A study of water and fire as metaphors in American and Vietnamese short stories of the 20th century

A study of water and fire as metaphors in American and Vietnamese short stories of the 20th century Phí Thị Thu Trang Trường Đại học Ngoại Ngữ Luận văn ThS.. To conclude, because there

A study of water and fire as metaphors in American and Vietnamese short stories of the

20th century Phí Thị Thu Trang

Trường Đại học Ngoại Ngữ Luận văn ThS Chuyên ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15

Người hướng dẫn: M.A Văn Thị Thanh Bình

Năm bảo vệ: 2010

Keywords: Truyện ngắn; Tiếng Anh; Ẩn dụ

Content:

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

Figurative language in general and metaphor in particular has always been an interesting and inspiring research field Though a large amount of research has been done on metaphor and metaphorical expressions, it still needs further investigation Metaphor plays a very important role not only in language study but also in everyday life, because many metaphorical concepts are used by ordinary people without being recognized or being aware of In “Metaphors we live by” (George Lakoff & Mark Johnsen, 2003: 4) the authors state that “metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action” Thus, it can be said that metaphor

is a powerful tool helping people use and enjoy the use of language

To have a thorough look at the matter of metaphor, literature is the best choice Literature can be considered the product of imagination, but it reflects real life The language used in literature is therefore both imaginative and realistic, which means we can examine metaphors in both “ordinary and extraordinary” perspectives Nowhere is figurative language found in such great amount and variety as in literature, and so is a great source of authentic metaphors, which

are employed to create imagery and enhance the powerful effect of the language use In fact a number of researchers have chosen literature as a means of studying language

Among myriads of metaphorical concepts, I would like to have a close look at the use of water and fire in literature for some reasons First, water and fire are two essential elements of life and of cultures, which appear in literature universally It is believed that water represents the East and fire the West, (Trần Ngọc Thêm, Nước, văn hoá và hội nhập, http://www.anviettoancau.net/anviettc/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=253) Therefore, water and fire in cultural contexts is worth being researched Second, water and fire are also common metaphorical concepts in everyday communication People sometimes integrate water and fire in their communicative exchanges without realizing they are metaphors, for example, “hot-tempered”, “heated discussion”, “tears streaming down”, or “flooding with work” Last but not least, I personally developed a great interest in the use of water and fire as metaphors when I noticed that these two elements, though contrastive, sometimes denote the

same things Such sentences as “Anger rushed over him” or “What you said added fuel to the

fire” are easily heard in everyday communication They show that the abstract feeling of anger

can be expressed by two opposite things which are able to exclude themselves Therefore, it is fascinating to explore how water and fire metaphors are created in literature and used in real life

To conclude, because there has not been any detailed research on the creation and use of water and fire as metaphors in literature though water and fire in culture has been scrupulously investigated, this study is hoped to contribute something to the research of metaphors in literature and to the teaching and learning foreign literature of students of English

2 Scope of the study

This paper mainly focuses on how water and fire metaphors are created in literature and what they convey to the readers through an in-depth comparision between American short stories and Vietnamese short stories of the 20th century from cultural and stylistic points of view The reason for that is metaphor and literature are such large researching fields that it is impossible to cover the whole areas in the limited space of this paper

To keep within the restriction of time and scale while ensure the ample language style a collection of data from a variety of different American and Vietnamese short stories by influential or recognized authors of the 20th century is assembled The data must provide a wide range of language use and style, with relatively modern language which is close to everyday

communication as well as maintains the distinguished feature of literature Therefore 30 American stories and 30 Vietnamese stories of all stages of the 20th century are randomly picked out as the database for this paper

3 Objectives of the study

This paper is carried out in order to fulfill four main objectives:

 To explore the use and formation of the metaphors of water and fire in the linguistic perspective, basing on the data from American and Vietnamese short stories of the 20th century

 To compare water and fire metaphors in American and Vietnamese literatures

 To connect the use of water and fire as metaphors from the linguistic angle and from the cultural viewpoint

 To suggest implications for teaching American literary texts to Vietnamese learners whose major is English language

4 Methods of the study

The overriding researching methods used to conduct this study are quantitative and

descriptive methods In order to have an insight into the use and the creation of the metaphors of

water and fire in literature, the data collected from various short stories in both languages, English and Vietnamese, are analyzed, synthesized and computed and finally documented The findings and conclusions of the paper are based on the facts and figures produced via these methods

5 Design of the study

This thesis paper is divided into three main parts, namely Introduction, Development and Conclusion The contents of these parts are presented as follows

Part I introduces the rationale, scope, objectives, research methods and format of the study Part II includes two main chapters Chapter 1 provides the theoretical background of the study regarding major concerns in the area of metaphor and literature, and brief information about American and Vietnamese short stories of the 20th century Chapter 2 is the main focus of the paper, which investigates the use of water and fire metaphors in American and Vietnamese short stoires It deals with the popularity, the creation and the functions of water and fire metaphors

Part III is the conclusion of the study in which a summary of the findings, pedagocial implications for teaching and studying literature and suggestions for further studies will be made

in a brief manner

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