A study on metonymic expressions concerning humans in oscar wildes short stories with reference to vietnamese equivalents

BA THESIS A STUDY ON METONYMIC EXPRESSIONS CONCERNING HUMANS IN OSCAR WILDE’S SHORT STORIES WITH REFERENCE TO VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ PHÉP HOÁN DỤ LIÊN QUAN ĐẾN CON NGƯỜI

BA THESIS

A STUDY ON METONYMIC EXPRESSIONS

CONCERNING HUMANS IN OSCAR WILDE’S SHORT STORIES WITH REFERENCE

TO VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ PHÉP HOÁN DỤ LIÊN QUAN ĐẾN

CON NGƯỜI TRONG TRUYỆN NGẮN CỦA

OSCAR WILDE CÓ THAM CHIẾU ĐẾN

NGHĨA TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT)

Student code: 621236

Supervisor: NGUYEN THI THU THUY, Ph.D

Hanoi – 2021

entitled “A STUDY ON METONYMIC EXPRESSIONS CONCERNING HUMANS IN OSCAR WILDE’S SHORT STORIES WITH REFERENCE TO VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2021

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy, Ph.D

Date:………

the Faculty of Education and Foreign Language those have helped me complete

my BA thesis during the past 5 months Thanks for providing me with both professional knowledge and learning spirit, which is the foundation to help me acquire practical knowledge during the process of completing this BA thesis

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy, Ph.D who gave me many detailed comments and reviews so that I can draw from my own experience through this BA thesis Thank you very much for your kind cooperation during this time helping me complete the BA thesis

Besides, I would like take this opportunity to sincerely thank my family and my friends for being supportive of my education and always being by my side through hard times

PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1 RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY 1

2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1

2.1 AIMS 1

2.2 OBJECTIVES 2

3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 2

4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 2

5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 2

6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY 3

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1 - LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 REVIEW OF THE PREVIOUS STUDIES 4

1.2 REVIEW OF THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5

1.2.1 Definition of Metonymy 5

1.2.2 Characteristics of Metonymy 7

1.2.3 Classification of Metonymy 8

1.2.4 Features of Metonymy 8

1.2.5 Types of Metonymic Expressions concerning humans in English and Vietnamese 9

1.2.6 Metonymy Concerning Humans 15

1.2.7 Metonymy versus Other Ways of Meaning Transference 16

1.2.8 Oscar Wilde and the Short stories 16

CHAPTER 2 - METHODOLOGY 18

2.1 RESEARCH METHOD 18

2.2 DATA COLLECTION 19

2.3 ANALYTICAL FAMEWORK 19

2.4 SUMMARY 22

CHAPTER 3 - FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 23

3.1 METONYMIC EXPRESSIONS CONCERNING HUMANS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE 23

3.1.1 The Part for the Whole 23

3.1.2 Institution for People 26

3.1.3 The Concrete for Abstract 26

3.1.4 Container for People Contained 29

3.1.5 Color for People 30

3.1.6 Object Used for User 31

3.1.7 Author for His Work 32

3.2 SIMILARITIES 32

3.3 DIFFERENCES 33

3.4 FEATURES OF METONYMY 34

3.4.1 Syntactic features 34

3.4.2 Semantic features 37

3.5 SUMMARY 38

PART 3: CONCLUSION 39

1 RECAPITULATION 39

2 CONCLUDING REMARKS 39

3 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY 41

4 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 42

REFERENCES 43

APPENDIX 45

“Đi mở đường” by Nguyễn Tuân, “Chí Phèo” and by Nam Cao to clarify the similarities and differences of these metonymic expressions Through this study,

we have found the similarities and differences in using metonymic expressions concerning humans between Oscar Wilde and some other authors and Vietnamese writers At the end, as the result, the study offers teachers and learners of English and Vietnamese a comprehensive perspective on metonymic expression in short stories concerning humans using a cognitive linguistics approach

KEYWORDS: Metonymic expression, Metonymy, Human, Oscar Wilde, Short

story

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ICM: Idealized cognitive model

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 2.1 Types of metonymy concerning humans Table 2.2 Syntactic Functions of Metonymic Expressions as Noun Phrases Table 2.3 Semantic feature: Metonymy as a Polysemous Phenomenon Table 3.1 Types of Metonymic Expressions Concerning Humans In English

And Vietnamese works Table 3.2 Syntactic functions of the metonymic Noun Phrases in Oscar

Wilde’s short story and Vietnamese short story

Table 3.3 Polysemy of metonymic ‘Face’

Figure 3.1 Syntactic functions of the metonymic Noun Phrases in Oscar

Wilde’s short story and Vietnamese short story Figure 3.2 Referential Meaning of Author-for-Work Metonymy

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1 RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY

Along with poetry, music and other artistic works, short story has long been everyone’s spiritual food Short story not only brings pleasure and relaxation to our soul but it also expresses the spiritual depth of writer’s feelings and emotions The most important elements of short story are the selective details, large amount and the writing style with many hidden meanings, giving the work unspeakable depth However, short story readers sometimes find it hard to understand and to snatch the language of short stories There is a lot to

do while reading short stories because the authors always use a lot of rhetorical devices to make their work more valuable and worthwhile to read

It is true that foreigners studying Vietnamese and Vietnamese learners of English find it difficult to comprehend the short story's directions and characters' moods using metonymic expressions As a result, understanding the metonymic mechanism in short stories will help readers to easily access the content of the works All the things above have aroused my interest in researching the topic:

“A Study on Metonymic Expressions Concerning Humans in Oscar Wilde’s Short Stories with Reference to Vietnamese Equivalents”

2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

2.1 AIMS

The study is aimed at examining metonymic expressions concerning humans in Oscar Wilde’s short stories with reference to Vietnamese equivalents

2.2 OBJECTIVES

This study is planed:

- To identify and to describe syntactic and semantic features of metonymic expressions in Oscar Wilde’s short stories with reference to Vietnamese equivalents

- To compare and contrast metonymic expressions concerning humans in Oscar Wilde’s short stories with reference to Vietnamese equivalents to clarify the similarities and differences of these metonymic expressions

4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This study will observe and describe some commonly used types of means for expressing metonymic expression concerning humans in Oscar Wilde’s short stories such as “The Happy Prince”, “The Selfish Giant”, “The Nightingale and the Rose” by Oscar Wilde, “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis

Stevenson, “The Thorn birds” by Colleen McCullough, “Chiếc lư đồng mắt

cua”, “Chiếc Va-ly mới”, “Đi mở đường” by Nguyễn Tuân, “Chí Phèo” by Nam

Cao

5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study offers teachers and learners of English and Vietnamese a comprehensive perspective on metonymic expression in short stories concerning humans using a cognitive linguistics approach

6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY

Apart from abstracts, references & appendices, the study consists of three main parts:

PART 1 – INTRODUCTION presents rationale of the study, aims and

objectives of the study, research questions, the scope as well as the significance

of the study

PART 2 - DEVELOPMENT is divided into 3 chapters:

Chapter 1 - LITERATURE REVIEW provides theoretical

background for the study including definitions of metonymy, typical features of metonymy, figures of speech, metonymic expression in cognitive linguistics, metonymic expression concerning humans, metonymy versus other ways of meaning transference

Chapter 2 - METHODOLOGY describes the methodology used

in the research including the research methodology, data collection instruments and data analysis

Chapter 3 - FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS reports and

discusses the findings of the study

PART 3 - CONCLUSION summarizes the main issues that have been

addressed in the study, points out the limitations, draws pedagogical implications concerning the research topic and suggests several solutions

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 - LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 REVIEW OF THE PREVIOUS STUDIES

Trần Xuân Trưởng (2011) wrote a thesis namely “An investigation into metonymy denoting humans in English and Vietnamese poetry” In that thesis,

he pointed out characteristics of metonymic expressions in English and Vietnamese poetry, giving implications for English teaching and learning concerning the use of metonymic expressions as well as suggesting solutions for English teaching and learning However, in that thesis, he did not work on metonymic expression in short stories and that is what I would like to research

in this thesis

Nguyễn Diệu Linh (2014) wrote an article “Metonymy The-Whole” of People in “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson” She believes that the-part-for-the-whole kind of metonymy can be served for many purposes, especially, for people This article analyzed the-part-for-the-whole kind of metonymy in “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson to address that problem and proposed some suggestions for teaching and learning English rhetorical devices She listed and examined metonymies related to parts of human’s body by using analytical method The drawback of her article is that the scope limited in only one subtype of metonymy

“The-Part-For-Lin Wei (2010) has completed a research paper “A Cognitive Approach to Metaphor and Metonymy Related to the Human Body” This study is an attempt

to investigate the body metaphors and body metonymies applied in the body terms from the perspective of cognitive linguistic Through the analysis of linguistic metaphorical and metonymic expressions of body terms, this study summed up two main mapping models and three kinds of image schema of body

metaphor The essay analyzed part-and-whole and part-and-part body metonymy Furthermore, it also pointed out the similarities and differences between metaphor and metonymy However again in this research he did mentioned different types of metonymy but did not analyzed all of them

After realizing the potential for further development and exploitation from the limitations of the above studies, I would like to do an in-depth study on metonymic expression related to humans in short stories written by Oscar Wilde and other authors with reference to Vietnamese equivalents to see the differences between using metonymic expression in literature in different languages

1.2 REVIEW OF THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.2.1 Definition of Metonymy

According to Lakoff and Johnson’s “Metaphors We Live By” (1980:30), metonymy is defined as “the use of one entity to stand for another which is related to it” From their point of view, metonymy has a primarily referential function, but it also contributes to understanding

Lakoff (1987: 78) defines metonymy as a stand-for relation that exists solely in one idealized cognitive model (ICM) A conceptual domain, or ICM, can be viewed as as a whole made up of parts; more specifically, the conceptual entities, or elements, are the components that make up the ICM as a whole Some background conditions in a given ICM include the "stands for" relation that may exist between two elements A and B, such that one element of the ICM, B, may stand in for another element A Given this perspective, ICM metonymies may occur in two ways (1) either a part stands for a whole or a whole stands for a part, (2) a part stands for another part (Kövecses, 2002: 150)

According to Lakoff and Turner (1989), metonymy is a type of conceptual mapping The key element here is that metonymy is viewed as a cognitive tool for conceptualization rather than a linguistic strategy or rhetorical tactic

Metonymy, according to the traditional view, is primarily the use of one term in lieu of another to refer to some entity, where one word can be used for another if the meanings of the words are contiguously related Metonymy is conceptual in nature, according to cognitive linguistics, and its major role is to give mental access from one conceptual entity to another; it is based on ICMs with a distinct conceptual link between their constituents (Kövecses, 2002: 160)

Jeannette Littlemore (2015) defined metonymy as a cognitive and linguistic process through which we use one thing to refer to another

Langacker describes metonymy as “a process consists in mentally accessing one conceptual entity via another entity” (1993 p.30)

Blank considers metonymy as “a linguistic device based on salient conceptual relations within a frame network” (1999, p.174) In this definition, Blank points out that “salient” is an important notion in the view of metonymy

Later, Radden and Kovecses define metonymy as follows from a cognitive standpoint: “metonymy is a cognitive process in which one conceptual entity, the vehicle, provides mental access to another conceptual entity, the goal, within the same ICM” (1999, p.21)

According to Dinh Trong Lac (1994), he gave the definition of metonymy

in “99 phương tiện và biện pháp tu từ định nghĩa”: “Metonymy is the second entity that bases on the actual relationship between identified entity and entity whose name is transferred to the identified entity.” (“Hoán dụ là định danh thứ hai dựa trên mối liên hệ hiện thực giữa khách thể được định danh với khách thể

có tên gọi được chuyển sang dùng cho khách thể được định danh”)

Thai Hoa (1995) discussed in “Phong cách học Tiếng Việt” that:

“Metonymy is the method of switching meaning by using a typical characteristic

or feature of an object to name that object.” (“Hoán dụ là phương thức chuyển nghĩa bằng cách dùng một đặc điểm hay một nét tiêu biểu nào đó của một đối tượng để gọi tên chính đối tượng đó”)

Overall, despite their differing perspectives, most cognitive linguists believe that the metonymic process consists in mentally accessing one conceptual entity via another entity; Metonymy is more than just a figure of speech; it is part of people's everyday thinking; and its function is not just to attain some artistic or aesthetic goal, but rather to better understand concepts It

is a helpful cognitive tool for anyone attempting to grasp the world

 Metonymy as natural inferential schemata plays a vital role in speech acts

 High-level and low-level metonymy must be distinguished on the basis of classification of referential, predicational and illocutionary metonymy

 Conceptual integration provides some motivations for the interpretation and understanding of metonymy

1.2.3 Classification of Metonymy

According to Jialing Guan (2009), classification of metonymy is one of the crucial concerns of research as it contributes to understanding the exact nature of metonymy There are some major cases of metonymy:

 Containment

 A physical item, place, or body part used to refer to a related concept

 Tools/instruments used to signify the job it does or the person who does the job

 Product for process

 A part of something/someone is often used for the whole or the whole of something/someone is used for a part

 A country's capital or some location within the city is frequently used as a metonym for the country's government; other important places are commonly used to refer to the industries that are located there

1.2.4 Features of Metonymy

1.2.4.1 Syntactic features

According to Trần Xuân Trưởng (2011), there are two syntactic features

of metonymy:

a Syntactic patterns of Noun phrases as Metonymic Expressions

b Syntactic Functions of Metonymic Expressions as Noun Phrases

1.2.4.2 Semantic features

According to Trần Xuân Trưởng (2011), the three main semantic features:

a Transfer of Metonymic Expressions’ Meanings

b Metonymy as a Referential Phenomenon

c Metonymy as a Polysemous Phenomenon

1.2.5 Types of Metonymic Expressions concerning humans in English and Vietnamese

According to Radden and Kövecses (1999), Jeannette Littlemore (2015) and Trần Xuân Trưởng (2011), we have divided metonymic expressions in English and Vietnamese into 7 types:

 The Part for the Whole

 Institution for People

 The Concrete for Abstract

 Container for People Contained

 Color for People

 Object Used for User

 Author for His Work

1.2.5.1 The Part for the Whole

This type of metonymy is usually known as “synecdoche” It can be a word or phrase in which a part of something is used to refer to the whole of it

Ex: (1) We all live under the same roof

In this example, roof - a part of the house is used to refer to the whole house because we live in a whole house and not just literally under the roof

(2) I have three mouths to feed

In the example above, mouth - a part of a human body is used to refer to a person

New blood – is used to refer to a newbie, new people

(3) The team needs some new blood if it’s going to win next season

New blood is used to refer to new person Blood is only a part of the body, but it refers to the whole person

1.2.5.2 Institution for People

An institution can stand for the people involved in that institution That reference can be military troop, the government or an organization

Ex: (4) Exxon has raised its prices again

In the example above, Exxon is the name of a company The “company” itself cannot make the decision to raise prices, but rather, it must be Exxon management to make the decision

Some other examples:

(5) You will never get the university to agree to that

(6) The Army wants to reinstitute the draft

(7) The Senate thinks abortion is immoral

(8) I don’t approve of the government’s actions

1.2.5.3 The Concrete for Abstract

Metonymy in literature often substitutes a concrete image for an abstract concept

Ex: (9) From the cradle to the grave

In this example, cradle is used to refer to birth because when infants are born, they are usually put in a cradle; on the other hand, grave is used to refer to death because when people die, they are usually buried in the grave Therefore, this sentence is interpreted as “from birth to death” instead of literally “from the cradle to the graveyard”

Heart – is used to refer to love, emotion

(10) My dear, you have all of my heart

In this sentence, the heart is a concrete concept used to replace the abstract concept of love

Ears – pay attention, listen carefully

(11) Tell me about your first date I’m all ears!

In the example above, ears (concrete) refers to paying attention (abstract)

Hand – refers to helping

(12) Can you give me a hand carrying this box up the stairs?

In this sentence, he/she did not actually mean to ask for the hand but to ask for help

Tongue – refers to language

(13) I couldn’t understand them because they spoke in their mother

tongue

1.2.5.4 Container for People Contained

This is manifested in sentences like “The Vietnamese believes that .” where the Vietnamese is the people-involving entity The following are some of the most common types of a "people-involving entity," along with the types of individuals who are typically thought to be engaged:

 A country - leaders or members of the population

 An institution (e.g., the WHO, the Army) - members or leaders

 A board or committee - members

 A newspaper - editors or journalists

 A faction (e.g., the Left) - members or leaders

But there are many other possibilities For example: “[the] editorial page has always believed ” Here we presumably have a metonymic reference to the editors

Which particular people are implicitly referred to can be highly context dependent? For example, in sports news article the phrase “the Vietnamese” might refer metonymically to the members of the Vietnamese Olympic swimming team Also, the precise people involved can not be inferred, often

In some cases the metonymy is used in concerning to the holders of mental states, as in “The Vietnamese believes that ” Of course, the metonymy can also be used for other purposes

Ex: (14) The New York Times always reports quickly and promptly 1.2.5.5 Color for People

According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary (6th Edition) (to hereafter to as: Oxford), the initial paraphrase on “black” is

“having the very darkest color, like night or coal” So, if on etymology, “black” refers to a particular color; if on cognitive linguistics, its archetype meaning belongs to paint gamut The senses of “black” are closely connected with one another, the author attempts to group the metonymical and metaphorical meanings into several categories The categorization is shown as follows

a Visual-Metonymy

Light and dark are the foremost direct experience in our existence Wierzbicka (1996) believed that the notion of “black” and “white” may be inherently related to “dark” and “light” The notion of seeing is that the clue to the semantics of dark and light, which the prototypical use of those words has nothing to do with any objects but with the ambient Thus we will say “It was (already) dark.” or “It was (still) light” Though “black night” relies on human

experience, it's way more abstract meaning, which may be classified into visual gamut

Ex: (15) He groped for the door handle within the black

(16) Darkness was blacking out both sea and jungle

(17) It’d be a black night with the rain

The neurological firing pattern for low brightness signals black, and its relative absence signals white, with gray in between (Zhao, 2001: p 42) Black

is to human eyes the foremost distinct of color experiences Black can make people consider night and darkness The physical experience facilitates metonymic transfer of black from blackness to darkness, as in “black night” they're physically grounded and their meanings come directly from our perceptual proximity between “black” and “dark” within the above examples,

“black” means “without light, completely dark” Through “black” to elicit

“night”, it points out the close relationship between two things, which is the results of metonymic cognition

b Emotional-Metonymy

Everyone has a bad mood at some point, thus being restless we will realize someone not only by oral expression but also facial features “Black” also can mean “gloomy, somber” this type of metonymy is simply using different facial colors to precise emotional change

Ex: (18) Rory shot her a black look

(19) He was black and blind with hatred of her

(20) You had almost charmed away my black mood

Someone goes black when he feels surprised or frightened The connection between cause and effect could be a reasonably metonymy

c Racial-Metonymy

In objective world, people from different races have their own distinct features, which might always be easily perceived and memorized The people within the Orient are mainly yellow or brown, so people use “yellow race” to call them; those within the west are mainly white, so people use “white people”

Of course, the naming process is realized by metonymy

Ex: (21) A black woman broadcaster

(22) Black culture

(23) This has made new black investors wary

In Oxford, here “black” means “belonging to a race of people who have dark skin; connected with black people”

d Thing-Metonymy

Thing metonymy of color terms uses colors to refer to things themselves like “green apple”, “the white book”, “blue print” and so on in this type of usage, “black” means “without milk”

Ex: (24) Two black coffees, please

In this case, “black coffee” refers to “coffee without milk or coffee mate” and we call “coffee milk” as “white coffee” Moreover, “Hongcha” should be translated as “black tea” not “red tea” In Chinese and also the languages of neighboring countries, it's an outline of the color of the liquid The western term

“black tea” refers to “the color of the oxidized leaves” While green tea usually loses its flavor within a year, black tea retains its flavour for several years Although green tea has been recently seen as a revival due to its purported health benefits, black tea still accounts for over ninety percent of all tea sold within the west

1.2.5.6 Object Used for User

This type of metonymy is popularly found in novel and poems thanks to the understandable contiguity from the close relation of the object and the person using that object

Ex: (25) The buses are on strike

In the example above, the bus cannot be on strike but it refers to the people in the bus who are the ones on strike So the sentence can be interpreted

as “The people on the bus go on strike instead of the buses are on strike.”

Some other examples:

(26) The sax has the flu today

(27) The BLT is a lousy tipper

(28) The gun he hired wanted fifty grand

(29) We need a better glove at third base

1.2.5.7 Author for His Work

This type of metonymy is using the auther’s name to refer to their works

Ex: (30) He’s got a Picasso

Picasso is the name of a famous artist, so in the sentence above, Picasso is used to refer to the painting of him Instead of understanding as “He has the artist Picasso”, the sentence is interpreted as "He has a painting of Picasso"

1.2.6 Metonymy Concerning Humans

According to “Towards a Theory of Metonymy” (1999, p.45), Klaus-Uwe Panther and Günter Radden consider our basic human experience are delivered from our anthropocentric view of the world and out interaction in the world In this world, humans take precedence over non-humans, things are looked at from

a subjective rather than objective point of view, concrete objects are more salient than abstract entities, things we interact with are selected over things we do not interact with, and functional things are more important to us than things which are non-functional

 Human over non-human

 Subjective over objective

 Concrete over abstract

 Interactional over non-interactional

 Functional over non-functional

1.2.7 Metonymy versus Other Ways of Meaning Transference

1.2.7.1 Metonymy versus Metaphor

Metonymy is based on the similarity (association) of two concepts, whereas metaphor is based on the similarity of two concepts When people use metonymy, they do not typically wish to transfer qualities from one referent to another as they do with metaphor: there is nothing press-like about reporters or crown-like about a monarch, but "the press" and "the crown" are both common metonyms

1.2.7.2 Metonymy versus Synecdoche

When people speak of a part of something yet imply the entire thing, they utilize synecdoche Metonymy is similar, except it substitutes something more broadly or tangentially related to an idea

1.2.8 Oscar Wilde and the Short stories

Oscar Wilde, in full Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde, (born October

16, 1854, Dublin, Ireland - died November 30, 1900, Paris, France), Irish wit,

poet, and dramatist whose reputation rests on his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), and on his comic masterpieces Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) He was a spokesman for the late 19th-century Aesthetic movement in England, which advocated art for art’s sake, and he was the object of celebrated civil and criminal suits involving homosexuality and ending in his imprisonment (1895–97)

Oscar Wilde was grown up in a prosperous family He had seen many intellectuals of his time dining with his parents and took great advantage from their company He was awarded a royal school scholarship in 1871 and got his education from Trinity College from where he was awarded by a famous honorary award for undergraduates in 1872 He took great interest in poetry and wrote a poem "Ravenna" in 1878 and won a Newdigate prize for composing the best English verse He published his first collection of poems in 1881 and after seven years of his poems' publication, he published a collection of stories for children named, The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888) At the peak of his fame, he was victimized for homosexuality and convicted He had to spend two years in jail and afterward, he went to France He had produced great work and known for his masterpieces even up till now All his tales are the source of entertainment and moral awakening not only for children but also for adults

Through the analysis of the selected passages in this paper, his linguistic ability is shown clearly in the way he uses metonymic expressions when expressing his emphasis He attempted to be a Victorian esthete by writing books or works that are attractive in both color and cadence, and all of his writings are highly fashioned

CHAPTER 2 - METHODOLOGY

2.1 RESEARCH METHOD

In this study, we used a combination of the two following methods:

Comparison-contrast method is the main and also an indispensable one

to show the similarities and differences between metonymic expressions concerning humans in Oscar Wilde’s short stories with its equivalents in Vietnamese Comparison is to emphasizes the similarities between two things, ideas, concepts, or points of view and Contrast is to emphasizes the differences between two things, ideas, concepts, or points of view

Descriptive method is used in this study in order to describe and examine

the findings Descriptive method is a research method that describes the characteristics of the population or phenomenon studied This methodology focuses more on the “what” of the research subject than the “why” of the research subject

Analytical method will be used to analyze the syntactic and semantic

features of metonymic expressions concerning humans in Oscar Wilde’s short stories with its equivalents in Vietnamese The Analytical method is a generic process combining the power of the Scientific method with the use of formal process to solve any type of problem It has these nine steps:

1 Identify the problem to solve

2 Choose an appropriate process (THE KEY STEP)

3 Use the process to hypothesize analysis or solution elements

4 Design an experiment(s) to test the hypothesis

5 Perform the experiment(s)

6 Accept, reject, or modify the hypothesis

7 Repeat steps 3, 4, 5, and 6 until the hypothesis is accepted

8 Implement the solution

9 Continuously improve the process as opportunities arise

2.2 DATA COLLECTION

Metonymic expressions were collected from “The Happy Prince”, “The Selfish Giant”, “The Nightingale and the Rose” by Oscar Wilde, “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Thorn birds” by Colleen McCullough,

“Chiếc lư đồng mắt cua”, “Chiếc Va-ly mới”, “Đi mở đường” by Nguyễn Tuân,

“Chí Phèo” by Nam Cao

We manually found total 21 cases of metonymic expressions consist of 7 types of metonymic expressions in English and Vietnamese literature works 2.3 ANALYTICAL FAMEWORK

Table 2.1 Types of metonymy concerning humans

(6) The Army wants to

reinstitute the draft

(11) Tell me about your first

date I’m all ears!

(36) Anh ấy đã hiến dâng

cả con tim cho Tổ Quốc

Việt Nam

Container for People Contained

(31) The New York Times

always reports news quickly and promptly

(37) Cả trường tôi được

nghỉ vì dịch COVID-19

Color for People (32) We have to stop the

hatred on black community

Author for His

(40) Lê-nin trên bàn

đang chờ đón Bác đi vào

(Source: (39) - Nguyễn Du (1820); (40) - Việt Phương (1969))

Table 2.2 Syntactic Functions of Metonymic Expressions as Noun Phrases

Metonymic NP functioning as:

A Subject (41) This dish is very

delicious

(45) Một trái tim lớn lao

đã từ giã cuộc đời

A Direct Object (42) The King has lost

his crown

(46) Cha mẹ cô ấy đã xây

đắp được một mái nhà

gồm 4 người

A Subject Complement (43) Tell me about that

I’m all ears!

the White House

(48) Cậu ấy đã dựng lên

cơ đồ với đôi bàn tay

trắng

Table 2.3 Semantic feature: Metonymy as a Polysemous Phenomenon

Metonymic Expression

Metonymic

Face

People in general

(49) We need some new

faces around here

(52) Chúng ta cần những

bộ mặt mới cho công ty

Appearance (50) She's just a pretty

face

(53) Cô ấy chỉ là một

khuôn mặt xinh đẹp

Personality

(51) There are an awful

lot of faces out there in

the audience

(54) Trong khán đài này

có rất nhiều những bộ

mặt xấu xí