The metaphoric meanings of words denoting names of human body parts in english and vietnamese

It is investigated with the hope of finding out the similarities and differences between the metaphoric meanings of words denoting names of human body parts “head, hand/arm, leg/foot, ey

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

VŨ THỊ THANH MIỀN

THE METAPHORIC MEANINGS OF WORDS DENOTING NAMES

OF HUMAN BODY PARTS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE (NGHĨA ẨN DỤ CỦA CÁC TỪ CHỈ BỘ PHẬN CƠ THỂ NGƯỜI

TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT)

M.A THESIS

Field: English Language Code: 8220201

Hanoi, 2018

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

VŨ THỊ THANH MIỀN

THE METAPHORIC MEANINGS OF WORDS DENOTING NAMES

OF HUMAN BODY PARTS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE (NGHĨA ẨN DỤ CỦA CÁC TỪ CHỈ BỘ PHẬN CƠ THỂ NGƯỜI

TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT)

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report

entitled “The metaphoric meanings of words denoting names of human body parts in English and Vietnamese” submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 8 th November, 2018

Vũ Thị Thanh Miền

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Nguyễn Thị Vân Đông for her great patience, encouragement, ceaseless academic support and insightful comments Without her guidance and contributions, the present study would have never seen the light

My great thankfulness is also given to all my lecturers of the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies for their ideas to my paper and many thanks to all my friends who have been always willing to help and give their best suggestions during the time of collecting necessary data and information for the study

Last but not least, I would like to acknowledge and extend my heartfelt gratitude to my whole family who were always supporting me and encouraging me with their best wishes

Hanoi, 8 th November 2018

Vũ Thị Thanh Miền

ABSTRACT

This study focuses on the metaphoric meanings of words denoting names of human body parts in English and Vietnamese It is investigated with the hope of finding out the similarities and differences between the metaphoric meanings of

words denoting names of human body parts “head, hand/arm, leg/foot, eye” in English and “đầu, tay, chân, mắt” in Vietnamese and suggesting practical implications to the learning and teaching English as a foreign language in Vietnam.Data used for analysis in this study were mainly collected through dictionaries and the Internet To carry out this research, the writer used descriptive, comparative and contrastive methods The result of the study illustrates the fact that there exist both similarities and differences in the metaphoric meanings of the words denoting names of human body parts in two languages This reflects the way English and Vietnamese people view the world and the way they use language Hopefully, this study will help students of English widen their understanding of the metaphoric meanings of words and get better results in reading comprehension as well as in everyday language

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Table 1: Metaphoric meanings of “head” in English and “đầu” in Vietnamese 34

Table 2: Metaphoric meanings of “head” in English and “đầu” in Vietnamese 35

Table 3: Metaphoric meanings of “head” in English and “đầu” in Vietnamese 36

Table 4: Metaphoric meanings of “head” in English and “đầu” in Vietnamese 37

Table 5: Metaphoric meanings of “hand” in English and “tay” in Vietnamese 39

Table 6: Metaphoric meanings of “arm” in English and “tay” in Vietnamese 39

Table 7: Metaphoric meanings of “arm” in English and “tay” in Vietnamese 41

Table 8: Metaphoric meanings of “leg” in English and “chân” in Vietnamese 42

Table 9: Metaphoric meanings of “leg” in English and “chân” in Vietnamese 43

Table 10: Metaphoric meanings of “foot” in Englishand “chân” in Vietnamese 43

Table 11: Metaphoric meanings of “foot” in English and “chân” in Vietnamese 45

Table 12: Metaphoric meanings of “eye” in English and “mắt” in Vietnamese 46

Chart 1: Words denoting names of human body parts “head, hand/arm, foot/leg, eye” in English and “đầu, tay, chân, mắt” in Vietnamese 31

Chart 2: Metaphoric meanings of “head” in English and “đầu” in Vietnamese 38

Chart 3: Metaphoric meanings of “arm /hand” in English and “tay/cánh tay” in Vietnamese 41

Chart 4: Metaphoric meanings of “leg/foot” in English and “chân” in Vietnamese 45 Chart 5: Metaphoric meanings of “eye” in English and “mắt” in Vietnamese 48

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Ferrando’s definition of culture 19 Figure 2: Sikkema and Niyekawa’s definition of culture 20

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS iv

LIST OF FIGURES v

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale of the study 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

1.3 Research questions 3

1.4 Methods of the study 3

1.5 Scope of the study 4

1.6 Significance of the study 4

1.7 Structure of the study 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Previous study 6

2.2 An overview of metaphor and human body 7

2.2.1 Metaphor 7

2.2.2 Human body 14

2.3 An overview of language, thought and culture 14

2.3.1 Language and thought 14

2.3.2 Culture 19

2.4 An overview of word and its meaning 23

2.4.1 What is the word? 23

2.4.2 Types of word meaning 24

2.4.3 Semes and Componential Analysis 27

2.5 Summary 28

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 29

3.1 Subjects 29

3.2 Instruments 29

3.3 Procedures 30

3.4 Statistical analysis 30

3.5 Summary 31

CHAPTER 4: THE METAPHORIC MEANINGS OF WORDS DENOTING NAMES OF HUMAN BODY PARTS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE 32

4.1 Metaphoric meanings of “head” in English and “đầu” in Vietnamese 32

4.2 Metaphoric meanings of “hand/arm” in English and “tay” in Vietnamese 38

4.2.1 Metaphoric meanings of “hand” in English and “tay” in Vietnamese .38

4.2.2 Metaphoric meanings of “arm” in English and “tay/cánh tay” in Vietnamese .39

4.3 Metaphoric meanings of “leg/foot” in English and “chân” in Vietnamese 42

4.3.1 Metaphoric meanings of “leg” in English and “chân” in Vietnamese .42

4.3.2 Metaphoric meanings of “foot” in English and “chân” in Vietnamese 43

4.4 Metaphoric meanings of “eye” in English and “mắt” in Vietnamese 45

4.5 The similarities and differences in the metaphoric meanings of words denoting names of human body parts in English and Vietnamese 48

4.5.1 The similarities 48

4.5.2 The differences 49

4.6 Implications for teaching and learning metaphors denoting names of human body parts for Vietnamese students 50

4.6.1 Implications for teaching and learning metaphors in general 50

4.6.2 Implications for teaching and learning metaphors denoting names of human body parts in particular 50

4.7 Summary 51

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS 53

5.1 Summary of findings 53

5.2 Concluding remarks 53

5.3 Limitations of the study 55

5.4 Recommendations for further study 55

REFERENCES 56 APPENDIXES

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study

It is common knowledge that one of the most important functions of language is to name the world or express human thoughts through a system of concepts However, the concepts expressed through language do not exist in isolation from each other Rather, they exist associatively in the language and make

up a giant network with many interconnections and associations among various subparts A good example of these interconnections involves metaphor, the understanding of one concept in terms of another

There is often a misbelief that metaphor is used in the literary or poetic language, but it is indeed widely used in everyday conversational language It is obvious that metaphor is utilized to express ideas sensibly and vividly as it has great expressive power It is capable of conveying more of the human feeling, emotion or attitude towards what is said rather than the non-metaphorical or direct way of expression

One interesting idea in the language use is that the human beings, first of all, got to know their own body and gave names to its parts Later in the process of cognition of the world they began comparing the surrounding objects with their own body and finding common features Hence the names of parts of human body are transferred to denote many other things or parts of things in the real world In such a way, things or parts of things in the real world are personified to possess the same

name with the parts of human body For example in English, the word “foot” refers

to the lowest part of the human being and later on it is metaphorically used to refer

to the lowest part of many things, for instance, “the foot of the mountain/ hill”

Not only English but many other languages also make use of metaphors in such a way In Vietnamese, many words denoting parts of human body are also

used metaphorically For example, the word “chân”, equivalent to the word “foot”

in English is also used as a metaphor to refer to the lowest parts of the mountain or

hill: “Chân núi / Chân đồi”

However, the way individual words are used is not always the same in the

two languages For example, the word “eye” in English is metaphorically used to

refer to the hole of the needle

E.g.: Eye of the needle

Whereas, in Vietnamese the word “mắt” is not used in such a way In

another case, it is metaphorically used to refer to holes of a woven basket

E.g.: Mắt rổ

Examining the examples above it is obvious that in both English and Vietnamese, the words denoting parts of human body are used metaphorically but the way each word is used is varied in two languages This can be explained that the way metaphors are utilized is due to people’s life experience, world views or people’s cognition of the outside world In the broader term, it is also due to the language users’ cultures For this reason, metaphors are varied from one language to another

Thus, as for many teachers as well as learners of English, some questions

arise: “What are the metaphoric meanings of words denoting names of human body parts in English and Vietnamese?”, “How much are they similar?” and “How

much do they differ from each other?” For such reasons, this study titled “The

metaphoric meanings of words denoting names of human body parts in English and Vietnamese” come into existence with a view to answer the questions

mentioned

Hopefully, it will somehow help Vietnamese learners of English enrich their knowledge, have a deeper insight into human body parts metaphors and improve the ability of using and understanding human body parts metaphors in daily life

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

The study is basically aimed at investigating the metaphoric meanings of words

denoting names of human body parts “head, hand/arm, foot/leg, eye” in English and

“đầu, tay, chân, mắt” in Vietnamese It also finds out and explains the similarities and

differences between the two languages so as to apply in teaching and learning work

The study is intended to fulfill the following objectives:

- To examine the metaphoric meanings of words denoting names of human

body parts of “head, hand/arm, foot/ leg, eye” in English and “đầu, tay, chân, mắt”

in Vietnamese

- To find out some similarities and differences in the metaphoric meanings

of words denoting names of human body parts “head, hand/arm, foot/leg, eye” in English and “đầu, tay, chân, mắt” in Vietnamese

- To make some suggestions for teaching and learning metaphors denoting names of human body parts to Vietnamese learners of English

1.3 Research questions

In order to achieve the objectives of the study the following research questions should be taken into consideration:

1 What are the metaphoric meanings of words denoting names of human

body parts of “head, hand/arm, foot/ leg, eye” in English and “đầu, tay, chân,

mắt” in Vietnamese?

2 What are the similarities and differences in the metaphoric meanings of

words denoting names of human body parts “head, hand/arm, foot/leg, eye” in English and “đầu, tay, chân, mắt” in Vietnamese?

3 What are the recommendations for teaching and learning metaphors denoting names of human body parts to Vietnamese learners of English effectively?

1.4 Methods of the study

This paper uses a number of methods and techniques such as descriptive (qualitative, quantitative), comparative and contrastive methods are used for finding out the common as well as the distinguished features in the use of the metaphoric

meanings of words denoting names of human body parts “head, hand/arm,

foot/leg, eye” in English and “đầu, tay, chân, mắt” in Vietnamese

Firstly, descriptive (qualitative, quantitative) method is applied to describe in details the metaphoric meanings of words denoting names of human body parts

“head, hand/arm, foot/leg, eye” through examples of English and Vietnamese with

the help of a powerful source of dictionaries

Secondly, comparative and contrastive methods are used to find out the common as well as the distinguished features between English and Vietnamese

words denoting names of human body parts “head, hand/arm, foot/leg, eye”

Finally, some conclusions or inferences will be made about what has been analyzed and compare

1.5 Scope of the study

Due to time constraints and within the framework of an M.A thesis, this study is to compare and contrast the metaphoric meanings of words denoting names

of human body parts “head, hand/arm, foot/leg, eye” in English and “đầu, tay,

chân, mắt” in Vietnamese.The words used in metaphors can functions as nouns,

verbs and adjectives ect, however, for the scope of this study, only words functioning as nouns in metaphorical expressions are mentioned and discussed Moreover, the metaphoric meanings of words denoting names of human body parts are various But for the limitation of personal knowledge and ability, this study only focuses on the most common metaphors of the words that can be found and traditionally used in communication in both languages In other words, the most common referent beside parts of human body that the words refer to will be mentioned and analyzed

1.6 Significance of the study

Theoretically, the study will make clear a full description of the metaphoric meanings of words denoting names of human body parts in English and Vietnamese It contributes to the theory of metaphors and theory about language and thought, cultural features, word meanings Thus, other researchers and linguistics could take it as a reliable reference to make further studies in this field

Practically, words denoting names of human body parts are used popularly in daily life, but so far, there have been no studies about this topic As a result, this research is conducted in an attempt to provide Vietnamese learners with better mastering how to use words denoting names of human body parts From these findings, Vietnamese learners of English will enhance knowledge about the

metaphoric meanings of words denoting the names of human body parts as well as apply this kind of words in sensible ways in communication The study is hoped to make a great contribution to the process of teaching and learning English

1.7 Structure of the study

The study consists of five following chapters:

Chapter I, Introduction, includes the rationale, the aim, the objectives, the scope,

the significance and the structural organization

Chapter II, Literature review, provides the synopsis of previous studies on the

similar topics, as well as presents a review of theoretical background and theoretical framework for the case study

Chapter III, Methodology, focuses on the research methods that were followed in

the study It provides information on the subjects, instruments, procedures and statistical analysis

Chapter IV, The metaphoric meanings of words denoting names of human body

parts of “head, hand/arm, foot/ leg, eye” in English and “đầu, tay, chân, mắt” in

Vietnamese, describes and analyzes the metaphoric meanings of words denoting

names of human body parts of “head, hand/arm, foot/leg, eye” in English and

“đầu, tay, chân, mắt” in Vietnamese, makes a comparison of the metaphoric

meanings of words denoting names of human body parts in English and Vietnamese and provides some possible implications for teaching and learning the metaphoric meanings of words denoting names of human body parts in English and Vietnamese

Chapter V, Conclusion, gives the summary of the study Furthermore, this chapter

also presents the limitations of the research and some suggestions for further studies

References and Appendixes come at the end of the thesis

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter serves two main purposes Firstly, it gives the summaries of previous researches associated with the theme of the investigation Secondly, it presents an overview of the theoretical background as well relevant knowledge

Korean conceptualization of heart: An indigenous perspective”

At the same time, Kyung-Joo Yoon (2003) also wrote “Heart and Mind:

Contrastive Semantics of Cultural Concepts” Mol Susan (2004) wrote “Head and

Heart-Metaphors and metonymies in a cross-linguistic perspective”

In “Culture, Body, and Language: Conceptualizations of Internal Body Organs across Cultures and Languages” edited by Sharifian Farzard, Dirven

René, Yu Ning, and Niemeier Susanne (2008) included several writings mentioning

to body organs as:“Heart and (angry) minds in Old English” by Dirk Geeraerts and Caroline Gevaert (2008), “Culture and Language: Look for the ‘mind’ inside the body” by Farzad Sharifian, René Dirven, Ning Yu, and Susanne Niemeier (2008),“ “Contrastive semantics and cultural psychology: English heart vs Malay hati” by Cliff Goddard (2008), and “Did he break your heart or

your liver? A contrastive study on metaphorical concepts from the source

domain Organ in English and in Indonesian” made by Poppy Siahaan (2008)

In Vietnamese, Nguyễn Dương Nguyên Hảo (1999) made the thesis

“Semantic structures of words denoting human body organs in English: eye – ear –

nose – mouth (versus Vietnamese)” In “A contrastive analysis of English and

Vietnamese idioms using the terms of human body parts”, Nguyễn Thị Hiệp (2001)

investigated idioms in relation to their grammatical and semantic features Bùi Thị

Ái Hảo (2011) wrote the thesis “An investigation into linguistic features of words

combinations containing pairs of human body parts in Vietnamese and their English semantics equivalents”

From the cognitive point of view, Nguyễn Huỳnh Ngọc Thanh (2003) wrote

the thesis “A cognitive semantics study on the spatial terms derived from body-parts used in English and Vietnamese”

Hoàng Thị Bảo Kim (2006) has focused on analyzing and discussing the

syntactic and semantic features of collocations of the words “skin” and “da” in

advertising in English and Vietnamese Especially, in the same year (2006),

Nguyễn Minh Thủy made the PhD thesis under the title: “ Đặc điểm của Thành ngữ Tiếng Nhật (trong sự liên hệ với Thành ngữ Tiếng Việt) Lately, Đào Tấn Cảnh (2008), wrote the thesis “ Đối chiếu ngữ kết hợp của răng và tóc trong ngôn ngữ quảng cáo tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt”

In general, words denoting names of human body parts have been studied in many research works in both English and Vietnamese, however, researches on the metaphoric meanings of words denoting names of human body parts in English and

in Vietnamese haven’t been paid much attention so I decide to choose this subject for my study

2.2 An overview of metaphor and human body

2.2.1 Metaphor

Before discussing the metaphorical use of the words denoting parts of human body,

it is necessary to have an insight into metaphors in general

2.2.1.1 Definitions of metaphor

Generally, metaphor is defined as the transference of name based on the association of similarity

According to Oxford Advanced learner’s Dictionary (1995, p 15),

“Metaphor is a word or phrase used in an imaginative way used to describe something or somebody else in a way that the two things have the same qualities and make the descriptions more powerful”

In A Handbook to Literature by Harmon and Homan (1996, p.315),

metaphor is defined as ― “an analogy identifying one object with another and ascribing to the first object one or more of the qualities of the second” In this

definition, metaphor is seen as the process of expressing one thing through another thing due to the similarities of two objects

Sharing the same view, a definition offered by Cambridge Advanced

Learner‘s Dictionary considers metaphor as ― “An expression which describes a person or object in a literary way by referring to something that is considered to possess similar characteristics to the person or object you are trying to describe” According to Halliday (1985), Metaphor is usually described as variation in the use of words: a word is said to be used with transferred meaning (p 320) The Vietnamese linguist Cù Đình Tú stated that: “it is the phenomena in which one thing is represented by another due to their characteristics similarities

or the logical connection between two things”, (1983, p.270)

According to Nguyễn Hòa (2001), “Metaphor is the transference of meaning (name) from one object to another, based on the similarities between two objects.”

Lý Toàn Thắng (2005) writes “According to traditional rhetoric and literature, metaphor, along with metonymy, is considered as one of the two main types of using words figuratively It is formed based on the concepts of simile and comparison between the literal and figurative meanings of words.” For example,

“foot of mountain” compared with “foot of human” (p.28 )

Đỗ Hữu Châu (1966) defines that: “Metaphor is a way of naming an object

in terms of the name of another, based on the similar relationship between them.”

Nguyễn Đức Tồn (2007, p.470) explains very carefully the nature of

metaphor and then defined it as “Ẩn dụ là phép thay thế tên gọi hoặc chuyển đặc điểm thuộc tính của sự vật hiện tượng này sang sự vật hiện tượng khác dựa trên cơ

sở sự liên tưởng đồng nhất hóa chúng theo đặc điểm thuộc tính nào đó cùng có ở chúng.”

The term metaphor that comes from Greek means ‘transference’ As it is stated by Võ Đại Quang (2003, p.33), metaphor is “word meaning transference based on similarity between two things as regards function, character, size, shape,

age, color etc.” Take the following example

E.g.: Tom is a snake

In this example, the word “snake” has negative connotation as snakes are thought to be very poisonous or dangerous to people So this meaning is transferred

to refer to the character of a person (Tom) to imply that he is a dangerous person The similarity in this case between an animal (snake) and a person (Tom) is about the character So this definition of metaphor is very clear and detailed

However, the question is “why do people have to use such an implicit way to convey the idea?” This is clearer in the definition given by Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (1995, p.734) in which metaphor is defined as “the imaginative use of a word or a phrase to describe somebody! something as another object in order to show that they have the same qualities and as to make the

description more forceful” This definition is not as detailed as the

above-mentioned definition about the association of similarity but it takes the use and the

effect of metaphor into consideration If we say: “Tom is a dangerous person”, it is not as forceful or face-saving to the hearer as we say “Tom is a snake” Also,

metaphor can convey the imagination of the language users so it is obviously more persuasive and effective in communication

From the linguistic point of view, metaphor is defined as “An extension in the use of the word beyond its primary meaning to describe referents that bear

similarities to the word’s primary referent” Edward Finegan (1994) Language -

its structure and use The term “extension” refers to the meaning of the word that

can be expanded beyond its literal meaning So metaphor here is treated as a means

of creating and extending meaning to describe other referents which are similar to the word’s primary referent Look at the above example again The primary referent

of the word “snake” is one kind of animal and in this metaphor, it refers to another referent that is a dangerous person (Tom) This can be done on the basis of the

resemblance between the two referents

There is also another definition from cognitive viewpoint which also makes clear about this transference of meaning According to Barcelona (2000, p.3),

“Metaphor is the cognitive mechanism whereby one experiential domain is partially mapped or projected onto a different experiential domain so that the second domain is partially understood in terms of the first one” So metaphor in this

definition is understood as a conceptual projection whereby one experiential domain is understood in terms of another In the above example, the character of a person (Tom) is likened and understood in terms of a character of a snake

In general, metaphor discussed above is viewed from different angles To put

it simply, it is the way we call one object by the name of another because we compare these objects and find some common features between them

There is a necessity here to distinguish metaphor from simile and metonymy because they are closely related Firstly, metaphor and simile are forms of

comparison In both ways, we compare two unlike things together However, metaphor is the hidden comparison and simile is the open comparison Take the two examples below

E.g.: He is the head of the department

He is like the head of the department

The head on the human body is thought to be the part that contain the brain and can control the activity of the rest of the body In this case, the word “head” refers to the person who takes the controlling function as the leader in the department In the first sentence (metaphor), this can be understood implicitly and

in the second sentence, this is understood explicitly To put it on the scale, metaphor is really an equation and simile is an approximation Of course, they are

of different values and take different effects to the hearer

Secondly, metaphor and metonymy are two kinds of transference of meaning That is, one object is named and understood in terms of another But metaphor is based on the association of similarity and metonymy is based on the association of contiguity Look at the following pair of examples

E.g.: He is the head of the department

Two heads are better than one

The word “head” in the first sentence, as mentioned above, refers to the

leader or the person in the department and this can be understood in terms of the similarity of function; the head on a human body and the leader in the department

both carry the function to control the rest parts of the whole But the word “heads”

in the second sentence refers to “people” because between the head and the person

are related to each other, that is head is one part of the person This is done on the basis of part-whole relation in which the name of the part is used to refer to the whole

So it is obvious that metaphors are related to simile and metonymy but it is quite distinguished from them And how metaphors function in language and how they are classified will be presented below

2.2.1.2 Classifications of metaphor

Metaphors, like any other stylistic devices, can be classified according to their degree of unexpectedness As it is stated by Nguyễn Hòa (2004, p.109), basing

on the degree of unexpected ness, there are three main types of metaphors namely

living metaphors, faded metaphors and dead metaphors

a Living metaphors

Metaphors which are unexpected and quite unpredictable are called living metaphors In these metaphors the word has an unusual metaphorical sense that are easily recognized by the hearer They are created and used by individuals

E.g.: You are my sun

It can be seen that the sun lights our earth by day, which can makes people’s life brighter and happier So when a person who is thought to make the other’s life

brighter and happier is considered “the sun” The metaphors of this type are also

called creative or poetic metaphors as it reflects the creative use of language and they are attached to the symbolic function as discussed above and are especially used in literature and poetry They are not common in everyday language usage Sometimes, they are called genuine metaphors because it is the common sense when people talk about metaphors and they have great rhetoric effect on the hearer

b Faded metaphors

Faded metaphors are those which have lost their freshness because of long and traditional use and become habitual in daily language usage For instance, gold

is one kind of very valuable material and the adjective “golden” denotes something made of gold And when people say “golden youth”, they imply that the youth in a

person’s life is also as valuable as gold Metaphors are so common in everyday language that they are sometimes not felt as metaphors These metaphors can cause polysemy of so many words in language Among the functions discussed, they are attached to the naming and cognitive functions

c Dead metaphors

Dead metaphors are those whose metaphorical sense is not felt at all because they have lost their indirect meaning and are only used figuratively For example,

the word “capital” in English used to mean the head which is considered as the

most important part on the human body So it was metaphorically used to refer to the most important city or town of a country which is usually the center of

government But now the word “capital” is not used literally as the head of the human body but only means the capital of the country as in the sentence; “Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam” These metaphors are not many in language In fact, they are

difficult or almost impossible to be recognized as metaphors

Generally, there are three main types of metaphors which are living, faded and dead metaphors Basing on these, metaphors relating to parts of human body are called faded metaphors because they are the means of everyday language to give names to things in the world This will be clarified with illustrations in the following chapter

2.2.1.3 Functions of metaphor

Metaphors are of various values and functions in language, however, in this study only three basic functions given by Đinh Trọng Lạc (1994, p.53), a Vietnamese linguist, are mentioned According to his opinion, there are three basic functions of metaphors namely naming, cognitive and symbolic functions and basing on this he can group metaphors together

a Naming function

The first function of metaphors discussed is to name things This is only the

technical means to use the ready-made vocabulary to give names to other things basing on the resemblance between them For example, the lowest part of the

mountain is called the foot of the mountain as the foot on the human body is the

lowest part These metaphors are of almost no or very little rhetoric value but they can reflect the way in which things in the world are viewed together These metaphors are only intended to give names to things basing on the experience with the existing vocabulary

a Cognitive function

The second function of metaphors is to cognize or conceptualize things Here

the metaphors do not give new names to things but conceptualize them in terms of another Here, metaphors operates between two domains, one domain is conceptualized in terms of another For example, in the domain of weather, when it

is sunny, the sun is shining and brings pleasant weather that can make people happy

and comfortable So the word “sunny” has positive connotation and it is transferred

to talk about the mood of people as in the following example

E.g.: By the time he reached the outskirts of Cambridge, David was in a

sunny mood

That is, David felt very happy and optimistic In this way, the human mood is conceptualized and understood under the words about weather These metaphors are also conventional and of little rhetoric effect

b Symbolic function

The last function of metaphors mentioned here is to symbolize things This

function is commonly thought to be the conventional function of metaphors For instance, the flower often symbolizes for the beauty So it is often compared to the

woman’s beauty

E.g.: Beauty is a flower which wrinkles will devour

In the example, the flower is compared to the beauty of people that will devour like the flower Metaphors of this group reflect the imaginative and creative

way individuals judge and comment things, which can make their language more expressive and more persuasive They are very popular in poetic language

On the whole, metaphors carry three major functions in language which are naming, cognitive and symbolic functions Basing on that, metaphors relating to parts of human body are in the first group which is utilized to give names to things

in the world

2.2.2 Human body

In “Đại từ điển Tiếng Việt” made by Nguyễn Như Ý, Nguyễn Văn Khang,

Vũ Quang Hào, Phan Xuân Thành (2008, p.62), “Body is the unique system of every organ in a living thing”

In Oxford Advanced learners’ dictionary (2000, p.23) “Body is the whole

physical structure of a human being or an animal”

According to Wikipedia (89), “The human body is the entire structure of a

human being It is composed of many different types of cells that together create tissues and subsequently organ systems They ensure homeostasis and the viability

of the human body It comprises a head, neck, trunk (which includes the thorax and

abdomen), arms and hands, legs and feet”

2.3 An overview of language, thought and culture

There is no doubt that language, thought and culture are closely related to each other and the best example to illustrate this relation is the use of metaphors in language However, before discussing how language and thought are related, it is necessary to understand what language is

2.3.1 Language and thought

2.3.1.1 What is language?

Language is obviously the central concept in linguistics So far, there have been various definitions of language In each definition, the linguist treats language from a different angle In this study, only some related definitions or perceptions of language are mentioned

First of all, according to Sapir (1921, p.8): “Language is a purely human non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of

voluntarily produced symbols In this definition, language is purely human, that is,

humans alone possess language and it is unlike any other system of communication

of animals Also, it is non-instinctive, as language is possessed by people through a

process of acquisition, but it is not naturally mastered However, in this definition, what is communicated by language as the author used the terms “idea”, “emotions” and “desires” is insufficient in comparison with what language conveys in reality It can express much more than that, for example, human beings can use it to talk about vast number of things which come from accumulated knowledge, memory and imagination On the other hand, there are many systems of voluntarily produced symbols, for example, gestures, postures, eye-gaze, etc that

metaphorically we call “body language” What should be noted in this study about

this definition is that it is purely human and non-instinctive so it is creative and can

be developed and characterized by human beings

Second, in their “Outline of linguistic analysis”, Block & Trager (1942, p

5) defined language as “a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group co-operates” This definition brings in the property of arbitrariness

That is, there is no relatedness between the sound and the meaning of language But

it is not always the case as there are some aspects of language in which meanings are closely related to the sounds, for example onomatopoeia words and interjections Another point of this definition is that it puts emphasis upon its social function It is used by a social group to co-operate with each other So it can be inferred that it also characterizes the community or social group of people by whom

it is used

The third definition of language mentioned here is given by Hall (1968,

p.158) In his “Essay on Language", he counts language as “the institution

whereby humans communicate and interact with each other by means of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols'" Here, the author puts stress not only on the

communicative function but also the interactive function of language These

functions are carried out by means of “habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols” The term “arbitrary” is also mentioned and the term “oral-auditory"

here can be understood as “vocal” It makes reference to the receiver and the sender

of the vocal signals that we identify as language-utterance What is the most worthy

in Hall’s definition, however, is his employment of the term “habitually used” The

“symbols” used in the process of communication and interaction are formed and

developed by means of “habits " In such a way, symbols used in communication

and interaction are different from one language to another due to people’s habits of using them In addition, Hall also treats language as a purely human institution and

the term “institution” makes explicit the view that the language that is used by a

particular society is part of that society’s culture

Another definition that should be mentioned here is from Saussure (1960,

p.8) In “Course in General Linguistics'", he defined language as follows: “It is

both a social product of the faculty of speech and a collection of necessary conventions that have been adopted a social body to permit individuals to exercise that faculty.'" In his definition, language is distinguished from speech that belongs

to both individual and society and in which there is hardly any unity Conversely,

language is treated as a “social product” and we can discover the unity of language for it is also “a collection of necessary conventions'" which is accepted and

exercised by members in the social body or community The term “convention” here also means the nature of the symbols or sign that is agreed upon does not matter

On the whole, what is in common among different definitions of language is that language is the possession of human beings It is a system of symbols or conventions that are used and understood in a social community and at the same time, it has both social characteristics and functions

2.3.1.2 Relation between language and thought

It can be said that language and thought are related and interdependent on each other Our ability to use language and our ability to think and conceptualize develop at the same time and these abilities depend on each other Firstly, it is obvious that language is a tool for expressing human thought Each language has a characteristic worldview It reflects the way people think and view the world

According to George Yule (1996, p.246), we can only think in the categories which our language allows us to think Take the example, if two languages seem to have very different ways of describing the way the world is, it is possible that when you learn one of those languages, the way your language is organized will determine how you perceive the world being organized That is, your language will give you a ready-made system of categorizing what you perceive, and consequently, you will be led to perceive the world around you only in those

categories And he called this language determinism holding that “language

“Language and thought are two sides of the coin” They are two different things

but closely related to each other

2.3.1.3 What is universal in language and thought?

As mentioned above, thought is different across languages as languages are

clearly different from each other The question is “What is universal in language and thought?” Is it the common experience of mankind that can make the linguistic

forms transferable from one language to another? In other words, to what extent, languages are shaped by “human nature” and to what extent they are shaped by culture? Are there the innate human concepts that can be expressed in separate words or separate morphemes in all languages? There is one hypothesis advanced

by Swadesh (1955) that took as its premise the idea that “universal human concepts are probably determined by the universal conditions of human life, above all by the

universal features of the human environment”

It is obvious that all human beings know from experience the sun, the moon, the stars; all human beings know rain, wind, water and fire Moreover, all human beings are familiar with their own bodies It was assumed that concepts which might have equivalents in all languages should be looked for among words for natural phenomenon such as the sun, the moon, rain, water, or fire; and among

words for parts of human body such as ears, eyes, hands or legs The research for

human concepts based on these, however, was doomed to failure

Certainly, all human beings know have heads, eyes, ears, and hands; and all

human beings know the sky above and the ground under their feet But they don’t think about these things in the same way And language does not reflect the world directly And as Anna Wierzbicka (1992, p.7) stated, “it reflects human conceptualization, human interpretation of the world’' As a result, words referring

to parts of human body and words referring to the world around us can be as language-specific as those referring to customs rituals and beliefs Thus, the

question of “what is universal and what is language-specific?” is hard to be

answered But it is certain that in two different languages we can find the exact things they share and differ from each other in the way of viewing the world This study with a very narrow scope is aimed at finding how English and Vietnamese people interpret the features about the parts of their human body and create derived meanings basing on those features

2.3.2 Culture

2.3.2.1 What is culture?

In considering the term culture, scholars and linguists have based their

conclusions on many different criteria and arrived at different definitions which can

be classified into one group or more

To a language teacher and in this thesis also, theories and definitions of culture which identify culture on grounds of establishing and emphasizing on one or more constituting factors of culture itself are believed to be the fittest working definitions because they illustrate the relationship among social members or social groups, their communication and behavior

In the first place, UNESCO (1996, p.108) launches the formal definition

focusing on the character of culture as follows ‘Culture is a set of symbolic systems which regulate the behavior and enable the mutual communication of a plurality of people, establishing them into particular and instinct community.’

Ferrando (1996, p.1) considers culture according to the nature of human beings’ possession, perception and action: culture is everything that one has, thinks, and does as a member of a society

Perception

Realization

Possession

CULTURE

Figure 1: Ferrando’s definition of culture

Levine and Adelman (1993, p.58), on the other hand, look at the visible and invisible nature of constituting factors of culture The definition they put forth may

be the most imaginative definition of all In their view, as for an iceberg, we can hardly see most of the influence of culture on an individual The risen part of culture is not always which that causes difficulties in cross – culture; the hidden aspects of culture exert meaningful influences on one’s behavior and interaction with others

As a matter of fact, various definitions of culture reflect different theoretical concepts of what culture is It is, however, necessary for the researcher

to adopt one that best guide her study Therefore, the thesis author finds the definition offered by Sikkema and Niyekawa (1987, p 27) useful because of its

influence on communication Culture is defined as the sum of total ways of living, including values, beliefs, esthetic standards, linguistic expressions, patterns of thinking, behavior norm and style of communication which a group of people has developed to assure its survival in a particular physical and human environment

Language

Food Appearance

Values Beliefs

Communication style Taboos

Customs

Traditions

Figure 2: Sikkema and Niyekawa’s definition of culture

A number of researchers, for example, Robinson (1985, p 9) and Samovar, Porter and Stefani (1997, p 36) also share their view when they hold that culture is

a concept referring to ways of acting, believing, valuing and thinking which are shared by members of a community (social group) and which are transmitted to the next generation When people of a community communicate with people of other cultures, their culture will shape the communication

It can be seen from the definition that culture is viewed as a process of transaction rather than as a body of facts, which puts forth a convincing argument for introducing culture into second, or foreign language learning The writer is personally interested in this definition as among different cultural descriptions, those factors clearly shown to affect intercultural and cross-cultural communication are absolutely the main concerns of classroom practices in second and foreign language

2.3.2.2 Basic characteristics of culture

The historical activity of human society conforms to the nature of culture, lending

it the qualities and functions of productive forces Therefore, culture has a direct influence on nature and socio-economic building and development

Because of its practical and functional influence on economic activity, culture is a productive force itself, which is reflected in the following aspects

Firstly, culture is a special type of productive force in that it influences and controls economic activity in a positive, dynamic way by generalizing perceptions and behaviors To a certain extent, culture has become an integral component of economic activity

Human labor consists of two main forms: physical and spiritual labor Spiritual labor is one of the most fundamental and important human activities In fact, human labor comes as a result of conscious, purposeful activities, a combination of physical and intellectual labor Every human production activity happens under the influence of their thinking, awareness and conception based on certain scientific and technological conditions All the above things cannot separate culture bases from certain cultural contexts As an established conceptual and behavioral pattern,

culture penetrates the entire human physical and spiritual labor process and becomes effective in the process

Secondly, culture and productive capabilities have dialectical relations The history

of social development proves that productive capabilities can facilitate physical transformation within people and at the same time are deeply involved in their spiritual transformation especially including their cultural concepts, values and forms and behaviors, which in turn encourage the development and expansion of culture For that reason, culture and productive capabilities in reality are mainly found in economic activities They always influence and promote each other and achieve internal unity From the perspective of production, culture is production From the perspective of culture, production is culture

From the above arguments, researchers from inside and outside of Vietnam have come up with a few characteristics of culture including the four mains ones as follows

The first characteristic of culture is that it is systematic Culture is an organic system of values of material, social and spiritual culture of human communities These fundamental elements give rise to a myriad of small categories which form a complex, diverse entity

The second characteristic of culture lies in its values Culture consists of material and spiritual values which measure the levels of humanity amongst a society and its people Throughout the history of the development of humankind, cultural values exist and develop

The third characteristic of culture is its historical Culture inevitably takes a process

to take shape and accumulates for generations It is achievements by human communities who, during their interaction with nature and society, stay creative and perfect themselves in order to create values

The final main characteristic of culture is that it relates to human lives Culture is phenomenon which belongs to human society and is closely linked to their daily lives It consists of values which are created by a human community, belong to

them, stay within them and bear their imprint This shows that people are both the subject and object of culture At the same time, they are cultural products

2.3.2.3 The relationship between culture and language

Language and culture are closely related and language shapes the worldview

of its speakers Language is a part of culture because culture reflects what a society

or a human community does or thinks All aspects of culture such as literature, art, music, belief, behaviors, customs and so on are reflected in language Therefore, language is inseparable from culture, embodies the values and meanings of a culture including culture artifacts and signals people’s cultural identity

Besides, Kramsch (34) clarifies the relationship between language and culture by emphasizing three functions of language related to culture Firstly, language expresses cultural reality because the words that people utter refer to common experience as well as reflect their author’s attitudes and belief, their point

of view Secondly, language embodies cultural reality because people create experience through language Thirdly, language symbolizes cultural reality since it

is a system of signs that is seen as having itself a cultural value Speakers identity themselves and others through their use of language; they view their language as a symbol of their social identity Hence, it is of importance to realize the aspects of culture that are reflected in the use of language as well as the factors of culture that affect the language

2.4 An overview of word and its meaning

2.4.1 What is the word?

There are varied definitions of the word Depending on the purpose of study, the word can be best defined from a particular angle First, according to A

Meillet, “the word is defined by a combination between a certain meaning and sound structure which shows a grammatical feature In this definition, the word

is thought to consist of its form (sound structure), content (a certain meaning)

and also its grammatical feature So this definition relates to three important aspects of the word: semantics, phonology and grammatical function Take

another definition given in “Basic English Lexicology” by Hoàng Tất Trường

(1993, p.20) in which the word is defined as “dialectical unity of form and content, independent unit of language capable to form a sentence by itself The

new point in this definition is that it clarifies the independent characteristic of the word as a language unit However, in both definitions, the word is defined to

include the form and the content The relationship between form and content is

not one-to-one relationship because of the matter of polysemy This relationship can be direct or indirect, one word can mean different things indirectly This will

be clarified in the following parts

Other terms related to the word are lexeme and lexical items The term

lexeme and lexical item are both used to refer to the headword listed

alphabetically in the dictionary It can be characterized as a family of lexical units It is the base form or citation form of the word, from which all the other

word forms may be derived Thus, the term word is a broad term and these two

terms are more specific ones and sometimes they are interchangeably used

2.4.2 Types of word meaning

Basically, there are two main types of meaning found in words: lexical and grammatical meaning

- Grammatical meaning

As it is stated by Nguyễn Hòa (2004, p 67), grammatical meaning may be

defined as “an expression in speech of relationship between words based on contrastive features of arrangements in which they occur.” This grammatical

meaning divides words into groups with their own grammatical features, for example, nouns, verbs, adjectives etc So this meaning is abstract and generalized

- Lexical meaning

By contrast, lexical meaning is "the individual meaning each word has in the

system of language” Nguyễn Hòa (2004, p.68) It is the realization of concepts or

emotion etc For example, the concept of what is a house in reality is the lexical meaning of the word “house” And this meaning is thoroughly studied in the field

of semantics The following parts will discuss the types and components of lexical meaning

+ Types of lexical meaning

Basing on the correspondence between the lexemes and the things they refer

to, there are two main types of lexical meaning; direct and indirect meaning

a Direct meaning

As it is stated by Hoàng Tất Trường (1993, p.57), direct meaning is “the meaning that directly denotes something without comparing it or associating with other things” That is, we do not need a context to understand direct meaning For

instance, the word “eye” directly means the organ of sight of the human body This

meaning is also called literal meaning

b Indirect meaning

It is also stated by Hoàng Tất Trường (1993, p.57), that indirect meaning is the meaning that indirectly denotes something in the comparison or association with the things the word directly refers to To understand this kind of meaning we

need contexts For instance, the word “eye” in the phrase “the eye of the needle” is

understood in its indirect meaning For it refers to the hole of the needle and is

understood in the association with the shape of the eye, a human organ of sight

This meaning is also called figurative meaning

+ Components of lexical meaning

There are four components of word meaning in general, however, in this study, it is only necessary to discuss two components of lexical meaning which are

denotation and connotation

a Denotation

Denotation is one approach to meaning that attempts to equate the meaning

of a word or an expression with the entities to which it refers The “entities” here are understood as the things or phenomena in the world around us that the words or phrases symbolize or describe

As Nguyễn Hòa (2004, p 98) stated, “Denotation is the ability of a word or expression to identify all the objects covered by a word” For example, the

denotation of the word “dog” corresponds to the set of canine animals that can be called “dog” Accordingly, denotation is the connection between words or

expressions and parts of reality This denotative meaning is also called conceptual

meaning as it covers the basic and essential components of meaning which are

conveyed by the literal use of the word For instance, the denotative or conceptual

meaning of the word “needle” may include such basic components as 'thin, sharp, steel, instrument’

Denotation should be distinguished from reference Denotation discussed

above is the conceptual component of the lexical meaning of the word So, the denotation of a word is invariant and utterance-independent Reference, on the other hand, is the relationship that holds between a word or an expression and the particular objects it refers to in the real world For instance, the word “computer” in

the sentence; “There is something wrong with my computer now” refers to a

particular computer in the real world It is one member of the class or the set of things that the denotation of the word can convey and is understood on a particular occasion Therefore, reference is variable and utterance-dependent The object or

thing that a word or expression refers to are called referent of that word or

expression

b Connotation

Connotation is denied as “the set of associations that a word’s use can evoke” (William O’Grady & Michael Dobrovolsky, (1997, p 249) For example, in Canada the word “winter” can evoke ice, snow, bare trees etc To put it simply, Nguyễn Hòa (2004, p.99) stated; “Connotation arises when the word becomes associated with certain characteristics of the items to which they refer” It is the

communicative value of a word or an expression by virtue of what it refers to, over and above its purely conceptual content So it is the additional meaning to the denotation of the word It is the association that the word can convey so it is also

called associative meaning For example, the word “needle” may lead us to think

‘painful’ as needles can cause pain so that is the association attached to the word It

may vary considerably according to culture, historical period and the experience of

the individual

2.4.3 Semes and Componential Analysis

Componential analysis refers to “the analysis of sense (meaning) of words into component parts commonly referred to as semantic features or semantic properties or just semes” Nguyễn Hòa (2004, p.132) The basic view of this

approach is that the lexical meaning of the word or lexeme can be decomposed into

components or constituent parts called semes So it is also called the semantic

decomposition of the word or lexeme One of the commonest examples used by

linguists is the set of features which are said to compose the lexemes woman, bachelor, spinster, wife as follows:

Male Female Adult Human Married Unmarried

If we take items from the semantic field (and which therefore have some features in common with each other) we can examine the similarities and differences between them

This principle involved here may allow us to aim for a more precise definition of meaning However, the idea that a word can be subjected to this type of clinical, accurate analysis is rather misleading This approach is only concerned with

conceptual meaning, not associative meaning

2.5 Summary

In this chapter, a review of related literature and a theoretical background which shall form the basis for our study have been presented Almost all salient features of the metaphoric meanings of the words denoting names of human body parts which are indispensable and closely relevant to our study has been mentioned

The metaphoric meanings of the words denoting names of human body parts and their related concepts viewed by different linguists have been examined carefully in order to shape some theoretical orientations of fundamental value for our study.These theoretical orientations are established to form the foundation for

us to discover the similarities and differences in the metaphoric meanings of the words denoting names of human body parts in English and Vietnamese