Abstract—Metaphor permeates almost everywhere, and
novel metaphors in particular are supposed to be more
aesthetically appealing. Given the lack of a systematic research
on the aesthetics of linguistic forms, this paper aims at
investigating the factors contributing to novel metaphors’
aesthetic appeal. This study takes as a point of departure the
great Roman rhetorician Marcus Tullius Cicero’s four
hypotheses about the contributing factors to metaphor’s
aesthetic appeal. These hypotheses prove to be reasonable based
on our wide-ranging study on the relevant researches of
inter-disciplinary interests in such fields as linguistics,
psychology, neurology and aesthetics. Vivid images, pleasure in
comprehension and meaning inexhaustibility are found to be
the three potential contributing factors. Presumably, this
inter-disciplinary endeavor will shed light on our investigation
into the aesthetics of novel metaphors.
Index Terms—Aesthetic appeal, Cicero’s hypotheses, images,
novel metaphors, pleasure
The author is with the School of Education, Shanghai International
Studies University, Shanghai, 200083 China. E-mail: zoeqzy@shisu.edu.cn
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Cite:Zhouyan Qiu, "Cicero’s Metaphor Hypotheses Revisited: An Inter-disciplinary Approach to the Aesthetic Appeal of Novel Metaphors," International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 308-311, 2023.