AN INVESTIGATION INTO WAR METAPHORS IN ARTICLES ABOUT THE VIETNAM WAR FROM 1954 TO 1975 IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG ĐỖ THỊ KIM CHUNG AN INVESTIGATION INTO WAR METAPHORS IN ARTICLES ABOUT THE VIETNAM WAR FROM 1954 TO 1975 IN ENGLISH AND VIE

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG

ĐỖ THỊ KIM CHUNG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO WAR METAPHORS IN ARTICLES ABOUT THE VIETNAM WAR FROM

1954 TO 1975 IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

Field : THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The thesis has been completed at the University of Foreign Language Studies, University of Danang

Supervisor: Trần Quang Hải, Ph D

Examiner 1: Assoc Prof Dr Lê Phạm Hoài Hương

Examiner 2: Lê Tấn Thi, Ph D

The thesis to be orally defended at Examining Committee

Time: December 13th, 2014

Venue: Danang University

The original of this thesis is accessible for purpose of reference at the University of Foreign Language Studies Library, University of Danang and the Information Resources Centre, Danang University

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE

Metaphor plays a very significant role in human thought,

because metaphor is one of the most popular types of figures of

speech that are employed in nearly every linguistic aspect and it is

used effortlessly by most of people Especially, conceptual

metaphors are seen in language in our everyday lives Conceptual

metaphors shape not only our communication, but also the way we

think and act In Lakoff and Johnson’s work, Metaphor We Live By

(1980), they claim that we see how everyday language is filled with

metaphors we may not always notice Conceptual metaphors are used

very often to understand theories and models A conceptual metaphor

uses one ideal and links it to another to have better understand

something

Together with the development of Cognitive Linguistics (CL),

a variety of studies on metaphors in general and cognitive metaphors

(CMs) have been done However, until now, researchers on cognitive

metaphor regarding war metaphors in articles about the Vn W (Vn

W) have been left unexploited Cognitive metaphor is used a lot in

articles about war to expose the atrocities of invaders to help every

body in the world can see the ruthlessness of war

Let us consider the following examples:

(1) The same day that Hamburger Hill was finally captured,

Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts called the operation

"senseless and irresponsible" and attacked the military tactics of

President Richard Nixon's administration [90]

(2) Giặc Mỹ thất điên bát đảo trước những đòn đánh thông

minh và bất ngờ của các chị [130](3) Vô vọng trong việc thực hiện mục tiêu, hoang mang vì phải đối mặt với một lực lượng thoắt ẩn, thoắt hiện giữa trùng điệp

núi rừng, lính Mỹ trở nên hung hãn, cuồng loạn

[145]

As can be seen from the mention of above examples, we can figure out that War is madness that can be realized through words denoting madness such as: thất điên bát đảo, cuồn loạn, senseless loss The source domain (SD) of the metaphor is madness and the target domain (TD) is war The cognitive metaphor that can be recognized in the examples above is War is madness Although Viet Nam war receded, the sorrow of war remains until now Each of us needs to look back the past to keep the peace There for, articles about war have been paid attention by lots of people and this will be

a good research opportunity to have an insight look into this field to explore the varied uses of metaphor Moreover, these articles will be

an invaluable source of reference for metaphor study Yet, in just a thesis, to cover all of articles about war is too wide Hence, I will

choose an investigation into war metaphors in a narrow scope “An Investigation into war metaphors in Articles about the Vn W from 1954 to 1975 in English and Vietnamese” I hope that my

study will help readers, teachers, learners and translators use English and Vietnamese metaphor more correctly and use language more effectively

1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

1.2.1 Aims

This research aims:

· To identify the CMs denoting the concept of war in articles about the Vietnam war (Vn W) from 1954 to 1975 in English and Vietnamese

· To examine how the CMs are used to express the concept of war

· To find out the similarities and differences in CMs of war in articles about the Vn W from 1954 to 1975 in English and Vietnamese

1.2.2 Objectives

The study is intended to fulfill the following objectives:

· To investigate the CMs denoting the concept of War in articles about Vn W from 1954 to 1975 in English and Vietnamese

· To categorize the CMs of War in articles about Vn W from

1954 to 1975 in English and Vietnamese

· To analyze and discuss the CMs of War in terms of meaning, structure, mapping

· To discover the similarities and differences of CMs denoting the concept of War in articles about Vn W from 1954 to 1975 in English and Vietnamese

· To suggest some implications for foreign language teaching, learning, and translation studies

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

In order to fulfill the objectives above, the study attempts to give answers to the following questions:

1 How are the CMs of War conceptualized in articles about Vn

W from 1954 to 1975 in English and Vietnamese?

2 What are the similarities and differences of CMs denoting the concept of War in articles about Vn W from 1954 to

1975 in English and Vietnamese?

3 What are the possible implications for the use of CMs of War in English language teaching, learning and translating from English into Vietnamese and vice versa?

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

- Introduce to the readers the CMs denoting the concept of War and the ways they are created with their metaphorical mappings

- The finding out the similarities and differences of the metaphorical expressions of War in articles about the Vn W from

1954 to 1975 in English and Vietnamese

- Provide a valuable source of reference to learners, translators and researchers who have the same interest in studying metaphors

1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.2.1 Definition of Metaphor

a Definition of Traditional Metaphor

b Metaphor in Cognitive Linguistics

2.2.2 Classification of Cognitive Metaphors (CMs)

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

Ÿ Categorizing the collected data about CMs denoting the

concept of War in articles about Viet Nam War form 1954 to 1975

into two sub-categories

Ÿ Analyzing and comparing CMs of War in the two languages

Ÿ Finding out the similarities and differences in CMs of War

in English versus Vietnamese in articles about Vn W form 1954 to

1975

3.6 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 4.1 RESULTS FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRE AND INTERVIEW

4.1.1 With Yes/ No Questions

4.1.2 With Multiple-choice questions

As we see in the Questionnair items and the Interview items,

the number of students who understand CM is more than those who

do not know it (86.9% students in the questionnaires and 100% student in the interviews) This number demonstrates that the M.A candidates are very interested in studying CM However, the number

of students who does not know the concept of CMs still exists (13.1% in the questionnaire) This figure makes us need to think of the reason why and how to find the solution for these students (Q1 & I1, Table1)

With the second question in the Questionnaire and the Interview (Q2 & I2, Table2), there are 88.4 % of them stating that all

of definitions describe CM Besides, 2.9 % out of students think that

CM refers to the understanding of one idea, or conceptual domain, in terms of another The definition of CM that is the regularity with different languages employed the same metaphor, often appeared to

be perceptually based, led to the hypothesis that the mapping between conceptual domains corresponded to neural mappings in the brain is agreed with 5.8 % Another 2.9 % reveals that a conceptual domain can be any coherent organization of human experience In addition, the result from the interview is that all students (100 %) think CM is the combination of A, B and C definitions

Specifically, the result from the questionnaire (Q3&I3, Table 2) proves that CM occurs mostly in poet (37.5 %) following by music (25 %), literature (30,2 %) and lastly in newspaper (7.2%) In the interview, there are (40 %) students think that the frequent occurrence of CM is in poem The rest is equal in music, literature and newspaper (20 %) This means that although it is not a lot, newspapers are also one of the fields CM is used to convey many meaningful messages

The fact that most of people like reading newspapers but each person likes different kind of newspapers The result from the questionnaire (Q4 & I4, Table2) reveals that women newspaper account for (25%), police newspapers (30.2%), economic newspaper (7.3%), and articles about war (37.5%) Meanwhile, in the interview

we can see that all of the students usually read articles about war

We see that when students were asked about the definition of articles about Vn W from 1954 to 1975 in (Q5 & I5, Table 2), most

of them choose the answer D

It is clear that through above results, I think students will have right recognition about CMs in the article about war

In the section of Yes-No Question, regarding the question items from 6 to 8, the percentages for “Yes” answers are from 92.7%

to 95.7%, while there are some students answering “No” in the questionnaire (Q6, Table 1) 7.3%, (Q7, Table 1) 8.7%, (Q8, Table 1) 4.3% In the interview, most of them agree 100% Based on above figures, this demonstrates that the students have a lot of sympathy of the author’s view on the CM denoting the concept of “War is evil” (Q6&I6; Q7&7; Q8&I8, Table 1)

The responses in the questionnaire and interviews with student show that the percentage of students who agree to the view of “War

is a substance in a container” from question 9 to question 10 is high The majority of them (100%) say “yes” in the process of interview

In the questionnaire, one after another the percentages of “yes answer” are 88.4%, 86.9% It shows that students agree with the author (Q9 & I10; Table 1)

The percentages of “yes answers” in the questionnaire from the question items 11 to the question items 14 are 86.9%, 85.5%, 88.4%, 91.3% These figures are very high Besides, these percentages revealed in the interview are very high too (100%, 80%, 100%, 80%) Therefore, we can understand that students agree with the author CMs “War is a hunt” (Q11&I11; Q12&I12; Q13&I13; Q14&I14; Table 1)

The responses in the questionnaire and interviews with students show that the 100% students are unanimous in the view

“War is negative emotion” in the question item 15 & 16(Q15 & I15, Q16&I16; Table 1)

In the questionnaire, the percentages supporting the view of

“War is death” in Q17& Q18 occupy 91.3% and 94.2% respectively

In the interview, 100% assume that the view of “War is death” occurs in all articles about the Vn W from 1954 t0 1975(Q17&I17; Q18&I18; Table 1) When being interviewed in Questionnaire 18

&19, students state that they agree with 94.2% about concept “War is parts of human body” and 100% in interview (Q19 & I19; Q20 & I20; Table 1)

The concept which is “War is fire” is presented in Questionnaire Q21 & I21; Q22 & I22 is supported by 91.3% &

88.4% students and 80% in interview (Q21 & I21; Q22 & I22; Table 1) It is positive to see all students realize the CM denoting “War is disease” when being interviewed (100%) The rate is also high when the students were asked in the questionnaire (88.4 % and 91.3%) (Q23&I23; Q24&I24; Table 1)

The percentages support for “War is storm” are quite high in the questionnaire There are 82.6% and 100% for the Q25& Q26 In the interview, there are 80% and 100% (Q25&I25;Q26&I26;Table1) Responses from the questionnaire proving that many students think that “War is business” occurs in Q27 & Q28 (91.3%, 94.2%, respectively) The responses also reveal in the interview that 100% agreeing in Q27& 80% say yes for question item 28 (Q27&I27; Q28&I28; Table 1)

With question item 29, there is 94.2 % students doing questionnaire and 80% doing interview realize the CM denoting

“War is cover” (Q29&I29; Table 1)

In question 30, 100% student when being asked in questionnaire and 100% student when being interviewed they assume that there is CM denoting “War is brave actions” (Q30&I30; Table 1) In question 31, 5.8% student when being asked in questionnaire and 0% student when being interviewed assume that there is no CM denoting War in “War is hatred” (Q31&I31; Table 1)

Especially, questions from 32 to 35, all the students think that comprehending CM will help them in many fields such as developing reading skill, improving translating and interpreting skills, as well as bettering communicating skills (Q32 &I32; Q33 & I33; Q34&I34; Q35& I35; Table 1)

4.2 COGNITIVE METAPHORS EXPRESSING WAR IN

ARTICLES ABOUT THE VIETNAM WAR FROM 1954 TO

1975 IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

4.2.1 War is Evil

We cannot deny the fact that “War is evil” Because in any

wars and war occur in any places, firing, killing, destroying, ruining,

slaughtering… are main actions in a fight, they causes death, loss,

pain and other bad things Especially, in the Vn W, American

soldiers’ barbarities are expressed clearly based on the examples Let

us consider following examples to have an overview of this cognitive

metaphor “war is evil”

(4.1) Elsewhere in the village, other atrocities were in

progress Women were gang raped; Vietnamese who had bowed to

greet the Americans were beaten with fists and tortured, clubbed

with rifle butts and stabbed with bayonets

[1]

(4.16) Trận càn quét trong vòng 1 giờ ngày 25/9/1969 tại ấp 5,

xã Thạch Phong, Thạch Phú, Bến Tre, quân Mỹ đã cắt cổ ông Bùi

Văn Vát và bà Bùi Thị Cảnh rồi kéo 3 em bé là cháu nội của ông bà

đang ẩn nấp tại ống cống, đâm chết 2 cháu, mổ bụng 1 cháu Sau

đó, quân lực Mỹ di chuyển đến hầm trú ẩn của gia đình khác giết

chết 15 người, trong đó có 3 phụ nữ mang thai

[105]

Table 4.3 CMs expressing War: War is evil

People who launch a war People who cause evil

Actions taken in the fight Actions cause evil