Luận văn a study of the english preposition on in theof the wild by jack london and its vietnamese equivalents in the translation by nguyen cung ai and vu tuan phuong from cognitive perspective

IN “THE CALL OF THE WILD” BY JACK LONDON AND ITS VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS AN THE TRANSLATION BY NGUYEN CUNG AI AND VU TUAN PHUONG FROM COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE Nghiên cứu về giới từ tiếng

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

ĐĂNG THỊ PHƯƠNG THẢO

ASTUDY OF TIIE ENGLISII PREPOSITION “ON” IN “THE CALL OF

THE WILD” BY JACK LONDON AND ITS VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

IN THE TRANSLATION BY NGUYEN CUNG AI AND VU TUAN PHUONG

FROM COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE

(Nghiên cứu về giới từ tiếng Anh “on” trong tác phẩm “Tiếng gọi nơi hoang

dã” của Jack London và các nghĩa tiếng Việt tương đương trong bản dịch của

Nguyễn Cung Ái và Vũ Tuần Phương dướt góc độ ngũn ngữ học trị nhận)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English linguistics Code: 60220201

Tlanoi, 2016

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, ITANOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

DANG THI PIIUONG TILAO

A STUDY OF THE ENGLISH PREPOSITION “ON? IN “THE CALL OF

THE WILD” BY JACK LONDON AND ITS VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

AN THE TRANSLATION BY NGUYEN CUNG AI AND VU TUAN PHUONG

FROM COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE

(Nghiên cứu về giới từ tiếng Anh “on” trong tác phẩm “Tiếng gọi nơi hoang

dã” của Jack London và các nghĩa tiếng Việt trơng đương trong bản dịch của

Nguyễn Cưng Ái và Vũ Tuấn Phương dưới góc độ ngôn ngữ học tr nhận)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Prof Dr Nguyen Quang

Hanoi, 2016

DECLARATION

I, Deng Thi Phuong Thao, certify dat this thesis is the tesull of my own research and the substance of the research has not been submitted for degree to any other university or institution

Hanoi, June 2016 Signature

Dang, Thi Phuong Thao

support, and his wisdom greatly contributed to the fulfillment of my thesis I would

also like to thank my supervisor for his palicnce in reading and ediling my draft Tt

aust be an exoruciating experience

‘My heartfelt gratitude is also to Dr Iuynh Anh Tuan, The Iead of Faculty

of Post-Graduate Studies and all his staff members whe have been of great help

Last but not least, 1 would like to give my deepest gratitude to my parents,

and my friends for their moral support and encouragement throughout my training

course

The study still has limitations, therefore all the suggestions and

recommendations would be warmly welcomed.

ABSTRACT

Prepositions are known as a small but notoriously difficull Isxical unit in

English duc to their polysemy Additionally, it is the differences in the linguistic cognition among, cultures that prevent language users from mastering and using prepositions properly Tn order io help language learners overcome these difficulties, this study aims at exploring the potential meanings of prepositions “on”

in English and their Vietnamese equivalents in “The Call of the Wild” and the

Vicinamese translation by Nguyen Cung Ai and Vu Tuan Phuong [rom cognitive perspective Image schemas, prototype theory and metaphorical extensions are considered as the analytical framework to carry out this study Approximately 160

of on-occumenees are categorized into small groups in terms of their meanings to analyze based on qualitative and quantitative methods ‘fhe results show that English and the Vietnamese share some common cognition in applying TR and LM

to locate things because they are endowed with the same biological features and exposed to similar experiences with the environment However, there exist many differences in applying locative strategies and TR and LM to encode languages due

to the distinguishing [calures in pereoplion regarding space, the living habits,

topography and sky orientation It is hoped that the findings can be a small contribution to the stock of prepositional research.

: Verb

iv

TIST OF FIRGURES AND TABLES,

Figure 1: Guneral image schema of on (Ming, 2011)

Figure 2: Path schema for on (Ming, 2011)

Figure 3:The contact image schema of on

Table 1 The potential meanings of preposition “on” in English

'Table 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 Preposition “on” equals “trén” in Vietnamese

Table 3.1 Preposition “on” equals “vao” in Vietnamese to denote

movernerl

'Table 3.2 Preposition “on” equals “vao” in Vietnamese to denote time

Table 4.1 Preposition “on” equals “trong” in Vietnamese to denote

“Processes are path”

Table 4.2 Preposition “on” equals “trong” in Vietnamese in temporal

expressions

Table S Preposition “on” equals “lén” im Victnamese

‘Table 6, Preposition “on” equals “gitta” in Vietnamese

Table 7 Preposition “on” equals “bling” in Vieinamese

Table 8.1 Preposition “on” equals “” un Vietwamese

‘Table 8.2 Preposition “on” equals “ta®” in Vietnamese

Table 9, Proposition “on” equats “bani” im Vielramesc

‘Table 10 Preposition “on” equals “dén” in Vietnamese

Table 11 Preposition “on” equals “xuéng” in Vietnamese

Table 12 On-occurrences denote the contimity

‘Table 13, On-occurenes denote metaphorical extension of time

Table 14 On-occurrences denote that entitites put on some pieces of

“cloth

‘Table 15, On-occurrences denote movement ending in contact

Table 16 On-occurrences denote movement ending in support

Table 17, On-ocewrenves denote that TR is a part of the 1.M

Table 18 On-occurrences denote a topic

‘Table 19.On-occurrences denote the direction of the movement

Table 20 On-occurrenves denote a scope

Table 21 The combination of preposition “on” and other parts of speech Table 22, Other expressions of preposition “on”

Table 23 The Victmese equivalents of proposition “on”

1.1.1 Cogmitive linguistics eo 2t che 5

1.2 Spatial prepositions in cogstilive semmanfies - -#

CHAPTER 2) METHODOLOGY os ccscssnes ses sesesetsieenente inset 23

3.1 The potential meanings of preposition “on” in English 27 3.2 The meanings of the Fnglish preposition “on” and (heir Vielnamesc

3.2.1.1 “On? in English corresponds to “trén” in Vichramese 29

3.2.1.2 “On” in English corresponds to “vao” in Vietnamese

3.2.1.3 “On” in English corresponds io “trong” in Vielramese 32

3.2.1.4 “On” m English eorrespondb to “lên” Iì Viettraniese

3.2.1.5 “On” in Iinglish corresponds io “giữa” in Vietnarmese 34

3.2.1.6 “On” in English corresponds to “ “bang” in Viclnarmese 34 3.2.1.7 “On” in English corresponds to “tai/é” in Vietnamese seven dS 3.2.1.8 “On” in English corresponds to “bén” in Vietnamese

3.2.1.9 “On” in English corresponds to “dén” in Vietnamese 37

3.2.1.10 “On” in English corresponds to “xudng” in Vietnamese 37 3.2.2 Non-prepositional equivalents 38

3.3 Comparison between English and Vietnamese Spatial Cognition 43

3.3.1 Similarities — "— AD

vill

1 Summary of the study

PART A: INTRODUCTION:

1, Rationale of the study

Tn the global ora, an international Janguage is an integral part for people to

convey their ideas, their thought and their desire With many prominent features, Bnglish is chosen as a global language for people to communicate In Vietuam, it is considered as the vore subject in Ihe wational ewriculum and the prerequisite Lor job

application However, it is not easy for Vietuamese learners to master and use this

language effectively and accurately

In English teaching and learning, prepositions pose au immense challenge for both language leamers and teachers According to Evan and Tyler (2001), the

semantics of prepositions is blamed for the most of difficulties that language

learners offer encounter Nguyen Tuyet Nhung (2010, p.6) bolds thal “all he senses

of a preposition are arbitrary”; therefore, it is hard for learners to fully understand

the meaning of a preposition without context Being aware of this difficulty, a lot of

textbooks as well as reference materials are published to salisfy readers’ needs As

for teachers, they themselves spend considerable amount of time and effort giving

lechuers and praclising for their students about the use of prepositions However, based on her own experiences and the discussions with her colleagues, the author

realizes that these methods are not really effective According to the studies

cmdueled by Lorincy & Gordon (2012), language users encounler a number of

prepositional errors such as substitution, omission and addition For years, research

has been carried out to discover the reasons for these problems With the birth of

cognitive linguislies, it is revealed thal the difficulties of using prepositions do not

lie in its position, function or structure but the differences in the perception and cognition of the language users from a variety of cultures (Tran Quang Iai, 2010)

Tn order to help Fnglish leamers gel an invightful view of these

prepositions, Cognitive Semantics is chosen as the tool for this investigation into

the meanings of the preposition “on” and their equivalents in Vietnamese so that

the readers can figure oul the differences as well as the sunilaritics im their spalial

and non-spatial senses

2 Aims and objectives of the study

The study aima alan intensive investigation into the meanings of preposition

“on” and their equivalents in Vietnamese from cognitive perspective Kor the

realization of this aim, the following objectives are posed

- To present a semantic description of the English preposition “on” from the

perspective of cognitive linguistics,

- To investigate potential Vietnamese equivalents to the meanings of the

English preposition “on” in “The Call of the Wild?

3 Research questions

The following research questions are raised:

- What meanings arc conveyed by the English preposition “on” from a cognitive semantic perspective?

- What are the Vietnamese equivalents to the meanings of the English

preposition “on” in “The Call of the Wild” by Jack London found in the translation

by Nguyen Cung Ai and Vu ‘Tuan Phuong?

4 Scope of the study

The study only focuses on investigating the meanings of the English

preposition “on” and their Vietnamese equivalents within cognitive theoretical

franework The data are collected from the mosi famous novel by Jack London and

its translation in Vietnamese by Nguyen Cung Ai and Vu Tuan Phuong The

instances collected are in form of (NP) + on | NP and NP‘ V | on | NP, where

on functions a3 a preposition

5 Methodology

Both the quantitative and qualitative approach have been chosen to identify

the potential meanings of preposition “on” in English from the work “the Call of the

Wild” by Jack London and their equivalents found in the tanslation by Nguyen Cung Ai and Vu Tuan Phuong Besides, the combination of descriptive and contrastive methods is employed to collect the qualilalive information and find out

the similaritics as well as differences between the English and the Vietamese in the

field of spatial cognition

6 Significance of the study

The thesis shows strong evidences that preposition “on” has a number of different but related senses Through the analysis, there is a close-knit relationship

‘between the meanings of the English preposition “on” and the concaptualization of

the Vietnamese and English In other words, how prepositions is perceived depends

on the way in which people from different cultures realize their physical world

‘based on their experiences

Secondly, it is expected that this thesis will contribute to the stock of research on prepositions from cognitive perspectives, giving readers theoretical

background of one of the most complivated aspect in English

Tinally, the study provides readers with some suggestions to avoid the errors

in using prepositions and enrich the pedagogical methods in teaching English

prepositions and (ranslaling prepositions Lo Enghsh major students

7 Organization of the study

The research consists of three main parts: Tutroduction, Development and Conclusion

Part A: Introduction presents the rationale, the aims, the research questions,

methods, scope, significance and orgauization of the sludy

Part B: Development consists of three chapters:

Chapter 1 Literature review gives the concepts of cognitive linguistics and

cognitive semantics, prepositions in English and the analytical framework of the

study Huthermore, the review of previous studies is also presented

Chapter 2 Methodology includes the research method, the data collection and

data analysis

Chapter 3 Analyses indicates the potential meanings of preposition “on” in

English and their equivalents in Vietnamese of “The Call of the Wild” in order to

answer two rescarch questions: (1) the potential meanings of proposition “on” in

English, (2) the Vietnamese equivalents of preposition “on” found in the translation

by Nguyen Cung Ai and Vu ‘Tuan Phuong

Part C Conclusion is the last parl which olfers a summary, some limitations and suggestions for further study.

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Cognitive linguistics and cognitive semantics

1.1.1 Cagnitive linguistics

It is widely known that cognitive linguistics is 2 modem school of linguistic

thought and practice Tt views linguistic knowledge as part of goucral cognition and

thinking: linguistic behaviour is not separated from other general cognitive abilities which allow mental processes of reasoning, memory, attention or learning, but

understood as an inlegral part of i

Cognitive linguistics originally emerged in the 1970s (illmore, 1975;

Lakoff &Thompson, 1975, Rosch, 1975) and arose out of dissatisfaction with

formal approaches to language which were dominant, al that time, in the disciplinics

of linguistics and philosophy In spite of being a new approach, it has been strongly

influenced by theories and findings from the other cognitive sciences as they

emerged during the 1960s and 1970s, particularly cognitive psychology The former

researchers such as Geeraerts (1988) and Jékel (1999) have shown many common

ideas thal are mentioned in cogrutive hnguisiics

The whole theory of coguitive Linguistics consists of two main pillars as

followings:

(i) Language is arr integral part of cognition,

(ii) Language is symbolic in nature

According to the first tenet, language can be understood as a product of

general cognitive abilities Consequently, a cognitive linguist must be willing to

accept what Lakoff (1990, p.40) calls the “cognitive commitment”, that is, s/he must

be prepared to embrace the link between language and other cognitive faculties

because linguistic theory and methodology must, he consistent wilh what is

empirically known about cognition, the brain and language This position is based on

a functional approach to language As Saeed (1997) explains, this view implies that: externally, principles of language use cmbody more gencral cognitive principles; and

internally, that explanation must cross boundaries between levels of analysis

Jn other words, the difference between language and other mental processes

is not one of kind, bul one of degree Consequently, nol only linguistie principles

snust be investigated in reference to other mental faculties, but also any account of the different levels of linguistic analysis (syntax, semantics, phonology ) must be

carried out Laking into account all of these levels simultaneously This view of

language is completely different from the formal approaches, which understand imowledge of linguistic structures and mules as independent of other mental

processes such as allention, memory, and reasoning: hey propose that different

levels of linguistic analysis form independent modules

Furthermore, language is symbolic since it is based on the association between

somanlic Tepreseniation and phonological roprescnialion This association of lwo

different poles refers to the Saussurian conception of the linguistic sign However, it

is radically different on one basic point: the arbitrariness of the sign For cognitive

linguists, language is nol structured arbityarily Tk is motivated and grounded more or

less directly in experience, in our bodily, physical, social, and cultural experiences

‘because aller all, “we are beings of the flesh” (Johmson, 1992, p 347) This notion of

“grounding” is known in Cognitive Linguistics as “embodiment” (Johnsen, 1987,

Lakoff, 1987; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, 1999) and finds its philosophical roots in the

phenomenological tradition (Varela, Thompson & Rosch, 1993) Its basic idea is thal

anental and linguistic categories are not abstract

Cognitive linguistics practice can be divided into two main areas of research:

cognitive semantics and cognitive (approaches to) grammar The area of cognitive

semantics is concerned with investigating the relationship between experience, the conceptual system, and the semantic structure encoded by langnage whereas a

cognitive approach to grammar pays allention 1o modeling the language system (the

aental ‘grammar’), rather than the nature of mind per se Llowever, it does so by

taking as its starting point the conclusions of work in cognitive semantics

11.2 Cognitive semantics

As part of the field of cognitive linguistics, cognitive semantics represents an approach Lo the study of the mund and ils relalionship with the embodied experience and culture ‘Talmy (2000, p.4), one of the pioneers of cognitive linguistics, says that “Research on cognitive semantics is research on conceptual content and its organization of language”

Jt is widely known that cognitive semantics is not a single unified framework The researchers who identify themselves as cognitive semanticists

typically have a diverse sel of foci and interests However, here are a turmber of

guiding principles that collectively characterize a cognitive approach to semantics According to Talmy (2000) and Lakoff & Johnson (1980), cognitive semantics oonsists of four guiding principles as follows

i) Conceptual structure is embodied (the ‘embodied cognition thesis’);

ii) Semantic structure is conceptual structure,

iii) Moaning representation is oncyclopacdic;

iv) Meaning construction is conceptualization

The first guiding principle shows the fundamental concern of cognitive

semantics Specitically, it reveals the relationship between the conceptual structure

and the external experience of the world It is indicated that the nature of conceptual

organization comes from bodily experience Due lo the nature of our bodies, we

have a specific view of the world (lalmy, 1985, 2000; ‘Taylor, 1989) It means that

our construal of ‘reality’ is mediated, in large measure, by the nature of our

embodiment The concepts we have access to and the nature of the ‘reality’ we

think and talk about are a function of our embodiment We can only talk about what

we can perceive and conceive, and the things that we can perceive and conceive

derive from embodied experience

At is implied in the second guiding principle that language refers to concepts

in the mind of the speaker rather than, directly, to entities which inhere in an

objectively rea) cxlornal world, For inslance, when a person says somelhiing, the

ancaning of his/her utterance come from the concepts stored in his/her head In other

words, semantic siructure (the meanings conventionally associated with words and

other linguislic unils) can be cqualed with concepinal structure (ic, concepts)

However, it does not mean that these meanings are the same On the contrary, the meanings associated with linguistic units such as words arise from only subset of

possible concepls in the mind of speakers and hearers As a resuli, we have more

thoughts, ideas and feelings than we can conventionally encode in language (Hvans,

2006; Evans & Green, 2006)

The third guiding principle holds that semantic structure is encyclopaedic in

nature, This means that lexical concepts do not represent neatly packaged bundles

of meaning Rather, they serve as ‘points of access’ to vast repositories of

knowledge relating lo a particular concept or conecpiual domain (o.g., Langacker,

1987) Of course, it does not mean that conventional meanings associated with

words are deniable Nevertheless, cognitive semanticists argue that the conventional

aneaning associated with a particular knguistic mil is simply a ‘promp!’ for the

process of meaning construction: the ‘selection’ of an appropriate interpretation

against the context of the utterance

The fowth guiding principle, meaning construction is conccptualizahons,

states that language itself does not encode meaning Instead, words (and other

Hnguistic unils) are only ‘prompls’ for the construction of meaning Accordingly,

sneaning is constructed at the conceptual level Meaning construction is equated with conceptualization, a process whereby linguistic units serve as prompts for an array of

conceptual operations and the recruitment of hackground knowledge Meaning is a

process rather than a discrete ‘thing’ that can be ‘packaged’ by language

1.2 Spatial prepositions in cognitive semantics

Spatial prepositions are used lo describe the spatial relation in natural

language They are used to indicate relation between two arguments, x and y and how they relate to each other in space (In cognitive studies, TRs and LMs are used

as lwo terms for the arguments of x and y) By using the arguments y as reference,

spatial prepositions describe the place of x For examples:

a ‘he books are on the table

b He washed his car i the garage

- Prepositional meaning is defined as a core sense All the uses of

prepositions are reduced to the core sense (Leech, 1969, Bennett, 1975) This core

sense eart be found ina variety of contexts

- Prepositions are polysemious: There is a prototypical sense and other non- prototypical senses There is a preference rule system that determines the prototype which is always a spatial relation (Ciencki, 1989) The other senses of a preposition can be derived from a basic image-schema by means of family resemblances and

image schema transformations (Brugman, 1980, Linder, 1983, Lakoff, 1987;

1.3.1.1 Definition of image schemas

image schemas are presented and discussed by Lakoff (1987), Lakoff & Tumer (1989) and Johnson (1987) As with other cognitive linguistic thearetical constructs, i is argued thal image schemas are more than elements of linguistic theory: they have psychological reality for which there is supporting evidence from experimental research in psycholinguistics, cognitive psychology, and

developmental psychology (Gibbs & Colston, 1995).

Images arc representations of specific, embodied expericnees However, image schemas are not specific images but are “abstract in another sense of that

word: they are schemulic They represent schematic pallorns arising from imagistic

domains, such as containers, paths, links, forces, and balance that recur in a variety

of embodied domains and structure our bodily experience (Lakoff, 1987; Johnson,

1987) Tmage schemas are also not specilic to a particular sonsory modality (ake!

1987; Johnson 1987) Image schemas structure our bodily experience, and they structure our nonbodily experience as well, via metaphor Image schemas transcend

particular modes of perceptions They are not merely visual, bul rather kinesthetic

in nature (Lakoff, 1987), According to Johnson (1987), an image schema is a

mental pattem that recurrently provides structured understanding of various

experiences, and is available for use in metaphor as a source of domain lo provide

an understanding of yet other experiences

1.3.1.2 Image schemas of preposition “on”

The spatial sonses of on usually indivale a surface with two dimensions and

are generally classified into three basic image schemas: contact, support and path

(Linstromberg, 1998)

The most familiar usage of the preposition on is that the TR bas contact te an

LM which plays the role of support as a surface but the TR is not any part of the

LM The comact schema can be transformed info a rolaicd schema and an

attachment schema which may suffer from certain modifications due to the

perceptual shifts of perspectives or profile (Ming, 2011)

upper surface of another (the LM) which shares overlapping spatial moaning with

contact and containment image schemas On the one hand, if the 'ER is in contact with

the T.M, the T.M will offer a background or support the TR On the other hand, in

some case studies (Yang, 2008) referring to vehicles, the image schema of on may also be regarded as containment, e.g, on the irain, Ilowever, in these cases, the image

schema of support is more substantial than containment Ming (2011) found that there

is the usage of on to denote a kind of suppott from a vehicle, such as a ship, aircraft and train eto., in which the supporting surface in it (the floor or seats) is the more

sahent aspect of the scene rather than simply a physical contamer (Herskovils, 1986)

‘Thus, on phrases referring to vehicle are conchided as support image schema

Similarly, if one object controls the location of the other by opposing the

force of gravity, il ean be expressed as a pressure schema which can be considered

as complementary to the support schema, When one of the participants holds

control over the other, the controller will always be the TR of on, and the

gortroleo wnll be the LM

According to Herskovits (1986), prepositions fall into two categories: some

are primarily static (eg., al, in, under): others primarily dynamic (to, from, via)

Yang (2008) displays that the static usages of ar are 95.03%, that of on are 98.84%

and that of iz are 97.25% Llowever sometimes static prepositions can be used in

dynamic contexis and vice versa Similarly, the preposition on is primarily static,

but it can also be used in the dynamic context And there is a kind of dynamic schema of on, which is described here as path image schema (see Figure 2) In the

specific context of the one tightening the attachment, there is a series of movement

involved in the process

Figure 2 PATH schema for on (Ming, 2011)

The specialization of on takes place by simple highlighting onc of the perceptual aspects It must be kept in mind that categories for senses are fuzzy, and

Prototype approach is pervasive among the studies in the acquisition of

Fnglish prepositions Tt starts from Bernnett (1975) Tn logalislic theory, three types of

sneaning are considered as meanings of prepositions, namely, spatial, temporal and abstract, Ie claimed that the centre of the meaning was spatial and the other two

meanings were derived from the spatial meaning Since then, many researchers

theoretically bave considered temporal and abstract relations as extensional usages of spatial relations In other words, the spatial usage, which is the easiest meaning to

show the relationship between the TR and TẠM, is the prototypical meaning of our

target prepositions

According to Lindstromberg (1998), prototypical meaning is ‘conceptually Dasic? compared tn other moanings, which are considered to be secondary or

extended meanings/senses He stated that the meaning of CONTACT and SUPPORT

accounts for the most familiar spatial usage of preposition “on” In this case, the subject is it contact with a LM thal is a supporting surface TẾ the surface were nol there, the subject would fall - given the presence of gravity as in the example: the book on the table This meaning is regarded as prototypical one due to the fact that it

meels a dumber of criteria These erileria have cinerged from a stream of research in

cognitive linguistics which has aimed to see if it is possible to identify a prototypical meaning for each polysemous preposition as following:

1 The meaning recorded earliest in history

2, The first meaning acquired by native-speaking children

3 The meaning which seems most prounded in physical experience

4 Tho meaning which appears ta be the one that (most of) the olher senses

evolved from

5 The meaning that is most readily elicited from native-speakers when they

are asked Lo give ar example of a particular preposition

6 ‘'he meaning that the preposition has in compound expressions

7 The semantic relations between the target preposition and one or nore

other prepositions

8 ‘The degree to which a candidate prototypical meaning explains particular

abstract usages of the preposition

Lindstromberg (1998, p.20)

*) Meaning of contact:

a Contact: Partial sanction of the conceptual schema leads here to profiling

the contact between the I'R and cuter limits or boundaries of the LM

(4a) This meant a soft trail, greater friction on the raaers, and heavier pulling far the dogs: yet the drivers were fair through it all, and did their best far the animats (p.42)

b TR is part of a LM: The TR is understood as a part of the external side of

something (nose on face, expression on face, ears on head, peaks on mountain) or a

part attached to the whole, forming part of it (heels on shoes)

(Séq) they cursed him, and his fathers and mothers before hins, and all his seed to come afier him

13

down 10 the remotest generation, and every hair on his body and drop of blood in his veins ‘p.25)

c Definite Contact: A LM designates an external definite zone or area of

another entity Conlacl is more precise in Lenas of posilional accuracy Expressions like side, flank, right, left, part, hand, cdge or the points of compass occur frequently after on

(224), He did nat like to be approached on his blind side (p.17)

(34a) The circle had tightened tll he could feel the breaths of the huskies on his flanks (p.36)

d Contact with limits: The LM is construed as an area, so that its limits

clearly defined against the background and “on” implies “contact with the extermal

side of the LM” This scuse occurs with the LMs like street, square, park, lake, road,

river, sea, bay, way, track, coast, shore, beach, barik (as areas with outer limit):

(1a) There could not hut be other dogs on so vast a place (p.6}

(7a), Concerning that night's ride, the man spoke most eloquently for himself, in a litle shed, back

af a.saloon on the San Francisco water front (p.5)

*) Meaning of support:

The TR achieves or maintains contrel-over the LM or itself through contact

of its resting side with the outside part of the LM This relationship called support

The general conceptual schema may suffer certain shift or perspective of profile From the LM point of view, the TR is a burden, and 1M is a supporting onlily from

the TR point of view

The general conceptual schema may suilfer certain shifts of perspeclive or profile Therefore, there are throc further construals of conceptual schema as follows

- Rotated schema: A non horizontal surface is the supportiny, side of the TM Control and contact are still present, For example: “Pictures of her in more glamorous days were on the walls”

- Axial support: An axis sustains the TR as a ring ona linger

- Part of a TR is LM: A part of the ''R, which is contact with the actual supporting place is the LM of the conceptualization Fig: “She remained squatting

on her heels all the time we were there.”

1.3.2.2 Non-protolypical meaning of “on”

Jn the force dynamic configuration of the participants is profiled, the interaction axis is highlighted as the corral aspect of the relalion Thus an is compatible in context with linguistic units which express motion The following patterns are observed:

a Spatial meaning: Path schema

-Movement ending in support: Verb like lounge, deposit, set up, lean,

yecline, put down, land, put, hang, settle, etc may be followed by the lexical unit on

in prepositional verb constructions For Instatiue:

(26a) Ere he landed on his feet (v.19)

- Movement ending in contact: the control image schema is not sanctioned

‘This use is found with verbs such as fall, sink, throw, cast, shed, drip, drop

Contact may be achieved thtough a violent impact with such the verbs as: hit, beat,

strike, jump, knock, kick, blow,

(6a) His jaws closed on the hand, nor did theyrelax till his senses were choked out of him once

more (p.8)

- TR becomes part of the LM through contact: This sense appears in verbs

like add on, attach on, build on, take on For example:

18a) The rope thus tightening on him in the sweep of the current, he was jerked under the surface, and under the surface he remained till his body struck against the bank and he was hauled out (7.63)

- Movement attempting contact and control of the LM: The contact and

the control image schemas are introduced by the unit on itself with verbs like altack,

be, march, advance, turn following the semantic patterns

(33a) The two men were compelled to run back to save the grub, upon which the huskies returned to the attack an the teara (p.26)

Furthermore, preposition “on” is employed in temporal expression It is used when the unit of the LM is of medium-sized, for example: on Friday, on the day

that, on this occasion Sometimes the time LM is quite a small unit, but a physical comtelale mighl nevertheless be quile cnougl to soe

Lig: The movers came on the dot at the time they said they wood

1.3.3 Metaphorical extension

According to Levinson (2001), other meaning of “on” derived from spatial

smearing as (heir melaphorical extensions by varying the referents if the LM and

TR In other wards, meaning in spatial domain gives rise to a number of metaphorical extensions into domains other than spatial through people’s

or that of the LM, where an enttity is conceptualized as a burden

The author states that there are 21 kinds of metaphors in which entities are

comecived as support, including: (1) cames (2) help, (3) resourocs, (4)

argumentation is a building; (5) topics are pieces of ground; (6) media metaphor, (7) the air is a supporting medium: (7) reasons; (8) processes are path; (10) scale metaphor; (11) a slate of affairs is support: (12) law is support; (13) knowledge is a building; (14) theories are building: (15) beliefs , (16) positive feelings (17)

institutions are support for an action; (18) main component is support of the whole,

(19) physical phenomiona are support for measurement values; (20) mueharneal principles are support for machine working: (21) a channel is a path Ilowever,

within the scope of this study, the author only focuses on some types of support

Tnolaphors thal are used in the work “The Call of the Wild”

16

- Topics are pieces of ground: The mapping of topics onto picoes of ground cotrespands to the general metaphor ‘THOUGLIT IS SPACL Many prepositional verbs respond lo this pallern, like speculate on, deliberale on, speak on, wrils on, inform on, report on, read on, consult on, agree on, insist on, as well as the corresponding nouns, plus others like topic, matter, view, subject, theme, issue

(92a) That Hal's views on art, or the sart of society plays his mother's brother wrote, should have anything to do with the chopping of afew sticks of firewood ‘p.52)

- Processes are path: A process is understood as a path that somebody or somelhi goos along

(21) By afternoon, Perrault, who was in a hurry to be on the trail with his despatches, returned with Sve more dogs “Bille” and “Joe” he called them, two brothers, and true huskies both (p.17)

- Main component is support for the whale: The main component of a imixkae complex eulity is spoken of a supporting axis or base on which the other

components rest

(12a) With a snarl that was part bark and more scream he weas again on his feet and launched inta the air, (p12)

- Resources are support: Resources used to carry on some action or process

are conceived as a support Prepositional verbs used according to this metaphor are

draw on, hve on, [eed on, Jesch on, bel on, (rade on, sustain somebody on, nourish

on, capitalize on, profit on, dine on, fatten on, gorge on

(1364) Te was a killer, a thing that preyed, living on the things that lived unaided, alowe, by virtue

of his own strength and prowess, surviving triumphantly in a hostile environment where only the strong survived (p.77)

- Reasons for support

The on phrases are used to expressed (for a decision, a certain policy, a prize,

an action, an attitude, eto )

(88a) It was inevitable that they should go short an dog-food (p.51)

- Scale metaphar: This metaphor oceurs whon speaking about magritudes which cannot be measured numerically but in terms of levels (high verus low,

shallow versus deep, general versus particular) such as social scale, geographical

scale, ele.

(138q) his head, somewhat broader, was the wolf head on a massive seale (p.77;

On the other hand, there are 6 kinds of metaphors in which entities are conceived as burden (Igsani, 1999) such as: (1) responsibilities are burden; (2) discases are burden; (3) conduit metaphor; (4) psyclue phenomena are burdens; (5) conduit metaphor; (5) expenditures are burdens and (6) penalties are burdens In this study, only Ihe first two metaphors are employed

- Disease is a burden: ‘The presence of illness or disease is expressed in tenns of a burden supported by the people affected

89a) an Outside dog starves to death on the ration of the husky, so the six Outside dogs under

Buck could do no less than die on half the ration of the husky (p.52)

- Responsibilities are burden: human beings are conceived as a supporting

their responsibilities as if these were physical burdens

(460) But such splendid running was achieved not without great trouble and vexation on ihe part of Frangois (p.32)

b Metaphors of contact

According to Tysani (1999), the contact images provide the source domain

for the following metaphors

.- Present is cantact: The TR is some event, slale of affairs or situation that

18 present to human sight or perception in collocations such as on display, on view,

on exhibit

- Contents are physical characters used ta express them The conicnis of

books, tapes, lists are spoken as if physically attached to them This metaphor can

‘be found in such collocations: to be on the list, to be on the plan

- A group is a whole: Certain collective nouns like team, staff, commiltce,

etc where a member is conceived as a small part attached to the whole and forms a

part of it

However, here exisis tone of on-vccurrences in the corpus that contain the

metaphorical extensions of contact

c Metaphors of path

The path images provide the structure of the source domain of the following

amotaphors: (1) Light is a fluid, (2) actions are directed movement, (3) investing is pouring; (4) looking is touching (Igsani, 1999), Llowever, within the scope of this study, the author only refers to the lant form of metaphors which appears in “The Calt of the Wild” La this case, the act of looking is understood as an act directed towards an entity to gain metapharical contact, This sense occurs with verbs like tock (protonged, fixed and intent), glanec, peep, stare, scl eyes on The preposition “on” follows the verbs when a kind of effect on the LM is a mean, which is produced the act of looking

(77a) Three men from a neighboring tent came out and looked an, grirming and winking at one another (p47)

1.3.3.2 Temporal metaphors

According to Clark (1973) and Lakalf & Jotmsor (1980), time can be viewed

as path in physical space On the path, there exist two options: people remain still or move along Both options offer two further possibilities: For the first one, people can sland either facing other things coming or with them back oriented Lowards them whereas people may move either ahead or with their back toward the sense of movement (Ignasi, 1999), It is a fact that the lexical unit “on” indicates both of the senses: the slative and the dynamie one Tn temporal use of “on”, the relation of the

‘TR with the period of time is one contact in the senses that it occurs as long as that

period lasts In other words, “on” is employed to locate the event at any point of the

period referred 1a Fer instance:

(31q) On the instant a score of the famished brutes were scrambling for the bread and bacon

"49

1.4 Review af previous studies

Prepositions have attracted the attention of many language researchers over

the past few decades In spite of being the “little word”, prepositions are notoriously

difficult for language usors dic to the sheer nurnber of (hem in the English language and their polysemous nature Consequently, a number of studies are concemed with the mest common errors that the secand language learners often encounter during the

actuisilions and the possible solutions for this problem

19

Firstly, many studies have been done on prepositions from contrastive analysis

perspective Lfoang Thi Iluyen Dieu (2011) and Nguyen Thi Yen Nhung (2010)

shared the same thougbl when they conducled a secondary rescarch to compare and

contrast the prepositions in English and Vietmamese Accordingly, the differences in TRs and LMs caused most misunderstanding of English leamers when they used

prepositions However, the source of the data was not slated clearly in (he research, as

aresult, the reliability of these studies was not highly appreciated

Together with the birth of cognitive linguistics, many studies have been

conducted from this perspective

Vo Thi Cam Thuy (2011) showed her concem with the prepositions

“up/down” and “lén‘xudng” in Vietnamese The data were collected from English

and Vietnamese short siorics, pooms, novels and newspapers where instances of

prepositional phrases “up/down” and “lén/xuéng” were used in literal meaning and

in metaphoneal contexts She analyzed the data in terms of syntactic and semantic

features lo find ow the differences and sunilarlies belween two pars of

prepositions She found out that “up/down” were also considered as particles in the

phrasal verbs in English and “lénxuéng” could play the roles of the main verbs int

phrasal verbs Regarding to the semantic perspective, “up/lén” demonstrated the

upward movement with positive meaning while “down/xuéng” conveyed the

amvaning of downward movement with negative value, sometimes this order of

sneaning could be reversed ‘Ihe study helped readers get in-depth information about two Lnglish prepositions; however, the terms used in this study were not uniform

and precise, which made it hard to find their equivalents in Vietnamese

Nguyen ‘hi Van Khanh (2009) carried out “A study on meanings of the

Lnglish preposition “in” and its Vietnamese equivalents from cognitive semantic

perspective” Three famous Fnglish stories were invesligaled lo collect the data for

this research, including “Vanity lair “ by Thackera, “Jane Liyre” by Bronté, and Tnglish-Vietnamese translation course books for third and fourth-year Lnglish majors al the Mililary Science Academy The tolal number of 681 in cxamples arc

in form of (NP) — in + NP and NP + 7 + in + NP, where in functions as a

preposition, to the exclusion of others where in plays the role of an adverb or an

affix The dala wore also identified and grouped in terms of frequency and

percentage to explore differences and similarities between Kuglish and Vietnamese spatial conceptualization and cognition From the findings, the majority of in-

oecurrences presented in the corpus correspond (o “trong” in Victnamese whereas

the other meanine of preposition “in” are “ngoài”, trên”, “dưới”, “Hước”, “sau”,

“bên”, “bằng”, “về”, “vào” It can be seen that the English and Vietnamese are

similar in the relation of TR and 1M in which LLM is a comaimer - like object and

‘TR is a contained object located in the interior of the tridimensional LM llowever,

there exist some differences between English and Vietnamese spatial cognitive

structuring such as localive stralegics, lhe inupact of socio-cultural factors on

encoding the use of language and the different conceptualization of LMs Thanks to

this study, readers have deep understanding about the English preposition “in” and

its equivalents in Vivtnamese from cognitive perspective However, the resulls of

study are limited because the researcher only investigated “in” as a preposition but

did nol care about other functions such as adverb and affix

Shang the sunilar idea with the above author, Nguyen Thi Tuyct Nhung,

(2010) discovered the similarities and differences among four prepositions “above,

over, under, below” The data were collccted from five tain sources, namely the

English versions of “Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix” by Rowling, “David Copperfield” by Dickens, “Vanity Fair” by Thackeray and “Gone with the Wind”

by Mitchell After that the corpus of 962 instances were classified into image

schemas with Rs and LMs in spatial domain and non-spatial domain to analyze the data In this study, image schemas and metaphorical structures were employed as

the framework in analyzing the spatial as well as metaphorical expressions or non

the differences in the usc of synonyms Although this study made some contribution

to the group of vertical Linglish prepositions, it did not give the complete account of all the meanings desigteated by these prepositions

in short, many researchers have shown their concem to prepositions for the last few decades Tlowever, each of them is interested in different perspectives of prepositions: some focus on finding oul how many equivalents a corlain English preposition has in Vietnamese; a few of them ty to distinguish the similar prepositions whereas the others explore the comman errors that second language users often make Otherwise, no researchers have made an in-depth study related ta

“on” one of the most popular prepositions in Linglish- and its equivalents in Vietnamese Therefore, this study will be carried out in order to fill the gap of the

research field

22

CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGV

2.1 Research method

In order to carry out the study, the combination between the quantitative and qualitative mothod was employed Tl is widely known thal quantitalive research only gathers statistical data, representative for a wider part of the population, to confirm

of to contradict a theory On the contrary, qualitative method is defined as the one

which generale words [han numbers, as data for analysis (Biricki and Green, 2007)

Dapper (2004, p.645) also states that qualitative research focuses more with

“developing concepts, understanding phenomena and theoretical propositions that are relevant to other settings and other groups of individuals” Furthermore, qualitative research aims to answer questions such as “what”, “why” and “how” of

social phenomena On the contrary, quantitative one only focuses on “how much”

or “how many” in order 1o measure things (Draper, 2004)

Jn the present study, the quantitative method was used to calculate and

classify the number of oreoccurrences m “The Call of the Wild” and their

equivalents in the translated version by Nguyen Cung Ai and Vu Tuan Phuong

After the data were collected, the qualitative method would be used to discover how

and why there oxisi some distinguish features between the English and the Vietnamese in the use of preposition “on” by referring to the differences and similarties between the two peoples in terms of cognition

2.2 The data collection

2.21 Sampling

The data used in the study were collected from English literary work “The

Call of the Wild” and its Vietnamese translation by Nguyen Cung Ai and Vu Tuan

Phuong

The Call of the Wild is a short adventure novel by Jack London published in

1903 and set in Yukou, Canada during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, when strong

sled dogs were in high demand, A dog named Buck, the central character, is stolen from his home and sold into service as a sled dog in Alaska, lle progressively

reverts to a wikd slate im the harsh chmate, where he is [forced to fight 10 dominate

other dogs By the end, he sheds the veneer of civilization and relies on primordial instinct and learned experience to emerge as a leader in the wild, The novel was

first serialised in the Saturday Evening Posi im the summer of 1903 and was an

instant hit It is considered as one of the 100 best novels due to its elements of sound fiction: clear thinking, a sense of character, the dramatic instinct and the

adept, pulling together of words — words charming and slyly significant, words

arranged, in a l'rench phrase, for the respiration and the ear

In Vietnam, this masterpiece is translated by many authors, however, the

version by Nguyen Cung Ai and Vu Tuan Phuong is the most highly appreciated in

terms of the translation quality According to Nguyen Thi Thu IHien (2012), the

translators have conveyed the author's intention accurately by means of brief and

coneise language The syntax was flexible and natural and the words wore choson

exactly and carefully Although the Vietnamese version of the literary work is partly

affected by the idiosynerasy of the translalors, it has been widely accepted by 'Victnainesc readers for years In other words, i is justified a3 a good version duc to

the fact that 1ts choice of words and structures reflects the cognition of Vietnamese

people Therefore, iis chosen as the sample to explore the data in this thesis

222 Data collection procedure

As stated in the scope of the study, only on-occurrences of preposition were

taken from the English version of “The Call of the Wild” by Jack London and the

Vietnamese translation by Nguyen Cung Ai and Vu ‘Tuan Phuong All the phrases that contained “on” as an adverb or affix were not considered in the present study

To order to dislinguish among the functions of on-instances, i should be noted that a

preposition takes an object whereas an adverb does not Additionally, an adverb usually appears at the end of the clause or sentence such as in the following

example:

ig: Hor weeks at a tine they would hold on steadily, day afier day; and for weeks upon end they would caing (p.72)

and on and on, for hours, through the forest aistes and across the open spaces where the niggerheads bunched (p.75)

In other words, only occurrences of the preposition in form of NP + on + NP

and NP |Vion «NP where these words play the role as the preposition were

accepted

Tirstly, all of on-occurrences were listed and filtered carefully based on the

above crileria T1 was estimated thal 153 of on-samples were gathered manually

from the English work “The Call of the Wind” by Jack London and its Victnamese

version by Nguyen Cumg Ai and Vu Tuan Phuong These samples were numbered

in pairs and The on-plreses were underlined for readers to follow casily as the

example below:

(34) He carried the Judge's grandsons on his back,or rolled them in the grass (p.6)

3b) Nà công những đứa chảu của ông cldi bên lang, hoặc đùa với chúng lăn tran trên cá (p.3)

Sceondly, tho data were classilied into sub-groups based em 1wo rescarch

questions: (I) What meanings are conveyed by the English preposition “on” from a

cognitive semantic perspective? ; (2) What are the Vietnamese equivalents to the meanings of the English preposition “on” in “The Call of the Wild” by Jack

London found in the translation by Nguyen Cung Ai and Vu Tuan Phuong? Vor the

first question, (he data were calegorized into three groups based on [he theories of

image schemas and metaphorical extension Accordingly, on phrases which showed the relationship of contact (the TR has contact to an LM which plays the role of

support as a surface bul the TR is nol any part of the T.M) or support (Ihe enlily (thế

TR) is on the upper surface of the LM which shares overlapping spatial meaning with contact and containment image schemas) were classified into prototypical meaning

Ou the other band, the or-instances which expressed movement mvalved im the

process were named as path schema The rest of the data were listed into metaphorical category For the second question, the Vietnamese equivalents were divided inlo (wo groups: prepositional and non-prepositional phrasos in according to

tạ a

Vietnamese grammatical rules Accordingly, there were clevcn sub-groups,

corresponding to ten Vietnamese prepositions, namely , "weng”, “lên”,

“xuống”, “giữa”, “bằng”, “v , “tgiố", “đến” and “bên” and ä nan-prepositional

one ‘The list of groups was arranged in accordance with the frequency of on- occurences, from the highest percentage to the lowest one

Finally, the resulls were represonled in detail in Appendices whereas the

frequency for different types were recorded and calculated as percentages in two

separate tables

2.3 Data analysis procedure

After being collected, the data were analyzed to answer two research questions mentioned in 2.2:

For the question relevant lo the potential meanings of preposition “ơn”, the

analytical framework of prototypical meaning, image schema and metaphorical

extensions were employed as the bases for the analysis procedure The findings of

the study were suitable to the theory when the highest! percentage of oreoccurrances

denoted the meaning of contact the prototypical meaning of “on”, The number of

on-occurences referring to the meaning of path ranked the second whereas the aucaning of support only accounted for a modest portion m the copus, Besides, a

large portion of the data was used in metaphorical extensions with various meaning

For the second question, the prepositional phrases of “on” were compared

and contrasted with their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of use fiom cognitive semantic perspective These omphrases were collated with Vietnamese

prepositional ones for two aspects: (1) the combining ability with other words and

(2) the relation between TR and LM expressed in the phrases

Trom the findings, the differences and similarities between the English and

Vietnamese in spatial coguition were shown At the sare Lime, the author combined

the present results with those of previous studies to explain for these features

CHAPTER 3 DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 The potential meanings of preposition “an” in English

‘As mentioned above, contact and support are regarded as the prototypical

ameaning of preposition “on” Therefore, the meaning of contact accounts lor the

majority of on-ccewrrences in the corpus with more than one third of the data collected (37.25%) These instances can be classified into four sub-groups, namely:

contact, TR is part of LM, definite contac! and contact with limit TL is eslimaled that

22 out of 5? on-instances fall into the first sub-group in which partial sanction of the conceptual schema leads here to profiling the contact between the TR and outer

Trails or boundaries of the LM Fourlven on-instances are used to indicale the

meaning of definite contact which designates an external definite zone or area of

another entity in the expressions like on the side, flank, right, left, part, etc The

number of occurences That shows the meaning of cornlacl with the external side of

the LM (contact with limit) is 12 Only a modest number of on-occurrences belongs

to the lasb sub-group (TR is a part of T.M) with 9 instances

Secondly, the phrases of preposition “on” that denote the meammg of support

account for 9.8% of the total in the corpus In this case, the IR achieves or

Taintairs conlrol-ovor the LM or isell through contact of ifs resting side with the

outside part of the LM

Thirdly, a considerable portion of “on” instances (16.34%) in the work

shows the meaning of path image schema Based on the findings, 18 out of 25

occutrences show the meanings of movement ending in contact The other meaning (movement ending in support, TR becomes part of the LM through contact,

Movement, allempting contact and control of the LM) takes up only a modest

percentage with 2 or 3 of on-occurrences

Next, 10 out of 193 of on-occurrences are used to indicate the temporal in the

study, which avcourts for 6.54%

tạ 5

The metaphorical expressions take up a cousidcrable amount of on

occurrences in the present study It is estimated that metaphors of support account

for 20.26 % with 31 instarices, the majority of which shows the meaning of

“processes are path”, ‘he other kinds of support metaphors are only small portions with one to three instances Only 1.95% of on-occurrences show the metaphors of path whereas temporal metaphors accounts (or 3.27%, The rest of the data denotes the other meanings of “on”

TR hacomes part of the 1M through contact 2

‘Movement aitempting contact and control of the IM 3

3.2.1 Prepositional equivatents

Although both Linglish and Vietnamese use prepositions to express the spatial and lomporal relations, there are significant dillerences between the two unrelated languages in employing the same kind of spatial marking, and meaning, extensions

It is found out that different Vietnamese equivalents of the preposition “on”

are used by the translalors (Nguyen Cung Ai and Vu Tuan Phuong) in a variety of

3.2.L.1 “On” in English corresponds to “trén” in Vietnamese

According to the analysis of the translated and the original versions, 37 out

of 153 inslances of “on” cqual 24.18 % as sorted as “tréu” im Vietnamese Tn other

words, “trên” is considered as the representative meaning of the nglish preposition

“on” Like in English, “trên” is used in Vielnamese when TR has contact lo an LM

which plays the role of support as a surface but the TR is not any part of the LM As

a result, the majority of “on” denoting the comact senses are categorized into “trén’

in Vietnamese Consider the following examples: