本文试图从认知文体学的角度对《简•爱》这部小说中的隐喻及隐喻扮演的角色进行较为深入的探讨。作者认为，隐喻在这部作品中表现为隐喻的创新性、概念隐喻的认知及思维塑造功能，以及隐喻和意象图式的关联作用如何影响象征小说宏观结构的复合意象图式的生成。本文首先应用莱考夫提出的隐喻创新性这一概念对这部作品中的隐喻表达的创新性动因进行了分析。在对Z. Kövecses提出的语境观进行修正的基础上，对小说中隐喻的创新性动因从语境和审美两个角度做了分析。其次，本文应用“概念隐喻理论”研究了隐喻表达及背后的概念隐喻，展现了隐喻使用者的世界观及认知发展过程。再次，本论文针对“意象图式理论”与“宏观结构”的结合点，探讨了小说中的四类主要隐喻在生成这部成长小说的宏观结构过程中的作用，即，显著的隐喻系统逐渐积累并将其典型性属性叠加到象征小说情节基因的复合意象图式上。同时，分析和阐释了作为小说宏观结构的意象图式的主要功用和微观层面的意象图式对小说主题的揭示。通过对上述三方面的分析，本研究发现：小说《简•爱》中隐喻的创新性动因主要源于语境触发， 通过语境因素可以反映出社会、文化语境及说话人的个人特质；概念隐喻对体现小说人物认知发展，即对个体状态、性别角色及宗教信仰的看法及世界观起着重要作用；读者可以通过在阅读过程中浮现的反映小说情节的意象图式来把握小说宏观结构，而这部作品中的几类隐喻为构成复合意象图式的要素即容器意象图式、路径意象图式及动力意象图式提供了特征属性，从而将小说的宏观结构与意象图式联系起来。本文的贡献主要体现在以下三个方面：首先，论文对文学语篇中的隐喻创新性动因从语境和审美维度做了具体阐释，通过强调隐喻表达的多样性对认知隐喻共性说给予了有益补充；其次，论文通过运用认知隐喻理论分析隐喻表达背后的认知隐喻，进一步阐释了小说中涉及的成长主题；最后，论文尝试通过隐喻将意象图式与小说情节结构联系起来，并对体现这部小说情节结构的复合意象图式在文学作品中的功能做了分析，强调了成长主题。

This dissertation attempts to approach Jane Eyre as a Bildungsroman from the cognitive stylistic perspective. The study aims to demonstrate the use of metaphors and the roles they play in the novel, which are, metaphorical creativity, the cognitive and shaping functions of conceptual metaphors and the link between metaphors and image schemas in representing the macrostructure of the novel.Firstly, the metaphorical creativity in the novel and the underlying motivations are studied and an analysis from both contextual and aesthetic perspective is provided. Secondly, metaphorical expressions and the conceptual metaphors underneath are examined with the aid of conceptual metaphor theory to demonstrate the world views of the protagonists and their cognitive development. Thirdly, the role of the four major categories of metaphors in Jane Eyre in producing the macrostructure of this Bildungsroman is discussed, which is, how the macrostructure emerges when salient metaphor systems gradually accumulate and infuse into the compound image schematic elements that embody the event shape of the story, the “plot-gene”. Meanwhile, the literary functions of the image schema at both the macro-structural level and micro-level are analyzed.The findings of this study are as follows. The metaphorical creativity in Jane Eyre is mainly motivated by the contextual factors which reveal the social, cultural settings as well as the personal characteristics of the conceptualizers. Conceptual metaphors help to explain the cognitive development of the protagonist, including individual attitudes toward personal state, gender roles and religion. The image schema that represents the macrostructure or plot-gene of the story of Jane Eyre is a compound image schema consisting of IN-OUT schema, PATH schema and FORCE DYNAMICS schema, with four major categories of metaphors in Jane Eyre distilling attributes that form the compound image schematic elements of the plot-gene. Micro-level image schemas, including the path schema, container schema and center-periphery schema, reflect individual life attitudes, the sense of confinement, the marginalized social position of the protagonist and the confrontation of the irrational side of self with the rational self.The contributions of the present study are as follows. (1) it demonstrates the motivation of metaphorical creativity from both contextual and aesthetic perspective, thus by stressing the variation of conceptual metaphors, it provides a complementary study to the universality of conceptual metaphor; (2) it expounds on the Bildungsroman theme of the novel which has seldom been touched upon and clears up some misunderstandings with the application of conceptual metaphor theory; (3) it establishes a link between image schema and the story macrostructure through metaphor systems and demonstrates the literary functions of the compound image schema.