(Luận văn) conceptual metaphors of sorrow in “truyện kiều” by nguyen du and their english equivalents by huynh sanh thong

In the article “Ẩn dụ ý niệm”, Phan Thế Hưng 2007 reports the view of conceptual metaphors on the basic of Aristotle’s framework and luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z

Trang 1

from a thesis by which I have qualified for or beesn awarded another degree or diploma

I certify that all the material in this study which is not my own work has been identified and acknowledged, and that no material is included for which

a degree has already been conferred upon me

This paper has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any university

Quy Nhon, July, 2019

PHẠM THỊ ÁI HOA

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

Trang 2

the course of my writing The M.A thesis is one of the most difficult and significant academic challenges to me This thesis would not be done without the support from the teacher

I also wish to express my sincere thanks to all of my lecturers at Quy Nhon University for their insightful comments and suggestions

I also take this opportunity to all of my friends for their support and encouragement during the thesis preparation

I must acknowledge my debt to the authors whose work I use for my reference

Finally, I would like to show my deep gratitude to members of my family, especially my husband, for their great support, encouragement, love and unshakeable trust without which my thesis would not have been accomplished

Trang 3

The data for this research were chosen from 112 samples of metaphoric expressions in “Truyện Kiều” The study was conducted based on the cognitive linguistic framework developed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) It employed a mixed method that involves qualitative, quantitative, descriptive, synthetic and analytic approaches The findings revealed that three sub-types

of conceptual metaphor occured frequently in the poems despite their different distribution in each language with 54% of structural metaphors The rests were Ontological metaphors and Orientational metaphors Based on the results, we made a distinction between the ways the writers utilize conceptual metaphors

of sorrow in the Vietnamese poem and the English counterpart Moreover, there were some similarities and differences in terms of structural, ontological, and orientational metaphors in both languages The unchanged metaphors took the highest percentage with 57% while the rest were replaced metaphor

or stylistics devices and lost metaphors Finally, from the results, some implications on teaching and learning English were put forward in the hope of providing useful and comprehensive knowledge

Trang 4

literature as a way to relax and reduce stress This spiritual life is really important in our life because it is a gateway to teach the readers life experience in the society Thus, it is important for the writers to use suitable language in their works More and more authors make their writing beautiful and interesting by using rhetorical measures, most of which are related to the field of metaphor According to Lakoff & Johnson (1980), metaphor is rather

a matter of daily life experience, or a matter “of thought and reason” than merely a matter of language We use metaphorical concepts to conceptualize the world, or better, our worldviews (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980)

Indeed, metaphor is everywhere in literature, from the interrelations among its smallest (words, images, figures of speech) to its largest (characters, plot, narrative) elements Lakoff and Johnson (1980, p 6) state that part of “the human conceptual system is metaphorically structured and defined” This means that we tend to conceptualize metaphorically certain aspects of life in a systematic way These authors offer a wide range of metaphors that cover basic aspects of life by structuring metaphorically one concept in terms of another

A number of researchers and linguists have taken metaphors in literature

as a favorite topic for their studying According to Semino and Steen (2008, p 233), metaphors in literature is considered “more creative, novel, original, striking, rich, interesting, complex, difficult, and interpretable” than conventional metaphors However, most of them base on traditional

Trang 5

tool to express their emotions is Nguyễn Du (1765-1820), typically in his work “Truyện Kiều”- The tale of Kiều which is about a beautiful woman who suffered great misery in the feudal period Women fate is expressed clearly through analyzing metaphors in the poem It is more interesting if we can perceive and understand the poem according to cognitive view This provides the readers a new look about metaphors in the “Truyện Kiều” particularly, and in poetry generally Therefore, I would like to carry out a study entitled

“Conceptual metaphors of sorrow in ‘Truyện Kiều’ by Nguyen Du and

their English equivalents by Huynh Sanh Thong” Hopefully, it will help

Vietnamese readers and learners recognize and understand metaphors in a new way, and see that conceptual metaphors are something more familiar with us in our life

Metaphors are a part of everyday life and they appear in our daily concepts without our realization of it Lakoff and Johnson have explained the notion of conceptual metaphors easily to understand Therefore, I have decided to choose their theory as a foundation to analyze the data collected in this thesis

1.2 Aims & Objectives

1.2.1 Aims of the study

The study aims to describe conceptual metaphors of sorrow in the poem

“Truyện Kiều” by Nguyễn Du, and their English translated version by Huỳnh Sanh Thông, and to find out how conceptual metaphors of Vietnamese version translated into English version

Trang 6

conceptual metaphors expressing sorrow used in it and their English equivalents based on the theory of Lakoff and Johnson Secondly, it’s essential to investigate the similarities and the differences of conceptual metaphors expressing sorrow between the original work and their English version

2 How are the Vietnamese metaphors in Nguyễn Du’s poem translated into English in “The tale of Kiều” by Huỳnh Sanh Thông?

1.4 Scope of the Study

Due to time constrain, the thesis only analyses metaphors of Kieu’s sorrow in the poem “ Truyện Kiều” by Nguyễn Du and the English version translated by Huỳnh Sanh Thông from the perspective of cognitive linguistics, especially conceptual metaphors

The poem “Truyện Kiều” is the work which was translated into Vietnamese language from the original work of Nguyễn Du in ‘Nom’ script while its English version is chosen from the work of the translator Huỳnh Sanh Thông

Trang 7

The study is a significant contribution both theoretically and practically For theoretical value, it will provide a valuable of reference for readers who care about the issue In addition, this study will be an approach to find out features of conceptual metaphors It will be helpful for both investigations into language in use and the research of human mind Practically, it also will offer some implications for learners in improving their writing skills and using rhetorical measures to make the writings more beautiful and exciting Especially, it will contribute to the understanding of conceptual metaphors in “Truyện Kiều” by Nguyễn Du and Huỳnh Sanh Thông’s English translated version

1.6 Structure of the thesis

The study consists of five chapters

Chapter one, Introduction, gives an introduction to the study with its rationale, aims, research questions, significance, scope and organization Chapter two, Literature review, presents a review of the literature relevant to the study such as the definitions of terms: cognitive linguistics, traditional metaphors, conceptual metaphors, translation theory and biography

of the poems and their authors After that, it reviews some previous studies related to the theory of cognitive linguistics and conceptual metaphors

Chapter three, Methodology, describes the methodology of the study, provides information about the principles governing the research and the methods which is employed

Trang 8

Chapter four, Findings and discussion, presents the findings obtained, analyzes and discusses the results based on those findings

Chapter five, Conclusion, provides a recapitulation of the main ideas and problems presented in the study The main content in this chapter is the specific conclusions on each of the research question Also, it summarizes the major finding and suggests some strategies helping learners use metaphors more exactly in writing In addition, implications for teaching and suggestion for further research have been supplied This subsection brings the practical

value to the thesis from which readers can get

Trang 9

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents general views about cognitive linguistics, especially the theory of conceptual metaphors Then, some previous studies about conceptual metaphors are discussed

2.1 Previous studies

In recent years, there has been considerable growing interest in cognitive linguistics The theory has been applied in a wide range of field of linguistics The leading figures in the domain are Lakoff and Johnson (1980) Apart from great contributors, such as Kövecses, Ungerer & Schmid, Ronald Langacker, Turner, Croft and Cruse,etc, there have been many researchers applying the theory in analyzing conceptual metaphors in such various genres

as reports, fictions, stories, advertisements, academic, speeches, commentaries, editorials, slogans, posters, and so on Thus, this part aims to give a review of recent related studies based on Lakoff and Johnson’s theory to find out the gap for the research

Lý Toàn Thắng (2008) conducts a research entitled “Thử nhìn lại một

số vấn đề cốt yếu của Ngôn ngữ học tri nhận” In his article, he discusses some different points of the nature of cognition and cognitive linguistics to identify some main concepts; from that, to be able to understand some main points of cognitive linguistics, conceptualization, and its relativity His research is a foundation for Vietnamese linguists to understand main thought

of cognitive linguistic However, this paper only focuses on some key conceptions of cognitive linguistics without its aspect- conceptual metaphor

In the article “Ẩn dụ ý niệm”, Phan Thế Hưng (2007) reports the view of conceptual metaphors on the basic of Aristotle’s framework and

Trang 10

some linguists later who proposed a comparative perspective in metaphor

as well as the view that the ‘topic’ and ‘vehicle’ of metaphor could be of the same type Many contemporary linguists also share this view and implicitly see comparisons as the basic process for understanding metaphors Phan Thế Hưng analyzes and discusses in the opposite direction He states that “we do not understand metaphors by turning metaphor into comparison Instead, metaphor is an inclusion sentence and therefore understands metaphors through a sentence that includes ratings” (Hưng, 2007, p 12) This paper helps the reader to get more knowledge about different views of metaphor from some linguists and is the premise

to carry out other researches However, it’s necessary to analyze more different aspects of metaphor’s types

Nguyễn Đức Tồn (2008), the author of the book “Đặc trưng văn hóa- dân tộc của ngôn ngữ và tư duy” publishes the article “Đặc trưng tư duy của người Việt qua ẩn dụ tri nhận trong thành ngữ”, which shows the relationship between conceptual metaphors and human’s thought through idioms Based

on different views on metaphors, he considers that metaphor is a substitute for

a name or the transfer of characteristics, attributes of things, the phenomenon

to things, does statues of other types in terms of analogy based on the unifying them from the same characteristics and attributes The author also surveys the strategy of association-oriented orientation, strategic thinking of Vietnamese freedom and the general thinking of the Vietnamese shown in their idioms He shows that Vietnamese people have thinking characteristics which are biased toward conjugate, sensory, action-visual thinking This article is a good foundation for the researcher to carry out the studies which are related to conceptual metaphors through idioms However, the researcher

Trang 11

should conduct some studies to contrast conceptual metaphors and human’s thought through idioms in Vietnamese and other languages

Moreover, many studies and thesis related to metaphors in English and Vietnam have been conducted First of all, Cheng (2012) conducts the article

“The Influence of Metaphor on Sense-impression in English” This article discusses metaphor as a figure of speech first, and then talks about metaphor and synesthesia from a cognitive perspective In order to explain the metaphorical use of sense-impression in English, it borrows examples from some literary works Finally, it draws the conclusion that metaphor has exerted a great influence on sense-impression in English Cheng bases on the theory of Richards (1936) noting that a metaphor expresses the unfamiliar (the tenor) in terms of the familiar (the vehicle) In her paper, Metaphors can

be classified in five subtypes: Absolute Metaphor, Active Metaphor, Dead Metaphor, Extended Metaphor and Mixed Metaphor Its limitation is that she focuses on a small aspect of metaphor on sense- impression in English without mentioning more about synesthetic metaphors in other languages and cultures Therefore, it a good idea for the reseacher to analyze another aspect

of metaphor such as structural metaphors, orientational metaphors, and ontological metaphors

Marugina (2014) writes the article “Conceptual Metaphor as a Model Generating Literary Discourse”, which aims to show generating power of the conceptual metaphor “A MAN IS AN ANIMAL/BEAST” in the literary discourse The corpus of examples for the analysis excerpt from Bulgakov’s literary works illustrates the modeling potential of the conceptual metaphor It may be concluded that some of the established mappings of the

“Animal/Beast” metaphor may be evaluated relative to the behavior and

Trang 12

social position of people as well as the mirror image of the dualistic world shared by animals and men The results confirm that the conceptual metaphor

“A MAN IS AN ANIMAL/BEAST” is capable of fulfilling several functions

in the literary discourse At the same time, the results obtained show the nature of any conceptual metaphor realization in the literary discourse Created by the culture and embedded in the stories by the author, it is used to perform, and present new dimensions of the picture of the world However, this paper only puts a small insight into the way the conceptual metaphor “A MAN IS AN ANIMAL/BEAST” generates literary discourse Thus, the researchers should concern about some larger aspects of conceptual metaphors besides literary discourse

Hà Thị Ngọc Loan (2015) studies “Conceptual metaphors in English tourism advertisements” In her thesis, she investigates cognitive metaphors through examining metaphorical expressions used in tourist advertisements written in English In addition, she also mainly discusses three types of conceptual metaphors based on Lakoff and Johnson (1980) However, she only studies a small aspect on English tourism advertisements without having

a comparison between English and Vietnamese ones Further more, the study seems to mainly focus on ontological metaphor with the mapping “THE TOURIST ATTRACTION IS A PERSON” Thus, it’s necessary for the researcher to concern about other conceptual metaphors deeply; especially, to contrast it with other languages

Nguyễn Thị Kim Thoa (2016) analyzes “Conceptual metaphors in fifty shades darker by Erika Leonard James and Vietnamese equivalents” She focuses on identifying and classifying the conceptual metaphors used in the novel from cognitive semantics perspective After that, she finds out the loss

Trang 13

and gain in meaning and structure of conceptual metaphors in English novel and its Vietnamese version However, the study doesn’t concentrate on one aspect to have a profound and clear analysis Therefore, it’s a good idea to analyze and contrast father conceptual metaphor such as love, joy, fear, sadness, etc in the literary work Moreover, the researchers should conduct some studies related to conceptual metaphors in the novel in the light of lexical or syntactic perspective

Lou (2006) conducts the article “Conceptualization of sadness metaphor in English” The paper shows a corpus analysis on the sadness metaphors in eminent English verses in an attempt to probe how human body experience influences the conceptualization of sadness metaphor It also reinforces some fundamental claims on metaphor or more precisely emotion metaphor from a cognitive perspective Of all nine mappings of sadness which he finds, he considers that container metaphor is quite common The container image defines an “in and out” perspective which is applicable to the human body However, the data which are chosen are mostly poetic verses; thus, the mapping of sadness is not adequate Therefore, it’s necessary to choose the data from other sources such as idioms, novels, short stories, magazines, etc

Đào Thị Kim Phượng (2018) with her study “Metaphors in Ho Xuan Huong’s Poems and their English equivalents” gives an analysis on conventional metaphors in the Ho Xuan Huong’s poems and their English version Moreover, she investigates how metaphors are translated grammatically and dynamically in two languages Its limitation is that she mainly pays attention to the traditional view but didn’t mention metaphors in cognitive perspective In addition, the study only focuses on analyzing the

Trang 14

metaphors that appear in Hồ Xuân Hương’s poem and their equivalents in

“Spring Essence” by John Balaban (2000) Hence, it’s important to find out and analyze as many metaphors as possible; especially, to concern about other aspects of metaphors from cognitive perspective

In the article “Literature Review on the Cognitive Approach to Metaphor” written in 2018, LiPing Fan mainly focuses on the cognitive approach to metaphor At first, the review shows the historical background against which this approach is put forward Then, the review goes to the cognitive theory of metaphor and what different nature, structure and properties this theory ascribes to metaphor In addition, the conceptual metaphors, especially its experiential grounding and its realization in daily life are introduced The work which establishes the metaphorical cognitive approach bases on the theory of Lakoff & Johnson (1980) The review has demonstrated the universality of metaphor generally, but has not mentioned it specifically and deeply

Further more, earlier, there were some theses which which were carried out based on the theory of cognitive linguistics On the whole, all of them give a general view of cognitive linguistics and the different aspects of conceptual metaphors Especially, most of them make a comparison of cognitive metaphors between English and Vietnam language on newspapers, reports, idioms

In addition, based on “Truyện Kiều”, many researches have been carried out recently Phạm Thị Ngọc Mến (2010), in her MA thesis, studies

“The syntactic, semantic features, and stylistic means of euphemisms in Kieu’s story and their equivalents in the English versions” She analyzes how euphemisms used in the poem in term of semantic and syntactic features

Trang 15

Then, stylistics means used in the poem is also discussed However, this thesis only concentrates on one aspect, i.e euphemisms, without mentioning conceptual metaphors at all

Võ Thị Bích Liên (2012) with “A study of some linguistics features of expressions describing the villains in Kiều Story and their English translation” investigates expressions describing the villains in Kiều’s Story in terms of lexical and semantic aspects and their English translational equivalents.Then, she discusses the effectiveness of translation of expressions describing the villains in Kiều’s Story into English However, its limitation is that this study mainly focuses on the investigation into expressions describing the four typical villains in Kiều’s Story (Mã Giám Sinh, Tú Bà, Sở Khanh and Hoạn Thư) in terms of lexicology and semantics Therefore, it should be carried out more investigations into stylistics devices of expressions describing people in Kiều’s story and their English translational equivalents

Nguyễn Hồng Phúc (2013) conducts the thesis, entitled “An investigation into conceptual metaphors of women in the tale of Kieu and its English version” She gives a description of conceptual metaphors of women used in The Tale of Kieu in term of lexical, syntactic, and semantic features to find out the the similarities and differences in the translation of metaphors of women fate in The Tale of Kieu The limitation is that the thesis only focuses

on studying the use of conceptual metaphors for women in English and Vietnamese in the light of cognitive semantics raised by Lakoff and Turner (1989) without mentioning deeply subtypes of conceptual metaphors This is just a small part in the research of conceptual metaphor Thus, it’s necessary

to investigate more researches related to conceptual metaphor

Trang 16

Lê Thị Thúy (2017) analyzes “conceptual metaphors expressing life in

‘Truyện Kiều’ by Nguyen Du and its English versions by Michael Counsell and Huynh Sanh Thong” She examines the linguistics expressions denoting the metaphors of life in the poem by Nguyễn Du and their translated equivalents in the English versions by Michael Counsell and Huỳnh Sanh Thông in order to find out the similarities and differences in translating these metaphors by two translators However, the thesis only explores a tiny aspect

in the theory of conceptual metaphors and in the work of Nguyễn Du Other conceptual metaphors and stylistic devices in this great work are needed to be discussed In addition, the author does not discuss deeply about the loss and gain in three works Therefore, it’s expected to make a contribution on the theory of conceptual metaphor as well as the translation of metaphor and the using of metaphor in daily life

Most of these studies focus on a small section of conceptual metaphors, and fewer researches have been conducted on poems So far, the conceptual metaphors of sorrow in “Truyện Kiều” and their English version by Huỳnh Sanh Thông have not been explored yet Therefore, the thesis “Conceptual metaphors of sorrow in ‘Truyện Kiều’ by Nguyen Du and their English equivalents by Huynh Sanh Thong” is carried out in order to give a profound understanding about conceptual metaphor, especially of sorrow, and its features in the poem

2.2 Theoretical background

This part is to review the theoretical background for the thesis The functions of metaphor will be taken into consideration Both traditional and conceptual metaphors are mentioned to help readers understand more about

Trang 17

the relationship between them In addition, we will present a brief overview of cognitive linguistics that forms the scaffolding of the study Finally, the researcher concentrates on providing background knowledge about Nguyễn Du’s life and his poetry, especially “Truyện Kiều”, as well as Huuỳnh Sanh Thông’s biography

2.1.1 Introduction

Up to now, Cognitive Linguistics has become the basic framework for many studies which are carried out by linguists and researchers First of all,

Lakoff and Johnson (1980), with their work- Metaphors we live by, regard

that metaphor is as a fundamental cognitive competence and unconsciously and pervasively used in people’s everyday life Secondly, Langacker (1987) introduces a new different notion of language and linguistic investigation with his work “Foundations of cognitive grammar” in 1987 Moreover, some works contributes to cognitive linguistics development such as Kövecses (2002) with his book “Metaphor: A practical introduction” which gives much explanation related to metaphor from cognitive perspective, Croft and Cruse (2004) writing Cognitive Linguistics, Evans and Green (2006), who are the authors of the book Cognitive Linguistics- An introduction, Geeraerts and Taylor (2006) with Cognitive Linguistics: Basic Readings

In Viet Nam, a large number of researches have been carried out based

on Lakoff &Johnson’s framework Lý Toàn Thắng (2005), with his work “ Ngôn ngữ học tri nhận: Từ lý thuyết đại cương đến thực tiễn tiếng việt”, discusses cognitive maps, language model and gives the knowledge of world spatial models Trần Văn Cơ (2007), writing the book “Ngôn ngữ học tri nhận”, gives a general view of cognitive linguistics Nguyễn Đức Tồn (2008) writes the book “Đặc trưng văn hóa dân tộc của ngôn ngữ và tư duy”, which

Trang 18

mentions about national culture of language and thought, some concepts of cognitive metaphos in Vietnamese idioms

2.2.2 A traditional view of metaphors

A variety of definitions of metaphors have been given by many linguists and researchers It is considered as a matter used in literature language rather than usual language The concept Metaphor has the origin from the ancient Greece philosophers One of them is from Aristotle, a rhetorician, who investigates the place of Metaphor in language and its relationship with communication In his famous work, Poetics (335 BC), he states that metaphor is “the application of a strange term either transferred from the genus and applied from the species to the genus, or from one species

to another or else by analogy” He classifies metaphor into “common or

unused metaphors, simple or double metaphors and current or strange metaphors.” He says that a metaphor “consists in giving the thing a name that

belongs to something else; the transference being either from genius to species, or from species to genus, or from species to species, or on the ground

of analogy” (quoted in Gibbs, 1994, p 210)

Richards gives a terminology which is still used nowadays when talking about metaphors It’s a comparison between two things which accomplished by a “carrying over of a word from its normal use to a new use” According to him, a metaphor has two terms which called “topic” and

“vehicle” “Vehicle” is the term used metaphorically These two terms have a relationship called “ground” All these definitions have in common that they speak of two terms which are related to each other because of their similarities (Richards, 1936) (quoted in (Gibbs, 1994, p 211) Let’s see an example below

Trang 19

(1) The lamp throws its light on the page

(Bilsky, 1952, p 130)

In example (1), by looking at the combination of “throw” with “lamp”,

we get two ideas for one: a person throwing an object and a lamp radiating light When “throw” is connected with “lamp”, we speak of the lamp as though it were a person

According to Lakoff and Johnson (1980), metaphor in this period is summarized as “a device of poetic imagination and the rhetorical flourish- a matter of extraordinary than ordinary language” and viewed as

“characteristics of language alone, a matter of words rather than thoughts or action” For this reason, most people think that they can get along perfectly well without metaphor (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, p 3)

(2) River’s mouth, the foot of the hill, the arms of a chair, After that, Newmark (1988, p 98) also notes that: “By metaphor, I mean any figurative expression: the transferred sense of a physical word (native as 'to originate”, its most common meaning); the personification of an abstraction (‘modesty forbids me’- en toute modestie je ne peux pas); the application of a word or collocation to what it does not literally denote, i.e., to describe one thing in terms of another”

Ungerer and Schmid (1996) regard metaphor as the “exclusive domain

of literary scholars and the odd linguist who was interested in rhetoric or stylics”(Ungerer & Schmid, 1996, p 114) This traditional view of metaphor,

in which it’s regarded as a linguistic phenomenon that falls largely in the realm of “poetic” or “figurative” language, does nothing else but to relegate this very important phenomenon to the level of an “ornamental device used in rhetorical style” (Ungerer & Schmid, 1996, p 114)

Trang 20

In addition, traditionally, metaphor has been understood as “deviant language by Generative Linguistics where meanings of words are bundles of necessary and sufficient features, and there are clear-cut boundaries between semantic categories” (Ignasi, 1999, p 2)

It can be summarized that metaphor is the transference of meaning from one object to another, based on the similarity between two objects It can

be described as a comparison that shows how two things that are not alike in most ways are similar in another important way Some examples below will illustrate to metaphors in the Pre- Cognitive Periods

(3) My brother was boiling mad

As we can see from (3), boiling mad is used to imply that he was too angry When one is angry, his/her temper is similar to “boiling liquid”

(4) The skies of his future began to darken

Darkness is a threat; therefore, this implies that the coming times are going to be hard for him

(5) That football player is really putting the team on his back this

evening!

Football commentators use this phrase all the time when an entire team appears to be depending on its running back The image of a single man running hard with a whole football team on his back is an expression of hard work and dedication

2.2.3 Metaphors from cognitive perspective

Trang 21

experiences In other words, it is the scientific study of human languages in relation to human cognition

Cognitive linguistics originally emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, developed in 1990s George Lakoff, one of the founders of Generative Semantics, and Ronald Langacker, also an ex-practitioner of Generative Linguistics, contributed to cognitive linguistics’ development In 1989/90 the International Cognitive Linguistics Society was established, together with the journal Cognitive Linguistics According to the eminent cognitive linguist Ronald Langacker (2002, p xv), this ‘marked the birth of cognitive linguistics

as a broadly grounded, self conscious intellectual movement’ Cognitive linguistics is considered as a ‘movement’ or an ‘enterprise’, which is the scientific study of human languages related to human cognition It is concerned with the relationship between human language, human mind and human socio-physical experiences (Evans & Green, 2006)

Lý Toàn Thắng (2005, p 13) defines cognitive linguistics as “a new school of modern linguistics which studies language on the basis of experience and human’s perception of the objective world as well as the way people perceive and conceptualize things and situations of that objective world.” He notes that for nearly 20 years, despite some controversies, cognitive linguistics has gradually identified the object and scope of its research, the ideas and main concepts, principles and important methods However, frankly, it’s still ‘young’ and is considered as a ‘school’ more than

a subdivision of linguistics (Thắng, 2005, p 12) According to Trần Văn Cơ (2007, p 101), cognitive linguistics establishes the relationship between the research object and the natural language that people use in everyday communication

Trang 22

According to Fauconnier (2006, p 10) cognitive linguistics is defined

as follows:

“Cognitive linguistics goes beyond the visible structure of language and investigates the considerably more complex backstage operations of cognition that create grammar, conceptualization, discourse, and thought itself The theoretical insights of cognitive linguistics are based on extensive empirical observation in multiple contexts, and on experimental work in psychology and neuroscience Results of cognitive linguistics, especially from metaphor theory and conceptual integration theory, have been applied

to wide ranges of nonlinguistic phenomena.”

It can be roughly divided into two main areas of Cognitive Linguistics’ research: cognitive semantics and cognitive grammar Cognitive grammar, which is the model language developed by Ronald Langacker, is concerned with modeling the language system rather than the nature of mind itself It assures that grammar is conceptualization People use grammar or language to conceptualize their experiences to express them (Jensen, 2004) However, it does so by taking the conclusions of research in cognitive semantics This means that meaning is central to cognitive grammar Cognitive semantics is concerned with investigating the relationship between experience, the conceptual system, and the semantic structure encoded by language Whereas, cognitive semantics states that meanings come from our mind, or rather, meanings are in the head (Gärdenfors, 1994) According to Evans and Green (2006), cognitive semantics is concerned with the investigating the relationship between human experience, the conceptual system in human mind, and the semantic structure encoded by language

Trang 23

2.2.3.2 Conceptual metaphors

Conceptual metaphors, in cognitive linguistics, pervade our thoughts and are reflected through our language Conceptual metaphors are defined by many researchers and linguists

Kövecses (2002, p 12) one of the most significant Hungarian researchers of metaphors defines conceptual metaphors as follows:

In the cognitive linguistic view, metaphor is defined as understanding one conceptual domain in terms of another conceptual domain […] The conceptual domain from which we draw metaphorical expressions is to understand another conceptual domain called source domain, while the conceptual domain that is understood this way is the target domain […] Understanding one domain in terms of another involves a set of fixed correspondences (technically called mappings) between a source and a target domain (cited in Agnes, 2009, p 20)

Croft and Cruse (2004, p 196) give a definition of conceptual metaphor

as “a conceptual mapping between two domains The mapping is asymmetrical, however, the metaphorical expression profiles a conceptual structure in the target domain, not the source domain.” The mapping between source and target domains involves two sorts of correspondences, epistemic and ontological

According to Trần Văn Cơ (2007, p 293), conceptual metaphor or cognitive metaphor is one of the forms of conceptualization, a cognitive process with the function of expressing and forming new ideas; without it, we cannot get new knowledge It’s a process of cognition whereby the continuous, similar perceptions have undergone a process of appreciation that

is assessed in the context of a new concept According to Lakoff and Johnson (1980), metaphors are known as “understanding and experiencing one kind of

Trang 24

thing in term of another” They claim that “Metaphor is […] a matter of

words rather than thought or action For this reason, most people think they can get along perfectly well without metaphor” (mentioned above) We have found, on the contrary, that metaphor is pervasive in everyday 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.” They also note that the concepts that govern our thoughts govern our everyday functioning Our concepts structure what and how we perceive and experience the world Our conceptual system, thus, plays a central role in defining our everyday realities If we are right in suggesting that our conceptual system is largely metaphorical, then the way we think, what we experience, and what we do every day is very much a matter of metaphor (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980)

Indeed, metaphor is described as a transfer between the source domain and the target domain, known as the “two-domain theory” of metaphor Based

on the cognitive view on metaphor, it is regarded as cognitive mechanism whereby one conceptual domain (source domain) is partially mapped, that is, projected, onto another conceptual domain (target domain) Then, the target domain (abstract conceptual reality) is understood in terms of the source domain (physical reality) Metaphor is thus “a cross-domain mapping in the conceptual system” (Lakoff, 1994, p 43) We can analyze some typical instances of metaphors below

TIME IS MONEY

(6) He’s wasting time

(7) I have to budget my time

(8) This will save you time

Trang 25

LOVE IS JOURNEY

(9) Our relationship is off the track

(10) The marriage is on the rocks

(11) We may have to bail out of this relationship

ARGUMENT IS WAR

(12) If you use that strategy, he’ll wipe you out

(13) He shot down all of my arguments

From the instances above, target domains are time, love, and argument while money, journey, and war are source domains (Kövecses, 2002, p 6) Time, love, and argument which are abstract conceptual realities are understood in terms of physical reality- money, journey and war In other words, time, love and argument are being conceptualized as money, journey and war Therefore, in order to understand the target domain in terms of source domain, we have to have appropriate knowledge of the source domain (Lakoff & Turner, 1989, p 60)

In general, metaphors, not only a matter of language but also a matter

of thought and action, are essential to daily language and are cognitive in nature, expressed in various linguistic expressions (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980,

p 2) This study is carried out based on the conceptual metaphor’s framework

of Lakoff and Johnson (1980), which is “understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another”

2.2.3.3 Mapping in metaphors

A conceptual metaphor has two main parts, namely source domain and target domains From the cognitive point of view, what is transferred by a metaphor is the structure, the internal relations or the logic of a cognitive model, called a ‘mapping’ from a source to a target Indeed, the mapping of a

Trang 26

source domain onto the target domain is the way metaphor transfers meaning from one area to another Hence, it can be inferred that a metaphor is “a mapping of the structure of a source model onto the target model” (Kövecses,

2002, p 79)

A mapping, according to Kövecses (2002), is the systematic set of correspondences that exist between constituent elements of the source and the target domain In order to know a conceptual metaphor, it’s necessary to know the set of mappings that applies to a given source-target pairing All of the image-schematic structure of the source that is consistent with the target is mapped onto the target (Kövecses, 2003, p 84) He believes that mappings are based on the “main meaning focus” of a source domain, i.e “the central knowledge that pertains to a particular entity or event within a speech community” (Kövecses, 2003, p 82)

Ten interacting components making up a conceptual metaphor which are showed by Kövecses (2003, p 312) are that experiential basis, source domain, target domain, relationship between the source and the target, metaphorical linguistic expressions, mappings, entailments, blends, non-linguistic realization and cultural models

One of the main basic metaphors that Lakoff and Turner (1989, p.3-4) use in their guide to poetic metaphor is “LIFE IS A JOURNEY” In this metaphor, authors imply that the structure of the “LIFE IS A JOURNEY”

metaphor leads to consider certain correspondences as a mapping between

two conceptual domains, the source domain – JOURNEY and the target domain - LIFE

“LIFE IS A JOURNEY” metaphor by Lakoff & Johnson can be mapped out in the following way

Trang 27

Table 2.1 The metaphoric mapping of LIFE IS JOURNEY

(Lakoff and Johnson, 1980)

A TRAVELLER THE PERSON LEADING

A LIFE

She went through life

with a good heart

DESTINATIONS HIS PURPOSES He knows where he is

DIFFICULTIES IN LIFE He worked his way

around many obstacles THE DISTANCE

TRAVELLED

PROGRESS He made his way in life

LANDMARKS THINGS YOU GAUGE

YOUR PROGRESS BY

Then he came to a point

in his life where he had

to make a difficult decision

CROSSROADS CHOICES IN LIFE There were two paths

The following examples taken from expressions in ‘Truyện Kiều” will help us

to realize how this conceptual metaphor- LIFE IS JOURNEY- is mapped through the means of lexical items

Trang 28

(14) Canh khuya thân gái dặm

(16) Quản chi lên thác xuống ghềnh

Cũng toan sống thác với tình cho xong

In the example (14), the expression “thân gái dặm trường” (the girl

herself on the long road) shows Kiều’s loneliness on the journey finding the

happiness, and the expression “đường xá” (roads) in shows the difficulties

which she has to overcome On the way to the loyal destination, Kiều meets

so many crossroads that she sometimes has got lost; therefore, the author uses

“lạc loài” (desolate) in (15) to show her obstacles in the drifted fifteen- year

Trang 29

life And in example (16), the expression “lên thác xuống ghềnh” (up hill and down dale) is used to show Kiều’s tottering life as “a waterfall”, which may lead her life to the verge of no escaping possibilities Being alone at night, thinking of her life in the following days, Kiều is worried about the ahead long road- “đường xa” (distant road) in (17) which she has to go without her relatives, her lover

 Mapping types:

According to Lakoff and Turner (1989), mapping is divided into two types: conceptual and image mappings In conceptual mapping, the target domain maps onto the source one The difference between the first one and the second one is that the domains in the second one are mental images According to (Ungerer & Schmid, 2006), it consists of lean mapping and rich mapping Lean mapping between specific concrete source concepts and concrete target concepts is primarily used to highlight individual aspects

of the target concept, whereas rich mapping between specific concrete, source concepts and abstract target concepts, plus additional mapping from generic concepts, is primarily used to supply a tangible conceptual structure for abstract target concepts.The different mapping scopes also explain why conceptual metaphors fulfil different cognitive functions.We can see at the figure below

Trang 30

Figure 2.1 An overview of metaphorical mapping

(Ungerer & Schmid, 2006, p 127) The figure shows that metaphor aims to set up a conceptual link between a source and a target concept.Visually, it aslo illustrates how the various aspects of metaphor are interrelated: specific source concepts contribute to both concrete target concepts and abstract concepts The abstract target concepts are aslo supported by link with more general source concepts (generic concept) The metaphors may vary between lean and rich mapping Finally, concrete target concepts may draw on the generic source concept, again a case of lean rather than rich mapping (Ungerer & Schmid,

2006, p 126)

Trang 31

2.2.3.4 Classification of conceptual metaphors

Based on Lakoff and Johnson (1980), conceptual metaphors are divided into 3 types, namely structural, orientational and ontological In this section, a brief review of each type of metaphors will be mentioned

 Structural Metaphor

According to Lakoff and Johnson (1980, p 40) structural metaphor is defined as “a case where one concept is metaphorically structured in term of another” It means that structural metaphor refers to a conceptual metaphor that is constructed from one conceptual structure to another In other words, in the structural metaphor model, one concept is understood and expressed in terms of another structured, sharply defined concept Kövecses (2010, p 33) states that in this kind of metaphors, “the source domain provides a relatively rich knowledge structure for the target concept” He believed “the cognitive function of these metaphors is to enable speakers to understand target A by means of the structure of source B.”

This kind of metaphor helps us understand the target domain via the structure of the source domain Let’s see a typical example of structural metaphor which was mentioned in Lakoff & Johnson’s book: “ARGUMENT

IS WAR”

(15) His criticisms were right on target

(16) I demolished his argument

(17) I’ve never won an argument with him

(18) You disagree? Okay, shoot!

(19) If you use that strategy, he’ll wipe you out

(Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, p 4)

Trang 32

From the above examples, we can see clearly that structural metaphors involve “the structuring of one kind of experience or activity in terms of another kind of experience or activity” (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, p 197) This metaphor shows that the source domain “war” provides a relatively rich knowledge structure for the target concept “argument” It can be seen that argument is considered as a war We can fight in the war and at last, we can

either “win” or “lose” In order to win the battle, we need a good “strategy” and every “shoot” should be “right on the target” The vocabulary in the war

is used to help people understand and experience argument as the kind of thing that we have to attack, demolish, shoot and use strategy to win the opponent We use this concept to shape the way we think of argument and the way we go about arguing In other words, there is no physical battle in here but the verbal battle, thus “ARGUMENT IS WAR” structures the actions we perform in arguing In brief, without the metaphor, it would be difficult to imagine what our concept of argument would be Most structural metaphors provide this kind of structuring and understanding for their target concepts (Kövecses, 2002)

This kind of metaphors also appears in Vietnamese poetry and everyday life Let’s see some metaphorical expressions “WONMEN ARE FLOWER”

in “Truyện Kiều” by Nguyễn Du below

(20) “Bóng hồng nhác thấy nẻo xa,

Xuân lan thu cúc mặn mà cả hai.”

[lines 161-162]

He caught a fleeting glimpse of both afar: spring orchid, autumn mum- a gorgeous pair!

(21) Tiếc thay một đóa trà mi,

Con ong đã tỏ đường đi lối về

Oh, shame! A pure camellia had to let the bee explore and probe all ins and

Trang 33

[lines 845-846] outs

(22) “Hung hăng chẳng nói chẳng tra,

Đang tay vùi liễu, giập hoa tơi bời.”

[lines 1135-1136]

The madam asked no questions- wild with rage, she thrashed the flower, flailed the willow tree

These expressions “bóng hồng” (rose), “xuân lan thu cúc” (orchid and daisy, indicating two sisters Kiều and Vân) in (20), “đóa trà mi” (camellia) in example (21), and “hoa” (flower) in (22) is a metaphor used to infer a beautiful woman based on our experience of the objective world that “hoa” (flower) is beautiful and weak

Surprisingly, Nguyễn Du also used “hoa” to denote a man

(23) “Nàng rằng khoảng vắng đêm trường

Vì hoa nên phải đánh đường tìm hoa”

[lines 441-442]

“Along a lonesome, darkened path”, she said, “for love of you I found my way to you.”

In the above sentence, “hoa” is used to denote Kim Trọng, who is an elegant man in Kiều Story Hence, from the perspective of Nguyễn Du, “hoa” (flower) is not only an attribute of women but also men, too

 Orientational Metaphor

Orientational metaphor, a figure that "organizes a whole system of concepts with respect to one another", is one of the three overlapping categories of conceptual metaphors (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980) They claim that “one that does not structure one concept in terms of another but instead organizes a whole system of concept with respect to one another” and

“spatial orientations arise from the fact that we have bodies of the sort we

Trang 34

have and that they function and they do in our physical environment” (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, p 14) In orientational metaphor, concepts are spatially related to each other, as in the following ways: up or down, in or out, front or back, on or off, deep or shallow, central or peripheral The orientational metaphor can apply to situations that contain both physical and cultural elements

Kövecses (2002, p 36) states that “certain target concepts tend to be conceptualized in a uniform manner” Some examples below are given to illustrate orientational metaphor

MORE IS UP; LESS IS DOWN

(24) Speak up, please

(25) Keep your voice down, please

HEALTHY IS UP; SICK IS DOWN

(26) Lazarus rose from the dead

(27) He fell ill

CONSCIOUS IS UP; UNCONSCIOUS IS DOWN

(28) Wake up

(29) He sank into a coma

CONTROL IS UP; LACK OF CONTROL IS DOWN

(30) I'm on top of the situation

(31) He is under my control

HAPPY IS UP; SAD IS DOWN

(32) I'm feeling up today

(33) He's really low these days

As we can see from these examples, all the above concepts are characterized by an “upward” orientation, while their opposite receives a

Trang 35

“download” orientation These metaphors are based on the orientation in space; hence a special relationship is made for a concept This relationship is normally based on our experiences of the physical space we possess In these

examples, the concepts of “more”, “healthy”, “conscious”, “control” and

“happy” are identified with upward orientations that tend to go together with positive evaluation and the concepts of “less”, “sick”, “unconscious”, “lack of

control”, and “sad” are characterized as downward directions with negative

one Besides, we can see some examples such as whole, center, link, balance,

in, goal,… which are mostly regarded as positive; in other hand, not whole, periphery, no link, imbalance, out, no goal,…are negative The expressions

“up”, “rise”, “on top” are often used in the orientational metaphor “A IS UP”, and the expressions “down”, “fall”, “sink”, “under”, and “low” are used to show “downward” orientaion

In Vietnamese everyday life, the orientational metaphors are also used frequently Let’s see some instances below

HAPPY IS UP

(34) Tôi cảm thấy phấn chấn hẳn lên

(35) Bài thơ đó đã nâng tâm hồn tôi lên

(36) Những ý nghĩ về nàng luôn luôn làm tôi phấn khởi lên

BAD IS DOWN

(37) Giá cả giảm xuống

(38) Tinh thần bị suy sụp

HEALTH IS UP

(39) Tôi thấy khỏe lên

(40) Lúc nào đỡ lên thì ra viện

(Trần Văn Cơ, 2007, p 321)

Trang 36

In the examples above, the expressions “phấn chấn”, “nâng”, “phấn khởi’, “lên” originally are oriented upward, and “giảm”, “suy sụp” have

‘downward’ orientation Therefore, the cases using “up” or “down” are not compulsory In detail, in (34), (35) and (36), sadness and boredom weigh down the man and he puts his head down; whereas the positive emotions make him comfortable and raise his head in (37) and (38) The exepressions in (39) and (40) base on the physical basis that diseases make human have to lay down while they are healthy they can stand up and travel (Cơ, 2007, p 321)

INFLATION IS AN ENTITY

(41) We need to compact inflation

(42) Inflation makes me sick

(43) Inflation is lowering our standard of living

Trang 37

It’s obvious that the concept of inflation is considered as an entity which can be quantified, refered, or seen as a cause, act with respect to it The expressions such as “compact”, “lower”, or “make me sick” are used

to indicate the characteristic of an entity which is mapped onto the abstract thing

STATES ARE CONTAINERS

(44) I’ve had a full life

(45) He’s in love

(46) We are out of trouble now

The examples (44), (45), (46) clearly show that we conceptualize our emotions and states as a container and conceptualize what we feel and experience as being inside it This type of metaphor turns our experiences into objects or substances So in English we can say that He’s “in love”, which suggests we’re in a container called “love” What’s more, we can have a “out of”, when we fall out of the container metaphorically speaking

MIND IS A CONTAINER FOR IDEAS

(47) He has a great idea in his mind (48) His brain is packed with interesting ideas

(49) Do I have to pound these statistics into your head?

It is clear that the source domain A CONTAINER is mapped onto the target domain MIND in the examples (47), (48), and (49) When "a thought comes into our head" there is a metaphorical process happening Indeed, we consider our head as a kind of container The head is the container of thoughts

or ideas The head here stands for the mind as the container of thought: the thought is in [the container of] the mind, which is in [the container of] the

Trang 38

head Therefore, the head is seen as a particular kind of container, more like a room which we inhabit Experientially when the thought comes into my head,

I become aware of it

According to Kövecses (2002), ontological metaphors “ provide much less cognitive structuring for target concepts than structural ones do” and “ give an ontological status to general categories of abstract target concepts”(Kövecses,

2002, p 34)

Table 2.2 Subtypes of ontological metaphors

(Source: Metaphor- A practical introduction, Kövecses, 2002, p 35)

Source Domains Target Domains Examples

PHYSICAL OBJECT

NONPHYSICAL OR ABSTRACT ENTITIES

The mind

EVENTS Going to the race ACTIONS Giving someone a call SUBSTANCE ACTIVITIES A lot of running in the game CONTAINER UNDELINEATED

PHYSICAL OBJECTS Clearing in the forest PHYSICAL AND

NONPHYSICAL SURFACES

Land areas, the visual field

Trang 39

SORROW IS A FLUID IN A CONTAINER

(50) Sầu đong càng lắc càng đầy,

Ba thu dồn lại một ngày dài ghê

[Truyện Kiều, lines 247-248]

He drained the cup of gloom: it filled a new- one day without her seemed three autumns long

In (50), there is a correlation between the intensity of sorrow and the amount of the fluid kept in the container Levels of the fluid inside the container indicate intensity of sorrow A mass of fluid in a container certainly creates pressure on the container The more the fluid is shaken, the more it fills and can escape from the container

MIND IS A CONTAINER

(51) Đầu óc anh ta đang trống rỗng

(His mind is empty) (52) Cô nên xóa sạch những ý nghĩ điên rồ trong đầu của

mình

(You should clear the crazy thought in your mind.)

It’s common for the Vietnamese to use of parts of the body rather than the body as a whole to contain sorrow In (51) and (52), HEAD is as A CONTAINER which contains many things in, but now is empty (trống rỗng)

To conclude, it’s difficult to distinguish structural and ontological metaphors clearly Indeed, Lakoff and Johnson noted that “The division of metaphors into three types – orientational, ontological and structural – was artificial All metaphors are structural (in that they map structures to structures); all are ontological (in that they create target-domain entities); and many are orientational (in that they map orientational image-schemas)” (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003, p 265) Thus, in this thesis, all those which are not clearly structural metaphors will be counted as ontological metaphors

Trang 40

2.2.4 An overview of “Truyện Kiều”

2.2.4.1 Biography of Nguyễn Du

Nguyễn Du (1765- 1820), whose pen names were Tố Như and Thanh Hiên, is one of well-known Vietnamese poets who wrote in “Nôm”script, the ancient writing script of Vietnam He is most-known for writing the epic

poem “Truyện Kiều”

Nguyễn Du, born and raised in a time of chaos, witnessed many changes in the transition from the Lê to Nguyễn dynasties His works reflected the realities in Viet Nam's society during these years Nguyễn Du's poems displayed the vicissitudes of history and the spiritual life of Vietnamese people

2.2.4.2 A brief review of the poem

Truyện Kiều, which was based on an earlier Chinese work known as Kim Vân Kiều and was originally titled Đoạn Trường Tân Thanh, is one of the most grandiose writing in classical literature in Viet Nam Its 3,254 lines were written in “Lục bát” – a traditional Vietnamese verse form that was historically first recorded in Nom script and deeply tied to the soul of Vietnamese culture and people It is one of the greatest masterpieces of Vietnamese literature

Through this story, Nguyễn Du drew a picture of the corrupt, dominated, evil and unequal feudal society in Vietnam in the late 18th century and the early 19th century, and reflected the aspirations for the right to live, and the right to freedom, justice, love and happiness The poem is so popular and beloved by the Vietnamese Until now, “Truyện Kiều” has been translated into more than twenty languages consisting of English, French, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, German

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

Tiêu đề	Conceptual Metaphors of Sorrow in “Truyện Kiều” by Nguyen Du and Their English Equivalents by Huỳnh Sanh Thông
Tác giả	Phạm Thị Ái Hoa
Người hướng dẫn	Nguyễn Tất Thắng
Trường học	Quy Nhon University
Chuyên ngành	Linguistics / Literary Studies
Thể loại	Thesis
Năm xuất bản	2019
Thành phố	Quy Nhơn

Định dạng
Số trang	124
Dung lượng	1,26 MB