An investigation into cultural meaning of love declarations in English and Vietnamese folklores = Tìm hiểu ý nghĩa văn hóa của lời tỏ tình trong các bài dân ca tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt. M.A Thesis Linguistics: 5 04 09

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

LU'U THI THANH TU

AN INVESTIGATION INTO CULTURAL MEANING OF
LOVE DECLARATIONS IN ENGLISH AND
VIETNAMESE FOLKLORES
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(TIM HIEU Y NGHIA VAN HOA CUA LOi TO TINH TRONG CAC

BAI DAN CA TIENG ANI1 VA TIENG VIET)

M.A THESIS
Field: English Linguistics
Code: 5.04.09

Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Do

HANOI, 2009


TABLE OF CONTENTS
Part one: Introduction

5

1.1 Justification

5

1.2 A i m and objectives o f the study

6

1.3 Scope o f the study

6

1.4 Methods o f the study

7

1.5 Design o f the study

7

Part two: Development

9

Chapter one: Theoretical background

9

1.1 Introduction

9

1.2 The relationship between language and culture

9

1.2.1 Nature, culture, language

10

1.2.2 Communities and their effects on language users

11

1.3 Tropes

13

1.3.1 Simile

13

1.3.2 Metaphor

14

1.4 Folklore as a genre

14

1.4.1 Introduction

14

1.4.2 Love declarations in folklore as a genre

15

1.5 Summary

18

Chapter two: Love declarations in English folklores

19

2.1 Introduction

19

2.2 Nature, Culture and Language used in love declarations

19

2.3 Tropes o f love declarations in English folklore

25

2.3.1 Simile used in love declarations in English folklore

25

2.3.2 Metaphor used in love declarations in English folklore

25

2.4 Summary
Chapter three: Love declarations in Vietnamese folklore

26
27

3. 1 Introduction

27

3. 2 Cultural images used in love declarations

28

3. 3 Tropes o f love declarations in Vietnamese folklore

36

3.3.1 Simile in love declarations in Vietnamese folklore

37


3.3.2 Metaphor in love declarations in Vietnamese folklore

38

3.4 Summary

40

Part three: Conclusion

41

3.1 Comparison between English and Vietnamese
love declarations in folklore

41

3.1.1 Similarities

41

3.1.2 Differences

42

3.2 Summary of the thesis

42

3.3 Implications from the study

43

3.4 Suggestions for further study

43

References

45


PART ONE: INTRODUCTION
1,1 JUSTIFICATION
The communication of love is an important aspect of interpersonal relationships

across cultures. But saying "I love you" can be ver>' delicate walk, with much gra\ area,
regarding what can and should be communicated about love, when, b\ whom and to
whom. Love is sometimes felt but not expressed, other times, love is expressed only
nonverbally; and still other times, it is communicated verbally, with or without nonverbal
manifestations.
In English and Vietnamese, the way people choose to express love is not the same as
it is afTected by cultural values. Love declarations include in themselves people's
viewpoints which are presented quite differenth in the two languages. Hence, what needs
to be carried out in this study will be an investigation of cultural meaning of love
declarations in folklores of the two languages in order U) llnd out the similarities and
differences between them, fhc thesis also attempts to explain what are behind the
differences uncovered in the investigation.
Our thesis is entitled "An investigation into the cultural meaning of love declarations
in English and Vietnamese folklores". The choice of the thesis is generated from two
reasons: Firstly, as Swales (1990: 34) stated that "the concept of genre has maintained a
central position in folklore studies ever since the pioneering work in the earl\ nineteenth
century". The functionalist in folklore would rather stress socio-cullural value. For
Malinowski (I960, cited in Swales 1990:35) "folklore genres contribute to the maintenance
and survival of social groups because the\ serve social and spiritual needs". Perhaps
inevitably, to assign cultural \alue also requires the in\estigator to pa\ attention to how a
community views and itself classify genre. This idea will lead to the tact that love
declaration is a mode of social communication and is onl\ a genre among others, therefore,
we would like to investigate love declaration in English and Vietnamese folklores to see
the similarities and diftcrences of this genre in the two languages. SecondK. lo\e
declarations, as mentioned above, relleel human's ideolog\, so we wish to see how the
ideologies represented in the two languages.


We optimistically hope that the thesis will help students of English, and students of
culture as it could provide an insight into the similarities and differences of love

declarations in English and Vietnamese folklores.
1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
A popularized view of emotion is that it is a physiological process associated with
the nervous system. Located all the core of the nervous system is a universal and essential
set of emotional states. One of these could be said to be love. Ever>body experiences the
state of being in love at least once in a life time. While the universality of some emotional
state may not be in dispute, how person interprets and manifests those emotional
experiences will differ across cultures. Hence, this paper aims to advance an understanding
of emotion expression as a de-essentialised domain and to view it as "a cultural and
interpersonal process of naming, justifying, and persuading by people in relationship to
each other" (Lutz, 1998:5). We will take "love declaration" in Vietnamese and English
folklores as a point of access into cultural communication systems.
L3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
Within cultural meaning, our anahtieal task was therefore: a) describing the locution
"I love you" in love declaration wiih reference to its occurrence and non-occurrence, where
it occurs, with whom?, in what language(s) and dialcct(s), in which verbal forms, about
which topics, as part of what interactional sequences, and with what observable
consequences; and b) interpreting the participants understandings of the lo\e declaration
given the patterned contingencies under a) above. It is through holding the phenomena of
emotion expression as a constant that we will search the cultural \ariabilit> in order to
understand the general forces and particular features of emotion expression. Our focus here
will be on the performance of communication

patterns u ithin intimate personal

relationships.
Our interest then falls on the expression of lo\e within

intimate/personal

relationships. Our expectation is that the expression of love will be of those communicative
activities that give force and meaning to intimate personal relationships. In intercultural
relationship it is our h>pothesis that love declarations also function to locate and gi\e voice
to cultural idcntit\. Put simpl\. to say or not to sa\ "I lo\e you" can also be
communicating much atx)ul communal understandings of socialit}, of person, and their
strategic activities.


Within the scope of the thesis, the author investigates 100 love declarations in
English folklore and 100 love declarations in Vietnamese folklore.
1.4 METHOD OF THE STUDY
To fulfill the aim of the study, the main methods used are descriptive and
comparative.
The study deals with love declarations in English and Vietnamese folklores,
therefore, a great number of love declarations in English and Vietnamese folklore were
collected then 50 love declarations in each language have been carefully selected, after that
we try to analyse the love declarations in terms of cultural meanings, genre and tropes and
then synthesize the result to find out the similarities and differences of people's auitudes in
the two languages. In fulfilling the focuses of the study in comparing the two languages'
love declarations, descriptive method has been applied to present prominent features of
love declarations in the two languages, the results achieved, in turn, are then compared and
contrasted to see the similarities and differences between the two languages in expressing
love.
The fundamental theories that are applied in the study is the cultural stud> of Robert
Lado (I960): Claire Kramsch (2000): and the linguistic study of poetry by Leech (1968)
and other Vietnamese researchers such as Dinh Gia Khanh. Chu Xuan Dien and others.
1.5 DESIGN OF THE STUDY
The study is divided into three parts.
Part 1- Introduction- introduces the justification, the aims, the objectives, the method.
the scope and the design of the study.

Part II- Development- consists of three chapters:
Chapter one presents the theoretical background to the stud\. the relationship of
language and culture and language cultural identit> introduced b> Claire Kramsch (2000)
and Robert Lado (1960) and some Vietnamese researchers such as Vu Ngoc Phan. Lu Huy
Nguyen, Dang Van Lung and Tran Thi An. It also presents the theoretical background of
tropes written b\ Leech (1969), Dennis Freeborn and some Vietnamese researchers such as
Dinh Gia Khanh et.al (2003), Chu Xuan Dien (2003). Le Van Chuong (2004) etc. This
chapter also consider folklore as a genre based on the idea presented b\ Swales (1990).
Chapter two describes love declarations in English folklore from two perspectives:
culture, and versification. In terms of culture, the description will be concerned with the


relationship between language used in love declaration and culture/cultural identit). And
last but not least, in studying the versification, tropes are taken into consideration, and we
bring about an insight into the aspects such as metaphor, simile. Based on the above
perspectives, we try to find out people's attitudes and feelings lying behind the expression
of love declaration in English folklore.
The resources for love declaration in English folklore are taken from traditional
ballads, tales, love songs and sayings.
Chapter

three describes corresponding perspectives of love declaration in

Vietnamese Folklore.
Part three- Conclusion- compares cultural meanings of love declaration in English
and Vietnamese folklores to establish the similarities and differences of emotion
expressions across the two languages. We also summarize the issues studied in the thesis,
the implications and suggestions,for further slud>.

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1.1 INTRODUCTION
"Language is the principle means whereby we conduct our social lives. When it is
used in contexts of communication, it is bound up with culture in multiple and complex
ways" (C. Kramsch, 2000). As the study deals with love declaration in English and
Vietnamese folklores, this chapter is concerned with establishing a theoretical framework
for the study, as a way to start, we will present some aspects of the theorj of language and
culture such as the relationship between language and culture/ cultural identity etc.
Besides, as the thesis deals with love declaration in folklores, it will be better when other
aspects of concepts such as genre, cohesion, tropes... are also taken into consideration.
1.2 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
According to Claire Kramsch. language is the principle means we conduct our social
lives. When language is used in contexts of communication it is bound up with culture.
Firstly, the words people utter refer to common experience. The> express facts,
ideas, or events that are communicable because the\ refer to a stock of knowledge about
the world that other people share. Words also rellect their authors' attitudes and beliefs,
their points of view etc. In lx)th cases "language expresses cultural realit\" (C.Kramsch,
2000).
But members of a community or social group do not only express experience: they
also create experience through language. The\ give meaning to it through the medium the\
choose to communicate w ith one another, for example, speaking on the telephone or face
to face, writing a letter or sending an e-mail message... The wa> in which people use the
spoken, written, or visual medium itself creates meanings that arc understandable to the
group the\

belong to. for example, through a speaker's tone of voice, accents,

conversational st\le, gestures and facial expressions. Through all as verbal and non-verbal
aspects, "language embodies cultural realit>" (C. Kramsch. 2000).

Finally, language is SNStem of signs that is seen as having itself a cultural value.
Speakers identity themselves and other through their use of language: the\ \iew their
language as a s>mbol of their social idenlit\. I he prohibition of its use is often perceived


by its speakers as a rejection o f their social group and their culture. Thus we can say that
"language symbolizes cultural reality".
We shall deal with these three aspects o f language and culture by considering the
following poem by Emily Dickinson
Essential oils- are wrimgThe attar from the Rose
Be not expected by Suns- aloneIt is the gift

ofScrews-

The General Rose- decayBut this- in Lady's

Drawer

Make Summer- When the lady lie
In Ceaseless Rosemary
(Adaptedfrom

C. Kramsch,

2000)

L 2 . I N a t u r e , culture, language
One way o f thinking about culture is to contrast it with nature. According to C.
Kramsch "Nature refers to what is born and grows organically; culture refers to what has
been grown and groomed".

Emily Dickinson's poem expresses well the relationship o f nature, culture and
language. A rose in a fiower bed, says the poem, a generic rose is a phenomenon of nature.
Beautiful but faceless and nameless among others o f the same species. Nature alone cannot
reveal nor preserve the particular beaut) o f a particular rose at a chosen moment in lime.
Powerless to prevent the biological " d e c a \ " and the ultimate death o f roses and o f ladies,
nature can only make summer when the season is right.
Culture, by contrast, is not bound by biological time. Like nature, it is a "gift", but o f
difTerent kind. Through a sophisticated technological procedure, developed especiall\ to
extract the essence o f roses, culture forces nature to reveal its "essential" potentialities. The
word "screws" suggests that this process is not without labour. B\ crushing the petals, a
great deal o f the rose must be lost in order to get at its essence. The technolog) o f the
screws constrains the exuberance of nature, in the same manner as the teehnolog\ o f the
world. Culture makes the rose petals into a rare perfume, purchased at high cost, for the
particular, personal use o f a particular lad>. fhe lad> ma) die. but the fragrance o f the
rose's essence can make her immortal, in the same manner as the language o f the poem

10


immortalizes both the rose and the lady, and brings both back to life in the imagination of
its readers.
The poem itself bears testimony that nature and culture both need each other. The
poem wouldn't have been written if there were not natural roses: but it not be understood if
it didn't share with its readers some common assumptions and expectations about rose
gardens, technological achievements, historic associations regarding ladies, roses, and
perfumes... Similarly, let us consider the poem "Tat nuoc d^u dinh". a Vietnamese folklore
to see the relationship between culture, nature and language:
''Horn qua tat nm'rc ddu dinh
Bo quen chiec do tren canh hoa sen.
Em duac thi cho anh xin

Hay la em de lam tin irong nha
do anh sirt chi dmrng td
Vo anh dura co. me gia dura khdu.
do anh si'rt chi del Idu
Mai nhd cd dy ve khdu cho citng.
Khdu rdi anh se tra coiig,
Den khi Idy chdng. anh se giup cho.
Giup cho mot gdnh xdi vd.
Mot con Ian heo, mot vd nrau (dm.
Giup em ddi chieu em nd/n,
Ddi cinm em dap. ddi chdm em deo.
Giup em quan tdm tien treo,
Quan nam tien cir&i Igi deo budng cau. "
According to Vietnamese culture, "ganh xoi \6", 'con Ion beo'. "vo rugu tam". 'doi
chieu', 'doi chan', 'quan tam tien treo'. 'quan nam tien ciroi'. 'buong cau"... are s\mbols of
a wedding. Those who share Vietnamese culture ina> understand that the man in the poem
borrows cultural s\mbols to express his love to his woman.
So let us come to the next concept.
L2.2 Communities and their effects on Language Users.
According to C. Kramsch, "Social conventions, norms of social appropriateness,
are the product of communities of language users". As in the Dickinson's poem, poets and

II


readers, florists and lovers, horticulturists, rose press manufacturers, perfume-makers and
users, create meanings through their words and actions. Likewise, the man and the woman
in ' T a t nuoc dau d i n h " use their words and actions to express their meanings.
Kramsch said that '^people who identify themselves as member o f social group
(family, neighborhood...) acquire common ways o f viewing the world through their

interactions with other members o f the same group" (C. Kramsch, 2000, 6). These views
are reinforced through institutions like the family, the school, the workplace... through
their lives. Common attitudes, beliefs and values are reflected in the way members o f the
group use language - for example, what they choose to say and how they say it (C.
Kramsch, 2000, 6). Thus, in addition to the notion o f speech community - "composed o f
people who use the same linguistic code" (C. Kramsch), we can speak o f discourse
communities to refer to the common ways in which members o f a social group use
language to meet their social needs. Not only the grammatical, lexical, and phonological
features o f their language differentiate them from others, but also the topics they choose to
talk about, the way they present information, the style with which they interact, in other
words, their discourse accent. For instance, English people often associate love with
blindness:
"Love \s a blind, and those that folUnv him too often lose their

way"

Collev Cibler
Or:
"But love is blind and lovers can not see
The pretty Jollies that themselves commit'
Shakespeare
Or:
"If love he blind.
It best agrees with night. "
Shakespeare
Whereas, Vietnamese people tend to associate love with the image of "irau cau"
For example:
Yeu nhau trdu vd cung say,
Ghet nhau cau ddu day khay chdng mdng.

Or:

12


Trdu hoc khan trdng cau tirai,
Trdu boc khan trdng dai ngir&i xinh

xinh

An cho no thod tdm tinh.
An cho no thod sir minh sir ta.

Or:
Yeu nhau trao mot mieng trdu,
Gidu thdy gidu me, dua nhau an cimg.
( L u v a n Ngu}en et.al...)
It is possible to come to conclusion that, the association o f love o f both groups are
based on the difTering values given to the understanding in both cultures. This is a view o f
culture that focuses on the ways o f thinking, behaving and valuing currently shared by
members o f the same discourse community.
1.3 T R O P E S
In his book " A linguistic guide to English poetry" Leech (p.74) stated that "tropes
have been defined as devices involving alteration o f the normal meaning o f an expression"
and "tropes are foregrounded irregularities o f content". Freeborn (1996: 61) also said that
**a trope is a device that involves meaning". The most familiar tropes in literary criticism
are simile, metaphor and metonymy. However, in this thesis, we will deal with simile and
metaphor for these tropes manifest in love declarations.
1.3.1

Simile

The Oxford learner's dictionary (2003: 1526) detlnes that simile is a figure of speech
in which two things are compared using the word "like ". or "as", or "as if.
a metaphor except that it makes the comparison explicit b\ using "like",

Simile is like

or "as", or "av

/ / " . In simile the comparison between the two things is made explicit b\ an indirect
relationship where one thing or idea is expressed as being similar to another. For example:
Love 's like the measles- all the worst when it comes late in life.
(Douglas Jerrold)
Love is like the measles; we have to go through it.
(Jerome K. Jerome)
Simile, according to Leech (1969: 156) is an overt comparison, simile can specif> the
ground o f comparison. Most similes are linked b\ " l i k e " , "as". Similes ma\ var\ from a

13


short, simple comparison to long, ^^extended similes". In Vietnamese, the corresponding
wordssuchas "nhu'\ "nhuld'\

"wZ/w/Ae" etc are used in simile. For example:
Mieng cu&i nhir the hoa ngdu,

Chiec khan doi ddu nhir the hoa sen.
Or:

Doi ta nhir the con ong.
Con qudn con quyt, con trong con ngodi.
A simile, therefore, is explicit, the very circumstantiality of simile is limitation.
1.3.2 Metaphor
Leech (1969: 151) argued that "metaphor is so central to our notion of poetic
creation that it is often treated as a phenomenon in its own right, without reference to other
kinds of transferred meaning". In considering a metaphor, we may consider the formula:
F = "Like L". This implies that, the figurative meaning F is deriving from the literal
meaning L in having the sense "like L". However, the simplest kind of metaphor is the use
of "be" in clause structure, for example:
Love is a boy, by poets styled.
Then spare the rod, and spoil the child.
(Samuel Butler)

Love is smoke made with the fume of sights.
(Shakespeare)
In stud\ing metaphor, the concept of Tenor and Vehicle should be taken into
considerations. Tenor of the metaphor is what actuaIN under discussion. Vehicle, on the
other hand, is the image or analogue in terms of which the tenor is represented. A metaphor
is generally more concise and immediate than the corresponding literal \ersion. because of
the superimposition, in the same piece of language, of tenor and \ehicle.
In the above examples, the \ehicle are "bo\". "smoke" meanwhile the tenor is
"love".
1,4 FOLKLORE AS A (iENRE
1.4.1 Introduction
According to Swales (1990) a genre "comprises a class of communicative
events, of which the memliers share some sets of communication purposes. These purposes
constitute the rationale for the genre, the rationale, in its turn, shape the schematic structure

14

of discourse and influences and constrains choice of content and st\'le. In addition to
purpose, the exemplars of a genre exhibit various patterns of similarit\ in terms of
structure, style content and intended audience".
In folklore study, according to Swales (1990: 34) "the concept of genre has
maintained a central position in folklore studies ever since the pioneering work in the early
nineteenth century". The functionalist in folklore would rather stress socio-cultural value.
For Malinowski (1960, cited in Swales 1990: 35) "folklore genres contribute to the
maintenance and survival of social groups because they serve social and spiritual needs.
Perhaps inevitably, to assign cultural value also requires the investigator to pa\ attention to
how a community views and itself classify genres". Therefore, many folklore genres are
not so labeled according to the form itself but according to how it is received by the
community.
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia defines folklore as a genre and it includes
ballad, tales, epic poem, song and saying (proverb and aphorism).
Now we will consider love declaration in folklore as a genre.
1.4.2

Love declaration in folklore as a genre

Love declarations, especially love declarations in folklore, are composed to express
love between men and women.
A love declaration has its diction (words and grammatical constructions used by
certain person), rh\thm and versification (the principles of verse structure), figurative
language (the use of figures of speech such as metaphor, simile etc). Primaril\. both
English and Vietnamese love declarations are for expressing love, we can find out the love
declarations such as:
In Vietnamese:
Qua dinh nga ndn trdng dinh.

Dinh bao nhieu ngdi thmnig minh hdy nhieu.
Or:
Cam an mdi bira mot himg
Nm'rc udng cdm chimg de da thmwg em.
Or:
Co kia do trdng Ida Ida,
15


Lai day dap ddt, trdng cd vai anh.

In English
Love imposes impossible tasks.
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
But none more than any heart would ask,
I must know you're a true love of mine.
Scarborough Fair
Or:
Alas, my love, you do me wrong,
To cast me off discourteously.
For I have loved you well and long.
Delighting in your company.
Greenslceves
Love declarations in both English and Vietnamese folklores are severed to
propose a wedding. We can find out the verses that have the functions of proposing a
marriage:
In Vietnamese:
Cd kia cat co hen song,
Cd mudn an nhdn thi long sang ddy.
Sang day, anh ndm cd tay,

Anh hoi cdu ndy: Cd lay anh khdng.^
In English:
/ love you more than anything else in the world. Come with me to my father's
castle. You shall become my wife.
Liule Snow-While
Or:
Many thanks for redeering me. You were the wife of an enchanted prince. Xow
we can celebrate our wedding properly, for now I am the King of this land.
The Bear Prince
In addition to the issue of expressing lo\e and proposing a wedding. lo\e
declaration in relation to gender is the subject of the studies. For instance, males seem to

16


express their love more often than females. We can find love declarations said by men in
both English and Vietnamese folklores easily.
In Vietnamese:
Gid dua corn buon ngii len b&
Miing ai cd rgng cho ngu nhd mot dem.
Or:
7oc ngang limg vira chimg em bui,
De chi ddi bdi rdi da anh
In English:
Tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
Parsley, sage, rosematy and thyme.
Without any seam nor needlework.
And then she'll he a true love of mine.
Tell her to wash it in yonder dry well.
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.

Which never sprung water nor rain ever fell,
And then she'll he a true love (fmine.
Tell her to diy it on yonder thorn.
Parsley, sage, rosemaiy and thyme.
Which never bore blossom since Adam was horn,
And then she'll he a true love of mine.
Scarborough Fair
In consideration love declarations in English and Vietnamese folklores, the
author has found out that, there are two ways of expressing love between men and women
in Vietnamese folklores: direct wa\ and indirect ua>. If a direct love declaration can
prevent its audience from misunderstanding, it is likel\ to make its audience embarrassed.
Whereas, an indirect love declaration can pre\enl its audience from being embarrassed and
it also brings an insight that the proposer is a delicate, polite and intelligent person. We can
find a lot of indirect love declaration in Vietnamese folklore:
Bdv gid man nidi hoi ddo
I 'irdn hdng dd cd ai vdo hay chira?
Or:

17

DAI HOC QUOC GIA HA NQl
TRUNG TAM THONG TIN THLJVlEN

q^^/f OOmi


Bd chiec ghe .sau cheo mau anh dai
Keo khuc song ndy hd bui toi tdm.
Or:
Die&ng xa thi that la xa,

Muan minh lam mdi cho ta mot ngudi.
Mot ngudi mu&i tdm, ddi muai,
Mot ngudi vira dep vira tuai nhu minh.
However, this phenomenon is not universally recognized in English folklores, many
of love declaration in English folklores seem to concentrate on the importance of love for
the establishment and maintenance of marriage and general attitudes. For example:
/ love you more than anything else in the world. Come with me to my father's
castle. You shall become my wife.
Little Snow-White
Or:
Many thanks for redeering me. You were the wife of an enchanted prince. Now
we can celebrate our wedding properly, for now I am the King of this land.
The Bear Prince
In a word, from the description of lo\e declaration above, it is suitable to consider
love declaration in English and Vietnamese folklores as the claims to feel an emotion, and
it is also a study of cultural life of English and Vietnamese people.
1.5 SUMMARY
We have gone through chapter one. in this chapter, we ha\e been concerned with
the establishing theoretical background for the stud>. What ha\e been presented in this
chapter are the concepts of language and culture, language and nature that are given b> C.
Kramsch, Moreover, we have taken the concepts of tropes such as simile, metaphor. Ihe
notion of love declaration as a genre has also been considered. Then we have attempted to
study the general meaning of love declaration in English and Vietnamese folklores. The
following chapter will be concerned with lo\e declarations in English folklore with their
linguistic features Ixised on the theoretical background we ha\e presented in this chapter.

18


CHAPTER TWO: LOVE DECLARATIONS IN ENGLISH

FOLKLORE
2.1 INTRODUCTION
Love declarations are frequently found in relationships of lovers, married couples
and respondents of different ages. In this chapter, we will study some linguistic features of
love declarations of lovers in English folklore. We also try to discover cultural meaning of
love declarations through cultural images used in love declarations. In our study, as
mentioned in the methodology section, one hundred love declarations are taken into the
investigation.
2.2

NATURE,

CULTURE,

AND

LANGUAGE

USED

IN

LOVE

DECLARATIONS
The study of cultural images used in love declarations can help to show the cultural
meanings. In studying love declaration in folklore, it is necessar\ to have a small
investigation into natural and cultural images used b) people in composing the love
declarations. Within one hundred love declarations investigated, the common cultural and
natural images can be found as follow:

When expressing love English people tend to associate love w ith the strongest power
of nature. For example:
Love moves the Sun and the other stars
(Dante)
Or:
Love conquers all
(Virgile)
Or:
// ^s love that makes the world go round. Without it human race will go to doom.sday.

0
Or:
Love joined the two in sweet conjunction, death was powerless to sever such a bond.
(Thomas Mann)
However, love can be seen as a big illusion. For example:
Love 's a blind, and those that follow hint too (fien lose their way.

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(Colley Cibber)

Or:
If love be blind
It best agrees with night
(Shakespeare)

Or:
But love is blind, and lovers cannot see
The pretty follies that themselves commit

(Shakespeare)
Or:
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind
(Shakespeare)
The author has found out that when expressing love, English people often think ol
life, absence, happiness, relationship between man and woman, beauty, \outh. the heart.
the kiss, marriage, family, jealousy, hatred and fidelity.
When talking about love, people often think of their life beautilled with love:
For example:
Love, in my bosom, like a bee.
Doth suck his sweet
(Thomas Lodge)
Or:
We are all born for love. It is the principle of existence and its only end.
(Disraeli)
Or:
Familiar acts are beautiful through love
(P.B. Shelley)
Or:
Oh, love will make a dog howl in rhyme.
(Francis Beaumont and John l-letcher)
Or:
The sweetest joy, the wildest woe is love.

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(P.J. Bailey)

Or:
Oh, when I was in love with you,
Then I was clean and brca^e.
(A.E. Houseman)

Or:
If love were what the rose is.
And I were like the leaf.
Our lives would grow together
In .sad or singing weather.
(Swinburne)
Or:
There are no ugly loves, nor handsome prisons
(Pierre Gringore)
Beside that, when talking about love, English people often associate love with
absence. Within one hundred love declarations investigated, we can llnd many love
declarations with the image of absence. They use the image of absence to talk about the
fully-hearted passions, to test love of those who have to apart.
For example:
In every parting there is an image of death.
(George Eliot)
Or:
Absent in body, hut present in spirit
(St. Paul)
Or:
I do not love thee.'- no' I do not love thee!
And vet when you art absent I am sad.
(Caroline Norton)
Or:
Absence from whom we love is worse than death

(William Cowper)

Or:

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Absence lessens half-hearted passions, and increases great ones, as the wind puts
out the candle and yet stirs up the fire.
(La Rochefoucauld)
Or:
Absence and time are nothing when one is in love.
(Alfred de Mussel)
Love often goes along with happiness. Obviously, when giving love declarations
people often have a built in need to make the person they are with really secure in their
love. Again, they know how their partner feels, what their partner longs for. And happiness
is what people desire. That is the reason wh> people are aware of affirming that the\ can
bring happiness to their partner. Within one hundred investigated love declarations by
English people, the author has found out that there are many of them talking about the
relationship between love and happiness. For example:
There is only one hapjyincss in life, to h>vc and he loved
(George Sand)
Or:
Love is a condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your
own.
(Robert Ileinlein)
When expressing happiness, life, absence of lovers in love declarations, English
people often use a lot ol cultural images in showing the attitudes of man and woman about
love. The common attitude of woman is quite ditTerent from that of man. Within a hundred
love declarations, we can find Ihe common attitudes such as:

''Woman can '/ love man as much as man loves woman, for the love of a woman is in
her eyes, and in the nipple of her breast, and in the toe of her fool, but the love of man is
planted in the heart where it can 7 escape "
(Anonymous)
Or:
Man A love is of man 's life a thing apart,
Tis woman 's whole existence.
(Byron)
Or:

o')


For man at most differ as Heaven and Earth,
But women, worst and best, as Heaven and He IL
(Tennyson)
Or:
Women are wiser than men because they know less and understand more.
(James Stephens)
Or:
Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph
of mind over morals.
(Oscar Wilde)
Or:
A woman is a foreign land.
Of which, though there he .settle young,
A man will never quite understand
The customs, politics, and tongue.
(Coventry Patmore)
Happily, women are born to win men's heart and conquer men's land. A lot of love

declarations represent the ideas that women seem to be superior to men such as:
"I know I have the body of a weak andfeeble woman, but I have the heart and
stomach of a king, and a king of England too. "
(Queen Elizabeth 1)
Or:
Many a man has been a wonder to the world, whose wife and valet have seen nothing
in him that was even remarkable. Few men have been admired by their serx'ants.
(Michel de Montaigne)
One of the most important cultural images that English people often use to talk about
love is a kiss. The author has found out man\ love declarations of English people with the
image of a kiss in love declarations. A kiss becomes a desire of both sexes, male and
female. For example:
Give me a thouscuul kis.ses. then a hundred, then a thousand more.
(Catullus)

Or:

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Let him kiss me with the ki.s.ses of his mouth
For thy love is better than wine.
(The Bible)
Or:
Leave a kiss but in the cup.
And I 'II not look for wine.
(Ben Johnson)
Or:
/ dare not ask a ki.ss
I dare not beg a smile;

Lest having that, or this,
I might grow proud the while.
(Robert Herrick)
Or:
The moth v kiss first!
Kiss me as ifyou made believe
You were not sure, this eve,
How my face, your flower, had pursed
Its petals up.
The bee \s kiss now!
Kiss me as ifyou entered gay
My heart at some noondcn'
(Robert Browning)
GencrallN, through the cultural images, English people tr\ to express their attitude
toward love. In our stud\, we have found out that there is a close relationship between love
expression and cultural images.
Beside that, when expressing love, English people lend to speak expliciil\. that is the
reason why they use a lot of the word "love" in their expressions.
For example:
Escape me.^
Never
Beloved'

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While I am I and you are you,
So long as the world contains us both
Me the loving and you the loth.
While the one eludes, must the other pursue.

(Robert Browning)
Or another explicit love declaration like:
Some pray to marry^ the men they love,
My prayer will somewhat vary:
I humbly pray to Hempen above
That I love the man I marry.
(Rose Pastor Stokes)
2.3 T R O P E S I N L O V E D E C L A R A T I O N S O F E N G L I S H F O L K L O R E
In this part, we w i l l look at the tropes used in English love declarations investigated,
for the limitation o f the thesis, what we concentrate on will be simile, metaphor. As far as
the thesis is concerned, from a very general viewpoint, two popular types o f trope in poem
w i l l be taken into consideration.
2.3.1 Simile used in love declarations in English folklores.
In English love declarations, we do not llnd out man\ cases o f simile, as the love
declarations concentrate on expressing love toward other, the language used is relali\el\
romantic, the comparison is not ver> popularized. onl\ some cases o f simile are found in
our study. For example:
Love is like the measles: we all lune to go through it.
(Jerome K. Jerome)
Or:
Love 's like the measles- all the worse when it comes late in life.
(Douglas Jerrold)
People tend to use another trope to describe things to express iheir feelings,
metaphor, the indirect figurative comparison to develop the audience's imagination.
2.3.2 M e t a p h o r used in love declarations in English folklores.
Metaphor is a ver\ common phenomenon in lo\e declarations, according to Leech, it
is largely used by poets, and it seems that poets like to use this t\pe of trope (Leech,
1968:56). As a result, in English love declarations, metaphor are frequently found.

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The humanity metaphor is the most frequently used in love declarations, which
attributes characteristics of humanity to what is not human. Love in the following example
is a boy who is not mature.
Love is a boy, by poets styled.
Then spare the rod, and spoil the child.
(Samuel Butler)
But love in the next example is a great teacher who can teach us ever> thing:
Love is a great teacher who teaches all at once.
(Pierre Corneille)
And love can do things like human being:
Love is swift of foot;
Love \s a man of war.
And can shoot
And can hit from far.
(G. Herbert)
The metaphor may show the imaginations through very simple but delicate
comparison as:
Love is smoke made with the fume of sighs.
(Shakespeare)
Metaphor, generally, is very important in English love declaration. It helps to
sophisticaledly create the vivid imagination in the poems, sayings. Objectively, with the
description using metaphor, it brings the lo\e declarations closer to those who are in love.
2.4 SUMMARY
In this chapter, we ha\e so far considered love declarations in English folklore in
terms of cultural images, cohesion. What is more, we also look at their \ersification and
dictation such as simile and metaphor. From the result, we also draw out the ideolog\ in
love declarations. Now we have finished chapter two, we turn to chapter three where I will
explore similar features in love declarations in Vietnamese folklore.

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