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

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ĐẶNG THỊ PHƯƠNG THẢO A STUDY OF THE ENGLISH PREPOSITION ―ON‖ IN ―T

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

ĐẶNG THỊ PHƯƠNG THẢO

A STUDY OF THE ENGLISH 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 Tuấn Phương dưới góc độ ngôn ngữ học tri nhận)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English linguistics Code: 60220201

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

ĐẶNG THỊ PHƯƠNG THẢO

A STUDY OF THE ENGLISH 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 Tuấn Phương dưới góc độ ngôn ngữ học tri nhận)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Prof Dr Nguyen Quang

Hanoi, 2016

DECLARATION

I, Dang Thi Phuong Thao, certify that this thesis is the result 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

My heartfelt gratitude is also to Dr Huynh Anh Tuan, The Head of Faculty

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

Last but not least, I 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 difficult lexical unit in English due to their polysemy Additionally, it is the differences in the linguistic cognition among cultures that prevent language users from mastering and using prepositions properly In order to 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 Vietnamese translation by Nguyen Cung Ai and Vu Tuan Phuong from cognitive perspective Image schemas, prototype theory and metaphorical extensions are considered as the analytical framework to carry out this study Approximately 160

of on-occurrences are categorized into small groups in terms of their meanings to analyze based on qualitative and quantitative methods The 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 features in perception 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

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

TR : Trajector TRs : Trajectors

LM : Landmark LMs : Landmarks

NP : Noun Phrase

V : Verb

LIST OF FIRGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1: General image schema of on (Ming, 2011)……… 10

Firgure 2: Path schema for on (Ming, 2011)……… 11

Figure 3:The contact image schema of on ……… …… 12

Table 1.The potential meanings of preposition ―on‖ in English……… 29

Table 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 Preposition ―on‖ equals ―trên‖ in Vietnamese… 30

Table 3.1 Preposition ―on‖ equals ―vào‖ in Vietnamese to denote movement ……… 32

Table 3.2 Preposition ―on‖ equals ―vào‖ in Vietnamese to denote time 32 Table 4.1 Preposition ―on‖ equals ―trong‖ in Vietnamese to denote ―Processes are path‖ ……… 32

Table 4.2 Preposition ―on‖ equals ―trong‖ in Vietnamese in temporal expressions ……… 33

Table 5 Preposition ―on‖ equals ―lên‖ in Vietnamese ……… 33

Table 6 Preposition ―on‖ equals ―giữa‖ in Vietnamese ……… 35

Table 7 Preposition ―on‖ equals ―bằng‖ in Vietnamese ……… 35

Table 8.1 Preposition ―on‖ equals ―ở‖ in Vietnamese ……… 35

Table 8.2 Preposition ―on‖ equals ―tại‖ in Vietnamese ……… 36

Table 9 Preposition ―on‖ equals ―bên‖ in Vietnamese ……… 36

Table 10 Preposition ―on‖ equals ―đến‖ in Vietnamese ……… 37

Table 11 Preposition ―on‖ equals ―xuống‖ in Vietnamese……… 38

Table 12 On-occurrences denote the continuity ……… 38

Table 13 On-occurenes denote metaphorical extension of time………… 39

Table 14 On-occurrences denote that entitites put on some pieces of ―clothes‖ ………

39 Table 15 On-occurrences denote movement ending in contact……… 39

Table 16 On-occurrences denote movement ending in support……… 40

Table 17 On-occurrences denote that TR is a part of the LM……… 40

Table 18 On-occurrences denote a topic ……… 40 Table 19.On-occurrences denote the direction of the movement………… 41 Table 20 On-occurrences denote a scope……… 41 Table 21.The combination of preposition ―on‖ and other parts of speech… 42 Table 22 Other expressions of preposition ―on‖ ……… 42 Table 23 The Vietnamese equivalents of preposition ―on‖……… 43

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CANDIDATE‘S STATEMENT i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES v

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Methodology 2

6 Significance of the study 3

7 Organization of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Cognitive linguisics and cognitive semantics 5

1.1.1 Cognitive linguistics 5

1.1.2 Cognitive semantics 7

1.2 Spatial prepositions in cognitive semantics 8

1.3 Analytical framework 9

1.3.1 Image schemas 9

1.3.1.1 Definition of image schema 9

1.3.1.2 Image schemas of preposition ―on‖ 10

1.3.2 Prototype theory 12

1.3.2.1 Prototypical meaning 12

1.3.2.2 Non - prototypical meaning 15

1.3.3 Metaphorical extension 16

1.3.3.1 Spatial metaphors 16

1.3.3.2 Temporal metaphors 19

1.4 Review of previous studies 19

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 23

2.1 Research method 23

2.2 The data collection 23

2.2.1 Sample 24

2.2.2 Procedures of data collection 24

2.3 Data analysis procedure 26

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 27

3.1 The potential meanings of preposition ―on‖ in English 27

3.2 The meanings of the English preposition ―on‖ and their Vietnamese equivalents 29

3.2.1 Prepositional equivalents 29

3.2.1.1 ―On‖ in English corresponds to ―trên‖ in Vietnamese………… 29

3.2.1.2 ―On‖ in English corresponds to ―vào‖ in Vietnamese………… 31

3.2.1.3 ―On‖ in English corresponds to ―trong‖ in Vietnamese………… 32

3.2.1.4 ―On‖ in English corresponds to ―lên‖ in Vietnamese………… 33

3.2.1.5 ―On‖ in English corresponds to ―giữa‖ in Vietnamese………… 34

3.2.1.6 ―On‖ in English corresponds to ―bằng‖ in Vietnamese………… 34

3.2.1.7 ―On‖ in English corresponds to ―tại/ở‖ in Vietnamese………… 35

3.2.1.8 ―On‖ in English corresponds to ―bên‖ in Vietnamese………… 36

3.2.1.9 ―On‖ in English corresponds to ―đến‖ in Vietnamese………… 37

3.2.1.10 ―On‖ in English corresponds to ―xuống‖ in Vietnamese…………37

3.2.2 Non-prepositional equivalents 38

3.3 Comparison between English and Vietnamese Spatial Cognition 43

3.3.1 Similarities 43

3.3.2 Differences 44

PART C: CONCLUSION 46

1 Summary of the study 46

2 Teaching implications 47

3 Limitations of the research and suggestions for further study 48

REFERENCES 50 APPENDICES I

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

In the global era, an international language is an integral part for people to convey their ideas, their thought and their desire With many prominent features, English is chosen as a global language for people to communicate In Vietnam, it is considered as the core subject in the national curriculum and the prerequisite for job application However, it is not easy for Vietnamese learners to master and use this

language effectively and accurately

In English teaching and learning, prepositions pose an immense challenge for both language learners and teachers According to Evan and Tyler (2001), the semantics of prepositions is blamed for the most of difficulties that language learners often encounter Nguyen Tuyet Nhung (2010, p.6) holds that ―all the 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 satisfy readers‘ needs As for teachers, they themselves spend considerable amount of time and effort giving lecturers and practising 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 conducted by Lorincz & Gordon (2012), language users encounter 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 linguistics, it is revealed that 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 Hai, 2010)

In order to help English learners get an insightful 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 out the differences as well as the similarities in their spatial

and non-spatial senses

2 Aims and objectives of the study

The study aims at an intensive investigation into the meanings of preposition

―on‖ and their equivalents in Vietnamese from cognitive perspective For 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 are 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 framework The data are collected from the most 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 as 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 translation by Nguyen Cung Ai and Vu Tuan Phuong Besides, the combination of descriptive and contrastive methods is employed to collect the qualitative information and find out

the similarities as well as differences between the English and the Vietnamese 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 conceptualization 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 complicated aspect in English

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

in using prepositions and enrich the pedagogical methods in teaching English prepositions and translating prepositions to English major students

7 Organization of the study

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

Part A: Introduction presents the rationale, the aims, the research questions, methods, scope, significance and organization of the study

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 Furthermore, 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 research questions: (1) the potential meanings of preposition ―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 part which offers 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 Cognitive linguistics

It is widely known that cognitive linguistics is a modern school of linguistic thought and practice It views linguistic knowledge as part of general 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 integral part of it

Cognitive linguistics originally emerged in the 1970s (Fillmore, 1975; Lakoff &Thompson, 1975; Rosch, 1975) and arose out of dissatisfaction with formal approaches to language which were dominant, at that time, in the disciplines

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 Jäkel (1999) have shown many common ideas that are mentioned in cognitive linguistics

The whole theory of cognitive linguistics consists of two main pillars as followings:

(i) Language is an 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 be consistent with 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 embody more general cognitive principles; and

internally, that explanation must cross boundaries between levels of analysis

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

is not one of kind, but one of degree Consequently, not only linguistic principles must 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 taking into account all of these levels simultaneously This view of language is completely different from the formal approaches, which understand knowledge of linguistic structures and rules as independent of other mental processes such as attention, memory, and reasoning: they propose that different levels of linguistic analysis form independent modules

Furthermore, language is symbolic since it is based on the association between semantic representation and phonological representation This association of two 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 not structured arbitrarily It is motivated and grounded more or less directly in experience, in our bodily, physical, social, and cultural experiences because after all, ―we are beings of the flesh‖ (Johnson, 1992, p 347) This notion of

―grounding‖ is known in Cognitive Linguistics as ―embodiment‖ (Johnson, 1987; Lakoff, 1987; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, 1999) and finds its philosophical roots in the phenomenological tradition (Varela, Thompson & Rosch, 1993) Its basic idea is that mental 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 language whereas a cognitive approach to grammar pays attention to modeling the language system (the mental ‗grammar‘), rather than the nature of mind per se However, it does so by taking as its starting point the conclusions of work in cognitive semantics

1.1.2 Cognitive semantics

As part of the field of cognitive linguistics, cognitive semantics represents an approach to the study of the mind and its relationship 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‖

It is widely known that cognitive semantics is not a single unified framework The researchers who identify themselves as cognitive semanticists typically have a diverse set of foci and interests However, there are a number of guiding principles that collectively characterize a cognitive approach to semantics According to Talmy (2000) and Lakoff & Johnson (1980), cognitive semantics consists of four guiding principles as follows:

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

ii) Semantic structure is conceptual structure;

iii) Meaning representation is encyclopaedic;

iv) Meaning construction is conceptualization

The first guiding principle shows the fundamental concern of cognitive semantics Specifically, 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 to the nature of our bodies, we have a specific view of the world (Talmy, 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

It 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 real external world For instance, when a person says something, the

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

words, semantic structure (the meanings conventionally associated with words and other linguistic units) can be equated with conceptual structure (i.e., 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 concepts in the mind of speakers and hearers As a result, we have more thoughts, ideas and feelings than we can conventionally encode in language (Evans, 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 to a particular concept or conceptual domain (e.g., Langacker, 1987) Of course, it does not mean that conventional meanings associated with words are deniable Nevertheless, cognitive semanticists argue that the conventional meaning associated with a particular linguistic unit is simply a ‗prompt‘ for the

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

against the context of the utterance

The fourth guiding principle, meaning construction is conceptualizations, states that language itself does not encode meaning Instead, words (and other linguistic units) are only ‗prompts‘ for the construction of meaning Accordingly, meaning 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 background 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 to 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 two 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 The books are on the table

b He washed his car in the garage

Accordingly, ―on‖ in the example (a) locates the books (argument x) with respect to (argument y): it assigns x to a place or location coincides the place taken

by top of the table whereas the preposition ―in‖ in example b expresses the interior

- Prepositions are polysemious: There is a prototypical sense and other 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; Cuyken, 1988, 1993)

non-1.3 Analytical framework

The analytical framework employed in this study includes image schemas, prototype theory and metaphorical meaning extension

1.3.1 Image schemas

1.3.1.1 Definition of image schemas

Image schemas are presented and discussed by Lakoff (1987), Lakoff & Turner (1989) and Johnson (1987) As with other cognitive linguistic theoretical constructs, it is argued that 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 are representations of specific, embodied experiences However, image schemas are not specific images but are ―abstract'' in another sense of that word: they are schematic They represent schematic patterns 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) Image schemas are also not specific to a particular sensory modality (Lakoff 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, but rather kinesthetic

in nature (Lakoff, 1987) According to Johnson (1987), an image schema is a mental pattern that recurrently provides structured understanding of various experiences, and is available for use in metaphor as a source of domain to provide

an understanding of yet other experiences

1.3.1.2 Image schemas of preposition “on”

The spatial senses of on usually indicate 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 has contact to an

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

LM The contact schema can be transformed into a rotated schema and an attachment schema which may suffer from certain modifications due to the perceptual shifts of perspectives or profile (Ming, 2011)

LM

Figure 1 General image schema of on (Ming, 2011)

Secondly, the support image schema of on expresses the functional

relationship between the LM and the TR and normally the entity (the TR) is on the

TR

upper surface of another (the LM) which shares overlapping spatial meaning with contact and containment image schemas On the one hand, if the TR is in contact with the LM, the LM 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 train However, 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 support from a vehicle, such as a ship, aircraft

and train etc., in which the supporting surface in it (the floor or seats) is the more salient aspect of the scene rather than simply a physical container (Herskovits, 1986)

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

Similarly, if one object controls the location of the other by opposing the force of gravity, it can 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

controlee will be the LM

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

are primarily static (e.g., at, in, under); others primarily dynamic (to, from, via) Yang (2008) displays that the static usages of at are 95.03%, that of on are 98.84% and that of in are 97.25% However sometimes static prepositions can be used in dynamic contexts 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

LM

Figure 2 PATH schema for on (Ming, 2011)

TR

The specialization of on takes place by simple highlighting one of the

perceptual aspects It must be kept in mind that categories for senses are fuzzy, and

many examples are of difficult classification The different image schemas of on in

fact reflect different aspects of one general schema, while they can be considered as

a static schema contact Moreover, these image schemas themselves are related to each other in systematic ways that reflect speakers‘ sensory-motor organization In

the present study, the general image schema of on as contact in the static process is

considered, in order to present a simplified teaching method for English beginners The design of it is shown below

Figure 3 The CONTACT image schema of on

The TR is as the square on the top and the LM is under the TR to support it with closed contact (see Figure 3)

1.3.2 Prototype theory

1.3.2.1 Prototypical meaning

Prototype approach is pervasive among the studies in the acquisition of English prepositions It starts from Bernnett (1975) In localistic theory, three types of meaning are considered as meanings of prepositions, namely, spatial, temporal and abstract He 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 have 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 LM, is the prototypical meaning of our

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 in contact with a LM that is a supporting surface If the surface were not

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

meets a number of criteria.These criteria have emerged 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 grounded in physical experience

4 The meaning which appears to be the one that (most of) the other senses

evolved from

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

are asked to give an example of a particular preposition

6 The meaning that the preposition has in compound expressions

7 The semantic relations between the target preposition and one or more 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 TR and outer limits or boundaries of the LM

(64a) This meant a soft trail, greater friction on the runners, and heavier pulling for the dogs; yet the drivers were fair through it all, and did their best for the animals (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)

(56a) They cursed him, and his fathers and mothers before him, and all his seed to come after him

down to the remotest generation, and every hair on his body and drop of blood in his veins (p.38)

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

another entity Contact is more precise in terms of positional accuracy Expressions like side, flank, right, left, part, hand, edge or the points of compass occur frequently after on

(22a) He did not like to be approached on his blind side (p.17)

(54a) The circle had tightened till 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 external side of the LM‖ This sense occurs with the LMs like street, square, park, lake, road, river, sea, bay, way, track, coast, shore, beach, bank … (as areas with outer limit):

(1a).There could not but 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 little shed, back

of a saloon on the San Francisco water front (p.8)

*) Meaning of support:

The TR achieves or maintains control-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 LM is a supporting entity from the TR point of view

The general conceptual schema may suffer certain shifts of perspective or profile Therefore, there are three further construals of conceptual schema as follows:

- Rotated schema: A non horizontal surface is the supporting side of the LM

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 on a finger

- Part of a TR is LM: A part of the TR, which is contact with the actual

supporting place is the LM of the conceptualization Eg: ―She remained squatting

on her heels all the time we were there.‖

1.3.2.2 Non-prototypical meaning of ―on‖

In the force dynamic configuration of the participants is profiled, the interaction axis is highlighted as the central aspect of the relation Thus on 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,

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

in prepositional verb constructions For instance:

(26a) Ere he landed on his feet …(p.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:

(118a) 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 (p.65)

- 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 attack,

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 on the team (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 correlate might nevertheless be quite enough to see:

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

1.3.3.1 Spatial metaphors

a Metaphors of support

According to Ignasi (1999), in those domains of thought and knowledge which are conceptualize in terms of support conceptual schema, English may adopt two perspectives, either that of the TR, where other entities are conceived as support

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

The author states that there are 21 kinds of metaphors in which entities are conceived as support, including: (1) causes; (2) help; (3) resources; (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 state 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 phenomena are support for measurement values; (20) mechanical principles are support for machine working; (21) a channel is a path However, within the scope of this study, the author only focuses on some types of support metaphors that are used in the work ―The Call of the Wild‖:

- Topics are pieces of ground: The mapping of topics onto pieces of ground

corresponds to the general metaphor THOUGHT IS SPACE Many prepositional verbs respond to this pattern, like speculate on, deliberate on, speak on, write 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 sort of society plays his mother’s brother wrote, should have anything to do with the chopping of a few sticks of firewood….(p.52)

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

something goes along

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

- Main component is support for the whole: The main component of a

mixture complex entity 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 was again on his feet and launched into the air (p.11)

- 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, live on, feed on, leech on, bet on, trade on, sustain somebody on, nourish

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

(136a) He was a killer, a thing that preyed, living on the things that lived, unaided, alone, 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, etc…)

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

- Scale metaphor: This metaphor occurs when speaking about magnitudes

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, etc

(138a)… his head, somewhat broader, was the wolf head on a massive scale (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) diseases are burden; (3) conduit metaphor; (4) psychic phenomena are burdens; (5) conduit metaphor; (5) expenditures are burdens and (6) penalties are burdens In this study, only the first two metaphors are employed

- Disease is a burden: The presence of illness or disease is expressed in

terms 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

(46a) But such splendid running was achieved not without great trouble and vexation on the part of François (p.32)

b Metaphors of contact

According to Igsani (1999), the contact images provide the source domain for the following metaphors:

.- Present is contact: The TR is some event, state of affairs or situation that

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

on exhibit…

- Contents are physical characters used to express them The contents 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, committee,

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

However, there exists none of on-occurrences 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

metaphors: (1) Light is a fluid; (2) actions are directed movement; (3) investing is pouring; (4) looking is touching (Igsani, 1999) However, within the scope of this study, the author only refers to the last form of metaphors which appears in ―The

Call of the Wild‖ In this case, the act of looking is understood as an act directed

towards an entity to gain metaphorical contact This sense occurs with verbs like look (prolonged, fixed and intent), glance, peep, stare, set 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 on, grinning and winking at one another (p.47)

1.3.3.2 Temporal metaphors

According to Clark (1973) and Lakoff & Johnson (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 stand either facing other things coming or with their back oriented towards 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 stative and the dynamic one In 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 to For instance:

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

(p.25)

1.4 Review of 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 users due to the sheer number of them in the English language and their polysemous nature Consequently, a number of studies are concerned with the most common errors that the second language learners often encounter during the acquisitions and the possible solutions for this problem

Firstly, many studies have been done on prepositions from contrastive analysis perspective Hoang Thi Huyen Dieu (2011) and Nguyen Thi Yen Nhung (2010) shared the same thought when they conducted a secondary research to compare and contrast the prepositions in English and Vietnamese Accordingly, the differences in TRs and LMs caused most misunderstanding of English learners when they used prepositions However, the source of the data was not stated clearly in the research; as

a result, 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 concern with the prepositions

―up/down‖ and ―lên/xuống‖ in Vietnamese The data were collected from English and Vietnamese short stories, poems, novels and newspapers where instances of prepositional phrases ―up/down‖ and ―lên/xuống‖ were used in literal meaning and

in metaphorical contexts She analyzed the data in terms of syntactic and semantic features to find out the differences and similarities between two pairs of prepositions She found out that ―up/down‖ were also considered as particles in the phrasal verbs in English and ―lên/xuống‖ could play the roles of the main verbs in phrasal verbs Regarding to the semantic perspective, ―up/lên‖ demonstrated the upward movement with positive meaning while ―down/xuống‖ conveyed the meaning of downward movement with negative value, sometimes this order of meaning could be reversed The study helped readers get in-depth information about two English prepositions; however, the terms used in this study were not uniform and precise, which made it hard to find their equivalents in Vietnamese

Nguyen Thi Van Khanh (2009) carried out ―A study on meanings of the English preposition ―in‖ and its Vietnamese equivalents from cognitive semantic perspective‖ Three famous English stories were investigated to collect the data for this research, including ―Vanity Fair ― by Thackera, ―Jane Eyre‖ by Brontë, and English-Vietnamese translation course books for third and fourth-year English majors at the Military Science Academy The total number of 681 in examples are

in form of (NP) + in + NP and NP + V + 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 data were also identified and grouped in terms of frequency and percentage to explore differences and similarities between English and Vietnamese spatial conceptualization and cognition From the findings, the majority of in-occurrences presented in the corpus correspond to ―trong‖ in Vietnamese whereas the other meaning of preposition ―in‖ are ―ngoài‖, trên‖, ―dưới‖, ―trước‖, ―sau‖,

―bên‖, ―bằng‖, ―về‖, ―vào‖ It can be seen that the English and Vietnamese are similar in the relation of TR and LM in which LM is a container - like object and

TR is a contained object located in the interior of the tridimensional LM However, there exist some differences between English and Vietnamese spatial cognitive structuring such as locative strategies, the impact 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 Vietnamese from cognitive perspective However, the results of study are limited because the researcher only investigated ―in‖ as a preposition but did not care about other functions such as adverb and affix

Sharing the similar idea with the above author, Nguyen Thi Tuyet Nhung (2010) discovered the similarities and differences among four prepositions ―above, over, under, below‖ The data were collected from five main 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 TRs 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-spatial senses It was indicated that despite being described through the up-down schema, the characteristics of the TR and the LM are different These differences caused different spatial senses and metaphorical uses of the prepositions as well as

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

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

In short, many researchers have shown their concern to prepositions for the last few decades However, each of them is interested in different perspectives of prepositions: some focus on finding out how many equivalents a certain English preposition has in Vietnamese; a few of them try to distinguish the similar prepositions whereas the others explore the common errors that second language users often make Otherwise, no researchers have made an in-depth study related to

―on‖- one of the most popular prepositions in English- and its equivalents in Vietnamese Therefore, this study will be carried out in order to fill the gap of the research field

CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY

2.1 Research method

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

or to contradict a theory On the contrary, qualitative method is defined as the one which generate words than numbers, as data for analysis (Bricki 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 to measure things (Draper, 2004)

In the present study, the quantitative method was used to calculate and classify the number of on-occurrences in ―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 exist 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

2.2.1 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 Yukon, 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 He progressively reverts to a wild state in the harsh climate, where he is forced to fight to 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 Post in 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 putting together of words – words charming and slyly significant, words arranged, in a French 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 Hien (2012), the translators have conveyed the author‘s intention accurately by means of brief and concise language The syntax was flexible and natural and the words were chosen exactly and carefully Although the Vietnamese version of the literary work is partly affected by the idiosyncrasy of the translators, it has been widely accepted by Vietnamese readers for years In other words, it is justified as a good version due to the fact that its choice of words and structures reflects the cognition of Vietnamese people Therefore, it is chosen as the sample to explore the data in this thesis

2.2.2 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

In order to distinguish among the functions of on-instances, it 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:

Eg: For weeks at a time they would hold on steadily, day after day; and for weeks upon end they would camp (p.72)

the niggerheads bunched (p.75)

In other words, only occurrences of the preposition in form of NP + on + NP and NP +V+on +NP where these words play the role as the preposition were accepted

Firstly, all of on-occurrences were listed and filtered carefully based on the above criteria It was estimated that 153 of on-samples were gathered manually from the English work ―The Call of the Wind‖ by Jack London and its Vietnamese version by Nguyen Cung Ai and Vu Tuan Phuong These samples were numbered

in pairs and the on-phrases were underlined for readers to follow easily as the example below:

(3a) He carried the Judge’s grandsons on his back,or rolled them in the grass (p.6)

(3b) Nó cõng những đứa cháu của ông chủ trên lưng, hoặc đùa với chúng lăn tròn trên cỏ (p.3)

Secondly, the data were classified into sub-groups based on two research

questions: (1) 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? For the

first question, the data were categorized into three groups based on the 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 but the TR is not any part of the LM) or support (the entity (the 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

On the other hand, the on-instances which expressed movement involved in 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 into two groups: prepositional and non-prepositional phrases in according to

Vietnamese grammatical rules Accordingly, there were eleven sub-groups, corresponding to ten Vietnamese prepositions, namely ―trên‖, ―trong‖, ―lên‖,

―xuống‖, ―giữa‖, ―bằng‖, ―vào‖, ―tại/ở‖, ―đến‖ and ―bên‖ and a non-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 results were represented 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 to the potential meanings of preposition ―on‖, 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 on-occurrences 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 meaning of support only accounted for a modest portion in 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 from cognitive semantic perspective These on-phrases 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

From the findings, the differences and similarities between the English and Vietnamese in spatial cognition were shown At the same time, 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 ―on‖ in English

As mentioned above, contact and support are regarded as the prototypical meaning of preposition ―on‖ Therefore, the meaning of contact accounts for the majority of on-occurrences 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 contact and contact with limit It is estimated that

22 out of 57 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 limits or boundaries of the LM Fourteen on-instances are used to indicate 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 occurrences that shows the meaning of contact with the external side of the LM (contact with limit) is 12 Only a modest number of on-occurrences belongs

to the last sub-group (TR is a part of LM) with 9 instances

Secondly, the phrases of preposition ―on‖ that denote the meaning of support account for 9.8% of the total in the corpus In this case, the TR achieves or maintains control-over the LM or itself through contact of its 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 occurrences show the meanings of movement ending in contact The other meaning (movement ending in support, TR becomes part of the LM through contact, Movement attempting contact and control of the LM) takes up only a modest percentage with 2 or 3 of on-occurrences

Next, 10 out of 153 of on-occurrences are used to indicate the temporal in the study, which accounts for 6.54%

The metaphorical expressions take up a considerable amount of occurrences in the present study It is estimated that metaphors of support account for 20.26 % with 31 instances, the majority of which shows the meaning of

on-―processes are path‖ The other kinds of support metaphors are only small portions with one to three instances Only 1.96% of on-occurrences show the metaphors of path whereas temporal metaphors accounts for 3.27% The rest of the data denotes the other meanings of ―on‖

1.2 Support image schema 15 9.8%

2.2 Temporal expression 10 6.54%

3.1 Metaphorical expression of support 31 20.26 %

3.2 Metaphors of path 3 1.96%

Table 1.The potential meanings of preposition ―on‖ in English

3.2 The meanings of the English preposition ―on‖ and their Vietnamese equivalents

3.2.1 Prepositional equivalents

Although both English and Vietnamese use prepositions to express the spatial and temporal relations, there are significant differences 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 translators (Nguyen Cung Ai and Vu Tuan Phuong) in a variety of cases Obviously, ―on‖ in English can be glossed into Vietnamese in two major ways: On the one hand, translators resort to semantically corresponding prepositions

in Vietnamese as equivalents of on; on the other hand, they translate prepositional phrase including ―on‖ into Vietnamese by other means such as words denoting directions, verbs, adverbial clauses, etc In the following parts, all of the Vietnamese equivalents of preposition ―on‖ will be listed and explained in detail:

3.2.1.1 ―On‖ in English corresponds to ―trên‖ in Vietnamese

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

of 153 instances of ―on‖ equal 24.18 % as sorted as ―trên‖ in Vietnamese In other words, ―trên‖ is considered as the representative meaning of the English preposition

―on‖ Like in English, ―trên‖ is used in Vietnamese when TR has contact to 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 contact senses are categorized into ―trên‖

in Vietnamese Consider the following examples: