英美法律隐喻研究述评

从英美法系法律隐喻的研究现状入手,通过对法律隐喻话语作用的阐述,分析了法律隐喻五个方面的说服功能,指出了其所具有的意识形态功能。法官选择法律隐喻这种话语结构,其实就是拥有权利和占支配地位的社会群体通过对话语的操纵,将自己对社会真实的解释和社会真实的特定意义加之于其他社会群体的能力,因此法律是隐喻成为社会现实的重要语境,隐喻是实现法律话语说服功能的重要手段之一。

A Comment on Legal Metaphors in the Common Law System

Traditionally,jurists of the common law system inherently depreciated legal metaphors while frequently employing them.This situation has changed,with the positive function of legal metaphors being increasingly emphasized.The article,after presenting the author’s research on legal metaphors in the common law system,analyzes the persuasive functions of legal metaphors and points out their ideological functions,which enable judges,in their power and dominant position,to manipulate the legal discourse and to impose their interpretation of social reality on other groups.Therefore,law is the major area where metaphor is made real,and metaphor is one of the most important tools to realize persuasiveness of legal discourse.