On the Cultural Function of Metaphor

Metaphor as an important and popular phenomena and the way of thinking, has great role in human being's spirit life. In the early age of human being, by means of metaphor, people name and construct the world which makes the physical world as human being's world. The separation and opposition between human and nature is the unavoidable result of the development of human being. People use metaphor to build up the connection among things so as to set up an integral world on the basis of unification of the physical and human world. The features of metaphor induce people to think about and explore the back of phenomena, and the transition feature of metaphor provides free room for people's thinking creation. Metaphor is not only an outside decoration, but also an art method, even a kind of art content, from which people get aesthetic pleasure.