VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ THE CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR OF THE VIETNAM WAR IN AMERICAN PRESS (An du ý niệm về cuộc chiến tranh Việt Nam trong báo chí Mỹ) MAJOR: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS CODE: 9220201.01 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics HANOI - 2024 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES THE CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR OF THE VIETNAM WAR IN AMERICAN PRESS (An du ý niệm về cuộc chiến tranh Việt Nam trong báo chí Mỹ) MAJOR: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS CODE: 9220201.01 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics Supervisors : Prof. NGUYEN HOA Dr. HUYNH ANH TUAN HANOI - 2024 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I, the undersigned, hereby confirm that the thesis entitled “The conceptual metaphor of the Vietnam War in American press” is my own work. To the best of my knowledge, the thesis contains no work previously published or written by another person, except where due reference is made.
Signature NGUYEN THI NGOC TRANG ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Doing PhD is the hardest work I have done so far. Hence, when the last stage of the PhD journey is closing, more than ever I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all the people supporting me for all these years. First and foremost, I owe my deepest gratitude to Prof. Nguyén Hoa and Dr.
Huynh Anh Tuan, my supervisors, who were there for me every step of the way, inspiring me to move forward persistently and kindly guiding me through challenging turning points towards the destination. I feel blessed to have grown up with their dedication to work, intellectual generosity and warm manner. I am also deeply grateful to Assoc. Lê Hùng Tiến, Dr.
Lê Thị Giao Chi, Assoc. Tran Văn Phước, Assoc. Nguyễn Thu Hanh, Assoc. Hoang Tuyét Minh, Dr.
Nguyễn Thị Minh Tâm, Assoc. Phạm Thị Hồng Nhung, Assoc. Trần Bá Tiến, Dr. Nguyễn Trọng Du, Assoc.
Phan Văn Hoà, Prof. Nguyễn Quang, Dr. Nguyễn Thị Hương Lan, Assoc. Nguyễn Thị Thu Hiền, Assoc.
Phan Văn Qué and Assoc. Nguyễn Tat Thắng, who gave me insightful comments and invaluable ideas to develop my research from the beginning of my journey. My sincere thanks go to the Ministry of National Defense, my workplace — Military Technical Academy (MTA) and Unit 871 who have sponsored and enabled me to pursue my dream to become a PhD. I will never forget the continuous support and encouragement from all my colleagues at MTA throughout this journey.
My in- depth appreciation is also due to all my friends for their care, especially to my closest friend Ta Thanh Binh whose motivation and constructive feedback are forever a part of the study. I would like to save my final and special thanks for my family: my beloved parents whose hard work paved the way for me to receive a quality education, my sweet brother who always fills me with great joy, my adored husband and my dear daughters whose immense love, empathy and patience have given me strength to overcome upheavals with a full heart. ii ABSTRACT The Vietnam War is one of the most dreadful and controversial events in the human history in the 20" century. This study attempts to investigate the dynamic and critical metaphorical conceptualization of the war from the perspectives of the insiders — American war correspondents- through an evaluation of the conceptual metaphors used in their articles published during the wartime.
Methodologically, the current study applies a proposed integrated framework of Critical Metaphor Analysis - CMA (Charteris-Black, 2004) and Multi-level View of conceptual metaphor — MLV (Kévecses, 2017a) in order to gain deeper insights into ideologies motivating metaphorical concepts for the war as well as to elucidate the cognitive pathway of metaphorical conceptualization via four levels. The mixed-methods approach adopted aims to fill two gaps in metaphor study: insufficient research into the war concept as the target domain and a framework with optimal balance of pragmatic and cognitive dimensions. The study yields some notable results. Firstly, it reveals the persistence of certain concepts commonly associated with the Vietnam War during the wartime (a journey, business, a non-living thing, a natural phenomenon, terrain, competition, art, movement) and other emerging concepts at different times (force, destruction, a plant, a human, a game, a danger, a belief, a duty, a construction, an animal, hunting, containment, an unpleasant thing, a domestic affair, a disease, a living being, healthcare treatment).
Interestingly, more than half of the 25 generic and 105 specific metaphors present in the data are not mentioned before, which can be accounted for by three factors: the employment of inductive approach and the closest background principle as well as the correspondents’ ample war experiences generating metaphors. These findings of the source domains for the war substantiate the effectiveness of three proposed principles of domain formulation in the study, namely a balance between synchronic and diachronic views, context-based domain formulation and the closest background principle. Secondly, the employment of four conceptual levels (image schema, domain, frame, mental space) enables the identification of source domains with greater reliability and allows the dynamic process of metaphorical conceptualization to be clearly demonstrated from embodied cognition at image schema to metaphorical meaning in discourse at mental space. The outcomes justify a suggested procedure with four steps to assist the verification of these four conceptual layers.
Thirdly, the examination of ideologies motivating the metaphors found in the data indicates that almost all the correspondents’ viewpoints on the war are close to the anti-war position with the mental images of devastating and uncontrollable war, inescapable victims, exhausting competition, merciless grinding machine, etc. Based on the comparison with the previous studies, the current research acknowledges that the understanding of ideologies can vary depending on the researcher’s experiences and discourse contexts. Finally, the proposed MLV- CMA framework clarifies the relationship between ideologies and conceptual levels, in which ideologies are embedded in all four conceptual levels and systematically develop with increasing specificity from image schema to domain, frame and mental space. 11 TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP.
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Rationale for the r€S€aTCHh.- 2G 1 9 2111911211 9111 1 91111 nh ng nu ng ng 1 1. Research aim, objectives and questions .c:cccccccssceessesseeeeseeeseeeeeeeseeesseeeseeenss 5 IENS vo. About the use of the term "the Vietnam WaF””. csstss vn ng rrkg 9 1.
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW II 2. Conceptual metaphor th€OTV. Classical metaphor versus conceptual metaphorr. Premise of conceptual metaphor theory.
Classification of conceptual metaphor. Criticisms on conceptual metaphor theory. Response to Conceptual Metaphor Theory: Discourse approaches to metaphor 0 7. Critical Metaphor AnaÌy§1S.- --- -- c2 Sc 133132111931 31911 191111 11 81 111 g1 ng ru 28 2.
Metaphor at the junction of semantics, cognition and pragmatics. Metaphor and Critical Discourse Analysis. Theoretical framework of Critical Metaphor AnalySIs. Adaption to Critical Metaphor Analysis theoretical framework.
Multi-level View of conceptual metapphOT.- --- ¿+ sseeseesereeres 34 iv "h3 oan. Four levels in Multi-level View of conceptual metaphor. ecececccccsccessceseceesecesseeesececeesseeeeeceseeceseceseeceseceseeeeseeeseeeeseeseeeeseees 37 PW cNucZaaađađiŨ. Performance of four conceptual levels in conceptual metaphor.
Integrated framework of Critical Metaphor Analysis and Multi-level View of Conceptual metaphor. Previous studies on the conceptual metaphor Of War. Methodology of war metaphor sfudÌ1S.- Q S- SS se 65 E0 vn ae. Philosophical grounds of the studyy.
Data collection procedures .- --- ng ngàng Hàng Hết 72 3. Integrated analytical framework of CMA-MLV. Adaptions to Critical Metaphor Analysis analytical framework. Tenets of the CMA-MLV analytical framework.
Constructive steps in quantitative añnaÏYS1S.c- 2c St S+ si sireierrke 94 3. nh HH HH HH Hà HH Hà Hà Hà Hà Hà Hàn rệt 96 3. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Dominant conceptual metaphors for the Vietnam War.
Findings of dominant conceptual metaphors for the Vietnam War. Conceptual metaphors for the Vietnam War. The most frequent conceptual metaphors for the Vietnam Wat. Discussion of the findings.
Metaphorical construction and underlying 1deolog1es. Findings of metaphorical construction and underlying ideologies. THE VIETNAM WARIS A JOURNEY 1. THE VIETNAM WAR IS BUSINESS.
THE VIETNAM WAR IS A NON-LIVING THING. THE VIETNAM WAR IS A NATURAL PHENOMENON. THE VIETNAM WAR IS TERRAIN uu. THE VIETNAM WAR IS COMPETITION 1.
THE VIETNAM WAR IS ART oo. THE VIETNAM WAR IS MOVEMENTT. Discussion of the findings. - - cv ngàng Hàng rệt 180 4.
Metaphorical construction in Multi-level View framework. Underlying ideologies in metaphor choice for the Vietnam War. Summary of the Study. Dominant conceptual metaphors for the Vietnam Wat.
Metaphorical construction in MLV framework and underlying ideologies .-- s + 11T HH ngàng nành 193 5. Limitations and recommendations for future research.- --- -‹--«++s<++ 195 LIST OF RESEARCHER’S ARTICLES RELATED TO THE THESIS. Summary of the Vietnam WAF. - c Sc 1n vn gheI APPENDIX B.
Typical texts containing linguistic metaphorical expressions. Generic metaphors, specific metaphors, metaphor keywords and TESONANCE INGICALIONS NA. XIX APPENDIX D: Pre-existing metaphors for War .cccccccesseeseesseeteeseeeseeseeeeenes XXIV APPENDIX E. Report on the member checking.----s + s+++ss>++ss++s+2 XXVI APPENDIX F.
Articles in the đafaSe€f.2232 2 33 ngay Cll vil ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS Abbreviations Conceptual Metaphor Theory CMT Critical Discourse Analysis CDA Critical Metaphor Analysis CMA Domain DM Frame FM Image Schema IS Mental Space MS Metaphor identification procedure MIP Metaphor identification procedure VU University Amsterdam MIPVU Multi-level View of Conceptual Metaphor MLV The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor CTM The New York Times NYT Conventions - Metaphor keywords in texts are written in bold. - Only mapping at domain level is capitalized, mappings at other levels (image schema, frame, mental space) are written in lower case to avoid visual discomfort. vill LIST OF TABLES Table 2. A partial list of image schemas (Evans & Green, 2006).
Studies using WAR for other target OIma1nS.-- 5-5552 s+es+c+eeseeseesees 50 Table 2. Summary of source domains for WAR as the target domaIn. Working definitions of the key f€rrms.-- --- 52 52+ SE + *+E+eErerrerrrrrrrrrrrree 63 Table 3. Summary of adapted version of MIP and MIPVUŨ.
Example of conceptual metaphors, source domains and resonance. Sample typical texts for the source domain of GAME. Sample typical texts for the source domain of GAME (positive pattern). Specific metaphors for THE VIETNAM WAR IS A JOURNEY.
Cross-domain mapping of THE VIETNAM WAR IS A JOURNEY. Specific metaphors for THE VIETNAM WAR IS BUSINESS. Cross-domain mapping of THE VIETNAM WAR IS BUSINESS. Specific metaphors for THE VIETNAM WAR IS A NON-LIVING THING 120 Table 4.
Cross-domain mapping of THE VIETNAM WAR IS A NON-LIVING THING ¬. Specific metaphors for THE VIETNAM WAR IS A NATURAL I3s050I9)/75)19)) 5. Cross-domain mapping of THE VIETNAM WAR IS A NATURAL PHENOMENON TTT. Specific metaphors for THE VIETNAM WAR IS TERRAIN.
Cross-domain mapping of THE VIETNAM WAR IS TERRAIN. Specific metaphors for THE VIETNAM WAR IS COMPETITION. Cross-domain mapping of THE VIETNAM WAR IS COMPETITION. Specific metaphors for THE VIETNAM WARIS ARÍT.
Cross-domain mapping of THE VIETNAM WARIS ART. Specific metaphors for THE VIETNAM WAR IS MOVEMENT. Cross-domain mapping of THE VIETNAM WAR IS MOVEMENT. Comparing the found metaphors in the study with previous results.
Three principles of formulating source domaIn. --- ¿+55 5s++s>+x>+x>+ 143 1X LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2. Schematicity hierarchy for four conceptual structures. Location of the lexical concept KNUCKLE in a hierarchy of domain complexity.
The phrase mental exercise evokes THE MIND IS A BODY. Mappings on the same level (KGvecses, 207).---ccscc+csss2 44 Figure 2. Levels of schematicity and methods of metaphor research (Kövecses, 2020, 9. The integrated conceptual framework of Critical Metaphor Analysis and Multi-level View of Metaphor (CMA and MLV).
Visual model for research procedUT€S.