VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES BA THESIS A STUDY ON METONYMIC EXPRESSIONS CONCERNING HUMANS IN OSCAR WILDE’S SHORT STORIES WITH REFERENCE TO VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ PHÉP HOÁN DỤ LIÊN QUAN ĐẾN CON NGƯỜI TRONG TRUYỆN NGẮN CỦA OSCAR WILDE CÓ THAM CHIẾU ĐẾN NGHĨA TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT) Student: DAO DAI VU Student code: 621236 Major: ENGLISH Supervisor: NGUYEN THI THU THUY, Ph. Hanoi – 2021 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled “A STUDY ON METONYMIC EXPRESSIONS CONCERNING HUMANS IN OSCAR WILDE’S SHORT STORIES WITH REFERENCE TO VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor in English Language. Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis. Hanoi, 2021 Đào Đại Vũ Approved by SUPERVISOR Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy, Ph.
Date:…………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I would like to thank the enthusiastic guidance of teachers at the Faculty of Education and Foreign Language those have helped me complete my BA thesis during the past 5 months. Thanks for providing me with both professional knowledge and learning spirit, which is the foundation to help me acquire practical knowledge during the process of completing this BA thesis. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy, Ph. who gave me many detailed comments and reviews so that I can draw from my own experience through this BA thesis.
Thank you very much for your kind cooperation during this time helping me complete the BA thesis. Besides, I would like take this opportunity to sincerely thank my family and my friends for being supportive of my education and always being by my side through hard times. ii TABLE OF CONTENT PART 1: INTRODUCTION. RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY. SCOPE OF THE STUDY. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY. DESIGN OF THE STUDY .4 CHAPTER 1 - LITERATURE REVIEW.
REVIEW OF THE PREVIOUS STUDIES. REVIEW OF THEORETICAL BACKGROUND. Definition of Metonymy. Characteristics of Metonymy.
Classification of Metonymy. Features of Metonymy. Types of Metonymic Expressions concerning humans in English and Vietnamese. Metonymy Concerning Humans.
Metonymy versus Other Ways of Meaning Transference. Oscar Wilde and the Short stories .22 CHAPTER 3 - FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. METONYMIC EXPRESSIONS CONCERNING HUMANS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE. The Part for the Whole.
Institution for People. The Concrete for Abstract. Container for People Contained. Color for People.
Object Used for User. Author for His Work. FEATURES OF METONYMY. LIMITATION OF THE STUDY.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY .45 iv ABSTRACT The cognitive linguistics approach to metonymy provides an explanatorily elegant framework to account much for the underlying meaning. In this paper, we identify and describe syntactic and semantic features of metonymic expressions in Oscar Wilde’s short stories with reference to Vietnamese equivalents. We will be using comparison-contrast method and analytical method to analyze and examine metonymic expressions from “The Happy Prince”, “The Selfish Giant”, “The Nightingale and the Rose” by Oscar Wilde and some other literature works, “Chiếc lư đồng mắt cua”, “Chiếc Va-ly mới”, “Đi mở đường” by Nguyễn Tuân, “Chí Phèo” and by Nam Cao to clarify the similarities and differences of these metonymic expressions. Through this study, we have found the similarities and differences in using metonymic expressions concerning humans between Oscar Wilde and some other authors and Vietnamese writers.
At the end, as the result, the study offers teachers and learners of English and Vietnamese a comprehensive perspective on metonymic expression in short stories concerning humans using a cognitive linguistics approach. KEYWORDS: Metonymic expression, Metonymy, Human, Oscar Wilde, Short story. v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ICM: Idealized cognitive model NP: Noun Phrase vi LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 2. Types of metonymy concerning humans Table 2.
Syntactic Functions of Metonymic Expressions as Noun Phrases Table 2. Semantic feature: Metonymy as a Polysemous Phenomenon Table 3. Types of Metonymic Expressions Concerning Humans In English And Vietnamese works Table 3. Syntactic functions of the metonymic Noun Phrases in Oscar Wilde’s short story and Vietnamese short story Table 3.
Polysemy of metonymic ‘Face’ Figure 3. Syntactic functions of the metonymic Noun Phrases in Oscar Wilde’s short story and Vietnamese short story Figure 3. Referential Meaning of Author-for-Work Metonymy vii PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1. RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY Along with poetry, music and other artistic works, short story has long been everyone’s spiritual food.
Short story not only brings pleasure and relaxation to our soul but it also expresses the spiritual depth of writer’s feelings and emotions. The most important elements of short story are the selective details, large amount and the writing style with many hidden meanings, giving the work unspeakable depth. However, short story readers sometimes find it hard to understand and to snatch the language of short stories. There is a lot to do while reading short stories because the authors always use a lot of rhetorical devices to make their work more valuable and worthwhile to read.
It is true that foreigners studying Vietnamese and Vietnamese learners of English find it difficult to comprehend the short story's directions and characters' moods using metonymic expressions. As a result, understanding the metonymic mechanism in short stories will help readers to easily access the content of the works. All the things above have aroused my interest in researching the topic: “A Study on Metonymic Expressions Concerning Humans in Oscar Wilde’s Short Stories with Reference to Vietnamese Equivalents”. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 2.
AIMS The study is aimed at examining metonymic expressions concerning humans in Oscar Wilde’s short stories with reference to Vietnamese equivalents. OBJECTIVES This study is planed: - To identify and to describe syntactic and semantic features of metonymic expressions in Oscar Wilde’s short stories with reference to Vietnamese equivalents. - To compare and contrast metonymic expressions concerning humans in Oscar Wilde’s short stories with reference to Vietnamese equivalents to clarify the similarities and differences of these metonymic expressions. What types of metonymic expressions concerning humans are used in English and Vietnamese stories? 2.
What are the similarities and differences in syntactic and semantic features between English and Vietnamese metonymic expressions concerning humans? 4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY This study will observe and describe some commonly used types of means for expressing metonymic expression concerning humans in Oscar Wilde’s short stories such as “The Happy Prince”, “The Selfish Giant”, “The Nightingale and the Rose” by Oscar Wilde, “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Thorn birds” by Colleen McCullough, “Chiếc lư đồng mắt cua”, “Chiếc Va-ly mới”, “Đi mở đường” by Nguyễn Tuân, “Chí Phèo” by Nam Cao. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The study offers teachers and learners of English and Vietnamese a comprehensive perspective on metonymic expression in short stories concerning humans using a cognitive linguistics approach. DESIGN OF THE STUDY Apart from abstracts, references & appendices, the study consists of three main parts: PART 1 – INTRODUCTION presents rationale of the study, aims and objectives of the study, research questions, the scope as well as the significance of the study.
PART 2 - DEVELOPMENT is divided into 3 chapters: Chapter 1 - LITERATURE REVIEW provides theoretical background for the study including definitions of metonymy, typical features of metonymy, figures of speech, metonymic expression in cognitive linguistics, metonymic expression concerning humans, metonymy versus other ways of meaning transference. Chapter 2 - METHODOLOGY describes the methodology used in the research including the research methodology, data collection instruments and data analysis. Chapter 3 - FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS reports and discusses the findings of the study. PART 3 - CONCLUSION summarizes the main issues that have been addressed in the study, points out the limitations, draws pedagogical implications concerning the research topic and suggests several solutions.
3 PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 - LITERATURE REVIEW 1. REVIEW OF THE PREVIOUS STUDIES Trần Xuân Trưởng (2011) wrote a thesis namely “An investigation into metonymy denoting humans in English and Vietnamese poetry”. In that thesis, he pointed out characteristics of metonymic expressions in English and Vietnamese poetry, giving implications for English teaching and learning concerning the use of metonymic expressions as well as suggesting solutions for English teaching and learning. However, in that thesis, he did not work on metonymic expression in short stories and that is what I would like to research in this thesis.
Nguyễn Diệu Linh (2014) wrote an article “Metonymy “The-Part-For- The-Whole” of People in “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson”. She believes that the-part-for-the-whole kind of metonymy can be served for many purposes, especially, for people. This article analyzed the-part-for-the-whole kind of metonymy in “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson to address that problem and proposed some suggestions for teaching and learning English rhetorical devices. She listed and examined metonymies related to parts of human’s body by using analytical method.
The drawback of her article is that the scope limited in only one subtype of metonymy. Lin Wei (2010) has completed a research paper “A Cognitive Approach to Metaphor and Metonymy Related to the Human Body”. This study is an attempt to investigate the body metaphors and body metonymies applied in the body terms from the perspective of cognitive linguistic. Through the analysis of linguistic metaphorical and metonymic expressions of body terms, this study summed up two main mapping models and three kinds of image schema of body 4 metaphor.
The essay analyzed part-and-whole and part-and-part body metonymy. Furthermore, it also pointed out the similarities and differences between metaphor and metonymy. However again in this research he did mentioned different types of metonymy but did not analyzed all of them. After realizing the potential for further development and exploitation from the limitations of the above studies, I would like to do an in-depth study on metonymic expression related to humans in short stories written by Oscar Wilde and other authors with reference to Vietnamese equivalents to see the differences between using metonymic expression in literature in different languages.
REVIEW OF THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1. Definition of Metonymy According to Lakoff and Johnson’s “Metaphors We Live By” (1980:30), metonymy is defined as “the use of one entity to stand for another which is related to it”. From their point of view, metonymy has a primarily referential function, but it also contributes to understanding. A conceptual domain, or ICM, can be viewed as as a whole made up of parts; more specifically, the conceptual entities, or elements, are the components that make up the ICM as a whole.
Some background conditions in a given ICM include the "stands for" relation that may exist between two elements A and B, such that one element of the ICM, B, may stand in for another element A. Given this perspective, ICM metonymies may occur in two ways. 5 According to Lakoff and Turner (1989), metonymy is a type of conceptual mapping. The key element here is that metonymy is viewed as a cognitive tool for conceptualization rather than a linguistic strategy or rhetorical tactic.
Metonymy, according to the traditional view, is primarily the use of one term in lieu of another to refer to some entity, where one word can be used for another if the meanings of the words are contiguously related. Metonymy is conceptual in nature, according to cognitive linguistics, and its major role is to give mental access from one conceptual entity to another; it is based on ICMs with a distinct conceptual link between their constituents (Kövecses, 2002: 160). Jeannette Littlemore (2015) defined metonymy as a cognitive and linguistic process through which we use one thing to refer to another. Langacker describes metonymy as “a process consists in mentally accessing one conceptual entity via another entity” (1993.
Blank considers metonymy as “a linguistic device based on salient conceptual relations within a frame network” (1999, p.