STRUCTURAL AND ONTOLOGICAL METAPHORS OF “LIFE” IN TYPICAL SHORT STORIES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

THESIS STRUCTURAL AND ONTOLOGICAL METAPHORS OF “LIFE” IN TYPICAL SHORT STORIES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE ẨN DỤ CẤU TRÚC VÀ BẢN THỂ VỀ CUỘC SỐNG Ở MỘT SỐ TRUYỆN NGẮN ĐIỂN HÌNH TRONG T

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

STRUCTURAL AND ONTOLOGICAL METAPHORS

OF “LIFE” IN TYPICAL SHORT STORIES IN

ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

ẨN DỤ CẤU TRÚC VÀ BẢN THỂ VỀ CUỘC SỐNG Ở MỘT SỐ TRUYỆN NGẮN ĐIỂN HÌNH TRONG TIẾNG

ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT

NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG ANH

Field: English Language Code: 60220201

Hanoi, 2017

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

STRUCTURAL AND ONTOLOGICAL METAPHORS

OF “LIFE” IN TYPICAL SHORT STORIES IN

ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

ẨN DỤ CẤU TRÚC VÀ BẢN THỂ VỀ CUỘC SỐNG Ở MỘT SỐ TRUYỆN NGẮN ĐIỂN HÌNH TRONG TIẾNG

ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT

DECLARATION

I hereby, certify the thesis entitled ―an investigation into conceptual metaphors denoting ―life‖ in English and Vietnamese short stories from 1975 to 1991‖ is the result of my own research for the degree of Master of Ha Noi Open University The thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other universities or institutions I agree that the origin of mypaper deposited in the library can be accessible for the purposes of study and research

Hanoi, 2017

Nguyễn Thị Hồng Anh

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Assoc Prof Dr HOANG TUYET MINH

Date:………

Secondly, I wish to express my sincere gratitude to the Post-Graduate lecturers as well as officers working at Faculty of Graduate Studies - HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY for their great help and numerous suggestions concerning this thesis

Thirdly, I want to extend my special thanks to my colleagues working

at Faculty of English - HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY for their help and cooperation during my research I am also grateful to my close friends who encouraged me a lot when I was conducting my research

Finally, millions of thanks go to my beloved family for their love, care and support during my MA course, especially the fulfillment of the thesis

ABSTRACT

Metaphors have been a topic for studies since as early as more than 2000 years ago Metaphors have attracted quite a number of researchers who are interested in linguistics, rhetorics, literary critics, etc Over centuries, there have been uncountable studies that focus on discovering in depth the nature and characteristics of metaphors Simply speaking, metaphors can be understood as comparison and replacement Metaphors are commonly seen as the change in the names of objects, entities…based on the similarities between them However, in cognitive lingustics, metaphors are considered as important instruments for conceptualization of abstract concepts in human mind It is defined as understanding one abstract conceptual domain (target domain in terms of another concrete conceptual domain domain) source the concept of life has been one of the most common target domains, which hard is to fully comprehend without establishing a set of mappings, ie a set of systematic correspondences, between this ted notion and other better-known one Therefore, this study attempts to probe into the structural and ontological metaphors of ―life‖ in typical short stories in English and Vietnamese from the perspective of cognitive linguistics Based on a relatively considerable number of collected data, the author tries to investigate the similarities and differences in the use of these conceptual metaphors in both languages, with the hope to contribute a part to the process of foreign language teaching and learning, and translation practice

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale for the study 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

1.2.1 Aims of the study 2

1.2.2 Objectives of the study 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Methods of the study 2

1.5 Scope of the study 3

1.6 Significance of the study 3

1.7 Design of the study 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 Previous studies 4

2.2 Overview of cognitive 6

2.2.1 Cognitive Science 6

2.2.2 Cognitive Linguistics 7

2.2.3 Cognitive Semantics 8

2.2.4 Metaphor 9

2.2.4.1 The traditional view of metaphors 9

2.2.4.2 Metaphors in the Cognitive Linguistic View 10

2.2.5 Short stories 21

2.2.5.1 English short stories 23

2.2.5.2 Vietnamese short stories 25

CHAPTER 3: CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS OF “LIFE” IN TYPICAL SHORT STORIES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE. 3.1 Conceptual metaphors of ―Life‖ 27

3.1.1 Conceptual metaphor of life in typical short stories in English 27

3.1.1.1 LIFE IS AN ENTITY 27

3.1.1.2 LIFE IS A JOURNEY 29

3.1.1.3 LIFE IS A MACHINE 31

3.1.1.4 LIFE IS A CONTAINER 32

3.1.1.5 LIFE IS A WAR 34

3.1.1.6 LIFETIME IS PASSING OF TIME 35

3.1.1.7 LIFE IS A PAIN 37

3.1.1.8 LIFE IS A STORY 37

3.1.1.9 LIFE IS A GAME 37

3.1.1.10 LIFE IS A PERSONAL POSSESSION 38

3.1.1.11 LIFE IS A PERSON 39

3.1.2 Conceptual metaphor of life in typical short stories in Vietnamese 40

3.1.2.1 LIFE IS AN ENTITY 40

3.1.2.2 LIFE IS A JOURNEY 42

3.1.2.3 LIFE IS A MACHINE 43

3.1.2.4 LIFE IS A CONTAINER 44

3.1.2.5 LIFE IS A WAR 44

3.1.2.6 LIFETIME IS PASSING OF TIME 45

3.1.2.7 LIFE IS A PAIN 46

3.1.2.8 LIFE IS A STORY 47

3.1.2.9 LIFE IS A GAME 48

3.1.2.10 LIFE IS A PERSONAL POSSESSION 48

3.1.2.11 LIFE IS A PERSON 49

3.2 Similarities and differences between the structural and ontological metaphors of ―life‖ in typical short stories in English and Vietnamese……….49

3.2.1 Similarities 54

3.2.2 Differences 57

3.4 Summary 59

CHAPTER 4: COMMON ERRORS MADE BY LEARNERS OF ENGLISH WHEN USING METAPHORS OF "LIFE" 60

4.1 Survey questionnaires 60

4.1.1 Participants 60

4.1.2 Questionnaires 60

4.1.3 Procedure 61

4.2 Common errors made by learners of English when using metaphors denoting "life" 61

4.2.1 Common errors made by learners of English 61

4.2.2 Causes of committing errors 66

4.3 Suggestions for teachers, learners and translators 67

4.3.1 Suggestions for teachers 67

4.3.2 Suggestions for learners 67

4.3.3 Suggestions for translators 67

4.4 Summary 68

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 69

5.1 Concluding remarks 69

5.2 Limitation of the study 69

5.3 Suggestions for further study 70 REFERENCES

APPENDIX 1 ENGLISH & VIETNAMESE SHORT STORIES

APPENDIX 2 ENGLISH CORPUS ANALYZED IN THE STUDY

APPENDIX 3 VIETNAMESE CORPUS ANALYZED IN THE STUDY

APPENDIX 4 THE CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS OF ―LIFE‖ IN TYPICAL

SHORT STORIES IN ENGLISH APPENDIX 5 THE CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS OF ―LIFE‖ IN TYPICAL

SHORT STORIES IN VIETNAMESE APPENDIX 6 QUESTIONS FOR NATIVE SPEAKER 1

APPENDIX 7 QUESTIONS FOR NATIVE SPEAKER 2

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Number of

Table 2.1 Metaphorical Mapping between Conceptual Domains 15

Table 2.2 Metaphorical Mapping between Conceptual Domains 15

Table 3.1 A summary of conceptual metaphors of ―life‖ in typical short

Table 3.2 Frequency of Conceptual Metaphors of ―LIFE‖ in typical

short stories in English and Vietnamese 52

Figure 3.2.1

Frequency of Conceptual Metaphors of ―LIFE‖ in typical

Figure 3.2.2

Frequency of Conceptual Metaphors of ―LIFE‖ in typical

Table 3.3

A Comparison of Conceptual Metaphors of ―Life‖ in typical short stories in English and Vietnamese 60

Table 4.3 Results of questions from number 1 to 20 65

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale for the study

It is obvious that English has become an important part not only in communication but also in many other aspects of life Hence, one of the most important factors for developing countries like Vietnam to increase the integration process is that the teaching of English for the young generations should be much invested and become the top policy However, how to study it well and how to master it is still a difficult question for many learners

In recent years, cognitive linguistics has been considered as an increasingly essential discipline in language studies One of the most important branches of cognitive linguistics is cognitive semantics which emphasizes the importance of metaphor in language Metaphor –a perceptual conceptualizing tool, involves human cognitive processes, hence it helps human understand the changing world around In other words, conceptual metaphors help

us to comprehend a relatively abstract concept thanks to a more concrete concept

Life has been one of the most inspirational and enchanting topics for thousands of writers across the time Although the concept of life is commonly mentioned in our daily life or everyday conversations, its definition or true meaning cannot be described by only one or two words Life is the mixture of everything the mixture of happiness and sadness, success and failure, comfort and pain, encouragement and frustration, opportunities and obstacles, love and hatred, relief and sorrow, and struggle and surrender Therefore, it is hard to fully comprehend the concept of life itself without any connection with other concrete notions or tangible objects To illustrate that, imagine life is a game People are considered as players, who need to play as skillfully and fairly as they can with the aim to win, or acquire their own goals in life If the concept of life is perceived in terms of a journey, people are considered as travellers trying their best to overcome a impediments on their way to reach the final destinations As a result, the abstract concept of life can be metaphorically mentioned through other more delineated ones Depending on the distinctive features of different cultures or specific geographical characteristics of regions in the world, life has its own uniqueness

The conceptualization of life in Engish and Vietnamese short stories and the universal and unique conceptual referring to life among languages have given me a

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great inspiration to carry out a research entitled: " Structural and ontological metaphors of ―life‖ in typical short stories in English and Vietnamese " Hopefully, the findings of this study would make a contribution to the process of understanding and interpretation of conceptual metaphors in English and Vietnamese short stories 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

1.2.1 Aims of the study

As the title of my paper suggests, the primary aim of the study is to help Vietnamese teachers and learners of English investigating conceptual metaphors of ―life‖ effectively

1.2.2 Objectives of the study

The study is intended to fulfill the following objectives:

- Investigating the conceptual metaphors of ―life‖ in typical short stories in English and Vietnamese

- Making a comparison between expressions of conceptual metaphors used for describing life in typical short stories in English and Vietnamese

- Suggesting the implications for the teaching and learning of conceptual metaphors denoting life in English

c What are the implications for the use of conceptual metaphors in English,

in teaching, learning and translating?

1.4 Methods of the study

In this study, the quantitative and qualitative methods are applied in order to achieve its aims and objectives In addition, this research is also carried out on the base of contrastive and comparative analysis so as to make an investigation into the similarities and differences in the structural and ontological metaphors of ―life‖ in typical short stories in English and Vietnamese from cognitive semantic approach

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1.5 Scope of the study

Due to time constraints and within the framework of an M.A thesis, this research investigates only the similarities and differences in expressions of the structural and ontological metaphors of ―life‖ in typical short stories in English and Vietnamese from cognitive linguistics The researcher also chooses to investigate these conceptual metaphors in sixteen English short stories and sixteen Vietnamese short stories.(see Appendix 1)

1.6 Significance of the study

Theoretically, this study is hoped to provide useful contributions to studies of linguistic unit become from cognitive semantic approach, which in turn can shed light on researches in difficult other fields such as psychology, psycholinguistics, and applied cultural linguistics

Practically, this research is expected to help Vietnamese learners of English better understand ance of conceptual metaphors in English and Vietnamese literary works Moreover, it can contribute to the teaching of English literature in Vietnamese universities of volves world foreign languages

1.7 Design of the study

This study is composed of five chapters:

Chapter I, “Introduction”, present the rationale, the aims and objective of

the study, the research questions and the methods of the study I will also be

discussed to the presentation of the scope and the significance of the study

Chapter II, “Literature review”, is where a review of previous studies is

carried out and the theoretical background is provied

Chapter III, mainly focuses on describing and analyzing the structural and ontological metaphors of ―life‖ in typical short stories in English and Vietnamese Chapter IV, finds out common mistakes for learners and then propose solutions for

teaching and learning metaphors of "life" in typical short stories in English and Vietnamese

Chapter V, “Conclusion”, sums up the development of the study, some

limitation and suggestion for further research have been supplied This subsection brings about the practical value to the thesis from which readers can, to different degrees, benefi

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CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Previous studies

Cognitive Linguistics was emerged in the 1970s whose aim was to investigate the relationship of the language, the mind, and the socio physical experience of human beings Over the last decades, a variety of researches have been done in this aspect, especially for the conceptual emotional metaphors At this period of time, Lakoff began his collaboration with the philosopher Mark Johnson

in 1979, and they published their seminal book Metaphors We Live By in 1980, which was the first publication to bring Cognitive Linguistics to the attention of a wider audience In is work, Lakoff and Johnson present their strong arguments against the traditional view of metaphor and introduce a new one that challenged all the aspects of this widely-share theory in a coherent and systematic way They claim "metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action" (Lakoff& Johnson, 1980, p.3) They also introduce the notion of conceptual metaphor and illustrate their viewpoint with a huge number of linguistic examples This work is the main theoretical background and guideline for my thesis

There are many cognitive linguists contributing to the development of cognitive linguistics in the world such as: Kovecses (2010) points out that common target domains include emotion (such as anger, fear, love, happiness, sadness, shame and pride), desire, morality, thought, society/ nation, politics,economy, human relationships, communication, time, life and death,eligion, events and actions To illustrate that, Lakoff and Turner (1989) investigate metaphors for life and death, as well as time, in literary texts Johnson (1992) discussion of morality as moral accounting Jakel (1995) describes a large system of metaphors relating to the mind and thought, in which the mind is viewed as a workshop and thought as the manipulations of tools and objects Kovecses (1986, 1988, 1990, 1991a, 1991b) are analyses of various emotion concepts Lakoff (1990, 1993) looks at metaphor for events and actions in general Lakoff (1993, 1994) and Radden (1997) examine the concept of time as conceptualized in terms of moving objects Evans (2004) is a book-length study of time

In Lakoff and Turner's work (1989), More than Cool Reason: A field guide

to poetic metaphor, the conceptual metaphors denoting "life" were mostly examined

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on the scope of poems Other minor researches on the concept of life includes The Journeys of Life: Examining a Conceptual Metaphor with Semantic and Episodic Memory Recall (Katz & Taylor, 2008) with a deeper insight into only one conceptual metaphor LIFE IS A JOURNEY This conceptual metaphor is also discussed by Lakoff (1994) and Winter (1995) In general, the number of the researches into the conceptual metaphors denoting "life" merely takes up an insignificant part in comparison with other target domains, which inspires me to make a further study of this abstract concept

In Viet Nam, there are some noticeable cogntive linguistics, such as Lý Toàn Thắng (2005) , Trần Văn Cơ (2007), Nguyễn Đức Tồn (2007, 2009), Phan Văn Hòa (2008) and Nguyễn Lai (2009) Lý Toàn Thắng (2005) in his book ―Ngôn ngữ học tri nhận – Từ lý thuyết đại cương đến thực tiễn tiếng Việt‖ gives an introduction to cognitive linguistics and presents distinctive features of linguistics models about the world Trần Văn Cơ (2007) explains the traditional view of metaphor and points out the new viewpoint on this figure of speech in the light of cognitive linguistics Nguyễn Đức Tồn (2008) and Nguyễn Lai (2009) do research on the use of conceptual metaphors in idioms and poetry respectively Besides, there are some minor researches, carried out in VNU University of Languages and International

Studies, conceptual metaphors denoting “love” in American and Vietnamese romantic novels from 2008 t0 2013 by Lê Thị Khánh Hòa (2012); “life” and

“death” metaphors in some short stories by Jack london from cognitive perspective

by Hoàng Diệu Thu (2012) and conceptual metaphor denoting “economy” as

“human body” in nytimes.com and fica.vn (2013) by Hồ Thị Hải Yến (2014)

However, none of them mentioned in detail the conceptual metaphors denoting LIFE, and the similarities and differences between linguistic expressions deriving from these metaphors In the University of Da Nang, Hoàng Nguyễn Tôn Ngân (2014) also made a research on cognitive metaphors denoting the concept of "life", but the source of analyzed data was taken from English and Vietnamese lyric song Despite all the existing books and researches on conceptualization in the world in general and Vietnamese in particular, there has been no specific study on structural and ontological metaphors of ―life‖ in typical short stories in English and Vietnamese, which motivates me to make an investigation in this topic

is used for "any kind of mental operation or structure that can be studied in precise terms" (Lakoff and Johnson, 1999) This conceptualization is very broad, and should not be confused with how "cognitive" is used in some traditions of analytic philosophy, where "cognitive" has to do only with formal rules and truth conditional semantics

The ability to learn and understand language is an extremely complex process A major driving force in the theoretical linguistic field is discovering the nature that language must have in the abstract in order to be learned in such a fashion The study of language processing ranges from the investigation of the sound patterns of speech to the meaning of words and whole sentences Linguistics often divides language processing into orthography, phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics Many aspects of language can be studied from each of these components and from their interaction

The study of language processing in cognitive science is closely tied to the field of linguistics Linguistics was traditionally studied as a part of the humanities, including studies of history, art and literature In the last fifty years or so, more and more researchers have studied knowledge and use of language as a cognitive phenomenon, the main problems being how knowledge of language can be acquired

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and used, and what precisely it consists of.[8] Linguists have found that, while humans form sentences in ways apparently governed by very complex systems, they are remarkably unaware of the rules that govern their own speech Thus linguists must resort to indirect methods to determine what those rules might be, if indeed rules as such exist In any event, if speech is indeed governed by rules, they appear

to be opaque to any conscious consideration

2.2.2 Cognitive Linguistics

Cognitive Linguistics is an approach to the analysis of natural language that originated in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the work of George Lakoff, Ron Langacker, and Len Talmy In contrast with other linguistic researches, Cognitive Linguistics is deemed to be a flexible framework rather than a single theory of language In other words, it includes a cluster of many partially overlapping approaches rather than a single well-defined theory In the light of Cognitive Linguistics, language is considered as a way of organizing knowledge that reflects the needs, interests, and experiences of individuals and cultures formal The structures of language are studied not as if they were autonomous, but as reflections

of general conceptual organization categorization principles, processing mechanisms, and experiential and environmental influences (Dirk & Hubert, 2007) Whereas the generative grammarians only analyze language on the base of a precisely formulated set of rules whose output is all the grammatical sentences in a given language, for the Cognitive approach, natural language is not only seen as a system of rules, but also a repository of world knowledge, a structured collection of meaningful categories that help us deal with new experiences and store old information (Dirk & Hubert, 2007)

Until now, its theory formation is not yet completely stabilized However, according to Croft & Cruse (2004), there are three fundamental hypotheses considered as the guiding principles of Cognitive Linguistics to language:

- Language is not an autonomous cognitive faculty

- Grammar is conceptualization

- Knowledge of language emerges from language use

These above hypotheses are presented as opposite responses to the other vigorous research paradigms including Generative Grammar and Truth-conditional Semantics Today, the arguments and empirical questions are still raised by the cognitive linguistics to protect their hypotheses

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Topics of special interest for Cognitive Linguistics include: the structural characteristics of natural language categorization (such as prototypicality, systematic polysemy, cognitive models, mental imagery, and metaphor) the functional principles of linguistic organization (such as iconicity and naturalness); the conceptual interface between syntax and semantics (as explored by Cognitive Grammar and Construction Grammar); the experiential and pragmatic background

of language-in-use; and the relationship between language and thought, including questions about relativism and conceptual universals

Although there has been more than thirty years of development in the world researches related to "Cognitive linguistics" just account for an insignificant numbers in Viet Nam with some noticeable authors such as Lý Toàn Thắng (2005), Trần Văn Cơ (2007), Phan Văn Hoài (2008), Nguyễn Đức Tồn (2007, 2008) and Nguyễn Lai (2009)

2.2.3 Cognitive Semantics

Cognitive semantics is part of the cognitive linguistics movement Cogitive semantics is typically used as a tool for lexical studies such as those put forth by Leonard Talmy, George Lakoff, Dirk Geeraerts and Bruce Wayne Hawkins

As part of the field of cognitive linguistics, the cognitive semantics approach rejects the formal traditions modularisation of linguistics into phonology, syntax, pragmatics, etc Instead it divides semantics (meaning) into meaning-construction and knowledge representation Therefore, cognitive semantics studies much of the area traditionally devoted to pragmatics as well as semantics

Cognitive semantic theories are typically built on the argument that lexical meaning is conceptual That is, the meaning of a lexeme is not reference to the entity or relation in the "real world" that the lexeme refers to, but to a concept in the mind based on experiences with that entity or relation An implication of this is that semantics is not objective and also that semantic knowledge is not isolatable from encyclopaedic knowledge

Moreover, cognitive semantic theories are also typically built upon the idea that semantics is amenable to the same mental processes as encyclopaedic knowledge They thus involve many theories from cognitive psychology and cognitive anthropology such as prototypicality, which cognitive semanticists argue

is the basic cause of polysemy

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Another trait of cognitive semantics is the recognition that lexical meaning is not fixed but a matter of construal and conventionalization The processes of linguistic construal, it is argued, are the same psychological processes involved in the processing of encyclopaedic knowledge and in perception

Many cognitive semantic frameworks, such as that developed by Leonard Talmy take into account syntactic structures as well, while others focus mainly on lexical entities

The four tenets of cognitive semantics are:

1 Semantic structure is conceptual structure

2 Conceptual structure is embodied

3 Meaning representation is encyclopaedic

4 Meaning-construction is conceptualisation

2.2.4 Metaphor

2.2.4.1 The traditional view of metaphors

Metaphor used to be simply defined as ― a figure of speech in which a word

or phrase is used to describe something it does not literally denote‖ (mcGlone, 2007:109) The Greek rhetoricians considered metaphor one of the master devices namely trope which is based on the implicitly marked comparison of two categories

Up to the late 19th century, the study of metaphor was still considered the main concern of literary scholars who were interested in the interpretation of particular tropes in poetry and fiction According to the Aristotelian comparison view" (1965), metaphor was characterized by the schematic form: A is B, such as this journal is a gem and could be explicitly interpreted in simile form: A is like B (this journal is like a gem (cited in McGlone, 2007:110) Thus, the comparison view, underlines Miller (1993: 186-188), treats metaphors as a species of a species of analogy and asserts that the perception of similarity is the basis of metaphor use and comprehension However, many scholars reject that simplistic comparison

view about metaphor Richards (1936:90) denies that metaphor is mere ornament and a unique feature of language but "the omnipresent principle of all its free action" He also clarifies the metaphor form and provides a fairly standard terminology of metaphor The term used metaphorically is the "vehicle" (e.g a gem), the term to which it is applied is the "tenor" or "topic" (e.g this journal), and the meaning of the metaphor is the "ground" Building on Richards' work, Black (1962) proposes his interaction view" where metaphors reflect the process of

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perceiving the topic concept "in terms of the vehicle concept to produce a ground that combines their conceptual attributes and transcends their literal denotations (cited in McGlone, 2007:110) His theory, however, is criticized by many contemporary metaphor theorists for its vague explanation of figurative transcendence

2.2.4.2 Metaphors in the Cognitive Linguistic View

A new view of metaphor that challenged all the aspects of the powerful traditional theory in a systematic way was first developed by Lakoff and George Mark Johnson (1980) in their seminal study: Metaphor We Live By Lakoff and Johnson in their work strongly stated that:

1) Metaphor is a property of concepts, not of words

2) The purpose of using metaphor is to comprehend concepts in a deeper way, not just for decorative function in literature

3) The basis of metaphor is not merely based on similarity

4) Metaphor is not a matter of special talents, but is used effortlessly in everyday life by ordinary people

5) Metaphor is not a superfluous process by using metaphorical expressions but is an integral one of human thought and reasoning in order to conceive the world

2.2.4.2.1 What is metaphor?

For over 2,000 years, metaphor was studied within the discipline known as rhetoric This discipline was first established in ancient Greece, and was focused on practical instruction in how to persuade others of a particular point of view by the use of rhetorical devices Metaphor was one of these devices, which were called tropes by rhetoricians Due to its central importance, metaphor came to be known

as the master trope Within this approach, metaphor was characterised by the schematic form: A is B, as in Achilles is a lion As a consequence, metaphor has been identified since the time of Aristotle with implicit comparison In other words, while metaphor is based on the comparison of two categories, the comparison is not explicitly marked This contrasts with simile, where the comparison is overtly signalled by the use of as or like: Achilles is as brave as a lion; Achilles is brave, like a lion

Clearly, examples of metaphor like Achilles is a lion are based on comparison Following Grady (1997a, 1999) we will use the term perceived

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resemblance to describe this comparison In this case, the resemblance is not physical: Achilles does not actually look like a lion Instead, due to cultural knowledge which holds that lions are courageous, by describing Achilles as a lion

we asso- ciate him with the lion‘s qualities of courage and ferocity Metaphors of this kind are called resemblance metaphors (Grady 1999)

Resemblance metaphors based on physical resemblance have been called image metaphors (Lakoff and Turner 1989) In other words, image

metaphors are one subset of resemblance-based metaphors For instance, con- sider the following translation of the beginning of André Breton‘s surrealist poem ‗Free Union‘, cited in Lakoff and Turner (1989: 93):

My wife whose hair is a brush fire

Whose thoughts are summer lightning

Whose waist is an hourglass

Whose waist is the waist of an otter caught in the teeth of a tiger

Whose mouth is a bright cockade with the fragrance of a star of the first magnitude

Several of these lines represent image metaphors For example, in the third line the poet is establishing a visual resemblance between the shape of his wife‘s waist and the shape of an hourglass

Resemblance metaphors have received considerable attention within concep- tual metaphor theory, particularly within the approach now known as Cognitive Poetics (see Lakoff and Turner 1989 for a seminal study; see also Stockwell 2002, and Gavins and Steen 2003) However, for the most part, research in the conceptual metaphor tradition has not been primarily concerned with meta- phors of this kind Instead, research in this tradition has focused on the kind of everyday language illustrated in the following examples These examples repre-

sent common ways of referring to particular experiences of relationships like marriage The examples in (15) are from Lakoff and Johnson (1980: 44–5)

a Look how far we’ve come

b We’re at a crossroads

c We’ll just have to go our separate ways

d We can’t turn back now

e I don’t think this relationship is going anywhere

f Where are we?

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g We’re stuck

h It’s been a long, bumpy road

i This relationship is a dead-end street

j We’re just spinning our wheels

k Our marriage is on the rocks

l This relationship is foundering

What is striking about these examples is that they represent ordinary everyday ways of talking about relationships: there is nothing stylised or overtly poetic about these expressions Moreover, for the most part, they do not make use of the linguistic formula A is B, which is typical of resemblance metaphors However, these expressions are clearly non-literal: a relationship cannot liter- ally spin its wheels, nor stand at the crossroads

Although a slim volume, Lakoff and Johnson‘s 1980 book Metaphors We Live By changed the way linguists thought about metaphor for two important reasons Firstly, Lakoff and Johnson observed that metaphorical language appears to relate to an underlying metaphor system, a ‗system of thought‘ In other words, they noticed that we cannot choose any conceptual domain at random in order to describe relationships like marriage Observe that the expressions in have something

in common: in addition to describing experiences of relationships, they also rely upon expressions that relate to the conceptual domain JOURNEYS Indeed, our ability to describe relationships in terms of journeys appears to be highly productive

This pattern led Lakoff and Johnson to hypothesise a conventional link at the conceptual level between the domain of LOVE RELATIONSHIPS and the domain

of JOURNEYS According to this view, LOVE, which is the target (the domain being described), is conventionally structured in terms of JOURNEYS, which is the source (the domain in terms of which the target is described) This association is called a conceptual metaphor According to Lakoff and Johnson, what makes it a metaphor is the conventional association of one domain with another.What makes it conceptual (rather than purely linguistic) is the idea that the motivation for the metaphor resides at the level of concep- tual domains In other words, Lakoff and Johnson proposed that we not only speak in metaphorical terms, but also think in metaphorical terms From this perspective, linguistic expressions that are

As these examples demon- strate, a metaphorical link between two domains consists

of a number of distinct correspondences or mappings According to this view, ceptual metaphors are always at least partially motivated by and grounded in experience As we have seen, then, cognitive semanticists define metaphor as a conceptual mapping between source and target domain

con-2.2.4.2.2 Conceptual Metaphor as a Set of Mappings

The definition of metaphor in the light of cognitive linguistics is CONCEPTUAL DOMAIN A is understood in terms of CONCEPTUAL DOMAIN

B To be more specific, ―there is a set of systematic correspondences between the source and the target in the sense that constituent conceptual elements of B correspond to constituent elements of A‖ (Kovecses, 2010, p.7) These conceptual correspondences are commonly regarded as mappings Let us take the SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS ARE PLANTS conceptual metaphor as an example

SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS ARE PLANTS

He works for the local branch of the bank

Our company is growing

They had to prune the workforce

A set of correspondences, or mappings between constituent elements of the source (i.e PLANTS) and those of the target (i.e SOCIAL ORGANATIONS) can

be laid out as follows

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1 The whole plant the entire organization

2 A part of the plant a part of the organization

3 Growth of the plant development of the organization

4 Removing a part of the plant reducing the organization

5 The root of the plant the origin of the organization

6 The flowering the best stage, the most successful stage 7.The fruits The beneficial consequences

Table 2.1 Metaphorical Mapping between Conceptual Domains

Let us consider another example with the conceptual metaphor LOVE IS A JOURNEY, in which the target domain – love is conceived in terms of the source domain – a journey Some metaphorical linguistics expressions are commonly used

by speakers of English in daily conversations in order to talk about the abstract concept – love

LOVE IS A JOURNEY

Look how far we’ve come

We’ll just have to go our separate ways

We can’t turn back now

The mappings of the conceptual metaphor LOVE IS A JOURNEY can be as follows:

Source: JOURNEY Mappings Target: LOVE

JOURNEY EVENTS IN THE RELATIONSHIP DISTANCE COVERED PROGRESS MADE

OBSTACLES ENCOUNTERED DIFFICULTIES EXPERIENCED DECISIONS ABOUT DIRECTION CHOICES ABOUT WHAT TO DO DESTINATION OF THE JOURNEY GOALS OF THE RELATIONSHIP

Table 2.2 Metaphorical Mapping between Conceptual Domains

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In general, mapping are regarded as the systematic set of correspondences between constituent elements of conceptual domain A (i.e target domain), and conceptual domain B (i.e source domain), which characterize conceptual metaphors

2.2.4.2.3 Kind of Metaphors

Metaphors can be classified in a range of different ways, based on various criteria, from complexity to level of usage Lakoff and Johnson (1980) introduced three general kinds of conceptual metaphor including structural, ontological, and orientational metaphors These kinds of metaphor often coincide in particular cases

2.2.4.2.3.1 Structural Metaphors

A structural metaphor is a metaphorical system in which one complex concept (typically abstract) is presented in terms of some other (usually more concrete) concept

A structural metaphor "need not be explicitly articulated or defined," according to John Goss, "but it operates as a guide to meaning and action in the discursive context within which it operates" ("Marketing the New Marketing" in Ground Truth , 1995)

Structural metaphor is one of the three overlapping categories of conceptual metaphors identified by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in Metaphors We Live

By (1980) (The other two categories are orientational metaphor and ontological metaphor ) "Each individual structural metaphor is internally consistent," say Lakoff and Johnson, and it "imposes a consistent structure on the concept it structures."

Let‘s consider the following example:

"ARGUMENT IS WAR is an example of a structural metaphor According

to Lakoff and Johnson, structural metaphors are 'cases where one concept is metaphorically structured in terms of another' (1980/ 2003:14) Source domains provide frameworks for target domains : these determine the ways in which we think and talk about the entities and activities to which the target domains refer, and even the ways in which we behave or carry out activities, as in the case of argument‖

(M Knowles and R Moon, Introducing Metaphor Routledge, 2006)

The War Metaphor

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"In the structural metaphor ECONOMIC ACTIVITY = WAR, concepts from the source domain WARFARE are transferred to the target domain, because physical conflict is ubiquitous in human life and therefore quite well-structured and more readily understandable It coherently structures the relations between the various factors in economic activity: business is war; the economy is a battlefield; competitors are warriors or even armies fighting each other, and economic activities are conceptualized in terms of attack and defense, as illustrated in the following example:

As a result of the crisis, the Asians will strike back; they will launch an export offensive ( Wall Street Journal , June 22, 1998, 4)

The WAR metaphor is realized in the following schemata: ATTACK and DEFENSE as causes and WIN/LOSE as the result: successful attack and defense result in victory; unsuccessful attack and defense result in loss "

(Susanne Richardt, "Expert and Common-Sense Reasoning." Text, Context, Concepts , ed by C Zelinsky-Wibbelt Walter de Gruyter, 2003)

Labor and Time as Metaphors

"Let us now consider other structural metaphors that are important in our

lives: LABOR IS A RESOURCE and TIME IS A RESOURCE Both of these metaphors are culturally grounded in our experience with material resources Material resources are typically raw materials or sources of fuel Both are viewed as serving purposeful ends Fuel may be used for heating, transportation, or the energy used in producing a finished product Raw materials typically go directly into products In both cases, the material resources can be quantified and given a value

In both cases, it is the kind of material as opposed to the particular piece or quantity

of it that is important for achieving the purpose

"When we are living by the metaphors LABOR IS A RESOURCE and TIME

IS A RESOURCE, as we do in our culture, we tend not to see them as metaphors at all But both are structural metaphors that are basic to Western industrial societies."

(George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By The University

of Chicago Press, 1980

2.2.4.2.3.2 Ontological Metaphors

According to book ―Metaphors we live‖ by George Lakoff and Mark Johnsen (2003): Spatial orientations like up-down, front-back, on-off, center-

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periphery, and near-far provide an extraordinarily rich basis for understanding concepts in orientational terms But one can do only so much with orientation Our experience of physical objects and substances provides a further basis for understanding—one that goes beyond mere orientation Understanding our experiences in terms of objects and substances allows us to pick out parts of our experience and treat them as discrete entities or substances of a uniform kind Once

we can identify our experiences as entities or substances, we can refer to them, categorize them, group them, and quantify them—and, by this means, reason about them

When things are not clearly discrete or bounded, they still categorize them as such, e.g., mountains, street corners, hedges, etc Such ways of viewing physical phenomena are needed to satisfy certain purposes that we have: locating mountains, meeting at street corners, trimming hedges Human purposes typically require us to impose artificial boundaries that make physical phenomena discrete just as we are: entities bounded by a surface Just as the basic experiences of human spatial orientations give rise to orientational metaphors, so our experiences with physical objects (especially our own bodies) provide the basis for an extraordinarily wide variety of ontological metaphors, that is, ways of viewing events, activities, emotions, ideas, etc., as entities and substances

Ontological metaphors serve various purposes, and the various kinds of metaphors there are reflect the kinds of purposes served Take the experience of rising prices, which can be metaphorically viewed as an entity via the noun

inflation This gives us a way of referring to the experience:

Inflation is an entity

If there's much more inflation, we'll never survive We need to combat inflation Inflation is hacking us into a corner

Inflation is taking its toll at the checkout counter and the gas pump

Buying land is the best way of dealing with inflation Inflation makes me sick

In these cases, viewing inflation as an entity allows us to refer to it, quantify

it, identify a particular aspect of it, see it as a cause, act with respect to it, and perhaps even believe that we understand it Ontological metaphors like this are necessary for even attempting to deal rationally with our experiences

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The range of ontological metaphors that we use for such purposes is enormous The following list gives some idea of the kinds of purposes, along with representative examples of ontological metaphors that serve them

Referring

We are working toward peace

The middle class is powerful silent force in American politics

The honor of our country is at stake in this war

I can't keep up with the pace of modern life

His emotional health has deteriorated recently

We never got to feel the thrill of victory in Vietnam

Identifying causes

Our influence in the world has declined because of our lack of moral fiber Internal dissension cost them the pennant

Setting goals and motivating actions

He went to New York to seek fame and fortune

Here's what you have to do to insure financial security I'm changing my way

of life so that I can find true happiness The FBI will act quickly in the face of a threat to national se- curity

As in the case of orientational metaphors, most of these expressions are not noticed as being metaphorical One reason for this is that ontological metaphors, like orientational metaphors, serve a very limited range of purposes—referring, quantifying, etc Merely viewing a nonphysical thing as an entity or substance does not allow us to comprehend very much about it But ontological metaphors may be further elaborated Here are two examples of how the ontological metaphor THE MIND IS AN ENTITY IS elaborated in our culture

The mind is a machine

We're still trying to grind out the solution to this equation My mind just isn't operating today

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Boy, the wheels are turning now!

I'm a little rusty today

We've been working on this problem all day and now we're running out of steam

The mind is a brittle object

Her ego is very fragile

You have to handle him with care since his wife's death He broke under cross-examination

I'm going to pieces

His mind snapped

These metaphors specify different kinds of objects They give us different metaphorical models for what the mind is and thereby allow us to focus on different aspects of mental experience The MACHINE metaphor gives us a conception of the mind as having an on-off state, a level of efficiency, a productive capacity, an internal mechanism, a source of energy, and an operating condition The BRITTLE OBJECT metaphor is not nearly as rich It allows us to talk only about psychological strength However, there is a range of mental experience that can be conceived of in terms of either metaphor The examples we have in mind are these:

He broke down (THE MIND IS A MACHINE)

He cracked up (THE MIND IS A BRITTLE OBJECT)

But these two metaphors do not focus on exactly the same aspect of mental experience When a machine breaks down, it simply ceases to function When a brittle object shatters, its pieces go flying, with possibly dangerous consequences Thus, for example, when someone goes crazy and becomes wild or violent, it would

be appropriate to say "He cracked up."

On the other hand, if someone becomes lethargic and unable to function for psychological reasons, we would be more likely to say "He broke down." Ontological metaphors like these are so natural and so pervasive in our thought that they are usually taken as self-evident, direct descriptions of mental phenomena The fact that they are metaphorical never occurs to most of us We take statements like

"He cracked under pressure" as being directly true or false This expression was in fact used by various journalists to explain why Dan White brought his gun to the San Francisco City Hall and shot and killed Mayor George Moscone Explanations

of this sort seem perfectly natural to most of us The reason is that metaphors like

back, on-off, deep-shallow, central-peripheral These spatial orientations arise from the fact that we have bodies of the sort we have and that they function as they do in our physical environment Orientational metaphors give a concept a spatial orientation; for example, HAPPY IS UP The fact that the concept HAPPY is oriented uP leads to English expressions like "I'm feeling up today."

Such metaphorical orientations are not arbitrary They have a basis in our physical and cultural experience Though the polar oppositions up-down, in-out, etc., are physical in nature, the orientational metaphors based on them can vary from culture to culture For example, in some cultures the future is in front of us, whereas in others it is in back We will be looking at up-down spatialization metaphors, which have been studied intensively by William Nagy (1974), as an illustration In each case, we will give a brief hint about how each metaphorical concept might have arisen from our physical and cultural experience These

accounts are meant to be suggestive and plausible, not definitive (George Lakoff

and Mark Johnsen, 2003, P16)

ORIENTATIONAL METAPHORS

Happy is up; sad is down

I'm feeling up That boosted my spirits My spirits rose You're in high spirits Thinking about her always gives me a lift I'm feeling down I'm depressed He's really low these days I fell into a depression My spirits sank

Physical basis: Drooping posture typically goes along with sadness and

depression, erect posture with a positive emotional state

Conscious is up; unconscious is down

Get up Wake up I'm up already He rises early in the morning He fell

asleep He dropped off to sleep He's under hypnosis He sank into a coma

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Physical basis: Humans and most other mammals sleep lying down and stand

up when they awaken

Health and life are up; sickness and death are down

He's at the peak of health Lazarus rose from the dead He's in top shape As

to his health, he's way up there He fell ill He's sinking fast He came down with the flu His health is declining He dropped dead

Physical basis: Serious illness forces us to lie down physically When you're dead, you are physically down

Having control or force is up; being subject to control or force is down

I have control over her I am on top of the situation He's in a superior position He's at the height of his power He's in the high command He's in the upper echelon His power rose He ranks above me in strength He is under my control He fell from power His power is on the decline He is my social inferior

He is low man on the totem pole

Physical basis: Physical size typically correlates with physical strength, and the victor in a fight is typically on top

More is up; less is down

The number of books printed each yea keeps going up His

In general, upward orientation normally transfers positive meaning, While

downward orientation with negative one

2.2.5 Short stories

According to Oxford Advanced Learner's dictionary (2000), a short story is defined as "a story, usually about imaginary characters and events, that is short enough to be read from beginning to end without stopping (p.1187) The term often refers to a work of fiction no longer than 20,000 words and no shorter than 1,000 Short stories tend to be less complex than novels, focusing on only one incident, with a single plot, a single setting, a limited number of characters, and covering a short period of time Short stories have their origins in narrative storytelling and prose anecdote As with any art form, the exact characteristics of a short story will vary by authors Singer (2000), an award-winning author of children's books in a variety of genres, collected ideas of different writers about the definition of short stories in her work What is a Short Story? "A short stories, in some ways, like a photograph a captured moment of time that is crystalline, though sometimes mysterious; arresting, though perhaps delicate" (Singer, 2000, p.38) In other words,

Regarding the short stories in English, there was a notable revival of interest

in the 1970s and 1980s Traditionalists including John Updike and Joyce Carol Oates maintained significant influence on the form Of the North America's foremost men of letters, John Updike was prolific in a variety of genres, especially

in short stories His works are highly regarded for its luminous prose style and commitment to realism, and also provide readers with a detailed social history of the late twentieth century To be more specific, they expose the metamorphosis of middle-elass domesticity in an era of greater sexual freedom, rising marital discord, heightened spiritual uncertainty, and increased social unrest (Bendixen & Nagel, 2010) In addition, minimalism gained widespread influence in the 1980s, most notably in the work of Raymond Carver and Ann Beattie Among the writers, Raymond Carver represents a return to realism as a literary mode after the postmodern experimentation of Barthelme, Gass and others; a realism which owes much to Hemingway but which also gives the mode a distinctively new inflection, exploring the strange turns of ordinary life, the odd corners within the familiar (Scofield, 2006) other noticeable authors during this period of time include Saul Bellow (979), Susan Sontag (1987), Alice Munro (1989), Lorrie Moore (1990), Rick Bass (1990), Robert Olen Butler (1990) and so on Their works are considered

as vivid descriptions of English life during that period of time

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Mean while, in Viet Nam, the historical background partly had a great influence of the development of Vietnamese literature in general and the genre of short story in particular On April 30 1975, the Fall of Saigon, or the Liberation of Saigon was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by the People's Army of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam The event marked the end of the Vietnam War and the start of a transition period to the formal reunification of Vietnam under the Socialist Republic During the renewal process Vietnamese literature in general and short stories in particular experienced significant changes Critic Ngo Van Gia (2016) pointed out the biggest achievement was a change of perception of human lives Authors adopted a completely new writing style and became famous They shifted from war-time aesthetics to peace- time aesthetics, from praising the war of resistance to focusing on human destinies, universal values, and questioning and engaging reality

Before 1975, short stories writers such as Nam Cao, To Hoai and Kim Lan tended to depict the plight of miserable people in the society with unfeigned vivid words and flexible descriptions They specifically concentrated on the lingering distressful tragedies of their inner souls, indirectly brought forward the prevailing social problems of this period After 1975, Vietnam's renewal shaped national culture and inspired artists' creativity Short stories written in this period of time embodied a different view of life Authors had freedom to speak out their voices, and reflect the reality of life for the people If, during the war time, a generation of writers basically fulfilled their historical responsibility, after the war the subsequent generation helped form an eventful literary period, winning the hearts of the audience Nguyen Minh Chau, Ma Van Khang, Nguyen Khai, Xuan Thieu and so

on were dominant short stories writers during this period of time These post-war generations of authors, who grew up after 1975, led more comfortable lives and had

a new view of reform, contributed a remarkable part to the development of Vietnamese literature

2.2.5.1 English short stories

The sixteen English short stories are selected from the two well-known

collections of short stories, specifically The Best American Short Stories of the Century collected by John Updike and Katrina Kenison (1999), and The Best American Short Stories edited by Alice Adams and Katrina Kenison (1991)

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In order to choose the best short stories for the collection The Best American Short Stories of the Century (1999), the editors read thousand stories published in

English periodicals, and from these, culled about 120 to pass on to the guest editor,

who then makes the final selection This ensures that The Best American Short Stories would never be simply a collection of the stories only John Updike and

Katrina Kenison like best This anthology has been shaped by the tastes and predilections of such varied talents such as Robert Stone, Alice Adams, Louise Erdrich, Tobias Wolff, Jane Smiley, John Edgar Widerman, Annie Proulx, and Garrison Keillor The collections they have assembled are reflections both of who they are and of the healthy vigor of the English short story at the end of this century There are two principles guiding the editors in the process of choosing the

short stories for this collection First, this selection needs to reflect the century, with each decade given roughly equal weight- what amounted to between six and eight stories per decade Second, it enforces the reflection of an English reality, deals with characters from the United States and excludes any story that did not take place on this continent On the scope of this study, there are seven English short stories chosen from this selection including:

A silver dish (Saul Bellow, 1979)

Gesturing (John updike, 1980)

Where I’m calling from (Raymond Carver, 1983)

Janus (Ann Beattie, 1986)

The way we live now (Susan Sontag, 1987)

Menseteung (Alice Munro, 1989)

You’re ugly, too (Lorrie Moore, 1990)

The remaining short stories used for this study are selected from The Best American Short Stories edited by Alice Adams and Katrina Kenison (1991) Similar

to the collection The Best American Short Stories of the Century (1999), a different

writer or critic has served as guest editor of the anthology, thereby ensuring its continued diversity The variety of viewpoints has enlivened the series and resulted

in volumes that reflect the passions and predilections of some of the finest writers at work today The qualifications for selection are: (1) original publication in nationally distributed American periodicals; (2) publication in English by writers who are American, or who have made the United States their home; and (3)

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publication as short stories There are nine English short stories chosen from this study in order to search for LIFE metaphorical expressions, as follows:

The trip back (Robert Olen Butler, 1990)

The point (Charles D’Ambrosio, JR, 1990)

Houdini (Siri Hustvedt, 1990)

Bologoye (Mikhail Lossel, 1990)

Glossolalia (David Jauss, 1990)

Viva la Tropicana (Leonard Michaels, 1990)

Willing (Lorie Moore, 1990)

Friend of my youth (Alice Munro, 1990)

American, Abroad (Joyce Carol Oates, 1990)

Each short story faithfully reflects different pieces of life in English, which becomes the valuable source for this thesis, in order to find out LIFE metaphorical expressions

The APPENDIX 2 will give detailed information of life metaphorical expressions used for this study in the sixteen English short stories

2.2.5.2 Vietnamese short stories

In terms of Vietnamese data, the sixteen short stories are selected from the collections of typical authors during the period of time from 1975 to 1991, including Nguyễn Khải – Tuyển tập truyện ngắn selected by Lê Tiến Dũng and Huyền My (2014), Xuân Thiều – 10 Truyện ngắn chọn lọc by Mai Thời Chính and Hoàng Kiên (2008), Nguyễn Minh Châu tuyển tập by Nguyễn Bích Hảo and Nguyễn Anh Vũ (2012), Ma Văn Kháng – Truyện ngắn chọn lọc by Nguyễn Phan Hách and Nguyễn Thị Anh Thư (2003)

Nguyễn Minh Châu is considered as the outstanding successor in the Vietnamese prose, and the person who paved the way for the brilliant talented young writers late as well His career lasted for three decades (1960 – 1989), with a significant number of well-known literal works On the scope of this study, there are

merely five short stories chosen as the source of data analyzed, specifically Khách ở quê ra (1984), Bên đường chiến tranh (1985), Bến quê (1985), Cỏ lau (1987) and Phiên chợ Giáp (1989) All these works closely describe the real life of ordinary

people, and reflect their way of conceiving the abstract concept of LIFE in terms of others

Themes of work by Nguyễn Khải vary from the country life in the innovative period of time, the life of soldiers during the war against English army, the typical social and political issues, to the spiritual and ideological life of Vietnamese people witnessing the country‘s complicated changes The short stories selected for this thesis also reflect Vietnamese people‘s life in an accurate and direct way,

specifically Một giọt nắng nhạt (1983), Mùa lạc (1990), Hậu duệ dòng họ Ngô Thì (1990), Một người Hà Nội (1990) and Anh hùng vĩ bận (1991)

At the age of 15, Xuân Thiều joined the patriotic movement, and then worked for the Vietnamese army Therefore, the love for the country permeated the pages of his writing Although his works do not account for a significant number, every page, or story closely describes the life of Vietnamese people who had been writhing to go through the war, won a heroic victory by their own blood and tears, and kept fighting during the innovative period of time The short stories analyzed in this study including Vùng rừng ẩm ướt (1983), Tháng ngày đã qua (1984) and Người mẹ tội lỗi (1985)

The APPENDIX 3 will give detailed information of life metaphorical expressions used for this study in the sixteen Vietnamese short stories

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CHAPTER 3 CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS OF “LIFE” IN TYPICAL SHORT STORIES

IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

3.1 Conceptual metaphors of ―Life‖

Life is an abstract concept which can be understood by the many delineated concepts, and there are many different domains of experience can conceptualize life However, my collected data can only be classified into eleven sets of conceptual metaphors as follows:

No CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS No CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS

1 LIFE IS AN ENTITY 7 LIFE IS A PAIN

2 LIFE IS A JOURNEY 8 LIFE IS A STORY

3 LIFE IS A MACHINE 9 LIFE IS A GAME

4 LIFE IS A CONTAINER 10 LIFE IS A PERSONAL POSSESSION

5 LIFE IS A WAR 11 LIFE IS A PERSON

6 LIFETIME IS PASSING OF TIME

Table 3.1 A summary of conceptual metaphors of “life” in typical short stories

in English and Vietnamese

The order of these conceptual metaphors is based on their occurrence in the selected short stories, specifically from the most frequent use to the least one 3.1.1 Conceptual metaphor of life in typical short stories in English

3.1.1.1 LIFE IS AN ENTITY

An entity is something that exists as itself, as a subject or as an object, actually or potentially, concretely or abstractly, physically or not It need not be of material existence According to the George Lakoff and Mark Johnsen (2003) in the book "Metaphors we live" an entity is defined as "Once we can identify our experiences as entities or substances, we can refer to them, categorize them, group them, and quantify them - and by this means, reason about them When things are not clearly discrete or bounded, we still categorize them" Let us consider some example denoting the conceptual metaphor LIFE IS AN ENTITY in English short stories

Referring

(1) She meant that she caught a whiff of a cheap life, maybe even of drinking

establishments and unsavory men, of hard bargains, which Flora was too unworldly to notice (Adams & Kenison, 1991, p 323)

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(2) "It was too strange of a life That life wasn't you, Woody (Updike &

Kenison, 1999, p 560)

(3) The Reverend Doctor taught him to lift up his eyes, gave him his higher life

Apart from this higher life, the rest was Chicago the ways of Chicago, which

came so natural that nobody thought to question them (Updike & Kenison,

1999, p 544)

(4) Pop had carried him back to his side of the line, blood of his blood, the same

thick body walls, the same coarse grain Not cut out for a spiritual life

Simply not up to it (Updike & Kenison, 1999, p 560)

(5) And what about Halina? She puts her life on the line, but my own kid says

no (Updike & Kenison, 1999, p 549)

(6) "You got something better in your miserable life? (Adams & Kenison, 1991,

p 289)

(7) I read about that life in the Vidette (Updike & Kenison, 1999, p 636)

In the short stories of English, they think life can be seen as an entity - a concrete object, a thing that has definite, individual existence outside or within the mind or anything real in itself, as follows:

Categorizing

(8) She said men have impoverished lives (Adams & Kenison, 1991, p.280)

(9) Woodrow was leading a double life, sacred and profane (Updike &

Kenison, 1999, p 544)

(10) "How do you know that?" "Get a life! What am I, an idiot?" (Adams &

Kenison, 1991, p 312)

(11) That winter I began parting my hair on the right instead of the left, as my

father did, and whenever the house was empty I worked on changing my voice, practicing the inflections and accents of my classmates' fathers as if

they were clues to a new life (Adams & Kenison, 1991, p.244)

(12) Like most people confined to an institution, she had been divested of a past

life (Adams & Kenison, 1991, p 214)

(13) Although everybody in this part of the world, unless he was crazy, led a

practical life, and you'd have nothing to say to anyone, your neighbors

would have nothing to say to you if communications were not of a practical sort, Mrs Skoglund, with all her money, was unworldly two-thirds out of this world (Updike & Kenison, 1999, p 555)

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An entity is a tangible and visible object, or a physical item It is connected with things that actually exist or are present; and can be seen and felt rather than things that only exist in a person‘s mind such as the notion of life In contrast, life is an abstract term, which merely can be understood based on general ideas and not on any particular real person, thing or situation Therefore, it

is possible to classify entities into different groups with distinctive features Similarly, the nonconcrete concept of life understood in term of the more concrete

one an entity can be categorized into various types such as a scared life, a profane life, a practical life, a spiritual life, a sexual life, a past life, a new life, impoverished lives, and a miserable life Each type of life may have their unique

characters To illustrate that, let‘s consider some following life expressions:

(14) There was no forgetting what had happened, trying to enjoy sensations of

light, as if I had time for the mere luxury of being alive (Adams & Kenison,

1991, p 281)

(15) .everyone is at risk, everyone who has a sexual life, because sexuality is a

chain that links each of us to many others, unknown others, and now the greatest chain of being has become a chain of death as well (Updike & Kenison, 1999, p 608)

(16) .plus the usual remorseful assessments of his past life, his pardonable

superficialities, capped by resolves to live better, more deeply, more in touch with his work and his friends, (Updike & Kenison, 1999, p 605) (17) My Flora would be as wrong as hers was right Rejoicing in the bad turns

done to her and in her own forgiveness, spying on the shambles of her sister's life (Adams & Kenison, 1991, p.329)

(18) A good businessman knows when to stop thinking and to act instead drew

close to my wife, but only briefly did my arm rise and hold her That was the

same as all the other forgotten gestures of my life (Adams & Kenison, 1991,

p.94)

In general, conceptualizing life in terms of an entity allows us to pick out parts of the abstract concept and treat them as discrete, which helps us understand life in a deeper way

3.1.1.2 LIFE IS A JOURNEY

George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, in the book Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought, discuss how we use

30

metaphor to structure our perceptions One complex metaphor is of life as a journey, like a train trip with a timetable and destinations You have expectations and assumptions You imagine that to have a meaningful life you need goals and a plan

By such understanding, a person's life is considered as a traveller's journey, with their common goals in life that can be seen as the destinations to be reached What is more, the journey is not always easy, and may have obstacles or difficulties Therefore, there are some places where a decision has to be made about which direction to go in and whether to keep travelling together or not In people's lives, hardships or constant ups and downs are unavoidable; thus, it is really important for human beings to be strong, brave and determined on the way they choose

A number of metaphorical expressions manifested from the conceptual metaphor LIFE IS A JOURNEY have been found in typical short stories in English

(19) In waking life, I was lost (Adams & Kenison, 1991, p 314)

(20) Subsequently, he proceeded through life (Updike & Kenison, 1999, p 563) (21) He moved like a water bug, like a skipping stone, upon the glassy tense

surface of his new life (Updike & Kenison 1999, p 570)

(22) He was here at Frank Martin's to dry out and to figure how to get his life

back on track (Updike & Kenison, 1999, p 586)

(23) However my life swerved, it answered to his remote determinations even as

the fragrant waters of Penelope opened to me in widening circles life the Red Sea for Moses (Adams & Kenison, 1991, p 294)

(24) Her room was a corner room where a piano was allowed It was L-shaped,

like a life veering of suddenly to become something else (Adams &

Kenison, 1991, p 299)

Life is a journey filled with lessons, hardships, heartaches, joys, celebrations and special moments that will ultimately lead us to our destination, our purpose in life The road will not always be smooth; in fact, throughout our travels, we will encounter many challenges Some of these challenges will test our courage, strengths, weaknesses, and faith Along the way, we may stumble upon obstacles that will come between the paths that we are destined to take In order to follow the right path, we must overcome these obstacles Sometimes these obstacles are really blessings in disguise, only we don't realize that at the time

The following examples taken from some short stories will help us to realize how this conceptual metaphor is mapped through the means of lexical items

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(25) The idea was this - that at a certain age, a black hole emerged in the middle

of your life, and everything got sucked into it, and you knew, forever

afterward, that it was there, this dense negative space, and yet you went on, you struggled, you made your money, you had some babies, you got wasted, and you pretended it wasn‘t there and never looked directly at it, if you could manage the trick (Adams & Kenison, 1991, p 101)

(26) ―Do you know how suddenly life can turn?‖ Mrs Gurney asked ―How bad it

can get?‖ (Adams & Kenison, 1991, p 104)

(27) she saw it now, how their life would be together He would have an affair

then she would have an affair And then they would be gone and gone, and they would live in that gone (Adams & Kenison, 1991, p 308)

(28) When she would not decide in his favor, would not change her life and come

to him, he asked her what made her think she could have it both ways

(Updike & enison, 1999, p.599)

(29) He came to America as an immigrant kid Life was tough He made his way

(Adams & Kenison, 1991, p.282)

Life is often described as having a beginning, direction, destinations, obstacles, turns and an end Along our journey we will be confronted with many situations, some will be filled with joy, and some will be filled with heartache The people that we meet on our journey, are people that we are destined to meet Everybody comes into our lives for some reason or another and we don't always know their purpose until it is too late They all play some kind of role Some may stay for a lifetime; others may only stay for a short while

To sum up, the more abstract notion of life can be comprehended through the more concrete one, a journey with various metaphorical linguistic expressions analyzed above They are dealt with separately with the former emphasising on the way how life is spoken about as an entity, which may not be always be a concrete object, while the latter on how and what we do with this entity as an concrete object

3.1.1.3 LIFE IS A MACHINE

According to Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, machine is defines as " a tool containing one or more parts that uses energy to perform an intended action‖ Machines are usually powered by chemical, thermal, or electrical means, and are often motorized Historically, a power tool also required moving parts to classify as a machine However, the advent of electronics has led to the