I STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this study contains no material published elsewhere or extracted in whole, or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or beesn awarded another degree or diploma. I certify that all the material in this study which is not my own work has been identified and acknowledged, and that no material is included for which a degree has already been conferred upon me. This paper has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any university. Quy Nhon, July, 2019 PHẠM THỊ ÁI HOA II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS On completion of the thesis, I am gratefully indebted to my supervisor Nguyễn Tất Thắng for his valuable suggestions, advice and corrections during the course of my writing.A thesis is one of the most difficult and significant academic challenges to me.
This thesis would not be done without the support from the teacher. I also wish to express my sincere thanks to all of my lecturers at Quy Nhon University for their insightful comments and suggestions. I also take this opportunity to all of my friends for their support and encouragement during the thesis preparation. I must acknowledge my debt to the authors whose work I use for my reference.
Finally, I would like to show my deep gratitude to members of my family, especially my husband, for their great support, encouragement, love and unshakeable trust without which my thesis would not have been accomplished. III ABSTRACT This thesis aims at investigating the conceptual metaphors of sorrow in “Truyện Kiều” and their English translated version by Huỳnh Sanh Thông. The data for this research were chosen from 112 samples of metaphoric expressions in “Truyện Kiều”. The study was conducted based on the cognitive linguistic framework developed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980).
It employed a mixed method that involves qualitative, quantitative, descriptive, synthetic and analytic approaches. The findings revealed that three sub-types of conceptual metaphor occured frequently in the poems despite their different distribution in each language with 54% of structural metaphors. The rests were Ontological metaphors and Orientational metaphors. Based on the results, we made a distinction between the ways the writers utilize conceptual metaphors of sorrow in the Vietnamese poem and the English counterpart.
Moreover, there were some similarities and differences in terms of structural, ontological, and orientational metaphors in both languages. The unchanged metaphors took the highest percentage with 57% while the rest were replaced metaphor or stylistics devices and lost metaphors. Finally, from the results, some implications on teaching and learning English were put forward in the hope of providing useful and comprehensive knowledge. Rationale In the modern society with pressure from work, people tend to use literature as a way to relax and reduce stress.
This spiritual life is really important in our life because it is a gateway to teach the readers life experience in the society. Thus, it is important for the writers to use suitable language in their works. More and more authors make their writing beautiful and interesting by using rhetorical measures, most of which are related to the field of metaphor. According to Lakoff & Johnson (1980), metaphor is rather a matter of daily life experience, or a matter “of thought and reason” than merely a matter of language.
We use metaphorical concepts to conceptualize the world, or better, our worldviews (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). Indeed, metaphor is everywhere in literature, from the interrelations among its smallest (words, images, figures of speech) to its largest (characters, plot, narrative) elements. Lakoff and Johnson (1980, p. 6) state that part of “the human conceptual system is metaphorically structured and defined”.
This means that we tend to conceptualize metaphorically certain aspects of life in a systematic way. These authors offer a wide range of metaphors that cover basic aspects of life by structuring metaphorically one concept in terms of another. A number of researchers and linguists have taken metaphors in literature as a favorite topic for their studying. According to Semino and Steen (2008, p.
233), metaphors in literature is considered “more creative, novel, original, striking, rich, interesting, complex, difficult, and interpretable” than conventional metaphors. However, most of them base on traditional 2 perspectives. Therefore, this present paper would like to take an investigation into conceptual metaphors in literature. One of the well-known Vietnamese writers using metaphors as a powerful tool to express their emotions is Nguyễn Du (1765-1820), typically in his work “Truyện Kiều”- The tale of Kiều which is about a beautiful woman who suffered great misery in the feudal period.
Women fate is expressed clearly through analyzing metaphors in the poem. It is more interesting if we can perceive and understand the poem according to cognitive view. This provides the readers a new look about metaphors in the “Truyện Kiều” particularly, and in poetry generally. Therefore, I would like to carry out a study entitled “Conceptual metaphors of sorrow in ‘Truyện Kiều’ by Nguyen Du and their English equivalents by Huynh Sanh Thong”.
Hopefully, it will help Vietnamese readers and learners recognize and understand metaphors in a new way, and see that conceptual metaphors are something more familiar with us in our life. Metaphors are a part of everyday life and they appear in our daily concepts without our realization of it. Lakoff and Johnson have explained the notion of conceptual metaphors easily to understand. Therefore, I have decided to choose their theory as a foundation to analyze the data collected in this thesis.
Aims of the study The study aims to describe conceptual metaphors of sorrow in the poem “Truyện Kiều” by Nguyễn Du, and their English translated version by Huỳnh Sanh Thông, and to find out how conceptual metaphors of Vietnamese version translated into English version. Objectives of the study In order to achieve the aims, these following objectives are focused on some points. Firstly, the poem is analyzed to find out the frequency of conceptual metaphors expressing sorrow used in it and their English equivalents based on the theory of Lakoff and Johnson. Secondly, it’s essential to investigate the similarities and the differences of conceptual metaphors expressing sorrow between the original work and their English version.
Research Questions To fulfill the aims and objectives of the study, I have set up the two following research questions : 1. What kinds of conceptual metaphors expressing sorrow are used in “Truyện Kiều” by Nguyễn Du and their English translation by Huỳnh Sanh Thông? 2. How are the Vietnamese metaphors in Nguyễn Du’s poem translated into English in “The tale of Kiều” by Huỳnh Sanh Thông? 1. Scope of the Study Due to time constrain, the thesis only analyses metaphors of Kieu’s sorrow in the poem “ Truyện Kiều” by Nguyễn Du and the English version translated by Huỳnh Sanh Thông from the perspective of cognitive linguistics, especially conceptual metaphors.
The poem “Truyện Kiều” is the work which was translated into Vietnamese language from the original work of Nguyễn Du in ‘Nom’ script while its English version is chosen from the work of the translator Huỳnh Sanh Thông. 4 In this study, the analysis is based on the theory and classification of metaphors by Lakoff and Johnson (1980). Significance of the Study The study is a significant contribution both theoretically and practically. For theoretical value, it will provide a valuable of reference for readers who care about the issue.
In addition, this study will be an approach to find out features of conceptual metaphors. It will be helpful for both investigations into language in use and the research of human mind. Practically, it also will offer some implications for learners in improving their writing skills and using rhetorical measures to make the writings more beautiful and exciting. Especially, it will contribute to the understanding of conceptual metaphors in “Truyện Kiều” by Nguyễn Du and Huỳnh Sanh Thông’s English translated version.
Structure of the thesis The study consists of five chapters. Chapter one, Introduction, gives an introduction to the study with its rationale, aims, research questions, significance, scope and organization. Chapter two, Literature review, presents a review of the literature relevant to the study such as the definitions of terms: cognitive linguistics, traditional metaphors, conceptual metaphors, translation theory and biography of the poems and their authors. After that, it reviews some previous studies related to the theory of cognitive linguistics and conceptual metaphors.
Chapter three, Methodology, describes the methodology of the study, provides information about the principles governing the research and the methods which is employed. 5 Chapter four, Findings and discussion, presents the findings obtained, analyzes and discusses the results based on those findings. Chapter five, Conclusion, provides a recapitulation of the main ideas and problems presented in the study. The main content in this chapter is the specific conclusions on each of the research question.
Also, it summarizes the major finding and suggests some strategies helping learners use metaphors more exactly in writing. In addition, implications for teaching and suggestion for further research have been supplied. This subsection brings the practical value to the thesis from which readers can get. LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter presents general views about cognitive linguistics, especially the theory of conceptual metaphors.
Then, some previous studies about conceptual metaphors are discussed. Previous studies In recent years, there has been considerable growing interest in cognitive linguistics. The theory has been applied in a wide range of field of linguistics. The leading figures in the domain are Lakoff and Johnson (1980).
Apart from great contributors, such as Kövecses, Ungerer & Schmid, Ronald Langacker, Turner, Croft and Cruse,etc, there have been many researchers applying the theory in analyzing conceptual metaphors in such various genres as reports, fictions, stories, advertisements, academic, speeches, commentaries, editorials, slogans, posters, and so on. Thus, this part aims to give a review of recent related studies based on Lakoff and Johnson’s theory to find out the gap for the research. Lý Toàn Thắng (2008) conducts a research entitled “Thử nhìn lại một số vấn đề cốt yếu của Ngôn ngữ học tri nhận”. In his article, he discusses some different points of the nature of cognition and cognitive linguistics to identify some main concepts; from that, to be able to understand some main points of cognitive linguistics, conceptualization, and its relativity.
His research is a foundation for Vietnamese linguists to understand main thought of cognitive linguistic. However, this paper only focuses on some key conceptions of cognitive linguistics without its aspect- conceptual metaphor. In the article “Ẩn dụ ý niệm”, Phan Thế Hưng (2007) reports the view of conceptual metaphors on the basic of Aristotle’s framework and 7 some linguists later who proposed a comparative perspective in metaphor as well as the view that the ‘topic’ and ‘vehicle’ of metaphor could be of the same type. Many contemporary linguists also share this view and implicitly see comparisons as the basic process for understanding metaphors.
Phan Thế Hưng analyzes and discusses in the opposite direction. He states that “we do not understand metaphors by turning metaphor into comparison. Instead, metaphor is an inclusion sentence and therefore understands metaphors through a sentence that includes ratings” (Hưng, 2007, p. This paper helps the reader to get more knowledge about different views of metaphor from some linguists and is the premise to carry out other researches.
However, it’s necessary to analyze more different aspects of metaphor’s types. Nguyễn Đức Tồn (2008), the author of the book “Đặc trưng văn hóa- dân tộc của ngôn ngữ và tư duy” publishes the article “Đặc trưng tư duy của người Việt qua ẩn dụ tri nhận trong thành ngữ”, which shows the relationship between conceptual metaphors and human’s thought through idioms. Based on different views on metaphors, he considers that metaphor is a substitute for a name or the transfer of characteristics, attributes of things, the phenomenon to things, does statues of other types in terms of analogy based on the unifying them from the same characteristics and attributes.