationally renowned institutions, invite influential experts and scholars from the academic community to talk about it, actively create a good academic atmosphere, and boost the “Double Tops” construction of Henan University.(Authors: Li Pandeng, Jian Xuemiao)
