A study of expressions denoting psychological time in english versus vietnamese in the lingt of cognitive linguistics

THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES NGUYỄN VĂN VIỆT A STUDY OF EXPRESSIONS DENOTING PSYCHOLOGICAL TIME IN ENGLISH VERSUS VIETNAMESE IN THE LIGHT OF COGNITIV

THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES

NGUYỄN VĂN VIỆT

A STUDY OF EXPRESSIONS DENOTING PSYCHOLOGICAL TIME IN ENGLISH VERSUS VIETNAMESE IN THE LIGHT

OF COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS

Major : ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Code : 60.22.02.01

MASTER THESIS IN SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

(A SUMMARY)

Da Nang, 2017

This thesis has been completed at University of Foreign Language Studies, The University of Da Nang

Supervisor: Trần Quang Hải, Ph.D

Examiner 1: Assoc Prof Dr Phạm Thị Hồng Nhung

Examiner 2: Assoc Prof Dr Hồ Thị Kiều Oanh

The thesis will be orally defended at the Examining Committee Time: 09 September 2017

Venue: University of Foreign Language Studies

– The University of Da Nang

This thesis is available for the purpose of reference at:

- Library of University of Foreign Language Studies,

The University of Da Nang

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE

In the past few years, time has been of interest to linguists It is clear that different conceptions of time depend on various situations, cultures and religions As far as I am concerned, time has existed in both physical form and human cognition Based on human thoughts and perceptions, time has been classified into the following categories, including physical time, psychological time, biological time, science time, time in philosopher’s perception, time in religious perception Time perception is characterized by the ability to estimate duration or speed of time

Among the categories of time, psychological time is the form of sensing the pace of the flow of time experienced by human Conceptualization of the magnitude of time duration can vary from individual to individual in different circumstances Therefore, it plays an important role in daily communication In general, expressions denoting psychological time seem to be combinations of physical time with adjectives or adverbs in particular situations to deal with subjective states of time experiencer

From the practice of teaching English as a foreign language,

we have discovered that more learners tend to use expressions denoting psychological time to express their emotions, and thoughts

in different communicative situations with their own purposes

Having a good grasp of such expressions seems to be a difficult task for learners of English

From the above-mentioned reasons, it is necessary for me to

carry out the thesis entitled “A Study of Expressions Denoting

Psychological Time in English versus Vietnamese in the Light of Cognitive Linguistics” for the purpose of helping learners of English

language understand how to use expressions involved in psychological time more effectively to reach their communication targets better

1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

1.2.1 Aims

This study aims at analyzing and comparing expressions denoting psychological time in English versus Vietnamese through the cognitive linguistics It is hoped that the results of this study can help raise Vietnamese learners’ awareness of how to use expressions denoting psychological time appropriately in English in order to achieve their communicative purposes every day

- To find out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese in using psychological time

- To suggest some ideas for teaching and learning how to use psychological time more successfully

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This study is restricted to dividing expressions denoting psychological time into six main groups of psychological time: quick passage of time, slow passage of time, “positive” feelings,

“negative” feelings, flashback and foreshadow

The research does not focus on all expressions, but on more

frequently-used expressions like “all/in/through/during/only/for

/almost/actually/this/that/these /those+ adjs + X time ” in English and

“cả/mấy/chuỗi/suốt/từng/hàng/còn/mới đó mà đã/mới có + X time + form words” or “X time + demonstrative pronouns/adjs” in

Vietnamese

These expressions are explored in artistic texts, daily conversations, literary works in English and Vietnamese

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study is hoped to be a practical piece of work to help Vietnamese learners to have a comprehensive understanding of

expressions denoting psychological time in English and Vietnamese

in different situations so as to get successful in cross-cultural communication More importantly, it can be used as a reliable source

of reference for those who are interested in psychological time under the aspect of cognitive linguistics

1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

- Chapter 1: Introduction

- Chapter 2: Literature Review and Theoretical Background

- Chapter 3: Research Methods

- Chapter 4: Findings and Discussions

- Chapter 5: Conclusions and Implications

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 THE REVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDIES

Until now, there have been a lot of published works on general

time and psychological time locally and internationally

Internationally, the research “Cognitive Models of Psychological

Time” by Richard (1990) was to clarify and enrich what is known

about temporal aspects of cognitive processes Concentrating on how adult humans experience, remember, and construct time, its chapters surveyed recent work on such topics as mental representations of time, timing in movement sequences, time and timing in music, and the processing of temporal information

In Vietnam, some researches were done locally at the University

of Danang Initially, the thesis “Time Expressions and Time

Locations in English and Vietnamese.” by Hồ Quảng Hà (2001)

presented time expressions and time locations in English with Vietnamese equivalents on the basis of contrastive analysis

Secondly, the research “An Investigation into Adverbs and Adverbial

Phrases Expressing Time in English versus Vietnamese- A Cognitive Semantic Perspective.” by Ngô Thị Mỹ Dung (2011) mentioned

some adverbs and adverbial phrases expressing time under the aspect

of cognitive linguistics as well as some clear distinctions between the phrases denoting time in English and Vietnamese

Thirdly, another thesis “An Investigation into Words and

Expressions Denoting Time in English versus Vietnamese- A Cognitive Semantic Perspective.” by Nguyễn Thị Phương (2012)

dealt with time expressions in English versus Vietnamese on the

basis of cognitive perspective Finally, the research “An

Investigation into Conceptual Metaphors Denoting Time in Truyện Kiều versus Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.” by Nguyễn

Thị Ngọc Hiền (2016) was about a contrastive analysis of conceptual metaphor denoting time in Truyện Kiều by Nguyễn Du and Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare on the background knowledge of cognitive semantics

As a matter of fact, the previous studies only mentioned the concept of time, cognitive models of psychological time, time expressions and time locations, conceptual metaphors in time To the

best of my knowledge, there has been no bilateral contrastive analysis of expressions denoting psychological time in English and Vietnamese in detail Therefore, my study makes an attempt to discover the related aspects still unsolved

2.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.2.1 Concept of Time and Classification of Time

According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

(1948), “time is what is measured in minutes, hours, days, etc” In general, time is a measuring device for physical events running in space As far as I am concerned, there are different conceptions of time in different cultures Western culture sees time as being linear from past to present and future, so we can see that time is usually shown in arrows towards the right- future or ahead These cultures tend to change, move or evolve and be quite mobile Meanwhile, Eastern culture considers time as being cyclical Through human thoughts, time can be divided into the following categories: physical time, psychological time, biological time, science time and so on Of all the types of time, physical time and psychological time are the most typical categories of time in human daily life

2.2.2 Differences between Physical Time and Psychological Time

Richard (1983, p.216) asserted that “physical time or clock

time is cyclical, validly measured by using a clock, and is composed

of discrete duration” In contrast, According to Simon (2008:29), the term “psychological time” is viewed as time subjectively estimated

without the aid of clocks and without direct guidance by such external factors as the position of the sun It includes both the direct awareness of duration and judgement of time based on the number of experiences that have intervened

2.2.3 Cognitive Linguistics and Temporal Cognition

Geeracrts and Cuykens (2007:16) asserted:

Cognitive linguistics is a new school of modern language It conducts research language based on the experience of feeling about the worldview as well as the ways in which humans percept and conceptualize things and state of affair

of that worldview

According to Gilles Fauconnier from Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, cognitive linguistics has emerged in the last twenty-five years as a powerful approach to the study of language, conceptual systems, human cognition, and general meaning construction It addressed within language the structuring of basic conceptual categories, such as space and time, scenes and events, motion and location, force and causation Language does not

“represent” meanings, but it prompts for the construction of meaning

in particular contexts with particular cultural models and cognitive resources Therefore, cognitive linguistics goes beyond the visible structure of language and investigates the considerably more complex backstage operations of cognition that create grammar, conceptualization, discourse, and thought itself

According to David Lee (2001, p.30), “different speakers of

the same language have variants on ways of interpretation and encoding of a particular situation” In cognitive linguistics, the

“frame” definition covers all intensional aspects of a thing, including: concepts and cultures The same thing is sometimes expressed by different words with different meanings when being put in different frames

As we know, traditional grammar only focuses on forms, structures and rules, while cognitive grammar focuses on language as

a tool of conceptualization to express human experience In cognitive grammar, its words and structures show psychological and social experiences of the participants The principles of cognition are the most decisive factor of grammatical rules

Vyvyan Evans (2005, p.8) concludes “A study of temporal cognition is very important because it reveals the hidden depths of the human mind and how dependent our perceived world is on the nature and organization of the cognition which happened to evolve in

a human body” According to Talmy (2000:4), “Research on cognitive semantics is research on conceptual content and its organization in language” In cognitive semantics, language is the mental manifestation and human language competence seems to be

an epistemic form, so there is an approach to internal language Language research is considered as a body of knowledge in thoughts

of individuals and communities together with cognitive psychology

As far as I am concerned, a word or an expression of the same thing can be described in different ways in languages depending on human views of the world The point of view of speakers seems to be movable They can view the same thing from different positions As a result, cognitive linguistics will contribute

to semantic changes in speakers’ viewpoints

2.2.4 Models of Cognitive Psychological Time

Richard (1990:1) asserted: psychological time consists of three major aspects: succession, duration, temporal perspective

According to Richard (1990, p.29), there are four kinds of factors that influence psychological time They are characteristics of time experiencer, contents of a time period, activities during a time and time-related behavior and judgements

Figure 2.5 Factors Influence Psychological Time According to

Cognitive Models of Psychological Time

In short, psychological time refers to an organism’s related experiences, behavior and judgements The experience of time, which is the perception, meaning, and use of time as duration, past, now, future and so on, is inextricably associated with conscious information processing, with the reflective mode of thinking Important characteristics of the time experiencer include such variables as species, personality, interests, temporal perspective, and previous experiences The contents of a time priod include various attributes of events, such as their number, complexity, modality, duration, and so on At the cognitive level, psychological time is very complex

time-2.2.5 Definitions

2.2.5.1 Expression

In English, according to Sebastian Lobner (2001, p.6),

“Expression is just a general term for words, phrases and sentences The term “expression meaning” covers, in particular, word meaning and sentence meaning The level of expression meaning constitutes the central subject of linguistic semantics”, while In Vietnamese, Diệp Quang Ban (1992, p.6) defines that “cụm từ là những kiến trúc gồm hai từ trở lên kết hợp tự do vói nhau theo những quan hệ ngữ pháp hiển hiện nhất định và không chứa kết từ ở đầu” It means that expressions are constructions with two words or more which are freely combined with each other in accordance with certain grammatical relations and without any connectives at the beginning

2.2.5.2 Context

According to Vyvyan Evans and Melanie Green (2006:

112), the context in which an utterance or usage event is situated is central to the cognitive explanation This is particularly true for word meaning, which is protean in nature This means that word meaning

is rather changeable

2.2.5.3 Cognitive context

According to the Dictionary on Linguistic Definitions

by Nguyễn Thiện Giáp (2016), in cognitive linguistics, context is considered as a mental phenomenon Cognitive context consists of explanations on time, places, events, communicators

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODS 3.1 METHODOLOGY

The descriptive method and the contrastive analysis were

chosen to be the key methods for this thesis

3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN

3.2.1 Sampling

The data for analysis are taken from American and Vietnamese famous poetries, short stories, novels and literary works

in the 20th and 21st century to ensure the authenticity

The samples under investigation were selected with 141 samples in English and 119 ones in Vietnamese from the above-mentioned works To identify phrases denoting psychological time,

we have to depend on particular contexts and subjective perceptions

of each participant