MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF DANANG HỒ TRỊNH QUỲNH THƯ A COGNITIVE STUDY OF EXPRESSIONS OF METAPHOR OF LOVE IN ENGLISH VERSUS VIETNAMESE DOCTORAL THESIS IN SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES Da Nang, 2018 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF DANANG HỒ TRỊNH QUỲNH THƯ A COGNITIVE STUDY OF EXPRESSIONS OF METAPHOR OF LOVE IN ENGLISH VERSUS VIETNAMESE Major: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Code: 62.01 DOCTORAL THESIS IN SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES SUPERVISOR: Assoc. Phan Văn Hòa Da Nang, 2018 i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Except where bibliography is made in the text, the dissertation contains no material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from another author’s thesis or document. It does not comprise any parts by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma. This dissertation is also assured that it has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution.
Da Nang, January 2018 Hồ Trịnh Quỳnh Thư ii ABSTRACT The dissertation is carried out in the light of the conceptual metaphor theory fathered by Lakoff and Johnson (1980). It aims at investigating and comparing the expressions of metaphor of romantic love in three linguistic dimensions- space, time and sensory perceptions- of English and Vietnamese modern poetry. The study uses the metaphor identification procedures raised by Charteris Black (2004), Pragglejaz Group (2007) and Steen (1999) to minimize the mistakes and increase the believability of its results of linguistic and conceptual metaphor identification. Besides, technological tools, namely SPSS20 and Microsoft Excel 2013, are also applied to the analysis process of 3300 samples (1650 in each language) collected from 547 love poems.
The finding is that love is conceptualized in terms of 21 conceptual metaphors in English and Vietnamese. Especially, one more source domain that is used for love in Vietnamese but not uncovered in our English data is sight. It is one of the differences found between English and Vietnamese conceptualization of love via the language of space, time and sensory perceptions. Interestingly, 7 of 22 these source domains are considered partly or wholly new, including climate, drug, life, music, sight, source of energy, and time.
Besides, the expressions of metaphor of love are also determined both conventional and novel. The novelty is manifested via four techniques- extending, elaboration, questioning, and combination, which once again proves the creativity and imaginativeness in poetic language. In addition, the study also finds it that not only the conceptual metaphors but the spatial, temporal and sensory terms used to express love are similar between English and Vietnamese. The similarities may result from the universality of conceptual metaphor and the objectiveness of natural world.
However, language is a cultural factor and directly under the effects of culture. Metaphor is the reflection of individual thoughts and experiences. As a result, the ways to express love identified in our study are different between these two languages. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP .ii TABLE OF CONTENTS.
iii ABBREVIATIONS AND TYPOGRAPHICAL CONVENTIONS. viii LIST OF THE TABLES .ix LIST OF THE FIGURES. Aims and objectives of the study. Aims of the study.
Objectives of the study. Focus and scope of the study. Focus of the study. Scope of the study.
Justification for the study. Theoretical significance of the study. Practical significance of the study. Organization of the study.
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND. The conceptual metaphor theory (CMT). The systematicity of conceptual metaphors. Partialness of conceptual metaphors.
Metaphorical coherence and understanding. Cognitive mechanism of conceptual metaphors. Types of conceptual metaphors. Limitations of the CMT.
Recent development in conceptual metaphor. Categorization view of metaphor. Blending theory of metaphor. Neural theory of metaphor.
The view based on the main meaning focus. Expression of metaphor. Metaphor and culture. Metaphor in literature and in poetry.
Concepts of space, time and sensory perceptions. Love as an emotion. Conceptual metaphors of love. Previous studies of metaphors of love.
Qualitative and quantitative methods. Descriptive and contrastive methods. Sources of data. Identification of linguistic metaphors .1 Charteris-Black’s method .2 MIP and MIPVU.
Identification of conceptual metaphors. Identification of novel metaphors of love. Statistical analysis tool. Data analysis procedure.
EXPRESSIONS OF METAPHOR OF LOVE IN ENGLISH POETRY. English spatial language used to express love. English terms of location used to express love. English terms of configuration used to express love.
English terms of movement used to express love. English temporal language used to express love. English chronological terms used to express love. English kairotic terms used to express love.
English sensory language used to express love. English terms of visual perception used to express love. English terms of tactile perception used to express love. English terms of gustatory perception used to express love.
English terms of olfactory perception used to express love. English terms of auditory perception used to express love. Novelty of love metaphors in English poetry. Novelty of conceptual metaphors of love in English poetry.
Novel use of love metaphors in English poetry. EXPRESSIONS OF METAPHOR OF LOVE IN VIETNAMESE POETRY. Vietnamese spatial language used to express love. Vietnamese terms of location used to express love.
Vietnamese terms of configuration used to express love. Vietnamese terms of movement used to express love. Vietnamese temporal language used to express love. Vietnamese chronological terms used to express love.
Vietnamese kairotic terms used to express love. Vietnamese sensory language used to express love. Vietnamese terms of visual perception used to express love. Vietnamese terms of tactile perception used to express love.
Vietnamese terms of gustatory perception used to express love. Vietnamese terms of olfactory perception used to express love. Vietnamese terms of auditory perception used to express love. Novelty of love metaphors in Vietnamese poetry.
Novelty of conceptual metaphors of love in Vietnamese poetry. Novel use of love metaphors in Vietnamese poetry. SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE EXPRESSIONS OF METAPHOR OF LOVE. Similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese conceptual metaphors of love.
Similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese expressions of metaphor of love. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS. Limitation and suggestions for further research .158 LIST OF PUBLICATIONS .161 LIST OF THE POEMS .176 DECISION ON THE ADOPTION OF THE DOCTORAL RESEARCH TOPIC .213 viii ABBREVIATIONS AND TYPOGRAPHICAL CONVENTIONS CD : Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary CMT : conceptual metaphor theory E : English LD : Longman Dictionary of comtemporary English online MD : Macmillan Dictionary MIP : metaphorical identification procedure MIPVU : MIP extended by the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam MWD : Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary V : Vietnamese VD : Vietnamese Dictionary (Từ điển tiếng Việt) - : unfound + : found lower case : linguistic metaphor, e. the season of love upper case : conceptual metaphor, e.
LOVE IS A JOURNEY ix LIST OF THE TABLES Table 3. The missions of qualitative and quantitative methods in the study. Top five source domains underlying English locative terms used for love. Analysis of the images of moon, sun, stars, earth, sky and sea in the metaphor LOVE IS LIFE.
Top seven source domains underlying English configurative terms used for love. Top three source domains underlying English moving terms used to express love. Top five source domains under English spatial language used to express love. LOVE-AS-TIME mapping.
Top three source domains underlying English kairotic terms used to express love. Analysis of the visual terms of beautiful, dark, rounded, light beam and shine metaphorically used to describe love. Analysis of the terms of temperature metaphorically used for love. Analysis of the terms of pain perception metaphorically used to express love.
Analysis of musical terms metaphorically used to express love. Analysis of the images of chùm, khóm, lá, cành, nụ and hoa in the metaphor LOVE IS A PLANT. Analysis of the moving terms - lia and nhặt lên used for love. LOVE-AS-TIME OF A YEAR mapping.
4 LOVE-AS-FLOWER mapping. Quantification of sensory language used for love in Vietnamese. LOVE-AS-CLIMATE mapping. Analysis of the tactile terms - mềm and ấm in the metaphor LOVE IS LIFE.
Analysis of Vietnamese temperature terms metaphorically used to express love. LOVE - AS - TIME OF A DAY mapping. Source domains used for love in English and Vietnamese .153 xi LIST OF THE FIGURES Figure 1. Map of the thesis.
The systematicity in the conceptualization of love in terms of a journey. The coherence of a complex metaphor of love structured by two single metaphors- LOVE IS A JOURNEY and LOVE IS A UNITY. The coherence of the conceptualization of love in terms of time that is understood metaphorically in terms of an entity. Conceptual blending of “surgeon as butcher”.
Neural theory applied to the LOVE IS A JOURNEY metaphor. Sample of detecting mistakes in the data inputs. Sample of the data statistics under linguistic fields. Sample of the data statistics under source domains .Sample of drawing charts on Excel.
Sample of the comparisons of using metaphorical expressions of love between English and Vietnamese. Quantification of English expressions of metaphor of love under spatial, temporal and sensory languages. Source domains underlying English expressions of love metaphor. Quantification of English spatial terms used to express love under the aspects of location, configuration and movement.
Source domains underlying English spatial language used for love. Cycle of a day. 6 The lifetime of living-beings. The growth phases of living-beings.
Quantification of English terms of sensory perceptions used to express love. Source domains underlying English terms of sensory perceptions used to express love. Quantification of Vietnamese expressions of metaphor of love under spatial, temporal and sensory languages. Source domains underlying Vietnamese expressions of love metaphor104 Figure 5.
3 Quantification of Vietnamese spatial terms used to express love under the aspects of location, configuration and movement. 4 Source domains underlying Vietnamese spatial language used for love116 Figure 5. 5 Source domains underlying Vietnamese temporal terms used to express love. Cycle of seasons.
The lifetime of a flower. Source domains underlying Vietnamese terms of sensory perceptions used for love. Source domains used to express love in English and Vietnamese. Rationale Love, which is hardly definable, is one of the significant things in human lives.
Without it, people feel as though their lives were incomplete, “I’m incomplete without you” (Bryan, My red heart is blue), for example; or even they are unviable as the words described by Gordon “I cannot live/ Without you” (I look at you and think: I cannot live), similar to what is expressed in Vietnamese “Làm sao sống được mà không yêu…?” (Xuân Diệu, Bài thơ tuổi nhỏ). Nevertheless, to understand ‘what love is’ is certainly not easy. This question has long been addressed but the answer may be pretty abstract. It may be the reason for which Xuân Diệu – a Vietnamese romantic poet – uttered “Làm sao cắt nghĩa được tình yêu!” (How to explain love!) Several researchers (e.
Gray, 1993; Shaver, Schwartz, Kirson, and O'Connor, 2001) support that love is one of the basic human emotions. It is a natural phenomenon that can be found in all cultures around the world. However, much of semantics is culturally and experientially based (Casad, 1995; Steenbergen, 2006). It is especially right in description of abstract concepts like love, which has been demonstrated to be one of the concepts richest in imagery by cognitive linguists (e.
Lakoff & Johnson, 1980a,b; Kovecses, 1986, 1988, 2000; Tessari, 2001). The love expressions are thus diversified, dependent on individual experiences and under cultural influences.