VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES *** TRIỆU KHÁNH TOÀN A STUDY ON CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS IN ECONOMIC REPORTS IN THE NEW YORK TIMES FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS NGHIÊN CỨU ẨN DỤ Ý NIỆM TRONG CÁC BÀI BÁO VỀ KINH TẾ TRÊN TẠP CHÍ NEW YORK TIMES DƯỚI GÓC NHÌN CỦA NGÔN NGỮ HỌC TRI NHẬN M. MAJOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Linguistics Code : 60. Phạm Thị Thanh Thùy HANOI - 2016 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CERTIFICATION OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify that the thesis entitled ―A Study on Conceptual Metaphor in Economic Reports in the New York Times from the Perspective of Cognitive Linguistics‖ is my own study in the fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts at Faculty of Post- Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. Hanoi, 2016 Triệu Khánh Toàn i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENT For the completion of this thesis, I have been fortunate to receive invaluable support from many people.
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Dr. Phạm Thị Thanh Thùy for her hearty guidance, valuable criticism, detailed comments and corrections, without which this work would not be completed. My thanks also go to all my instructors in my M. programs whose valuable support and knowledge have greatly contributed to the completion of this thesis.
Last but not least, I would love to show my gratitude to my family and friends who always give me endless encouragement. Without all of them, this thesis can hardly be fulfilled. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT This paper critically analyses conceptual metaphors used in economic reports in the New York Times (2013-2014) from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. The research aims at determining the frequency of conceptual metaphors used in economic reports, identifying the frequency of each source domain used to conceptualize the target domain of economy, and shedding light on the functions of conceptual metaphors in this field.
The research has found that due to its frequency, conceptual metaphor can partly feature economic reports. Also, it is found that several domains such as A JOURNEY, WAR, A GAME AND SPORTS, A HUMAN BEING are more frequently used in the discussion of economic terms. Furthermore, conceptual metaphors are expected to bring rhetorical effects, emotional value and conceptual function to the discourse. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATION OF ORIGINALITY.
iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LIST OF TABLES. vi PART A: INTRODUCTION. Objectives and scope of the study.
Objectives of the study. Scope of the study. Significance of the study. Data collection and analysis.
Design of the study .10 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .11 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Study on conceptual metaphors. Study on conceptual metaphor in economic discourse .23 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. Data and data collection .30 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS .32 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Frequency of conceptual metaphors denoting ECONOMY in economic reports on New York Times. Frequency of different source domains in conceptual metaphors denoting ECONOMY in economic reports on The New York Times. Discussion on the value added by conceptual metaphors in business reports on New York Times 60 PART C: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS. Implications for translation and teaching translation.
Implications for teachers and students. Limitations and suggestions for further study. Suggestions for further study.78 List of economic reports from the New York Times .80 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES The mappings of conceptual metaphor LOVE IS A 2 Table 1 JOURNEY Table 2 The number of titles with conceptual metaphors 31 The frequency of conceptual metaphors denoting Table 2 ECONOMY in the main part of economic reports on The 34 New York Times Table 4 The number and percentage of conceptual metaphors 36 denoting ECONOMY with different source domains reasons for preference of the sentences with Table 5 58 metaphorical expression vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale The study of metaphor has a long history and was first established by Aristotle who considers metaphors as a way of transferring names of two objects on a basis that they share some common features.
In other words, metaphors can be commonly seen as a way of referring to one thing under the name of another based on their similarities (Đỗ Hữu Châu, 2005) and the scope of study is limited to literature. Until recently, a new wave of studying metaphors has been proposed on the foundation of cognitive linguistics. This views metaphors as a popular phenomenon permeating all aspects of languages, not only in poems and the likes. The concept of conceptual metaphor has been introduced then.
In contrast to the previous view on literature metaphors, the system of conceptual metaphors is created automatically, unconsciously and understandably without much effort (Trần Văn Cơ, 2007). Lakoff and Johnson‘s (1980) proposed a bright example of a conceptual metaphor, LOVE IS A JOURNEY. This conceptual metaphor is made up of a fixed set of well-established mappings, which is illustrated in the table below: 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Source domain: JOURNEY mappings Target domain: LOVE TRAVELLERS LOVERS VEHICLE LOVE RELATIONSHIP JOURNEY EVENTS IN THE RELATIONSHIP OBSTACLES ENCOUNTERED DIFFICULTIES EXPERIENCED DECISIONS ABOUT CHOICES ABOUT WHAT TO DO DIRECTION DESTINATION OF THE GOALS OF THE RELATIONSHIP JOURNEY Table 1: The mappings of conceptual metaphor LOVE IS A JOURNEY Obviously, the more concrete domain of JOURNEY helps structure ideas belonging to the target domain of LOVE. Furthermore, Lakoff and Johnson (1980) also argue that knowledge of the sort specified by the conceptual metaphor is necessary for the creation and comprehension of conceptual metaphors.
That is to say, without such knowledge and previous experience, one would not be able to understand some concepts of the more abstract domain LOVE (Lakoff &Johnson, 1980). Similarly to the example proposed by Lakoff, many other cases of metaphors have been studied, contributing to the comparisons of metaphorical mechanism between two languages. In Vietnam, Nguyễn Thị Kim Anh (2014) takes a deep look at the conceptual metaphor MARRIAGE IS A JOURNEY, which aims at facilitating the teaching of cultural aspects in foreign language teaching. 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com With the same purpose, an investigation into conceptual metaphors for life, death, and time in Vietnamese and English has been conducted by Nguyễn Thị Tú Trinh (2010).
One of the most favored target domains to be described through source domains is economy. It is admitted that, the world economy has never failed to win people‘s attention though it has undergone numerous ups and downs in the last few decades. Hence, the economic reports in newspapers, journals and magazines have proved themselves to be an essential part of the daily life. For this reason, certain linguistic features are taken into great consideration in the production of reports and articles so that ideas can be effortlessly perceived in such an abstract and abstruse field.
Metaphor, one of the linguistics features, commonly occurs in economic reports for the reason that metaphors facilitate readers‘ understanding of the abstract domains by means of the concrete domains (Köveces, 2002). Within the business domain, conceptual metaphors are supposed to be of great popularity since the more abstract domain of economy should be conceptualized by a number of more concrete domains. For example, we usually see such a metaphoric expression as seeing just one way for Greece to go: up (The New York Times, 2014). The example illustrates the use of the concrete domain of JOURNEY to structure ideas belonging to the domain of ECONOMY.
Studies on such use of metaphoric expressions have been of certain extensiveness. Silva Bratož (2004) conducts a comparative study of metaphor in English and Slovene used in popular economic discourse. The study aims to figure out the domains used business reports in both languages to conceptualize the domain of economy. Similarly, Black and Ennis (2001) carry out another study of 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com conceptual metaphors between English and Spanish in financial reporting mainly about stock market crash.
According to the findings, there are not only many similarities but also differences in frequently used metaphors between two languages. Bai Jinhong (2010) also carries out a study on conceptual metaphor exploited in the journal Business Week and the newspaper The New York Times although the study is confined to the headlines only. The review of previous studies has encouraged the writer to conduct further research on conceptual metaphors used in English articles so that the source domains can be found, and the most frequently used domain can be identified. In short, it is worth analyzing metaphors in economic reports to figure out how they work in this field and to categorize other concrete source domains that are normally used to conceptualize the target domain of economy.
Objectives and scope of the study 2. Objectives of the study This study primarily concentrates on the metaphors used in economic reports. Its aim is to have an insight into how metaphors are correlated to human physical experience and constructed in economic reports. In addition, the analysis of this correlation will set foundation for later categorization of the source domains which are exploited in the metaphors in these economic reports.
4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Scope of the study The research on metaphoric expressions has a long history with different standpoints. In the traditional view, metaphors should be regarded as a figure of speech and those metaphoric expressions are expected to appear in poetry and literary works for rhetorical aims and are far from use in communication. The second view on metaphor emerged in 1980 and was marked by the publication of Metaphors, We Live By, written by Lakoff and Johnson.
The approach they suggested, known as the cognitive linguistics view of metaphors, posed a real challenge to the traditional view since they propose that metaphor exists not only in language but also in action and thought (2003). Among two views briefly discussed above, this study takes the latter since economic reports, the subject of this study, should not be treated as literary works but part of human communication. Since its introduction, many cognitive studies of metaphor have been conducted in politics, sports, economy and many other aspects. This paper does not expect to cover all those aspects of life, and only conceptual metaphors found in economic reports are analyzed.
Despite the abundance of economic magazines and journals, this paper focuses only on the articles from the New York Times posted in 2013. Significance of the study With this study, the writer strives to make a little theoretical and practical contribution. Firstly, as part of his endeavor, this paper is expected to provide an insight into how metaphor works in the field of economy, which is to add some value to the theory of metaphor from the 5 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com perspective of cognitive linguistics. The findings and analysis of metaphors in economic reports also prove the statement made by Lakoff and Johnson (1980, 1999) that metaphors are conceptual as many of the ways in which we think and act are basically metaphorical and that metaphors are not confined to literal works only.
Secondly, for writers of journals, newspapers and magazines, this study is to provide a practical analysis on how metaphors work and how they are constructed in economic reports. They are, hence, encouraged to exploit this linguistic feature so that ideas can be presented in a comprehensible manner.