English semantics pragmatics NGỮ NGHĨA NGỮ DỤNG học TIẾNG ANH

ENGLISH SEMANTICS & PRAGMATICS
GIÁO TRÌNH
NGỮ NGHĨA - NGỮ DỤNG HỌC TIẾNG ANH
ENGLISH SEMANTICS & PRAGMATICS
Compiled by:
NGUYEN THUY NGA
NGUYEN QUOC BAO

Part 1: SEMANTICS
I. DEFINITION
Semantics is the study of meaning in language. (Hurford & Heasley, 1983:
1) Semantics is the study of the relationships between linguistic forms and
entities in the world; that is, how words literally connect to things. Semantic
analysis also attempts to establish the relationship between verbal descriptions
and states of affairs in the world as accurate (true) or not, regardless of who
produces that description. (Yule, 1996:4)
II. SENTENCES, UTTERANCES AND PROPOSITIONS
1. A sentence is a string of words put together by the grammatical rules of
a language. (Hurford & Heasley, 1983: 16)
Ex:
- A house was struck by lightening last night.
- Money doesn’t make happiness.
2. An utterance is a piece of language (a sequence of sentences, a single
phrase, or a single word) used by a particular speaker on a particular occasion.
(Hurford & Heasley, 1983: 15)
Ex:


- “Hello”
- “Not much”
- “Utterances may consist of a single word, a single phrase, or a single

sentence. They may also consist of a sequence of sentences.”
3. A proposition is that part of the meaning of the utterance of a declarative
sentence which describes some state of affairs. (Hurford & Heasley, 1983: 19) \
Ex:
- Paul turned on the TV.
- I met him at the cinema last night.
Rule: The notion of truth can be used to decide whether two sentences
express the same or different propositions. When one sentence is true and the
other is also true, they express die same proposition. If one sentence is true
while the other may be false, they express different propositions.
True propositions correspond to reality; False propositions do not
correspond to reality.
Ex:
(1) Harry took out the garbage.
Hairy took the garbage out. (2 sentences; same proposition)
(2) John gave Mary a book.
Mary was given a book by John. (2 sentences; same proposition)
(3) Isobel loves Tony.
Tony loves Isobel. (2 sentences; 2 different propositions) (It is not
necessary that Tony loves Isobel)
(4) Dr Findlay caused Janet to die.


Dr Findlay killed Janet. (2 sentences; 2 different propositions) (In the case
Dr Findlay had caused Janet to die, but not intentionally)
Exercise 1. Answer the following sentences, choosing Yes or No.
1. Does it make sense to talk of the time and place of a sentence? Yes/No
2. Does it make sense to talk of the time and place of an utterance?
Yes/No
3. Can one talk of a loud sentence? Yes/No

4. Can one talk of a loud utterance? Yes/No
5. Does it make sense to ask what language a sentence belong to?
Yes/No
6. Does it make sense to ask what language an utterance belong to?
Yes/No
Exercise 2.
1. Fill in the chart with V or as appropriate.
Utterances

Sentences

Propositions

Can be loud or quiet
Can be grammatical or not
Can be true or false
In a particular regional accent
In a particular language
2. Can the same proposition be expressed by different sentences? Yes/No
3. Can the same sentence be realized by different utterances? Yes /No
Exercise 3. Answer the following:
1. Are the followings a sentence or an utterance?
a. John sang wonderfully last night. S/U


b. “John sang wonderfully last night.” S/U
2. Can a sentence be true or false? Yes/No
3. Can an utterance be true or false? Yes/No
4. Is an utterance tied to a particular time and place? Yes/No
5. Is a sentence tied to a particular time and place? Yes/No

III. SEMANTIC PROPERTY/FEATURE
1. DEFINITION
Semantic features / semantic properties / semantic components are the
smallest units of meaning in a word. (Richards, Platt & Weber, 1987: 254)
Father:
- human
- male
- adult
- married
- having children
Assassin:
- human
- adult
- killer
- kill a VIP
Bachelor:
- human
- male


- adult
- unmarried
Teacher:
- human
- adult
- earn living by teaching
2. CHARACTERISTICS
a. Primitive elements: basic primitive concepts in linguistics. They are left
undefined.
Ex: human, male, animal, color etc.

b. The same semantic feature may be found in the meaning of different
words.
Ex: Father, mother, son, daughter, teacher baby... all share the same
semantic feature [+ human].
Mother, daughter, hen, bitch, swine... all share the same semantic feature
[+female].
c. The same semantic feature may be found in words of different parts of
speech. Ex: [+female] is part of the noun mother, the adjective pregnant, the verb
breast-feed.
[+educational] is. a semantic feature of the noun teacher, the adjective
educated, the verb teach.
IV. LEXICAL/ SEMANTIC FIELD (trường từ vựng)
A semantic, field or a lexical field is the organization of related words and
expressions into a system which show their relationship to one another.


(Richards. Platt & Weber. 1987:53) In other words, it is a group of words sharing
the same Semantic property.
Ex 1:
Human - (B) Hypernym
Bachelor - Father - Mother - Baby - Uncle
Hyponym (hạ danh) is a word ‘whose referent is totally included in the
referent of another term, (hypo- means below) (Finegan. 1994:165)..
Hypernym (thượng danh) is a word whose referent covers all the referents
of its hyponyms. (hyper- means above).
Hyponymy is one-way relation between hyponyms and hypemym so that A
(hyponym) is a kind of B (hypemym). We can say:
A bachelor is a kind of human.
Not: A human is a kind of bachelor.
A boy is a kind of human.

Not: A human is a kind of boy.
Ex 2:
Male (Hypernym)
Boy - Brother – Uncle - Ram - Stallion – Ox - Bull
(Hyponyms)
Ways of organizing related words into different lexical / semantic
fields.
1. Items related by topics
a. Fruit: apples, oranges, grapes, bananas etc.
b. Clothing: shirts, pants, shorts, hats etc.


c. Color: green, red, blue, purple, pink etc.
2. Items which are similar in meaning
a. Ways of cooking: stew, boil, fry, steam, roast etc.
b. Ways of walking: limp, tiptoe, stalk etc.
c. Ways of looking: stare, peer, glance, squint etc.
3. Items grouped as an activity or a process
a. Do housework: clean the room, do washing, iron clothes prepare
the meal etc.
b. Do research: make hypotheses, collect data, analyze data, get
results, come to a conclusion.
Exercise 4
For each group of words given below, state what semantic property or
properties are shared by the words in group (i) and those in group (ii), and what
semantic property or properties distinguish between the classes of (i) and (ii).
Ex:
i/ widow, mother, sister, aunt, seamstress
ii/ widower, father, brother, uncle, tailor the shared semantic property is
human.

=> the different is: (i) => female', (ii) => male.
1. i. bachelor, man, son, paperboy, pope, uncle,
ii. bull, rooster, drake, ram, boar.
2. i. bitch, hen, doe, mare, ewe, vixen.
ii. actress, maiden, widow, woman, girl.
3. i. doctor, dean, professor, bachelor, parent.


ii. teenager, child, boy, baby, infant.
4. i. table, stone, pencil, cup, house, ship, car.
ii. milk, alcohol, rice, soup, mud.
5. i. book, temple, mountain, road, tractor.
ii. idea, love, charity, sincerity, bravery, fear.
6. i. pine, elm, ash, wiping, willow, sycamore,
ii. rose, dandelion, carnation, tulip, daisy.
7. i. book, letter, encyclopedia, novel, notebook, dictionary.
ii. typewriter, pencil, ballpoint, crayon, quill, charcoal, chalk.
8. i. walk, run, skip, jump, hope, swim.
ii. fly, skate, ski, ride, cycle, canoe, hang-glide.
Exercise 5. Put the following words into different lexical fields. Give each
group a hypernym.
Cup - hammer - glass - nails - red - jug - wineglass - blue - purple - boxing
- scissors - football - knife - plastic cup - yellow - badminton - pink - file weightlifting - green - run - motor-racing - crawl - walk - black - swim - vermilion karate.
Exercise 6. Give a hypernym to the following strings of words. Cross out
the item(s) that does / do not belong to die same lexical field as the others.
1. acquire, buy, collect, win, sell, steal, rob.
2. whisper, talk, narrate, report, tell, instruct, brief.
3. road, path, way, street, method, freeway, avenue.
4. easy-going, sociable, well-mannered, friendly, sad, elegant, courteous,
strong.

5. smell, aroma, bouquet, perfume, fragrance, scent, odor, reek.
6. toast, boil, fry, fresh, grill, medium, bake, roast, steam.
7. cow, dog, cat, tiger, lion, ape, human, bird, whale, chicken.
8. sing, talk, dance, speak, shout, whisper, mutter, babble.
9. at, of, in, on, under, below, near.
10.

square,

circular,

triangular,

rectangular,

spherical,

hexagonal,

polygonal.
V. REFERENCE - REFERENT - SENSE
1. Definition
• Reference (sở chỉ) is the relationship between language and the world. In
other words, that is the relationship between words and the things, actions,
events, and qualities they stand for. (Hurford & Heasley, 1983: 25)
Ex: My son: refers to a person; a dog: refers to an animal, (the speaker
establishes a relation between an expression and an object).
• Referent (vật sở chỉ) is the thing the speaker is talking about, the object

refereed to. 
Ex: This page (the page I am reading itself, page 15)
The cassette play.er (the object on the table)
• Sense (nghĩa) is the relationships between words in the language to
express the meaning.
Ex: The word ‘bachelor’ and ‘unmarried man’ have the same sense
To express the content / meaning of a word to a leaner, we may say the
word and show him an object to make him understand what the word means. In
this case we establish a relation between a word and an object (between
language and the world: reference). On the other hand, we can also combine


words together to express the meaning in the form of a definition. We are
establishing die relationship between words in the language to express the
sense.
Example: The word ‘desk’
2. Types of reference.
1) Variable Reference: same expression may refer to different objects. For
example:
“My mother” (referring to the mother of the speaker) may refer to many
different ladies depending on different speakers.
“Here” in the sentence “I am here” (referring to the place where the
speaker is standing) also can refer to different places depending on different
speakers.
Some clues of Variable Reference
• Possessive adjectives: my sister, your brother, the government’s
decision... Exception: John’s hat (not a referring expression because it refers to
the hat of John only regardless the speaker).
• Demonstrative adjectives and pronouns: this, that, these, those,... (this
page, that book that car is mine...)

• Personal pronouns: I, You, He, Me, Him...
• Adverbs of place/ time: here, there, then, today, yesterday, now, at the
station,
• Articles: the boy in the comer; I want to buy a car.
2) Same Reference: different expressions refer to the same object.
Examples:


• Uncle Ho - Ho Chi Minh - Nguyen Ai Quoc - Nguyen Sinh Cung - Nguyen
Tat Thanh: all refer to the same person. 
• HCM City and Saigon: both refer to the same city.
• My father is a teacher: both underlined groups of words refer.to the same
person.
• We chose John leader. John and leader refer to the same person.
• The Morning Star and The Evening Star. Both refer to the same star.
3) Constant Reference: one expression always refers to the same object,
(regardless who is the speaker).
• Proper names, especially geographical names: John, Smith, David,
Vietnam, Laos...
• Unique things: the sun, the moon, the earth, the east, the west, Hailey’s
Comet,
4) No reference: an expression which is meaningful but does not refer to
anything.
• Function words: and, but, if, almost,...
• Imaginary characters: Batman, Dragon, Superman, Snow White, Tấm
Cám,...
• The objects that do not exist now.
Ex: The king of France is bald (France does not have any king nowadays)
The Queen of Vietnam nowadays is a Cambodian, (no VN queen now)
Exercise 7. Answer the following questions.

1. Does the moon normally have constant reference? Yes/No


2. Does The People’s Republic of China normally have constant
reference? Yes/No
3. Does Angola normally have constant reference? Yes/No
4. Does Haley’s Comet normally constant reference? Yes/No
5. If we are talking about a situation in which John is standing alone in the
corner, can John have the same referent as the person in the corner? Yes/No
Exercise 8
What is intended by the word mean, meaning, meant... in the following
examples, reference (R) or sense (S)?
1. When Helen mentioned “the fruit cake”, she meant that rock-hard object
in the middle of the table. R/S
2. When Albert talks about “his former friend” he means me. R/S
3. Daddy, what does unique mean? R/S
4. Purchase has the same meaning as buy. R/S
5. Look up the meaning of apoplexy in your dictionary. R/S
6. If you look out of the window now, you’ll see who I mean. R/S
7. “I’m sorry to have disturbed you — when I said ‘Will you move your
chair?”, I didn’t mean you, I meant Patrick here.” R/S
8. If you look up ochlocracy, you’ll find it means government by the mob.
R/S
Exercise 9
1. Give an example of an expression that could have variable reference.
2. Give an example of an expression that always has constant reference.
3. Give an example of different expressions that having one referent.


4. Give an example of an expression that has no reference.

Exercise 10. Which of the following is a correct description of ‘reference’?
(a) a relationship between expressions and other expressions which have
the same meaning.
(b) the set of all objects which can potentially be referred to by an
expression.
(c) a relationship between a particular object in the world and an
expression used in an utterance to pick that object out
Exercise 11. Which of the following is a correct statement about ‘sense’?
(a) All words in a language may be used to refer, but only some words
have sense.
(b) If two expressions have the same referent, they always have the same
sense.
(c) The sense of an expression is its relationship to semantically equivalent
or semantically related expression in the same language.
Exercise 12. Answer the following questions by choosing Yes or No
1. Imagine that you and I are in a room with a man and a woman, and,
making no visual signal of any sort, I say to you, “The man stole my wallet”. In
this situation, can you identify the referent of the expression the man? Yes/No
2. Can the referent of the pronoun I be uniquely identified when this
pronoun is uttered? Yes/No
3. Can the referent of the pronoun you be uniquely identified when this
pronoun is uttered? Yes/No
VI. REFERRING EXPRESSIONS


1. Definition: A referring expression ‘is any expression used in an utterance
to refer to someone or something particular. (Hurford & Heasley, 1983: 35) (on
the part of the speaker)
Ex:
+ When a speaker says, “My father” he has a particular person in mind =>

my father is a referring expression.
+ The name Fred in the utterance “Fred hit me”, where the speaker has a
particular person in mind, is a referring expression.
+ Fred in “There is no Fred at this address” is not a referring expression
because in this case the speaker would not have a particular person in mind.
2. Some clues of referring expression
• Possessive: my friend, Paul’s hat,...
• Demonstrative: this book, that machine,...
• Proper name: Smith, David, Vietnam...
• Personal Pronouns (only when being uttered): I, You, He,...
• Constant Reference (unique thing); the sun, the moon, the earth, the
east, the west, Hailey’s Comet,.....
• Past tense: helps to recognize Referring Expression
Ex:
I saw a boy yesterday
I want to go fishing on the lake
My sister is a singer yesterday.
I met a singer I’m looking for a car to buy
I bought a car in a showroom on Nguyen Hue Street.


3. Not a referring expression,
• Something general: family, society, people,...
• Representative of social classes or species: the poor, the rich, the
elephant, dogs, cats,...
• Profession/ Job: singer, teacher, lawyer,...
Ex: The singer in “The singer I admire most is Silk Black” is a RE because
it refers to a particular person.
A singer in “My sister is a singer” is not a RE because it is a job in general.
Note: Whether an expression is a referring expression or not is heavily

dependent linguistic context and on circumstances of Utterance.
Exercise 13. Could the following possibly be used as referring
expressions?
1. John yes/no
2. my uncle yes/no
3. and yes / no
4. the girl sitting there yes / no
5. a man yes/no.
6. my parents yes/no
7. send yes/no
8. under yes/no
Exercise 14. Underline the referring expressions in the following
sentences
1. A man was in here looking for you last night.


2. The first sign of the monsoon is a cloud on the horizon no bigger than a
man’s hand.
3. Forty buses have been withdrawn from service by the Liverpool
Corporation.
4. This engine has the power of forty buses.
5. Yesterday, Nancy married a Norwegian.
6. My sister also wants to marry a Norwegian.
7. John is looking for a car to buy.
8. Dick believes that a man with a limp killed Bo Peep.
9. The police officer said that a man with a limp killed Bo Peep.
10. Every evening at sunset, a swan flew over my house.
11. The man who shot Abraham Lincoln was an unemployed actor.
12. If anyone ever marries Nancy, he’s in for a bad time.
13. The poor are the ones who suffer most from the disasters all over the

world.
14. I saw a boy climb over the fence last night.
15. Don’t come near the frontier. You may be hurt by a bullet.
16. You can’t get married with such a boy!
17. My hobby is to go fishing with friends when the sun appears in the
East.
18. It was thought for many centuries that the world was flat.
19. The book you gave me on Teacher’s Day was worth reading.
20. My parents expected me to send them some gift on their wedding
anniversary, but I didn’t because of my forgetfulness.


21. The parachute is a device to help people to land safely on the ground.
22. While the soldier was moving through the frontier, a bullet stroke him
on the head.
23. Nowadays, there are many TV programs very useful for children’s
education.
24. The teacher let his students come back home early because of the
coming storm.
25. Nutritionists recommended that children should eat foods from each of
the four basic groups.
VII. TYPES OF MEANING
A. WORD MEANING
1. Denotative / Descriptive / Referential meaning
The denotative meaning (nghĩa sở thị) of a word is the central meaning of
the word found in a dictionary. It is the meaning that may be described in terms
of a set of semantic features that serve to identify the particular concept
associated with the word. It is also called descriptive because it describes an
object, an event, a state or an affair, and referential meaning as it refers us to
something in the world.

Ex: A pig: a domestic animal, 4 legs, hairy, usually raised for meat A
father: a male adult, married, having children...
2. Connotative / Social / Affective meaning
The connotative meaning (nghĩa liên tưởng) of a word is the implied,
additional meaning that the word has beyond its denotative meaning. It shows
people’s emotions and / or attitudes towards what the word refers to. This
meaning may vary from individual to individual, and community to community.
That’s why connotative meaning is also called social or affective meaning.


Ex: + The word pig in “He is a pig” may means connotatively:
He is a pig =>
- Lazy
- Greedy
- Stupid
- Duty
+ As connotative meaning, the word woman may means positively
devotion, patience, generosity and negatively frailty, inconstancy, irrationality...
B. SENTENCE MEANING
1. Linguistic / literal meaning (nghĩa đen)
The linguistic meaning of à sentence depends on:
- The sum of meanings of constituent words
- The syntactic function (subject, object,...)
- The semantic role
Compare the following sentences:
(1) The lion bit the hunter.
(2) The hunter bit the lion.;
(3) The hunter was bitten by the lion
To understand the meaning of the sentences, we must know the meanings
of the words ‘lion, bite, hunter’. However, we can use exactly the same words to

form different sentences with the same or different meanings.
(1) The lion bit the hunter # (2) The hunter bit the lion
The two sentences (1) & (2) have different meanings because the words
have different syntactic functions.


(2) The hunter bit the lion # (3) The hunter was bitten by the lion.
The sentences (2) & (3) have different meanings although the words have
the same syntactic functions.
(1) The lion bit the hunter = (3) The hunter was bitten by the lion.
The sentences (1) & (3) have the same meaning although the words have
different syntactic functions. What makes the meaning of the two sentences
similar or different? It is what is called semantic roles, the third factor making up
the meaning of a sentence.
SEMANTIC ROLES
a. Definition
A semantic role is the role performed by a noun phrase in relation to the
verb.
b. Types
- Agent: the one that initiates an action (person/ animal + action verb)
Ex: Paul opened the door
- Patient: the one that is affected by the action
Ex: Paul opens the door
The door opened at the first blow of wind
Paul is boiling water
Water boils at 100°c
Experiencer: the one that experiences a feeling/ sensation/ perception...
(person / animal + non-action verb)
Ex: Paul loves Mary
I recognize that I’m wrong

The boy wants a candy
The teacher remembers meeting me somewhere
Stimulus: the one that causes a feeling / sensation
Ex: Paul loves Mary I’m afraid of ghost
The book of the teacher makes me very happy
The film interests me a lot
Recipient (the receiver): the one that receives a physical object Ex: He
gave me a book last night
Benefactive (the benefactor): the one that benefits from an action
Ex:
I do all this for YOU
I sent him a gift for his son
Instrument: the one that is used to perform an action (implying a user)
Ex:
I open the door with a hammer
Paul used a key to open the door
Cause: the one that causes an action to happen (not implying a user)
Ex:
The door opened suddenly at the blow of the wind
Paul was hurt with a knife (implying someone used a knife to hurt him)
Paul was hurt by a knife (not implying a user of the knife)
Locative: the place where an action happens
Ex:


I was born in Dalat
HCM city is a good place to live
Temporal: the time when an action happens

Ex:
Yesterday. I saw you at the supermarket
Coming back to the 3 previous examples, we see:
(1) The lion bit the hunter # (2) The hunter bit the lion
(2) The hunter bit the lion # (3) The hunter was bitten by the lion.
The above sentences have different meanings because they have different
semantic roles although they may have the same syntactic functions (2) & (3).
(1) The lion bit the hunter = (3) The hunter was bitten by the lion.
The two sentences have the same meaning because they have the same
semantic roles although the syntactic functions are different.
Exercise 15. Identify the semantic role of the noun phrases in the following
sentences
1. The student couldn’t finish the assignment because the library was
closed.
2. The couple raced the horses through the meadow yesterday morning.
3. The teacher was angered by the rowdy students.
4. I recall hearing my brother say that.
5. Tom lent me enough money to pay the rent.
6. At the reunion he ran into his cousin Karl.
7. The farmer went to the field before dawn.
8. The building was constructed in a commercial zone.


9. A big tree was rooted up by the storm last night.
10. I enjoy reading books in my free time.
11. The immigrants picked strawberries in the early June.
12. He never turned in his budget report on time.
13. The unlucky customer had the undercooked meat sent back to the
chef.
14. Traffic was backed up at the intersection because of the accident.

15. I’m very glad to meet you here after so many years.
16. The book you gave me on Teacher’s Day was worth reading.
17. An unfair attitude toward the poor will contribute to the problem of
poverty.
18. After the yolk is separated from the white, it must be boiled
immediately.
19. Nutritionists recommended that foods from each of the four basic
groups be eaten regularly.
20. It was thought for many centuries that the world was flat.
21. His ingenuity never ceases to amaze me.
22. The hurricane destroyed half of the island.
23. Angela offered the job to her former rival.
24. In the morning we left San Francisco for Austin.
25. Zelda gets angry whenever Scott lies her.
26. The remains will be shipped to Cleveland on Wednesday.
27. The boy seems to be interested in the film shown at NH cinema last
night.


28. He hates being disturbed at table.
29. As the storm raged, the waves grew higher and higher.
30. He enjoys going fishing on the lake at sunset.
31. The snow melts at the morning sunshine.
32. The chickens are ready for us to eat in 5 minutes.
33. Do you like the book I sent you?
34. Acid can dissolve a corpse in 5 minutes.
35. The man who loves her must be insane.
36. Alan was sent a special gift on her birthday.
37. Many TV programs today help students to improve their study a lot.
38. The prisoner killed the guard then disappeared into the forest.

39. The beer made from rice drinks very well.
40. Putting one hand in the pocket, he walked around the front yard.
41. Joining the club is a good way of meeting new people.
42. She wants to know if anyone has an umbrella to lend her.
43. Harold doesn’t like making speeches in front of the class.
44. Trembling with fear, she opened the letter.
45. Delayed by the bad weather, the plane arrived in Hanoi one hour late.
46. My first job, cleaning the floor, made me exhausted.
47. The door ajar made the girl worried.
48. We watched the brown river swollen with rain.
49. A house surrounded by a large, deep ditch provides us with a safe
shelter.


50. This bed sleeps comfortably.
2. Semantic meaning & pragmatic meaning (nghĩa ngữ nghĩa & nghĩa
ngữ dụng)
a. Semantic meaning: the meaning of a sentence out of context / contextfree. It is the linguistic meaning of a sentence.
b. Pragmatic meaning: the meaning of an utterance in a particular
situation. Pragmatic meaning is context-dependent.
Ex 1:
A: Would you like to go out with me?
B: I have a lot of homework to do.
I have a lot of homework to do
=> semantic meaning: the teacher gave me a lot of assignments to do at
home.
=> pragmatic meaning: I’m sorry. I’m very busy. I’m afraid that I have to
refuse your invitation.
Ex 2: Oh! It’s too noisy
=> semantic meaning: there is a lot of noise here.

=> pragmatic meaning: Please, keep silent!
3. Figures of speech / non-literal meaning / figurative meaning
A figure of speech is ‘a word or phrase which is used for special effect, and
which doesn’t have its usual or literal meaning’. (Richards. Platt & Weber. 1987:
105)
Types of figures of speech


* Simile (tỉ dụ): direct / explicit comparison using comparison words (like,
as) or comparison form.
Ex:
He eats like a tiger (he eats as much as a tiger does.)
He is as poor as a church mouse (he is very poor)
* Metaphor (ẩn dụ): indirect / implied comparison (no comparison words)
• Dead metaphor: a metaphor which has lost its metaphoric characteristic
and become a fixed expression or idiom. Ex: die eye of a needle; the head
quarter; the foot of the mountain; the leg of the table; the mouth of the river; the
face of the table; the back of the chair; the childhood of the earth etc.
A dead metaphor is used naturally and unconsciously by a native speaker
of a language. Ex: đầu giường; chân ghế; mặt trái xoan; mắt bồ câu; trăng lưỡi
liềm; etc,
• Live metaphor: a metaphor used consciously, intentionally by a speaker
with various figurative meanings. Ex: ‘He is a pig’ may be interpreted as he is fat;
he is lazy; he is stupid; he is dirty etc. depending on the situation in which it is
used.
Usually there is a metaphor when one:
• Puts 2 different species on the same rank.
Ex:
He is an old fox (a person = an animal) (he is very wicked)
He is a rock in storm (a person- = a thing) (he is a strong-minded person)

• Applies a feature of one species for another.
Ex: