The semantics of color expressions in john milton’s poem paradise lost a conceptual metaphor based study

DECLARATION I hereby, certify the thesis entitled ―The semantics of color expressions in John Milton’s poem Paradise Lost: a conceptual- metaphor- based study ‖ is the result of my own

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

(Ý NGHĨA CỦA NHỮNG CỤM TỪ CHỈ MÀU SẮC TRONG BÀI THƠ

“THIÊN ĐƯỜNG ĐÃ MẤT” CỦA JOHN MILTON: NGHIÊN CỨU

ẨN DỤ Ý NIỆM)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English linguistics

Code: 60220201

HANOI - 2017

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

(Ý NGHĨA CỦA NHỮNG CỤM TỪ CHỈ MÀU SẮC TRONG BÀI THƠ

“THIÊN ĐƯỜNG ĐÃ MẤT” CỦA JOHN MILTON: NGHIÊN CỨU

ẨN DỤ Ý NIỆM)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: Linguistics Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Prof Nguyễn Hòa

HANOI - 2017

DECLARATION

I hereby, certify the thesis entitled ―The semantics of color expressions in

John Milton’s poem Paradise Lost: a conceptual- metaphor- based study ‖ is the

result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi The thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other universities or institutions I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library can be accessible for the purposes

of study and research

Hanoi, 2017

Trần Thanh Phương

ABSTRACT

Every language has a set of basic color terms However, these color terms do not divide the meanings of colors in the same place In other words, color expressions following Conceptual Metaphor Theory may have various meanings in different languages, and usually contains cultural and even theological background This paper

aims to study the semantics of color expressions in John Milton‘s poem Paradise Lost

The range of color terms is not very extensive as the study pays attention to only five

colors red, blue, white, green and black These five colors develop a particular range

of symbolic meanings with religious connotations However, the analysis of color terms requires considerable knowledge of various scientific subjects, hence, the study adopts an interdisciplinary approach as evidence on the meaning of color terms is obtained from literature, theology as well as cognitive science Specially, this article also represents the process of classifying, analyzing, mapping and conceptualizing the color expressions The findings of the study reveal that color vocabulary is structured into two concepts, namely of light and darkness At the same time, through analyzing these expressions, a short comparison between color expressions in English and in Vietnamese is described so as to make the research useful for learners

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my profound gratitude to my supervisor, Prof Nguyễn Hòa whose encouragement, guidance and support enabled me to develop an understanding of the subject and to accomplish the final version of the thesis as expected

Especially, I owe my deepest gratitude to my family, friends, and colleagues whose encouragement helped me finish this work

Last but not least, I offer my regards to all of those who supported me in any respect during the completion of the study

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration i

Abstract ……… … ii

Acknowledgement ……… iii

Table of contents.……… iv

PART A: INTRODUCTION……… 1

1 Rationale……… 1

2 Scope of the study……… 2

3 Aims of the study ……… ……… 3

4 Research question……… … … 3

5 Organization of the study……… …… 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: Literature review ……….…… 5

Chapter II: Theoretical background ……….…… 7

2.1 Cognitive linguistics ……….….…… 7

2.2 Cognitive semantics ……….…… 8

2.3 Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Conceptual metaphor ……….… 9

2.4 Types of conceptual metaphor ……… …… 11

2.5 Mapping ……… ……… 14

2.6 Image schemas ……….……….……… 15

2.7 Prototype ……….…… ……… … 16

2.8 Basic color terms and classification of colors ……….… 17

Chapter III: Methodology ……….……… 18

3.1 Methods of the study ……… ……… 18

3.2 Data collection instruments ……… … 18

Chapter IV: Results and Findings ……… 20

4.1.The concept of color terms in John Milton’s poem Paradise Lost ………… 20

4.1.1 The concept of black in John Milton’s poem Paradise Lost …… 21

4.1.1.1 BLACK IS HELL ……… ……… 21

4.1.1.2 BLACK IS DARKNESS ……….………… 24

4.1.1.3 BLACK IS DEATH ……….………… ……… 27

4.1.2 The concept of white in John Milton’s Paradise Lost:……… …29

WHITE IS LIGHT ……… ……….… 29

4.1.3 The concept of blue in John Milton’s poem Paradise Lost: ….……… 30

BLUE IS HEAVEN ……… 30

4.1.4 The concept of green in John Milton’s poem Paradise Lost….…….… 31

4.1.4.1 GREEN IS HOPE ……… …….……… 31

4.1.4.2 GREEN IS LIFE ……… ……….…… 32

4.1.5 The concept of red in John Milton’s poem Paradise Lost ………….… 32

4.1.5.1 RED IS BLOOD ……….……… 32

4.1.5.2 RED IS LOVE ……….……… ……… … 34

4.1.6 The concept of light and darkness in John Milton’s poem……… 34

Paradise Lost PART C: Conclusion and suggestions for analyzing the meanings of color terms… 37

1 Recapitulation ……….… 37

2 Conclusion ……… ….… 38

3 Implications of the study……… 39

4 Limitations of the study ……… 40

5 Suggestions for further studies ……… ……… 40

REFERENCES 42

APPENDIX I

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Color terms seem to be an extraordinarily interesting field of study not only for anthropologists, physiologists and psychologists, but also for linguists, who made

a significant contribution to the study of color terms such as Brent Berlin and

Paul Kay (Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution, 1969) and Doris L Payne (Color Terms, 2006) The current study is an attempt to investigate the semantics of color expressions in John Milton‘s poem Paradise Lost from a conceptual

metaphor perspective

The main justification for the study is that much attention has been paid to color terms with deep interest since prehistoric times from early cave paintings to literature Earlier studies show that, colors were used for treating common and rare diseases by the ancient Egyptians since they believed that colors had totally magical and completely healing power For instance, the Aztecs used red dyes red dyes in religious ceremonies (Tull, 2013: 336) As far as colors in literature are concerned, they convey deeper meanings to the words which, in turn, help to transform the written content into

a more powerful instrument Therefore, colors are considered as a deep origin of symbolism as connotative meanings are evoked For example, color terms appeared in

Roman and Greek poems for the symbolic purposes As in the Iliad and the Odyssey, it could be possible to come across an apparent reference to blue hair and green honey

Smoley (2009: 151) mentioned: ―The poet probably meant to speak of what we would

express as yellow honey‖

The second reason for the study concerned with its topic is that Paradise Lost

published by John Milton in 1667 seems to be a long great poem in English language Moreover, it was recognized as are markable achievement shortly after it appeared, and has provoked a great deal of critical debate in the hundred years that people have been reading and thinking about it

The final reason for the study is that cognitive semantics offers a system of image schemas (Johnson, 1987) which are used to structure the physical experience, and a number of metaphor which help to map the structure of a concrete source domain onto

an abstract target domain These tools are useful in investigating the semantic

meanings of color terms in the poem Paradise Lost

Broadly speaking, there is a vast body of research conducted on color terms in distinct languages, even colors in literature from different cultures However, as regards the

color lexicon based on conceptual metaphor in Milton‘s poem Paradise Lost, it has not

been studied so thoroughly yet, therefore, this study is hoped to contribute something

to the research of the semantics of color expressions from a conceptual metaphor

perspective in John Milton‘s poem Paradise Lost

2 Scope of the study

First, this study mainly focuses on the great poem - Paradise Lost of the famous author

- John Milton It is considered as an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century

English poet, John Milton (1608–1674) The first version, published in 1667, consisted

of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse A second edition followed in 1674,

arranged into twelve books (in the manner of Virgil's Aeneid) with minor revisions

throughout and a note on the versification It has been seen by critics to be Milton's major work, and helped solidify his reputation as one of the greatest English poets of his time

The poem concerns the Biblical story of the Fall of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden The story opens in Hell, where Satan and his followers are recovering from defeat in a war where they waged against God Satan undertakes the mission alone and he journeys across chaos till he sees the new universe floating near the larger globe which is Heaven When Satan comes into the Garden of Eden, he sees Adam and Eve and starts

to be jealous of them He overhears them speak of God's commandment that they should not eat the forbidden fruit and relates how the world was created so mankind could one day replace the fallen angels in Heaven After that Satan returns to earth and enters a serpent When finding Eve alone, he induces her to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree As a result, their innocence is lost and they become aware of their nakedness because Adam also eats the fruit In shame and despair, they become hostile

to each other The Son of God descends to earth to judge the sinners, mercifully

delaying their sentence of death Upon his return to hell, instead of a celebration of victory, Satan and his crew are turned into serpents as punishment Adam is saddened

by these visions, but ultimately revived by revelations of the future coming of the Savior of mankind In sadness, mitigated with hope, Adam and Eve are sent away from the Garden of Paradise

They come to the conclusion for the reason of choosing this poem in attempt to

understand the semantics of color expressions in the poem is that Paradise Lost seems

to be the best epic poem of John Milton through ten books The poem concerns the Christian story of the fall of Satan and his brethren and the rise of Man: the temptation

of Adam and Eve by Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden And, colors

in Paradise Lost are deeply rooted into a religious scenario and they serve as a means

to express the poet‘s religious convictions

Second, this study mainly concentrates on terms containing color words in John

alphabetical order such as ―black, blue, brown, green, grey, orange, pink, purple, red, white and yellow‖ It may come as no surprise that most of the data include the terms

of spectral colors (red, blue and green) and achromatic colors (white and black) In this poem, black color takes precedence over red, blue and white colors Red color is used five times, blue with one time, green with two times, white with three times, and black with fifteen times

3 Aims of the study

On that account, an in-depth study is carried out to investigate the semantics of color expressions in John Milton‘s poem Paradise Lost from a conceptual metaphor perspective As a result, it is possible for Vietnamese learners to understand the

meanings of color terms in the poem Paradise Lost and with reference to the use of

color expressions in Vietnamese poetry

4 Research questions

Particularly, the study is aimed at answering the following question:

What is the semantics of color expressions in John Milton‘s poem Paradise Lost from

a conceptual metaphor perspective?

5 Organization of the study

The paper consists of three main parts and some appendices:

Part A, Introduction, covers rationale, aims, scope, and organization of the study Part B, Development, is composed of four chapters (literature review, theoretical

background, methodology, results and findings)

Part C, Conclusion, offers the recapitulation of major findings, conclusion,

implication, limitations, suggestions for further studies

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

There has been a number of authors making investigations into cognitive linguistics

and cognitive semantics such as ―An Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics‖ by Ungerer, F., Schmid, H J., (1996) ―Cognitive linguistics‖ by Croft W and Cruse D

A (2004); and ―Toward a Cognitive Semantics‖ by Talmy L (2000) These writers

provide a deep understanding of the theoretical background which plays an important role in my study

In terms of colors, there are a large numbers of writers discussing the subject about color expressions in general, and color terms used in literature in particular, from different points of view and objectives For example, colors could be popular when

Itten and Johannes‘ book ―The art of colour” was published in 1961 A few years

later, Berlin, B., and Kay, P., were two authors who made a significant contribution in

the field of colors They wrote ―Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution‖

in 1969 which formulated the theory of color universals that confirmed the existence

of semantic universals in color vocabulary In addition, Biggam who wrote ―Blue in

Old English: An Interdisciplinary Semantic Study” in 1997 and ―The Semantics of Color: A Historical Approach” in 2012 took several factors into account, such as

contextual and scientific evidence, meaning relations, socio-historical evidence, and comparative literature Therefore, color terms could be extensively studied from distinct perspectives by almost all corners of the world that learners and researchers could use this book for consulting and reference purposes

In order to understand the semantics of colors in John Milton‘s poem, conceptual metaphor theory is seen as a prominent phenomenon Specifically, in the book

―Metaphors We Live By‖, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson considered the conceptual

metaphor as ―the key sticking point‖ Furthermore, Gage, J., (1999) also discussed the

relationship between color and culture in the book ―Color and Culture: Practice and

Meaning fromAntiquity to Abstraction‖ Lakoff, George/Johnson, Mark (1980a) with

"Conceptual Metaphor in Everyday LanguagePhilosophy" made a great contribution

to the process of studying the semantics of colors

Moreover, quite a number of studies on the various aspects of colors have been carried out For example, in 1997 and 1998, Biggam, C P conducted two studies concerning

the analysis of terms for the concepts of 'blue' and 'grey' in Old English: ―Blue in Old

English: An Interdisciplinary Semantic Study‖ and ―Grey in Old English: An Interdisciplinary Semantic Study‖ In another study, Asch, S (2003) explored the roles

and meanings of Hell in ―John Milton, Paradise Lost: An Analysis of Hell‖

Some of studies investigated accomplished on conceptual metaphor of colors which have either focused on some particular colors or in the different contexts such as the

translation studies in the New Millennium International Conference - ―Color terms,

idiomaticity and translation‖ conducted by Tavangar, M in 2005; ―The semantics of color in Anna Akhmatova's early poetry‖ by Alsu Shakirova (2006); ―An English - Vietnamese cross-cultural study of idioms with colors and its implications to ELT‖ by

Đặng Thủy Trinh (2009); and ―Connotation Meanings of The Three Colors: White,

Red and Bluein Vietnamese and English” by Lê Thị Thanh Thủy (2009) Besides,

Shu-chen Lu and Huei-ling Lai (2012) also made a considerable contribution to the

understanding the meanings of color terms by the research - ―Semantic Distributions of

the Color Terms, Black and White in Taiwanese Languages‖ Liu, Y.P (2001) also

conducted a study of ―A cognitive approach to the understanding of the six basic color

words in Mandarin Chinese‖

The findings made it clear that colors and the semantics of color terms in these studies were mostly applied by the theory of conceptual metaphors Due to the scarcity of studies accomplished on the conceptual metaphor of colors across languages in general and in poems in particular and the fact that the semantics of color expressions based on

conceptual metaphors in John Milton‘s poem Paradise Lost have not been so far

investigated, the present study is going to investigate the meanings of color

expressions in the poem ―Paradise Lost”

CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.1 Cognitive linguistics

Cognitive Linguistics, which is an approach to the analysis of natural language that originated in the late seventies and early eighties in thework of George Lakoff (1980), Ron Langacker (1987), and Leonard Talmy (2000), focuses on languageas an instrument for organizing, processing, and conveying information

Cognitive Linguistics is considered as a new approach to the study of language which views linguistic knowledge as part of general cognition and thinking In other words, it

is concerned with investigating the relationship between human language, human mind and human socio-physical experiences

Cognitive linguistics emerged in the late seventies and early eighties, particularly through the work of two famous authors as George Lakoff - the founders of Generative Semantics and Ronald Langacker - an expractitioner of Generative Linguistics Such cognitive linguists therefore acknowledge that language is part of, dependent on, and influenced by human cognition, including human perception and categorization, and that language develops and changes through human interaction and experiences in the world

According to Vyvyan Evans, Benjamin K Bergen and Jörg Zinken (2007: 5), cognitive linguistics could be roughly sorted into two main areas of research: cognitive semantics and cognitive grammar Cognitive grammar, the model language developed

by Ronald Langacker, is concerned with modeling the language system rather than the nature of mind itself Cognitive linguistics assures that grammar is conceptualization People use grammar or language to conceptualize their experiences to express them (Jensen, 2004) However, it does so by taking the conclusions of research in cognitive semantics In cognitive semantics, meanings come from our mind, or rather; meanings are in the head (Gardenfor, 1994) In the view of Evans (2006), cognitive semantics is concerned with the investigating the relationship between human experience, the conceptual system in human mind, and the semantic structure encoded by language

It is crucial to note that although the study of cognitive semantics and cognitive approaches

to grammar are occasionally separate in practice, most work in cognitive linguistics finds it

necessary to investigate both lexical semantics and grammatical organization jointly; however, cognitive semantics is only the one implemented in this study

2.2 Cognitive semantics

Following Vyvyan Evan‘s view (2001), cognitive semantics, which is the study of the relationship between experience, embodied cognition and language, has been developed by some famous researchers such as Lackoff, Langacker, Croft and Cruse,

and Evan The prime slogan for cognitive semantics is ―Meaning are in the field‖ In

specific terms, the scholars working in cognitive semantics investigate knowledge representation as conceptual structure, and meaning construction as conceptualization Cognitive semanticists have made use of language as the lens through which these cognitive phenomena can be investigated Consequently, research in cognitive semantics tends to be interested in modeling the human mind as much as it is concerned with investigating linguistic semantics

Moreover, semantics for a language is seen as mapping from the expressions of the language to some cognitive or mental entities In other words, language of semantics is thus conceptualistic It rejects the formal tradition attributing linguistics into phonology, syntax, and pragmatics, etc., and that the meaning independent of syntax Moreover, cognitive semantics states that meanings come from the mind; or rather, meanings are in the head (Gardenfors, 1994).It can be stated that close links between semantics and cognition has been established in cognitive semantics and it is regarded

as a multi-disciplinary theory of language attempts to describe language phenomena from a cognitive, cultural and physiological point of view

Thus, the use of cognitive semantics as an approach to human discourse seen through underlying conceptual schema patterns could be significant in understanding cross-cultural communication Kovecses (1999) also agrees that the conceptualization of color expressions is in the large part culture-specific with several universal conceptual structures at the categorical and schematic level

In the light of this theory, the conceptualization of color expressions is related to conceptual metaphors and is from cultural and theological point of view

2.3 Conceptual metaphor Theory and Conceptual metaphor

From the time of Aristotle, earlier studies shown that metaphor had been treated in the Western tradition as a linguistic device which used in rhetoric and literature It was noted that all metaphors had literal meanings and were used by specialists for purposes such as to persuade people or to express an imaginary world On the contrary, Lakoff and Johnson [1980: 203 (1)] claimed that metaphor is not just a matter of language, but

that it governs our ordinary conceptual system According to their view, "human

thought processes are largely metaphorical" and the "human conceptual system is metaphorically structured and defined" Since then, research on metaphor has headed

towards a new direction, and the basic ideas of Lakoff and Johnson have been developed as the Conceptual Metaphor Theory

It is certain that Conceptual Metaphor Theory was one of the earliest theoretical frameworks identified as part of the theory of Cognitive Lexical Semantics This framework was first proposed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) in their influential book,

―Metaphors We Live By‖ The basic premise of Conceptual Metaphor Theory is that

metaphor is not simply a stylistic feature of language, but that is fundamentally metaphorical in nature

In this theory, metaphor is defined as "a cross-domain mapping in the conceptual system" (Lakoff, 1980: 203 [3]) Thus, "metaphorical expression" is referred to an individual linguistic expression or "a surface realization of such a cross-domain mapping" The metaphor involves two domains, namely, a source domain and a target domain In another words, it can be understood that the convention is to call each mapping as "TARGET-DOMAIN IS SOURCE-DOMAIN" or "TARGET-DOMAIN

AS SOURCE-DOMAIN."

The conceptual metaphor hypothesis assumes that many motivated idioms are based

on conceptual metaphors Furthermore, conceptual metaphors pervade our thoughts and are reflected through our language.Lakoff and Johnson (1980) pointed out that the concepts that govern our thought and experience the world Our conceptual system thus plays a central role in defining our everyday realities If we are right in suggesting that our conceptual system is largely metaphorical, then the way we think, what we experience, and what we do everyday is very much a matter of metaphor

They (1980) also identify metaphor as a transfer between source domain and target domain This has become known as the ―two-domain theory of metaphor Cognitive view on metaphor regards it as cognitive mechanism whereby one conceptual domain (source domain) is partially mapped, that is, projected, onto another conceptual domain (target domain) The target domain (abstract conceptual reality) is then understood in terms of the source domain (physical reality) According to Lakoff (1993: 43), metaphor is thus a cross-domain mapping in the conceptual system Let‘s look at the examples:

Life is difficult

Love is a journey

Argument is war

Anger is a hot fluid in a container

(The contemporary theory of metaphor, Lakoff and Johnson, 1993: 43)

As can be seen in the examples above, life, love, argument and anger are target domains while difficult, journey, war and a hot fluid in a container are source domains

(Kovecses, 2002: 6) In order to understand the target domain in terms of source domain, we have to have appropriate knowledge of the source domain (Lakoff & Turner, 1989: 60)

To sum up, according to Lakoff and Johnson‘s research (1980), from everyday expressions we know that most of our concepts are partially understood in terms of metaphorical conceptsand that most of human beings‘ normal conceptual system is metaphorical Also, following Deignan‘s point of view (2005: 26) ―conceptual metaphors are a very useful tool for learners of foreign languages because they could illuminate networks of associated figurative meanings, giving access to large numbers

of frequently used vocabulary items‖ It is clear that conceptual metaphors were conceived in this early work as a series of asymmetric mappings stored in long-term memory uniting structure from a more concrete source domain to a more abstract target domain: as in LOVE IS A JOURNEY Furthermore, evidence for the existence

of conceptual metaphor came primarily from language and they are held to arise from tight and recurring correlations in experience

In conclusion, Conceptual Metaphor Theory is a fundamental tool to analyze and

conceptualize the meanings of color expressions in Paradise Lost of John Milton

2.3.1 Types of conceptual metaphor

Lakoff and Johnson (1980), metaphors are divided into three fundamental types of conceptual metaphors such as structural, orientational, and ontological In the following sections, the three types will be discussed respectively as to how they are related to the motivation of idioms

STRUCTURAL METAPHOR

According to Lakoff and Johnson, structural metaphors are ‗cases where one concept

is metaphorically structured in terms of another‘ (1980: 14) Source domains supply 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

For instance, war is a concept that is frequently mapped onto the target domains such

as argument and love As we know, war is a concrete concept that we are very familiar with, so we often talk about argument and love in terms of war Everyone knows that war is a very complex process that involves plan, attack, defense, counterattack, fight, win, lose, truce and so on Argument and love are all complex and abstract concepts

As a result, the knowledge of war can be used to talk about the unknown abstract concepts, that is argument and war, because they share many similarities Consequently, we have idioms motivated by the structural metaphors ARGUMENT IS WAR Let‘s first look at some idioms motivated by the structural metaphor ARGUMENT IS WAR:

(1) Criticisms were right on target

(2) Shot down all of my arguments

(3) Is he not entitled to hit back?

(Metaphors we live by, Lakoff and Johnson, 1980:4)

The example above is what it means for ametaphorical concept, namely, ARGUMENT

IS WAR, to structure (at least in part) what we do and how we understand what we are doing when we argue Arguments and wars are different kinds of things and the actions performed are different kinds of actions But we can use our knowledge about war to understand and talk about argument Here, war is the source domain, and argument is the target domain Therefore, the knowledge from the source domain is mapped onto the target domain

ORIENTATIONAL METAPHOR

Unlike the structural metaphors, orientational metaphors do not structure one concept

in terms of another but instead organizes ―a whole system of concepts with respect to one another‖ and ―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‖ (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980:14) It typically involves an orientational or spatial concept of some kind, such as up/ down and in/ out Two examples are HAPPY IS UP/ SAD IS DOWN, which we have just considered, and MORE IS UP/ LESS IS DOWN In each case, the target concepts are paired just as the source concepts are: they are antonyms

or counterparts Lakoff and Johnson give these examples for MORE IS UP/ LESS IS DOWN:

(1) The number of books printed each year keeps going up

(2) My income rose last year

(3) The number of errors he made is incredibly low

(4) If you‘re too hot, turn the heat down

(Metaphors we live by, Lakoff and Johnson, 1980:15-16)

As we can see the examples above, the up/down metaphors in the English expressions are different form of the equivalents in Vietnamese Lakoff and Johnson (1980: 14-21) also state that the orientational metaphors are based on physical and cultural experience They can vary from culture to culture They are culture-specific, that is, not all cultures priority to the up – down orientation In some cultures some emphasis may, for example, be put on an active-passive orientation or in-out orientation

ONTOLOGICAL METAPHOR

Ontological metaphors allow us to conceptualize and talk about things, experiences, and processes, however vague or abstract they are, as if they have definite physical properties Lakoff and Johnson say:

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

(Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 25)

Let‘s look at examples from English idioms:

(1) He is out of sight

(2) We‘re out of trouble now

(3) He fell into a depression

(4) She fell in love with him

(Metaphors we live by, Lakoff and Johnson, 1980:26-27)

In the above examples, sight, trouble, depression, love are all abstract concepts which

are metaphorically viewed as concrete concepts bearing boundaries According to our subconscious knowledge, the meaning of these idioms can be grasped easily In

example (1) from the literal meaning ―out of sight‖, we can get the metaphorical

meaning ―can not see anything‖

In conclusion, there are overlaps between these three categories Structural metaphors and orientational metaphors may have ontological functions too, while ontological metaphors depend on having structured source domains In fact, in the afterword to the second edition of their book, Lakoff and Johnson refers to their earlier categorization

as ‗artificial‘, arguing that all conceptual metaphors are structural and ontological; they also comment that many conceptual metaphors are orientational (1980: 264 - 265) In this study of searching the semantics of color expressions in John Milton‘s poem

Paradise Lost, most color terms are conceptualized in term of structural metaphors

2.4 Mapping

In order to comprehend the full scope, for example, LOVE IS A JOURNEY, it is necessary to detail the various ways in which the notion of a JOURNEY lends itself to the conceptualisation of LOVE The systematic conceptual correspondences that occur

―between the source and the target in the sense that constituent conceptual elements of

B correspond to constituent elements of A are often referred to as mappings‖ (Kövecses, 2002: 6)

As presented by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), the conceptul metaphor is made up of a fixed set of well-established mappings In general, a mapping, or metaphorical relation

is the systematic set of correspondences that exist between constituent elements of the source and the target domain Many elements of target concepts come from source domains and are not preexisting To know a conceptual metaphor is to know the set of mappings that applies to a given source – target pairing

Source Domain is the conceptual domain from which we draw metaphorical

expressions In the other words, source domain is a concept that is metaphorically used

to provide the means of understanding another concept Furthermore, source domains are typically less abstract or less complex than target domains For example, in the

conceptual metaphor LIFE IS A JOURNEY, the conceptual domain of journey is

typically viewed as being less abstract or less complex than that of life

Target Domain is the conceptual domain that we try to understand, as in LOVE IS A

JOURNEY

For example, in LOVE IS A JOURNEY, what these mappings do is structure ideas belonging to the more abstract domain of LOVE in terms of concepts belonging to the more concrete domain of JOURNEY In the domain LOVE, one has a number of different concepts These concepts for lovers, the love relationship, events that take place in the love relationship, difficulties that take place in the relationship, and progress that makes in resolving these difficulties and developing the relationship

To sum up, metaphor is a neural phenomenon What we have referred to as metaphorical mappings appear to be realized physically as neural maps and it can be implied that there are similar mappings with other conceptual metaphors which orginate in basic human experiences (Lakoff and Johnson, 2003: 256-257) The mappings of a conceptual metaphor are themselves motivated by image schemas concering space, time, moving, controlling, and other core elements of embodied human experience

term is explained in Mark Johnson‘s book The body in the Mind, in case study of George Lakoff‘s Women, Fire and Dangerous Things and by Rudolf Arnheim in

Visual Thinking that image schemas transcend particular modes of perception They

are not merely visual, but rather kinesthetic in nature (Lakoff, 1987) According to

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

Image schemas can be divided into five schemas as follow (Lakoff, 1987: 272-275) For Lakoff (1987), the container schema that defines the predicates in and out would work as the basis for understanding the body as container, the visual field, and set models, among others The part-whole schema is transferred to domains such as families, teams, organizations, marriage, etc The link schema helps conceptualize social and interpersonal relationships The centre-periphery schema gives us the difference between the important things and matters, understood as central, and less important or secondary matters considered to be periphery Finally, the source-path-goal schema gives the clue for purposes in our daily life as destinations of a journey

In conclusion, according to Lakoff and Johnson (1987), the image schematic structure

of the sourcedomainplays a crucial role in the mapping between sourceand target domain

2.6 Prototype

When mentioning to conceptual metaphor, it should be taken into considerations of the introduction of the notion of prototypes and prototype structure The essence of a prototype shows that it is a mental representation which is a good example of a category (Lakoff, 1987: 43) Prototypes lie at the center in the radial structure of categories Metaphors may be used to extend this structure or to link it with other categories through the identification of elements in disparate domains A metaphor may or may not be prototypical, depending on its centrality in a category The prototype at the center, which may be a mental image, may differ from individual to individual but there are likely to be commonalities among people who share a common culture (Johnson, 1987)

A prototype is treated a central member of a particular category in the sense that language users will hardly ever be in doubt that it forms part of the category Furthermore, at the same time, prototypical members are particularly good examples

of the category of which they form a prototype

In general, the important point in terms of conceptual structure is that it is generally such prototypes, rather than necessary and sufficient conditions, that serve to establish the category

2.7 Basic color terms and classification of colors

The Oxford English Dictionary defines color as: ―That aspect of things that is caused

by differing qualities of the light reflected or emitted by them, definable in terms of the observer or of the light, as: the appearance of objects or light sources described in terms of the individual‘s perception of them, involving hue, lightness, and saturation for objects and hue, brightness, and saturation for light sources; the characteristics of light by which the individual is made aware of objects or light sources through the receptors of the eye, described in terms of dominant wavelength, luminance, and purity (374 – 375)‖

Furthermore, colors mean more to us than simply pigmnet They are forms of energy, and as such speak to us and interact with us on a nonverbal level In a very real way, life is color Colors affects every part of our lives, our emotions, our health (Gage, 1999: 151) In addition, color is one component of environmental language in non-verbal communication

Color terms in different language are so different; however, the focal colors or basic color terms are basically the same across languages According to the study of Brent Berlin and Paul Kay (1969: 156), all languages appear to possess between two and eleven basic color terms such as white, black, red, green, yellow, blue, pink, purple, brown, grey and orange

According to Berlin and Kay (1969: 4), there is a highly consistent order with cultures which identify and name basic colors The order of appearance of the colors can be expressed as follows:

And these are divided into three kinds of colors such as primary colors which is

a set of colors that can be combined to make a useful range of color; the normal colors

which are red, green, and blue; secondary colors which are made by fixing two primary colors in a given space; and tertiary color made by mixing one primary color with one secondary color

Another property of note is that basic color terms have prototype properties Color terms not only denote a uniform range of colors but also correspond

to the color term.For each color term, there will usually be a single color which is considered to be the best example of that color term by language speakers, and this color is called the prototypical color

It can be concluded that color is one component of environmental language in verbal communication The nature of color contains expressive and symbolic components as well as purely visual ones This understanding helps us see colors as both a phenomenon in the physical world and a literary element in the imaginative

non-world such as the semantics of colors in literature in general and in the poem Paradise

Lost in particular

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY

The study describes the semantics of color expressions based on conceptual metaphor and then withdraw some implications for Vietnamese learners when learning literature

In order to achieve these aims, a qualitative method is also advocated in this paper It

is the fact that qualitative research is a type of scientific research consisting of an investigation that seeks answers to a question, systematically uses a predefined set of procedures to answer the question, collects evidence, produces findings that were not determined in advance, and produces findings that are applicable beyond the immediate boundaries of the study

There is no question of studying color terms in the poem without any reference to other disciplines like cognitive science as the meaning of color vocabulary is extended from the prototype Since the poem itself is based on biblical imagery, especially subject of theology is taken into consideration in order to give more accurate interpretation of color terms

Moreover, the study also follows four steps of metaphor analysis:

a Identify the expressions used in the poem

b Classify these color expressions into the color terms

c Analyze and map these color expressions in the light of cognitive linguistics with the image schemas and conceptualization of colors

d Male inference the semantics of color expressions in the poem from the conceptual metaphor perspective

e Comparing color terms in English and Vietnamese to make a final conclusion

of the semantics meaning of the colors

3.2 Data

The main materials used in the study are color terms in John Milton‘s poem

Paradise Lost Through the investigation of the poem, twenty sixverses, in another

word, twenty six target domains including color terms, which consisted of five colors such as red, green, blue, white and black, were selected

It is worth noticing that most of the color terms in the poem are called structural metaphors

Besides, literature books, novels, and English journals and books related to theology were considered as a valuable source to provide deeper, wider, and updated information for investigating the semantics of color expressions as well

CHAPTER IV: RESULTS AND FINDINGS

Concerning the research question, to understand the semantics of color in the poem

―Paradise Lost‖ of John Milton, all the expressions containing color words were analyzed As Jones et al (2013: 340) claims that the opening words of Milton‘s

Paradise Lost is a fitting introduction of the biblical story about the humanity‘s

fallfrom divine grace It cannot be denied that this epic has become a poetic medium for discussing controversial but major theological issues (Loewenstein, 2004: 78) It is

important to emphasize the fact that, in Paradise Lost, astriking contrast exists between the concept of light and darkness Some concepts as Heaven and Hell, God and Satan, Good and Evilare often used by John Milton to contrast the meaning of colors In his article, The Problem of Evil in “Paradise Lost” (1923: 179), Allan H Gilbert says that ―Death and life, evil and good, sin and repentance, suffering and joy,

condemnation and redemption are perennial problems of man, on which Milton, as an

interpreter of the mysteries of life, meditated long and deeply”

4.1 THE CONCEPT OF COLOR TERMS IN JOHN MILTON’S POEMPARADISE

LOST

4.1.1.The concept of black in John Milton’s poem Paradise Lost

Black with the frequency of 15 was the most frequent color in the epic and has mainly negative connotations Also, in Wyler‘s study (1992: 156), he argues that when black occurs in figurative usage, it is often understood in antithetical opposition to white or light and generally occurs with negative connotations All kinds of ill deeds occur under the cover of night, because they go easily unseen Eiseman (2009: 1), an American color specialist, states that black gives an impression of weight and strength;

it gives objects a solid feel He adds that blackness implies vast emptiness and a more foreboding perception of infinity than blue skies depict because black is authoritative and powerful; black can evoke strong emotions, too much can be overwhelming This color can make the feeling inconspicuous It represents power, sexuality, sophistication, formality, elegance, wealth, mystery, depth and style However, it also

has negative associations, such as sadness, remorse, anger, fear, evil, anonymity, unhappiness

In his article, ―Weaving the symbolism of light‖ (2007: 1), Scott claimed according to

a well-known universal symbolism that ―light‖ expresses the distinction of creation from the ―darkness‖ of non-distinction or primeval chaos In India and China, as in the Book of Genesis, the first work of creation is the separation of light and dark Light tends to express a positive affirmation while darkness carries the negative sense of chaos

Furthermore, black color also symbolizes the lowest stages of the universe such as the underworld, the primary chaos and sinister predictions It is interesting to note that in the Bible the black color is not frequently used, although the connotations are usually negative (Ferber, 1999: 111) Similarly, according to M Matschi, black, as the achromatic color, is the darkest possible hue, absorbing all light As it passes into meanings that suggest darkness, it is also attributed to night and depth (Matschi, 2004: 111) It will be clear to focus on the process of conceptualization when analyzing the meanings of black color in detail as follows

4.1.1.1 BLACK IS HELL

Hell is represented as black Gehennain the poem:

His temple right against the temple of God

On that opprobrious hill, and made his grove The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence

And black Gehenna called, the type of Hell

(Milton, 1998: 12)

In accordance with the old English, Hell denoted something that is covered, hidden or unseen It is noted that ―Gehenna‖ is a symbolic expression used in reference to eternal

propitiatory sacrifices were made to Molch or Hell Both soul and body could be destroyed in unquenchable fire of Gehenna

Gehenna is a place where both soul and body could be destroyed in "unquenchable fire" Hence, black Gehenna, from J Milton's paradoxical point of view, was the place

where ― from those flames no light; but rather darkness visible‖ (Milton, 2005: 10) What is more, fire has always been the source of light, however, in the poem, black

fire represents darkness of the Hell It is evident that Hell is the source domain and

Black Gehenna is the target domain

In the epic, black fire is disastrous and also portrayed as a symbol of Hell:

Infernal thunder, and, for lightning, see

Black fire and horror shot with equal rage

Among his Angels, and his throne itself Mixed with Tartarean sulphur and strange fire

(Milton, 1998: 21)

In the above quote, black fire is one of the main features of Hell The existence of it

inside the Hell seems a paradox, since fire is considered to be a source of light (Asch, 2003: 2) In other words, Fire will never be put out in Hell However, in the above

quote, black fire is considered to be a negative destroying principle It elicits negative connotations as it is associated with rage and spiritual torment Moreover, ―with the

emergence of Christianity the negative symbolism of the color black proliferated in images of the Devil, his demons and his works as black in color (Thompson, 1989: 112) It is clear to address that Hell is the source domain and black fire is the target

domain

In Paradise Lost, many of the structures and symbols are identical For instance, in Heaven and Hell, there is a lord, namely God and Satan In the poem, the most prominent thing about Hell is its darkness, whereas Heaven is full of luminous light Moreover, the fallen angels, previously glorious and beautiful, are now ugly and disfigured In the following lines, the confrontation of black and white, or darkness

and light, or evil and good appears:

By force, and at our heels all Hell should rise

With blackest insurrectionto confound

Heaven‘s purest light, yet our great Enemy, All incorruptible, would on his throne (Milton, 1998: 22–23)

Thus, blackest insurrection is the target domain and Hell is the source domain

Blackest insurrection reflects Hell, whilst purest light of Heaven The images of