(Luận văn) conceptual metaphors in english and vietnamese idioms relating to love and desire for life

ABSTRACT This study has been conducted with my tremendous attempt to investigating conceptual metaphors expressing to Vietnamese and English idioms relating to love and desire for life..

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

HUỲNH LỆ MY

CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS

IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMATIC

EXPRESSIONS RELATING TO LOVE AND DESIRE FOR LIFE

Field: English Linguistics Code: 8.22.02.01

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Phan Văn Hòa

luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

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BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN

HUỲNH LỆ MY

ẨN DỤ Ý NIỆM TRONG CÁC YẾU TỐ THÀNH NGỮ TIẾNG VIỆT VÀ TIẾNG ANH LIÊN QUAN ĐẾN TÌNH YÊU VÀ KHÁT VỌNG SỐNG

Chuyên ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh

Mã số: 8.22.02.01

Người hướng dẫn: PGS TS Phan Văn Hòa

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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

There are no materials published anywhere Of course, this study doesn’t get any materials extracted in the whole, or in part from a thesis by which it has qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma except where reference is made in the thesis

No other person’s work has been used without any acknowledgement in the thesis

The thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institutions

Binh Dinh, 2020

Huỳnh Lệ My

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

First and foremost, I would like to extend my deepest and most sincere thanks to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Phan Van Hoa, who always instructs me with patience and enthusiasm My thesis would not have been finished without his enormous help This work has been fulfilled with his giant and meaningful guidance

I also would like to show my deep gratefulness to all of the lecturers of Foreign Languages Department of Quy Nhon University Especially, the lecturers are the pioneers in introducing the classic essential theory on conceptual metaphor and translation for my thesis I would like also express my best feelings to the lecturers from other universities for their great teaching

Finally, I would love to emphasize my appreciation to my family who is always on my side to support me and my best friend Le Thi Trinh Nu, who has encouraged me with patience

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ABSTRACT

This study has been conducted with my tremendous attempt to investigating conceptual metaphors expressing to Vietnamese and English idioms relating to love and desire for life Many idioms have been collected with a large number The chosen idioms are popular with both Vietnamese and English people The theory of cognitive linguistics raised by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (1980) and Kövecses (2002)are considered as the main theories in this study There are 200 samples concluding Vietnamese and English idioms used with the total of 30 conceptual metaphors By applying with various methods comprising quantitative, qualitative, descriptive and contrastive approaches, the study achieved the important aims and objectives The result points out those kinds of metaphors used with the different purposes in English and Vietnamese idioms

Keywords: Conceptual Metaphors, Vietnamese and English Idioms, Love, Desire for Life

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGMENT ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

ABBREVIATIONS x

LIST OF TABLES xi

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 RATIONALE 1

1.2 AIM AND OBJECTIVES 3

1.2.1 Aim 3

1.2.2 Objectives 3

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 3

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 4

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 4

1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY 4

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 6

2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 9

2.2.1 Conceptual Metaphor 9

2.2.1.1 Definition 9 luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

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2.2.1.2 Classification 13

2.2.1.3 Conceptual Metaphorical Mappings 18

2.2.2 The Idioms in English and Vietnamese 19

2.2.2.1 Definition 19

2.2.2.2 Features 20

2.2.2 The differences and similarities between idioms and proverbs 21

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 24

3.1 RESEARCH METHODS 24

3.2 DATA COLLECTION 24

3.3 DATA ANALYSIS 25

3.4 RESEARCH PROCEDURES 26

3.5 SUMMARY 26

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 27

4.1 CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMS RELATING TO LOVE 27

4.1.1 Love is a journey 27

4.1.1.1 In English Idioms 27

4.1.1.2 In Vietnamese Idioms 27

4.1.2 Love is an object 28

4.1.3 Love is fire 29

4.1.3.2 In Vietnamese Idioms 30 luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

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4.1.4 Love is a unity 30

4.1.5 Love is heaven 31

4.1.6 Love is a container 33

4.1.7 Love is parts of body 34

4.1.8 Love is vegetation 36

4.1.9 Love is an unstable state 37

4.1.10 Love is a game 38

4.1.11 Love is a valuable commodity 40

4.1.11.1 In English Idioms 40 luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

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4.1.12 Love is flavour 41

4.1.13 Love is a colour 42

4.1.14 Love is an animal 43

4.1.15 Love is food 46

4.1.16 Love is a choice 47

4.1.17 Love is life 48

4.1.18 Love is foolishness 49

4.1.19 Love is a rope 50 luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

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4.1.20 Love is a natural force 51

4.2 CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMS RELATING TO DESIRE FOR LIFE 56

4.2.1 Desire for Life is an object 56

4.2.2 Desire for Life is an animal 58

4.2.3 Desire for Life is a container 59

4.2.4 Desire for Life is a valuable commodity 60

4.2.5 Desire for Life is vegetation 61

4.2.6 Desire for Life is fire 62

4.2.6.1 In English Idioms 63 luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

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4.2.7 Desire for Life is a unity 63

4.2.8 Desire for Life is heaven 64

4.2.9 Desire for Life is human beings 66

4.2.10 Desire for Life is a game 67

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 71

5.1 CONCLUSION 71

5.2 IMPLICATIONS 73

5.3 LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 74

REFERENCES 75

APPENDICESI luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 The metaphorical correspondences between Source

Table 4.1 Conceptual metaphorical mapping of the source domain

Table 4.2 The occurrence and percentage of conceptual metaphors

Table 4.3 The occurrence and percentage of conceptual metaphors

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE

From past to present, the topic of love and desire for life is always associated with people and is very popular Indeed, people from birth to adulthood carry a burning love that can be family love, the country love, especially love between men and women, and the desire for life The special thing is that love and the desire for life are two things that go hand in hand in human life, and they are the most important things that help people succeed and develop more in life For example, if people do not like their work, the productivity will not be high, leading to them being unsuccessful at their work, or musicians without faith in love will not be able

to make immortal music It is also possible that, in some cases, people without the desire for life cannot develop themselves Thus, many idioms relating to love and desire for life was born to motivate people, especially they are used in literature to educate students Also, the idioms usually contain conceptual metaphors which are difficult to understand deeply

Although love and the desire for life in idioms are very familiar, the concepts

of love and desire for life are two abstract concepts, so it is difficult to express them

to make the listeners understand the whole of the speakers' deep implications and This can be easily seen in life, we can see some examples below To express the meaning of ―I love you‖, some people say directly ―I love you‖ while others use familiar images in life to describe it ―My heart has turned on the green light, but

why do you keep pushing the brakes like this‖ ―The heart turns green light‖ refers

to the speaker who has loved the listener For the same idea, some people choose to speak frankly but others choose to use some pictures to illustrate their sentences more vividly, perspicuously, and deeply Such usage is called a conceptual metaphor

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Metaphor is popularly used in literature and everyday language Besides, it is commonly used in idioms, especially idioms about love and the desire for life Vietnamese and English idioms contain a lot of conceptual metaphors; however, due to differences in culture, lifestyle, and thinking, some idioms have the same meaning but different languages will also differ in the types of metaphors in those idioms Let us take a look at the following idioms to see their metaphorical forms:

(1) Jules and Nora are a match made in heaven They love doing things

together and cannot bear to be away from each other

(2) Ai nói chi chàng chớ có nghe, ông tơ bà nguyệt đã xe ta rồi

(3) Their marriage was on the rocks as they couldn't get along with each

other anymore and were having huge arguments very frequently

(4) Cơm chả lành, canh chả ngọt

(5) Có công mài sắt có ngày nên kim

All the idioms in the above examples contain common conceptual

metaphors For example, in the first example ―Match made in heaven‖, the idiom

borrows the image of heaven to say that a couple is very compatible in all aspects of love The target domain here is LOVE and the Source domain is HEAVEN In example (2), people also use the HEAVEN metaphor to express the meaning of the target domain LOVE The special thing is that these idioms contain the same kinds

of metaphor, but they are two different objects, ―ông tơ bà nguyệt‖ only exists in

Vietnamese culture, and ―heaven‖ exists in both cultures In the two idioms ―on the

rocks‖ and ―cơm chả lành canh chả ngọt‖, although the same meaning is the

quarrels or conflicts of couples in love, the two idioms contain two different types

of conceptual metaphors, the metaphor of object and the metaphor of flavour respectively Example (5) is also in the form of the metaphor of object, ―KIM‖ AND ―SẮT‖ are two source domains used to conceptualize the target domain

―DESIRE FOR LIFE‖

In summary, how love and desire of life are conceptualized in English and Vietnamese idioms, what the similarities and differences of metaphors of love and desire for life in the idioms are have inspired me to conduct a research entitled:

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―Conceptual Metaphors in English and Vietnamese Idiomatic Expressions

Relating to Love and Desire for Life‖ Hopefully, this study will contribute to the

comprehending of conceptual metaphors in the Vietnamese and English idioms relating to love and desire for life

1.2 AIM AND OBJECTIVES

1.2.1 Aim

This research aims at identifying clearly the idioms relating to love and desire for life, and finding out the similarities and differences about conceptual metaphors in English and Vietnamese idioms involved

1.2.2 Objectives

In order to achieve the aim of this research, the thesis concentrates on:

- Identifying specifically the conceptual metaphors of love and desire for life in English and Vietnamese

- Describing how the concept of love and desire for life is metaphorically expressed in English and Vietnamese idioms

- Comparing the conceptual metaphor of love and desire for life between English and Vietnamese idioms

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2 What are the similarities and differences of the conceptual metaphors of love and desire for life between English and Vietnamese idioms?

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study mainly focuses on the conceptual metaphors of love and desire for life in the English and Vietnamese idioms Also, the study precisely analyses the conceptual metaphors of love and desire for life, and this study just mentions on idioms, not in any poems, short stories or pieces of literature So the idioms will be explored exactly to gain the deep knowledge in the future

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

People demonstrate their erudite learning about the topic, as well as their attractive and impressed ways of talking, and therefore, they usually use a lot of idioms, especially, relating to love and desire for life It is undeniable that love and desire for life is the eternal issues in the human life However, applying their incisive knowledge about English and Vietnamese idioms of love and desire for life

is very mechanical and unconscious, they do not really understand the nature of them Thus, this study is hopefully the practical work to comprehend the conceptual metaphor in general, and the conceptual metaphors of love and desire for life in specific Then, the study identifies the conceptual metaphor of love and desire for life in English and Vietnamese idioms

1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

This thesis is organized into five chapters as follow:

Chapter 1, INTRODUCTION, presents the rationale, the aims and objectives

of the study, the research questions, the scope, the significance and the organization

of the study

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Chapter 2, LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND, firstly presents briefly the previous studies of conceptual metaphor Secondly, the theoretical knowledge about conceptual metaphors relating

to love and desire for life includes the definitions of conceptual metaphors, their classification, and conceptual metaphoric domains Then it discusses English and Vietnamese idioms relating to love and desire for life, and the similarities between them Finally, typical examples in each idiom will be mentioned

Chapter 3, RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY, describes the intended process of the study that is the design, methods, research procedures, data collection and data analysis

Chapter 4, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION, emphasizes on the metaphors about love and desire for life in English and Vietnamese idioms and how they are used The problem of difference and similarities between them will be also mentioned

Chapter 5, CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS, summarizes all the major points discussed in the study Moreover, implications for the learning, using

of idioms of love and desire for life will be provided

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CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW

For centuries, metaphor has always been considered a common form in literary works and common daily saying Metaphor has been studied for a long time from different perspectives While philosophers tend to consider language as literal, thinking metaphor as aberrant only to be used by poets, cognitive linguists view metaphor as important and not marginal at all, emphasizing the construal of meanings and our embodied understanding of the situation

The most elemental theory of metaphor originated from the Greek philosopher Aristotle (383-322 B.C), who is credited with introducing the word

―metaphor‖ in two of his major treatises (Rhetoric and Poetics, 1997) In Greek,

―metaphor‖ means ―to carry beyond‖ or ―to deliver‖ This meaning refers to an

implied comparison or transference of meaning between two objects formulated as

―A is B‖ or ―A implies B‖ Aristotle declared that ―metaphor is the transference of a

word of another significance either from genus to species, or from species to genus,

or from species to species or by analogy or proportion‖ (1997, p 150) According

to Aristotle, metaphor stands in contrast to ordinary language

Ivor Armstrong Richards (1936) is one of the lecturers who doubted the

traditional viewpoint of metaphor He introduced the technical terms ―vehicle‖ and

―tenor‖ for the metaphorical words The first term represents the underlying idea

that is illustrated or illuminated by the other, which is applied to it From a different perspective, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (1980) published the book entitled

―Metaphors We Live By‖, which revolutionized the field of cognitive linguistics

Lakoff and Johnson clearly stated their opinion about metaphor:

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Metaphor has been viewed for a long time as a characteristic of language alone, a matter of words rather than thought or action However, as we have recognised, the new explorations of metaphor show that it is pervasive in daily life, not just in language but in thought and action Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, p 3)

Lakoff and Johnson's research has brought about a variety of studies within this field of study, and many of the conceptual metaphors relating to ARGUMENT, TIME, LIFE, and LOVE, for example, that they discovered are used by people continually and are also extensively studied by linguists The utilization of conceptual metaphors in daily language may not always be evident since they are used almost automatically (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, p 3) Zoltán Kövecses (2002) gives us more insight into conceptual metaphors based on the cognitive point

of view, stating the important role of metaphor in our cognitive activities In addition, conceptual metaphors of LOVE have been focused on in detail in his

―Metaphors of Anger, Pride and Love: A Lexical Approach to the Structure of

Concepts‖ (1986)

In Vietnam, conceptual metaphors have been studied by many researchers such as Ly Toan Thang, Nguyen Duc Ton (2007), Nguyen Lai (2009) It cannot be

uncounted to Phan The Hung (2007) with his article named ―Ån dụ ý niệm‖

(Conceptual Metaphors) A variety of publications exploring the different aspects

of conceptual metaphors have been made such as ―Suy nghĩ về ẩn dụ khái niệm

trong thế giới thi ca từ góc nhìn của ngôn ngữ học tri nhận” (Thinking about conceptual metaphors in the poetic world from the perspective of cognitive linguistics) by Nguyen Lai (2009) or ―An investigation into conceptual metaphors for life, death and time in English and Vietnamese‖ by Phan Van Hoa and Nguyen

Thị Tu Trinh (2010) Phan Van Hoa and Ho Trinh Quynh Thu (2011) studied ―Ẩn

dụ ý niệm „Tình yêu là cuộc hành trình‟ trong tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt‖ (Conceptual metaphor „Love is a journey‟ in English and Vietnamese) (Linguistics and Life,

Vol 9 (191), p 15) Moreover, Le Thi My Nhat (2002) investigated ―The

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Metaphoric Devices in English and Vietnamese Proverbs‖ Ho Vi Nu My Linh

(2011) researched ―Metaphor in Newspapers (English versus Vietnamese)‖ Lately, Nguyen Thị Thanh Huyen (2009) has researched into ―Ẩn dụ trị nhân - Mô hình ẩn

dụ cầu trúc trên cử liệu ca từ của Trịnh Công Sơn‖ (Perceptual metaphors - model

of structural metaphors on lyrics evidence from Trinh Cong Son) under the

supervision of Assoc Prof Tran Van Co

Conceptual metaphors of idioms in Vietnamese and English have vividly been discussed for their practical meaning in literature and in everyday language for

a long time Idioms have a simple structure that combines with different types of metaphors to make them profound and popular Therefore, there have been many authors interested in this topic and since then many research papers have been born

In 2016, Tran The Phi carried out his research with the title ―Ẩn dụ ý niệm về cảm

xúc trong thành ngữ Tiếng Việt (so sánh với thành ngữ Tiếng Anh)‖ Besides, Tran

Thi Thu Ba (2011) conducted a research with the title ―An investigation into

English and Vietnamese idioms containing words denoting time‖

Nguyen Tan Thanh (2017) conducts research entitled ―Conceptual

metaphors denoting love in The Tale of Kieu by Nguyen Du and its English versions

by Michael Counsel and Huynh Sanh Thong‖ His thesis mainly focuses on

analysing the conceptual metaphor of love which is the forever topic He finds out the metaphorical elements in the original work and compares them to the translation between Michael Counsel and Huynh Sanh Thong By his knowledge, he gives the gaps between the translations However, the other stylistic devices and other conceptual metaphors were explored

Nguyen Thi Mong Cam (2012) writes the thesis with the title ―An

investigation in English and Vietnamese idioms related to love and marriage‖ She

mainly investigates the syntactic, stylistic, and semantic features of love and marriage idioms in English and Vietnamese and finds out the similarities and

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differences between English and Vietnamese love and marriage in the two aspects mentioned However, she does not examine metaphors in every idiom She just focuses on a small aspect of the thesis

Nguyen Thi Khanh Ly (2015) conducts the thesis with the title ―A study on

conceptual metaphors of “rain”/ “mưa”, “sunshine”/ “nắng” in English and Vietnamese 20th century songs‖ In her thesis, many metaphorical elements are

shown clearly, she collects qualified data related to ―rain‖ and ―sunshine‖ from songs By understanding the content of the songs, she analyses the conceptual metaphors in every expression precisely

2.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.2.1 Conceptual Metaphor

2.2.1.1 Definition

To understand conceptual metaphor, we have to get its origin What

conceptual metaphor means, why it is called conceptual metaphors, and what

conceptual metaphor is for In cognitive linguistics, the term ―conceptual‖ is very

important because it is the basis of conceptual metaphor As reported by Tran Van

Co (2007), the expression ―conceptual‖ is formed in people's consciousness

Essentially, according to cognitive science, ordinary people mainly think with concepts, which not only include notions but also images of it, or the culture included in it Therefore, it is more correct to say that the conceptual metaphor is a human’s thinking and consciousness The basis of the concept is the direct emotional experience that people gain in the process of communicating with society, with the outside world through their senses

According to the above interpretation, conceptual metaphor is one of the forms of conceptualization, a cognitive process which has the function of expressing and forming new ideas, the new knowledge cannot be formed without it

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In other words, conceptual metaphor is to show people's mind in the world, how they see things, phenomena, concepts, and many other things Conceptual metaphor also shows a block of knowledge that people perceive in the course of life, it shows the knowledge block of perception in terms of words To be clear, conceptual metaphor is to make some abstract concept understandable by associating it with a simple, or palpable, thinking concept

Conceptual metaphor is exploited in literary works, poems, idioms, and also

in everyday human language Conceptual metaphor is seen as a key element in cognitive linguistics A metaphor is commonly understood as a special comparison

of two things in languages, usually taking a particular one to represent a certain

abstraction According to Wikipedia, ―a metaphor is a figure of speech that, for

rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two ideas Metaphors are often compared with other types of figurative languages, such as antithesis, hyperbole, metonymy and simile.‖

The ―All the world's a stage‖ monologue from William Shakespeare’s ―As

You Like It‖ is one of the most commonly cited examples of a metaphor

All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances

(William Shakespeare, 1623)

This quote shows several metaphors such as “all the world‟s a stage”, which

means that the world in the eyes of a playwright is like a stage; then, the metaphor

“all the men and women merely players” means the people of society as characters

in that play It can be seen that “world” and “stage” have similarities with each

other

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Lakoff and Johnson (1980) argued that “the essence of metaphors is

understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another.” They said:

The most essential claim we have made up to now is that metaphor is not just

a matter of language, which means that the problem of mere words We will argue that, on the other hands, human thought processes are largely metaphorical This is what we mean when we say that the human conceptual system is metaphorically structured and defined Metaphors as linguistic expressions are possible clearly because there are metaphors in a person's conceptual system (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, p 6)

Considering the basis of all metaphors the concept, Lakoff and Johnson

named their theory of metaphors the ―conceptual metaphor‖ It is also called

―cognitive metaphor‖ because this new concept of metaphor lies in the school of

cognitive linguistics

In the cognitive linguistic view, metaphor is defined as understanding one conceptual domain A in terms of another conceptual domain B (Kövecses, 2002, p 4)

In fact, in conceptual metaphor there exist ―Source Domain‖ (A) and ―Target

Domain‖ (B), which (A) is understood through (B) (Kövecses, 2002, p.4) The

―Source Domain‖ is often abstract concepts such as life, love, arguments, ideas and the other ―Target Domain‖ like fire, vegetation, journey, nutrient and others The relationship between two domains is called ―Mapping‖ Some conceptual metaphors are drawn from ―Metaphors We Live By‖ by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) Let us take the typical metaphor “Love is a patient‖ as an example ―Love‖ is the target domain, and ―Patient‖ is the source domain This conceptual metaphor can result in the

following linguistic expressions

This is a sick relationship

They have a strong, healthy marriage

The marriage is dead—it can’t be revived

Their marriage is on the mend

We’re getting back on our feet

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Their relationship is in really good shape

They’ve got a listless marriage

Their marriage is on its last legs

It’s a tired affair

(Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, p.106) The above conceptual correspondence between two domains shows the same

properties The source domain ―Patient‖ has some properties like ―sick‖, ―strong‖,

―healthy‖, ―dead‖, ―revived‖, ―on the mend‖, ―back on your feet‖, ―in really good

shape‖, listless, on its last legs, tired which are assigned to the target domain

―Love‖

We can see that if ―Love‖ and ―Patient‖ stand separately from each other, it

seems that the two concepts have nothing to do with each other However, when it comes to each of these properties, they have many similarities Let us compare

Table 2.1 The metaphorical correspondences between

Source Domain and Target Domain

Lovers

The Lovers are sick in love

strong, healthy marriage

The marriage is dead The marriage can’t be revived marriage is on the mend The lovers are getting back on their feet The relationship is in really good shape

a listless marriage The marriage is on its last legs

a tired affair

Patients

The patients are sick in health

strong, healthy health

the live is dead

the health can‟t be revived the hurt is on the mend

the patients are getting back on their fee the health is in really good shape

a listless spirit the health is on its last legs

a tired life

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This set of correspondences helps us to comprehend more about the abstract

2 Determine the lexical units in the text/discourse

3 a For each lexical unit in the text, establish its meaning in context, i.e how it applies to an entity, relation or attribute in the situation evoked by the text (contextual meaning) Take into account what comes before and after the lexical unit

b For each lexical unit, determine if it has a more basic contemporary meaning in other contexts than the one in the given context For our purposes, basic meanings tend to be:

- more concrete; what they evoke is easier to imagine, see, hear, feel, smell, and taste;

- related to bodily action;

- more precise (as opposed to vague);

4 If yes, mark the lexical unit as metaphorical

2.2.1.2 Classification

According to Lakoff and Johnson (1890), conceptual metaphors are divided

into four basic categories: structural metaphors, ontological metaphors,

orientational metaphors and conduit metaphors

2.2.1.2.1 Structural Metaphors

Structural metaphors are cases in which one concept is metaphorically structured in terms of another In a simple way, structural metaphor is to semantically reconstruct the concept at the target domain about semantics after

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receiving new attributes thanks to mapping Let us take a look at the ―Love is

madness‖ metaphor in which ―Love‖ is the target domain and ―Madness‖ is the

source domain In terms of semantics, these two domains are not related at all, but

in terms of each property of the two concepts, they have a lot of similarities Check out the similarities in the below structures:

I'm crazy about her

She drives me out of my mind

He constantly raves about her

He's gone mad over her

I'm just wild about Harry

I'm insane about her

Obviously, the italicized phrases all show the human’s strongly states in love

2.2.1.2.2 Ontological Metaphors

The ontological metaphors are essentially the process of "materializing" of abstract entities and which are delimited in space This kind of metaphor means we conceive of our experiences in terms of, events, action, ideas, emotions as real objects and materials

The ontological metaphors are useful for different uses, for example, inflation can be seen as a certain object although it is an abstract object Therefore,

we have the following cases:

Inflation is lowering our standard of living

If there's much more inflation, we'll never survive

We need to combat inflation

Inflation is backing us into a comer

Inflation is taking its toll at the checkout counter and the gas pump

Buying land is the best way of dealing with inflation

Inflation makes me sick

(Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, p 26)

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From the above sentences, the word ―inflation‖ has become easier to

understand, it seems we can see it, we can consider it as a real existence rather than

a vague concept Although it can be viewed as inanimate, the properties assigned to

it are drawn from those of the human being This means it is given the same attributes as humans Perhaps the kind of metaphor that takes human features to give an abstract concept has partly helped these phrases cease to be a dry concept

Besides, it can be referred to like the word ―price‖, which is also materialized into a single object that we can ―increase/decrease price‖, ―estimate price‖

2.2.1.2.3 Orientational Metaphors

This type of metaphor is completely different from the structural metaphor where one concept is metaphorically structured in terms of another That's the orientational metaphors which organise a whole system of concept with respect to one another They are named the orientational metaphors because most of them have to do with spatial orientation: up-down, front-back, in-out, on-off, deep-shallow, central-peripheral The appearance of these kinds of spaces results from we having bodies of the sort we have and that they function as they do in our physical environment

The orientational metaphors often have target domains that are abstract concepts assigned with words that indicate the spatial orientation of the source domain This kind of metaphor is intrinsically very popular in English and is expressed very clearly and easily Some following metaphors can be considered

The ―happy is up‖ metaphor shows the fact that ―happy‖ is oriented ―up‖, which results in English expressions like ―I'm feeling up today‖ (Lakoff and Jonhson,

1980, p.14) In English, ―happiness, health, consciousness, rationality‖ is described through the up metaphor, while ―unhappiness, sickness, death‖ − through the down

metaphor Although spatially oriented phrases have contradictory meanings, such metaphorical orientations are not arbitrary, that is, they can be used arbitrarily

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depending on the different cultures In the culture of Asia and Europeans, the most

obvious difference is in terms of the direction in this space For example,

"front-back" has clear contrasts in physics, but in some cultures, the future lies ahead of us

while in others, the future is behind us "Up-down", and "in-out" are similar, in

British and American culture, we walk in the rain, and in Vietnam, we go in the rain The reason for this difference is also because the human being is considered the centre in Eastern cultures, so the person is the most standard reference system

In the West, on the contrary, they use the universe as the standard frame of reference

To illustrate the ―up-down‖ metaphor clearly, let us consider the following cases drawn from ―Metaphors We Live By‖ by Lakoff and Jonhson (1980):

HAPPY IS UP, SAD IS DOWN

You’re in high spirit

CONSCIOUS IS UP, UNCONSCIOUS IS DOWN

Get up Wake up I’m up already

HEALTH AND LIFE ARE UP, SICKNESS AND DEATH ARE DOWN

He is at the peak of health

HAVING CONTROL OR FORCE IS UP, BEING SUBJECT TO CONTROL OR FORCE IS DOWN

I have control over her

MORE IS UP, LESS IS DOWN

The number of books printed each year keeps going up

FORESEABLE FUTURE EVENT ARE UP

All upcoming events are listed in the paper

GOOD IS UP, BAD IS DOWN

Things are looking up

RATINAL IS UP, EMOTIONAL IS DOWN

He couldn’t rise above his emotion

(Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, p 15)

2.2.1.2.3 Conduit Metaphors

According to Wikipedia, ―the conduit metaphor is a dominant class of

figurative expressions used when discussing communication itself‖ We can identify

conduit metaphor when writers or speakers insert their emotions or thoughts into

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containers such as words, phrases, sentences, which then convey the authors’

contents to readers or listeners With this type of metaphor, language is seen as a

container conveying mental contents from one person to others

Physically, a container is an entity confined to a certain space The container may contain a liquid or solid material Containers can be expressed through a number of adjectives such as ―full‖, ―overflow‖, ―empty‖ and some related words

Materials may also be viewed as containers For example, when we swim in

a certain lake, we can easily see the lake as a container However, the water in the lake is also considered a reservoir because it is contained in a lake The only difference is their name, the lake is the entity – the container, the water is the material – the container We can take the example below:

Trong đầm gì đẹp bằng sen

Lá xanh bông trắng lại chen nhị vàng Nhị vàng bông trắng lá xanh

Gần bùn mà chẳng hôi tanh mùi bùn

In these folk verses, ―đầm‖ and ―bùn‖ are the two conduit metaphors in which the metaphor ―đầm‖ is the entity – the container, ―bùn‖ is the material – the

container

In another aspect, parts of the human body are also considered conduits The

word ―conduit‖ itself means a channel or tube used to carry liquid, gas, but the

human parts are also conduits which carry information instead of water For

example, in the sentence ―miệng cô ấy là cái loa phát thanh hữu hiệu của làng‖,

―miệng‖ - the mouth is compared to ―cái loa‖ - a loudspeaker, this comparison is the conduit metaphor ―Miệng‖ is a part of the human body, and it plays a part as a conduit that conveys information, so ―miệng‖ can be seen as the entity – the

container and the information is the material – the container

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2.2.1.3 Conceptual Metaphorical Mappings

According to Wikipedia, mapping is the way in which a source domain tracks onto and describes aspects of the target domain A mapping is the systematic set of correspondences that exist between constituent elements of the source and the target domains Precisely, the mapping is the phrases drawn from the source and target domains, between these terms there are similarities in characteristics, properties and many other things There are two main roles for the conceptual domains posited in conceptual metaphors:

Source Domain: the conceptual domain from which we draw metaphorical

expressions

Target Domain: the conceptual domain that we try to understand

According to Zoltán Kövecses, the set of concept in which words and

expressions are borrowed is called Source Model, while the concept is the

borrowers which are called Target Model as presented in some of the following

cases:

Table 2.2 Metaphorical Mapping between Conceptual Domains

The travelers The vehicle The journey The distance covered The obstacles encountered Decisions about which way to go The destination of the journey

The lovers The love relationship itself Events in the relationship The progress made

The difficulties experienced Choices about what to do The goal(s) of the relationship

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All the above sets of correspondences of the source domain are the mappings which are assigned to the target domain At first glance, we will not see any

correlation between ―Love‖ and ―Journey‖, which we can only see as two different

fields However, when looking at the model correspondences we see that they are

very logical and suitable The correspondences of ―Journey‖ make the concept of

―Love‖ abstraction easier to understand, interesting and much more profound

2.2.2 The Idioms in English and Vietnamese

The English and Vietnamese idioms have the same definition and features

2.2.2.1 Definition

The Cambridge dictionary defines an idiom in English as ―a group of words

in a fixed order that has a particular meaning that is different from the meanings of each word on its own.‖

There is another wording In ―A Dictionary of Linguistics‖, an idiom is ―any

expression peculiar to a language, convey a distinct meaning, not necessarily explicable by, occasionally even contrary to, the general accepted grammatical rules.‖ (Pei and Gaynor, 1954, p 95)

Hornby (1995) emphasizes an idiom as ―a phrase or sentences whose

meaning is not clear from the meaning of its individual words and which must be learnt as a whole unit.‖ (Hornby, 1995, p 589)

Wikipedia says that ―idioms are a fixed set of words that are used to use, but

meaning cannot be explained simply by the meaning of the words that make up it Idioms are widely used in speech and composing Vietnamese poetry and poetry The idioms are short, concise, symbolic, expressive.‖

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As Nguyen (2007) mentioned in his book, ―An idiom is a set of used fixed

words whose meaning is often impossible to explain in a simple way the meaning of the words that make up it‖ (p 8)

In short, idioms in English are innumerable, but they have very short and concise structures, and English idioms often have cultural elements For example,

the expression ―Love me, love my dog‖ is translated into Vietnamese as ―Yêu ai yêu

cả đường đi lối về‖ Because Westerners respect animals, especially dogs, they use

the image of a dog to express love

2.2.2.2 Features

To recognize an idiom, we need to consider many characteristics An idiom often focuses on figurative meaning The meaning of an idiom tends to be metaphorical meaning rather than the literal meaning It is not the result of the compositional function of their parts

According to Michael Berman (2000), we cannot normally change the words, their order, or the grammatical forms in the same way as changing non-idiomatic expressions In other words, idioms are basically fixed expressions The grammatical form of an idiom is invariable and fixed The process of substitution is not allowed and passive constructions cannot be formed

Smiley and Goldstein (1998) also claimed that ―idioms are certainly more

than the sum of their parts‖ (p 76) The meaning of component of an idiom is

different from the meaning of the whole idiom We need not depend on open or closed classes to guess the meaning of an idiom As Yong and Peng (2007) suggested:

In open class combinations, individual components are freely recombination and are used in a common literal sense A co-occurrence of individual

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components is expected of this class of combinations, both their meaning and structures are predictable amenable to analysis (p 178)

For example, in the expression ―give someone the green light‖, we can guess its meaning The expression that combines cultural elements, ―green light‖ is translated into Vietnamese as ―đèn xanh‖, which means giving someone a chance to

get to know each other and fall in love However, with a closed-structure idiom, its

meaning cannot be guessed because ―they are introduced by semantics opaqueness,

syntactic restrictions and structural stability‖ (Yong and Peng, 2007, p 178) such

as the idioms ―at any rate‖ or ―for all one is worth‖ In these two idioms, it is

impossible to guess its metaphorical meaning because each word unit does not clearly show its figurative meaning Therefore, the lack of a word unit in a sentence also makes the idiom lose its meaning

Vietnamese idioms always have metaphorical meanings, this means we understand idioms through figurative meanings, not literal meanings Because of this, although sometimes we know all the elements of an idiom, we cannot understand what the idiom is saying Besides, many people simply use idioms mechanically without understanding what each component in the sentence

represents such as the idiom ―say như điếu đổ‖ that is to love passionately ―Điếu‖ here means cigarette, ―điếu đổ‖ is understood as a state of infatuation with tobacco,

taking a cigarette to talk about the person that we are passionate about Based on the above analysis, it can be seen that when standing in a sentence like that we can understand easily, but if we analyse each component we sometimes do not understand what that word means

2.2.2 The differences and similarities between idioms and proverbs

According to Wikipedia, an idiom is a phrase or expression that has a meaning of its own that cannot be understood from the meanings of its individual words As defined in the Dictionary of Vietnamese by the Institute of Linguistics - Danang Publishing House -1977, the idiom is a set of used fixed words not the

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perfect sentences and their meaning cannot be explained easily Besides, The idiom does not state a comment, a life experience, a moral lesson or a critique, so it often has an aesthetic function, not a cognitive or educational function, but lacks two this function cannot become a complete literary work So, idioms belong to language The content of idioms is the content of concepts

According to Wikipedia, Proverbs are a folklore genre that summarizes people's experiences and knowledge with short, concise, rhythmic, easy-to-remember, easy-to-convey and often rhyming sentences Proverbs often give advice, reflect the experiences of productive labour, record historical and social phenomena, or express the folk philosophy of the nation The proverb is a complete sentence, fully expressing an idea with the content of commenting on social relationships, conveying life experiences, for moral lessons or things that need criticism Therefore, a proverb can be considered as a complete "literary work" because it carries within itself all three basic functions of literature, the cognitive function, the aesthetic function and the educational function the content of proverbs

is the content of judgments

Thus, the similarity between idioms and proverbs is that they both contain and reflect people's knowledge of things and phenomena of the objective world The difference is that when the knowledge is stated as concepts, we have idioms, and when presented, interpreted into judgments, we have proverbs

Let’s take into account the examples The Vietnamese idioms ―Một nắng hai

sương‖, ―Rán sành ra mỡ‖, ―Đâm ba chẻ củ‖ are just a phrase that has a meaning of

its own that cannot be understood from the meanings of its individual words

Besides, the Vietnamese idiom ―Mặt hoa da phấn‖ only expresses the graceful

beauty of a woman, but it does not raise any comment, advice or criticism Therefore, although it is expressed figuratively, with an image (aesthetic function), the above idiom does not bring people an understanding of life and a lesson about human relations in society (cognitive function and educational function) But the

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Vietnamese proverb ―Đói cho sạch, rách cho thơm‖, ―Một giọt máu đào hơn ao

nuớc lã‖ are the complete sentences and they give moral lessons and they are made

from people’s life experiences The English idiom ―To be fed up‖ is also just a phrase and it doesn’t give any advice But the English proverb ―Don‟t cry over

spilled milk‖ mean that it is useless to regret about the problem not being able to

solve The proverb give the good lesson and it is also a full sentence which is made from people’s experiences

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CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 3.1 RESEARCH METHODS

In order to achieve the aims and the objectives, the study applies the qualitative and quantitative methods to carry out effectively These methods are used to collect, count, and analyse data The qualitative approach is applied to analyse and describe the conceptual metaphors from the idioms The quantitative approach helps finding out the frequency of occurrence of source domains and target domains Besides, the contrastive method is used to describe and compare the conceptual metaphors of love and desire for life in English and Vietnamese idioms

3.2 DATA COLLECTION

The data for the study are idiomatic expressions extracted from different sources on the Internet and books such as proverbs, idioms, poems and short stories Through collecting data from various sources, 50 English samples and 50

Vietnamese samples relating to ―Love‖ denoting the 20 types of metaphors as well

as 50 English samples and 50 Vietnamese samples relating to ―Desire for life‖

denoting the 10 types of metaphors are indicated The idiomatic expressions of

―Love‖ and ―Desire for life‖ in the samples contain the elements of conceptual

metaphors which they are chosen based on conceptual metaphor theory by Lakoff and Johnson (1980)

Here is some steps of data collection:

(1) Read all source materials to find English and Vietnamese idiomatic expressions These include ―The dictionary of current English - Vietnamese idioms‖

by La Thanh (1988), ―The Oxford dictionary of idioms (second edition, 2004)‖ Literature books from grades 1 to 9, the other Internet resources such as https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Th%C3%A0nh_ng%E1%BB%AF_Vi%E1%BB%87t

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_Nam?fbclid=IwAR2s9EvywocWxkAE- 1ec4yPe0a6iKUMtTtOB9fRh14Xvhi4fYQqSGOUBTP0,

(5) Group the metaphors in the idiomatic expressions having the same source domains

3.3 DATA ANALYSIS

To analyse the data, let us check the following steps

- Classifying English and Vietnamese idioms into love and desire for life categories

- Identifying the metaphors in the idioms using the MIP procedure by the Pragglejaz Group (2007) and classifying them into different types

- Analyzing the metaphors in the idioms to find out the frequency of the types of metaphors

- Comparing and contrasting the English and Vietnamese idioms in love and desire for life

- Pointing out the similarities and differences of metaphor usage in English and Vietnamese idioms of love and desire for life

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Next, the researcher investigates the expressions in the idioms conceptualize

the abstract domains ―Love‖ and ―Desire for Life‖ based on the conceptual

metaphor theory by Lakoff and Johnson (1980)

Finally, the researcher concludes the most popular types of metaphor in love and desire for life categories, and then the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms of love and desire for life

3.5 SUMMARY

The chapter is very special It mainly focuses on the methods to conduct this study effectively Besides, it mentions to procedures to conduct, data collection, and data analysis which play important roles in fulfilling the study

The qualitative and quantitative approach covers all the study during the data collection It helps choose the best samples for the study Moreover, comparative and contrastive methods play an integral part in find out the similarities and differences between the English and Vietnamese idioms of love and desire for life The other main method is describing method which helps to analyse the metaphorical expressions denoting love and desire for life The findings will be

discussed in the following chapter

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CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMS RELATING TO LOVE

4.1.1 Love is a journey

In the LOVE IS A JOURNEY metaphor, idioms usually use roads to

illustrate the relationship between lovers In fact, the word ―journey‖ refers to a

long process including the factors which lovers undergo during their relationship such as how they care about each other, or the mistakes and misunderstanding that cause their separation Let us consider the idioms below to have a detailed understanding

4.1.1.1 In English Idioms

Among fifty English idioms used for the study, there is only one case with the LOVE IS A JOURNEY metaphor, making it 2% of the data

(1) Two shorten the road

The idiom originated in Ireland, meaning that when two lovers go together, the road will be shorter no matter how long It also suggests that life would be more enjoyable if everyone had a reliable companion, especially loved ones

4.1.1.2 In Vietnamese Idioms

There are two idioms matching the LOVE IS A JOURNEY metaphor,

In the sentence, there is a familiar idiom phrase Based on the context of the sentence, it is shown the meaning related to the love of the idiom Use the words

Tiêu đề	Conceptual Metaphors in English and Vietnamese Idioms Relating to Love and Desire for Life
Tác giả	Huỳnh Lệ My
Người hướng dẫn	Assoc. Prof. Dr. Phan Văn Hùa
Trường học	Quy Nhơn University
Chuyên ngành	English Linguistics
Thể loại	Thesis
Năm xuất bản	2020
Thành phố	Bình Định

Định dạng
Số trang	108
Dung lượng	1,29 MB