A contrastive analysis on metaphor about power in english and vietnamese idioms from cognitive linguistics perspective

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF
LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST
GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ MINH

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS ON METAPHOR ABOUT
POWER IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMS
FROM COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS PERSPECTIVE
(PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU ẨN DỤ VỀ QUYỀN LỰC TRONG THÀNH
NGỮ ANH VIỆT NHÌN TỪ GÓC ĐỘ NGÔN NGỮ HỌC TRI NHẬN)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English linguistics
Code : 60220201

HANOI, 2016


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL
STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ MINH

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS ON METAPHOR ABOUT
POWER IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMS
FROM COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS PERSPECTIVE
(PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU ẨN DỤ VỀ QUYỀN LỰC TRONG THÀNH
NGỮ ANH VIỆT NHÌN TỪ GÓC ĐỘ NGÔN NGỮ HỌC TRI NHẬN)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
Field

: English linguistics

Code

: 60220201

Supervisor : Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lâm Quang Đông

HANOI, 2016


DECLARATION BY CANDIDATE
I hereby declare that this thesis is my own work and effort. It has not been
submitted anywhere for any award. All the sources of information that have been
used have been properly acknowledged.
Hanoi, 2016

NGUYỄN THỊ MINH

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This thesis has been completed with the invaluable and constant support
and encouragement of my supervisor, family members and others. Although no
listing of acknowledgements can ever be completed, I would still like to take this

opportunity to express my sincere thanks to those people here.
First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my
supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lâm Quang Đông of ULIS, VNU for his helpful
guidance, endless patience and whoehearted support. Without his enthusiastic
and meaningful suggestions, comments and corrections, this study would not
have been accomplished.
My appreciation also goes to all the lecturers in the Faculty of Postgraduate
Studies in University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National
University, Hanoi for their useful lessons from which I have relevant knowledge
and proper methods to fulfill this thesis.
Furthermore, I greatly thank the librarians for their enthusiatic support
when I looked for materials for writing this paper.
Last but not least, I would like to express my sincere thanks to all members
in my family and my friends for their invaluable support and encouragement.
Hanoi, 2016

NGUYỄN THỊ MINH

ii


ABSTRACT
This research mainly focused on metaphor about power in English and
Vietnamese idioms and aims at investigating the similarities as well as the
differences between their usages in the two languages. Based on Lackoff and
Johnson‟s framework about conceptual metaphor, nine categories of metaphor
were classified including: power is the human body, power is the human
activities, power is animals, power is relatives, power is physical forces, power is
a thief, power is a game, power is a container and power is up and no power is
down. Besides the similarity in expressing some metaphors like “power is up and

no power is down”, for example, the two languages also had some distinctive
features when metaphors “power is a container” and “power is a game” were
only found in English and “power is a thief” were only found in Vietnamese. The
result of study hopefully makes a small contribution to the translation of idioms
in general and idioms about power in particular and to teaching and learning
English language and culture.
Key words: metaphor, idioms, power, language

iii


LIST OF TABLES AND ABBREVIATIONS
No.

T

1
2
3
4
5

6

7

8

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
1.

Sb: somebody

2.

St: something

iv


TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION BY CANDIDATE .....................................................................
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................
ABSTRACT .........................................................................................................
LIST OF TABLES ...............................................................................................
TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................................................
PART A: INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................
1. RATIONALE OF THE STUDY .....................................................................
2. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS..............

3. SCOPE OF THE STUDY ................................................................................
4. METHODS AND PROCEDURES OF THE STUDY ....................................
5.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ...............................................
5.1.
THEORETICAL SIGNIFICANCE .......................................................
5.2.
PRACTICAL SIGNIFICANCE ............................................................
6. ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS .............................................................
PART B: DEVELOPMENT................................................................................

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL
BACKGROUND...................................................................................................
1.1.
LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................
1.2.
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ........................................................

1.2.1. An overview of Cognitive Linguistics ........................................................
1.2.2.
Conceptual metaphor ...............................
1.2.3. Classification of conceptual metaphor ......................................................
1.2.4. Conceptual metaphoric domains and mapping .......................................
1.2.5.
Power .......................................................
1.2.6.
Idioms ......................................................
CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURES ......
2.1.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .........................................................
2.2.
DATA ...........................................................................................
2.3.
DATA COLLECTION.......................................................................
2.4.
DATA ANALYSIS ...........................................................................
2.5.
RESEARCH PROCEDURES .............................................................
v

2.6.
RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY ........................................................
CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ..............................................
3.1.
QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS .................................
3.1.1. Structural metaphors .................................................................................
3.1.2.ONTOLOGICAL METAPHORS .................................................................
3.1.3. Orientational metaphors............................................................................
3.2.
QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS ....................................
3.2.1.
Power is the human body..................................
3.2.2.
Power is the human activities ...........................
3.2.3.
Power is animals ..............................................
3.2.4.
Power is relatives ..............................................
3.2.5.
Power is a thief .................................................

3.2.6.
Power is a game................................................
3.2.7.
Power is physical forces ....................................
3.2.8.
Power is a container .........................................
3.2.9.
Power is up, no power is down .........................

3.3.
SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES .......................
3.3.1. Similarities .................................................................................................
3.3.2. Differences .................................................................................................
PART C: CONCLUSION..................................................................................
1.
RECAPITULATION ...................................................................
2.
IMPLICATIONS ..........................................................................
2.1.
IMPLICATION FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING .............................

2.2.
IMPLICATION FOR TRANSLATION .................................................
3. LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY .............
REFERENCES ...................................................................................................
APPENDIX ...........................................................................................................

vi


PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
In recent years, cognitive linguistics has flourished in Vietnam with increasing
studies. One of the most important concepts of cognitive linguistics which
emphasizes meaning construction (conceptualization) is metaphor. Metaphor is
known as one of the most useful methods in meaning transfer that is used widely
not only in daily life but also in literature. It helps people understand an abstract
concept by referring to a concrete one. For example, we often metaphorically
conceptualize such abstract concepts as love, argument in “Love is journey” or

“Argument is war”, which are clearly analyzed by famous cognitive linguists like
Lackoff and Johnson (1980). It appears so often and is utilized so widely that
sometimes we use it subconsciously without realizing it.
Nobody can deny idioms‟ importance in communication, learning, teaching and
translation as well but it is a difficult area of English. According to Cooper
(1999), idioms present a special language problem to all language learners
because their figurative meanings are unpredictable. Also, their meanings are not
the total sum of their parts and metaphor is considered one of the key factors to
understand the meaning of idioms. When talking about idioms, we not only talk
about the vocabulary and semantics of a language but also the cultures hidden
behind. Therefore, this study also makes some initial investigation to see how
cultures affect idioms in Vietnamese and English in the way they convey the
concept of power.
2. Objectives of the study and research questions
This study aims to investigate idioms that carry conceptual metaphor about
power based on the theory of Lakoff and Johnson. To go further, this study is
done to explore the similarities and the differences between the use of metaphor
about power in English and Vietnamese idioms that reflect the culture of each
language community. Finally, this paper aims to provide some suggestions for
1


teaching, learning and translating of conceptual metaphor about power which is
expressed in English and Vietnamese idioms. In other words, the study seeks
answers to two research questions:
Research question 1: How is the concept of power metaphorically expressed in
English and Vietnamese idioms?
Research question 2: What are the similarities and differences in expressions of
conceptual metaphors about power in English and Vietnam idioms?
3. Scope of the study

In this study, the analysis is based on the theory and classification of conceptual
metaphors given by Lakoff and Johnson. Due to the limited time and ability, this
research only investigated and contrasted conceptual metaphors about power in
society and politics in English and Vietnamese idioms. Six dictionaries in both
languages, three in English and three in Vietnamese were chosen.
The selected idioms in English are cited from several dictionaries including:
-

Oxford Idioms Dictionary for Learners of English by Oxford University Press
(2006)

-

Dictionary of American Idioms by Spears, R.A (2005)

-

Longman American Idioms Dictionary by Urban, R (2000)

-

Thành ngữ tiếng Việt by Nguyễn Lực, Lương Văn Đang (1993)

-

Từ điển giải thích thành ngữ tiếng Việt by Nguyễn Như Ý (1998)

-

Từ điển thành ngữ và tục ngữ Việt Nam by Nguyễn Lân (2014)

4. Methods and procedures of the study
This study is based on conceptual metaphors framework introduced by Lackoff and
Johnson (1980) in their invaluable book “Metaphor We Live By”. According to this
model, conceptual metaphors are classified into three different kinds, namely
structural metaphors, ontological metaphors and orientational metaphors. Firstly,
contrastive and comparative analyses were carried out in order to identify the
similarities and differences in expression of conceptual metaphor about
2


power in English and Vietnamese idioms.
Secondly, qualitative and quantitative methods were used to analyze the data.
Quantitatively, the data were analyzed in terms of the frequencies of structural,
ontological and orientational metaphors. Qualitatively, the data were classified or
examined based on such criteria as: Power is the human body; Power is a
container; Power is up, and no power is down.
5.

Significance of the study

5.1.

Theoretical significance

This study hopes to provide useful contributions to studies of cognitive
linguistics, especially the role of conceptual metaphor in expressing the concept
of power in idioms.
5.2. Practical significance
This research is expected to help learners of English in Vietnam understand the

differences between English and Vietnamese cultures through idioms. Moreover,
it can contribute to improvement of reading comprehension, translation and the
analysis of literary works.
6. Organization of the thesis
Part A: Introduction. This part presents the rationale, the aims, and the
methodology of the study. The scope, the significance of the study and the
organization of the thesis are also described.
Part B: Development. This part consists of three chapters:
Chapter 1: Literature Review and Theoretical Background. This chapter
provides fundamental knowledge of cognitive linguistics in general and
conceptual metaphors in particular. Some related concepts are also discussed,
such as power and idioms. This chapter ends with related studies.
Chapter 2: Research Methodology and Procedures. This chapter presents the
methods and the procedures of the research including how the data were
collected, described and analyzed.
Chapter 3: Findings and Discussions. This chapter presents the result of my
3


analysis of conceptual metaphor about power in English and Vietnamese idioms,
their differences and similarities in the two languages.
Part C: Conclusion. This part summarizes the results of the studies and
implications for learning, teaching and translating idioms. Some suggestions for
further research and limitations are presented in this part as well.

4


PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL

BACKGROUND
This chapter will provide a critical analysis of the previous studies about
metaphors, idioms as well as power. Key concepts such as cognitive linguistics,
conceptual metaphors, power and idioms are reviewed with the aim of
establishing a theoretical background for the comparative and contrastive
analysis of conceptual metaphor about power in English and Vietnamese idioms.
1.1.

Literature review

Beginning from the last half of the twentieth century, Cognitive Linguistics has
actually become an interesting research trend in order to investigate the
relationship among language, mind and socio-physical experience of human
beings. So many viewpoints about conceptual metaphor are presented clearly in
the famous book by Lackoff and Johnson in 1980. Thanks to the guide of
Lackoff and Johnson‟s theory about conceptual metaphor, even the most abstract
and tangible concept is also metaphorically understood by more concrete one
through mapping domains. It actually encourages me to investigate the
conceptual metaphor about power, one abstract and tangible concept.
In Vietnam, so many linguists have contributed to the development of cognitive
linguistics through their famous studies, namely Lý Toàn Thắng (2005), Trần
Văn Cơ (2007), Nguyễn Đức Tồn (2007). If Lý Toàn Thắng (2005)
systematically presents the background of cognitive linguistics and its
significance, Trần Văn Cơ (2007), on the other hand, focuses more on cognition
and related field of cognitive linguistics, especially conceptual metaphor and its
development in Vietnam and all over the world. He also emphasizes that
conceptual metaphors are used to understand one concept in terms of another.
Those famous linguists have made great contribution to the foundation and
5

development of cognitive field in the world in general and in Vietnam in
particular.
Besides famous linguists, who set the foundation of cognitive field in Vietnam as
well as all over the world, other researchers also pay their attention to the
cognitive field in general and metaphor in particular. When studying conceptual
metaphor, Zhang, Y (2012) emphasizes universality and variation of love
metaphor in English and Chinese. By using comparative and contrastive
analysis, the author then gives out reasons for variation of conceptual metaphors.
Also from cognitive view, Hồ Thị Thu Trang (2010) investigates ways of
denoting characteristics through domestic animal metaphor. In this research, she
once more confirms the existence of metaphor in our daily lives through
analyzing words and phrases about human characteristics. Although the two
above studies are not related much to my study, they actually give me the clear
view about cognitive linguistics as well as conceptual metaphor and their
methodology.
Nguyễn Thị Yến Thoa (2005) points out some metaphors relating to parts of
human body in English and Vietnamese words and phrases. Relating to “hand” in
English and “bàn tay” in Vietnamese, she gives some examples of metaphors but
all of them describe the function of hands in both languages. In this study, she
has not referred to metaphors in idioms which contain “hand” element. General
speaking, cognitive linguistics in general and metaphor in particular have been
an attractive topic to researchers in Vietnam.
Nguyễn Ngọc Vũ (2012) also investigates conceptual metaphor about power in
English and Vietnamese idioms which contain the word “hand”. Firstly, in that
research, he once more confirms that the conceptual metaphor is the basis to
create meaning of most of the idioms in both languages. Secondly, thanks to the
comparison between English and Vietnamese conceptualization, the learners can
have better understanding about the two languages, especially how the abstract
6

concept “power” is understood by the more concrete concept of “hand”.
Also researching on power, Lương Thị Hiền (2007) does not base on conceptual
metaphor about power; she focuses on describing words that denote power in
daily communication in Vietnamese family. She also gives a critical analysis of
power from discourse analysis approach in that study.
Despite all the existing books and research on power and conceptualization in
the world in general and in Vietnam in particular, there has been no specific
study on conceptual metaphor about power in English and Vietnamese idioms. In
this study, power in society and politics is especially emphasized and hopefully,
it might help teachers, learners, and translators understand the two languages
better. Therefore, it has inspired me to carry out this study.
1.2.

Theoretical background

1.2.1. An overview of Cognitive Linguistics
In Cognitive Linguistics, cognition is the key word used to refer to cognitive
processes in which people, through their brain, receive, transmit and operate
upon information (Lý Toàn Thắng, 2008).Therefore, linguistic knowledge
emerges in general cognition and thinking. According to Fauconnier and Turner
(1998), Cognitive Linguistics is considered“a powerful approach to the study of
language, conceptual systems, human cognition, and general meaning
construction”. This approach is different from others in language sciences
because it investigates the relationship between human language, the mind, and
socio-physical experience (Evans, 2012). Therefore, this approach has exerted
great influence on other fields of cognitive science.
According to Evans (2012), Cognitive Linguistics is guided by two primary
commitments. Cognitive Commitment and Generalization Commitment are two

terms used by Lackoff (1991:53) to show the cognition of human-beings through
brains and naming things. Cognitive Commitment helps to recognize the
principles of linguistic structure in which the knowledge about human cognition
7


is reflected from other cognitive and brain disciplines. Meanwhile, the
Generalization Commitment represents a dedication which characterizes general
principles and they are applied to all aspects of human language.
There are two main branches or approaches of cognitivism, namely cognitive
approaches to grammar and cognitive semantics (Talmy, 2000). Cognitive
semantics investigates the relationship between experience, the conceptual
system and the semantic structure encoded by language (Evans and Green,
2006). This study mainly focuses on cognitive semantics because it concerns
with the model of meaning. In summary, cognitive linguistics in general and
cognitive semantics in particular plays an important role in analyzing meaning,
and so this study analyzes the linguistics expressions, and idioms that carry the
meaning of power.
1.2.2. Conceptual metaphor
Since the appearance of Cognitive linguistics in the mid-1970s, metaphor has
attracted many scholars like Lackoff and Johnson (1980), Turner (1987), and
Kovecses (2010). Metaphor is known as “understanding and experiencing one
kind of thing in terms of another” (Lackoff and Johnson, 1980:5). The
transference of meaning is based on the similarities of two objects. Suggested by
Lackoff and Johnson (1980), the Conceptual Metaphor theory is considered one
of the earliest and the most influential theoretical framework. Actually, metaphor
is widely used in daily life like “the way we think, what we experience, and what
we do every day”. It is not simply “a figure of speech” (McGlone, 2007:109); it
is actually called “fundamentally metaphorical in nature”. Most of the
metaphors in everyday language are conventional in nature, that is, they are

stable expressions systematically used by people.
According to McGlone (2007), traditional theory considers metaphor as the
simplistic comparison through schematic forms like: X is Y or X is like Y. The
idiom “Call the shots/tunes”, for example, is metaphorically used to talk about
8


people with great power or people who control everyone. It is an example to reject
the old linguistic formula. Nowadays, that old theory is replaced by the advanced
viewpoint developed by Lackoff and his colleagues. Conceptual metaphor, as
Lackoff and Johnson referred, is considered “the systematic structuring or
restructuring” in which a target or abstract domain can be understood or reconceptualized in terms of a source domain, a more concrete one.

Metaphor is basically considered the foundation to create idioms (Nguyễn Ngọc
Vũ, 2012). For example, “have a big hand” means that somebody has had a lot
of influence over something (Wright, 1999) because hand is the symbol of
power. In order to clearly understand the function of conceptual metaphor in
creating idioms, this paper mainly focuses on analyzing conceptual metaphor
about power in English idioms and contrasts them with Vietnamese idioms.
To sum up, metaphor is “a matter of extraordinary rather than ordinary
language” (Lackoff and Johnson, 1980:3) and it takes part in everyday language
and life. They are natural and unconsciously, they are conceptual means to
understand even the most abstract concepts through concrete ones.
1.2.3. Classification of conceptual metaphor
According to the cognitive function, Lackoff and Johnson (1980) classify
metaphors into three overlapping groups including structural, ontological and
orientational metaphors.
1.2.3.1. Structural metaphors
Structural metaphors, as in the famous book Metaphors We Live By, are cases
where one concept is metaphorically structured in terms of another (Lackoff and

Johnson, 2003:14). It also makes up the largest portion in conceptual metaphors.
Structural metaphor is “internally consistent" and it "involves the structuring of
one kind of experience or activity in terms of another kind of experience or
activity” (Lackoff & Johnson, 1980:197). Therefore, in structural metaphors, one
concept is understood and expressed in terms of another structure, sharply
9


defined concept. The cognitive function of metaphors ARGUMENT IS WAR is a
typical example of a structural metaphor.
a.

Your claims are indefensible.

b.

He attacked every weak point in my argument. His criticisms were right on

target.
c.

I demolished his argument.

d.

I've never won an argument with him.

e.

You disagree? Okay, shoot!

f.

If you use that strategy, he'll wipe you out. He shot down all of my arguments.

(Lackoff and Johnson, 1980:4)
In those examples, an internally consistent WAR structure is imposed on the
concept of ARGUMENT. Arguments and wars are not the same concept;
argument is verbal discourse while wars refer to armed conflict and they perform
different kinds of action. But ARGUMENT is partially structured, understood,
performed, and talked about in terms of WAR like attack, defend or eventually
win or lose. The concept and the language are also metaphorically structured. In
conclusion, structural metaphors are cases which allow us to use one highly
structured and clear concept to structure another.
1.2.3.2. Ontological metaphors
One of three overlapping categories of conceptual metaphors identified by
George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in Metaphors We Live By (1980) is ontological
metaphor. It is defined as "ways of viewing events, activities, emotions, ideas,
etc., as entities and substances". In this group of metaphors, we can conceive
intangible concepts, such as feelings, activities, and ideas as object and
substances, and set up artificial boundaries for them. As a result, once we can
identify our experiences as entities or substances, we can refer to them,
categorize them, group them, and quantify them (Lackoff and Johnson, 2003:26).
Ontological metaphors are used to comprehend events, actions, activities, and
10


states. Events and actions are conceptualized metaphorically as objects, activities
as substances, states as containers. The most typical example of ontological
metaphor is container metaphor (Lackoff and Johnson, 1980). We are physical

beings, bounded and set off from the rest of the world by the surface of our
skins, and we experience the rest of the world as outside us. Each of us is a
container, with a bounding surface and an in-out orientation. We project our own
in-out orientation onto other physical objects that are bounded by surfaces. For
example, VISUAL FIELDS ARE CONTAINERS metaphors show up as follows:
a.

The ship is coming into view.

b.

I have him in sight.

c.

I can't see him-the tree is in the way. He's out of sight now.

d.

That's in the center of my field of vision. There's nothing in sight.
(Lackoff and Johnson, 2003:31)

Visual fields are conceptualized like containers or rooms with an outside and
inside. The movement of the sight is described as the movement out of and into a
container. Thanks to ontological metaphors, non-physical objectscan be
characterized as a physical entity.
1.2.3.3. Orientational metaphor
Orientational metaphor is defined as “a concept of spatial orientation” (Lackoff
and Johnson, 1980:14). The spatial relationships such as up-down, in-out, on-off,
and front-back, deep-shallow and central-peripheral are our experience about

space which we have acquired in our lives. Orientational metaphors give a
concept of spatial orientation; for example, HAPPY IS UP and actually, they
provide even less conceptual structure for target concept than ontological ones
(Kövecses, 2002:35).
There are so many examples of orientational metaphors, for examples, HAPPY IS
UP and SAD IS DOWN, which prove the existence of metaphor in our daily life.
11


a.

I‟m feeling up today.

b.

I‟m feeling down.

c.

You‟re in high spirits.

d.

e. He‟s really low these days.

e.

My spirit rose.

f.

f. My spirit sank.

(Lackoff and Johnson, 2003:16)
Happiness is normally defined as positive emotional state while sadness is on the
contrary. The concept of “happiness” is expressed with upward orientation words
like up, high, rose while the concept of “sadness” is identified with downward
orientation words like down, low, sank. As Lackoff and Johnson (1980:14-21)
state, orientational metaphors are based on physical and cultural experience and
they can vary from culture to culture.
1.2.4. Conceptual metaphoric domains and mapping
Lackoff and Johnson (1980:5) point out that in the studies of conceptual
metaphor, one concept domain can be understood by another concept domain.
Trần Văn Cơ (2011) also shares the opinion that conceptual metaphor is the main
mechanism through which we can easily understand abstract concepts. In order
to generate a conceptual metaphor and understand abstract concepts we must use
a method called metaphorical mapping to connect two domains.
There are many terms used to refer to these two domains in metaphorical
mapping. They are called Source and Target (Lackoff and Johnson, 1980) or
Base and Target (Gentner, 1983), or vehicle and Tenor (Richard, 1936), etc.
Based on the conceptual metaphor theory developed by Lackoff and Johnson,
which is used as the main guide in this study, source and target domains will be
used in this thesis. The domain where the concept is mapped from is the source
domain and the domain where the concept is mapped onto is the target domain
(Johansen, 2007). Normally, the abstract concept is the target domain and the
12


concrete concept is the source domain. In other words, the source domain helps
us understand the target domain.

The mapping between two conceptual domains A and B is “a set of systematic
correspondences between the source and the target” (Kovecses, 2002:6). The
following part will explain more about three kinds of mappings (one-to-one, oneto-many and many-to-one) that applies to a pair of source and target domain.
1.2.4.1. One-to-one domain mapping
One-to-one domain mapping is the relationship when a single source domain is
mapped onto a single target domain (Lackoff, 1993). In the case of conceptual
metaphor, LOVE IS JOURNEY, the mapping is a set of conceptual
correspondences by mapping knowledge about journey onto knowledge about
love.
The target domain of love originate in the journey domain is the proof for
Lackoff‟s claim that the mapping between domains is unidirectional.

Source domain
(JOURNEY)
Travelers
Vehicles
Impediments
Destinations
Table 1.1: One-to-one domain mapping example (Lackoff, 1993:208)
1.2.4.2. One-to-many domain mapping
Lackoff and Jonhson (1980) emphasize that the one-to-many mapping is when
one source domain is mapped to several target domains. The conceptual
metaphors LOVE IS A CONTAINER, LIFE IS A CONTAINER, and EVENT IS
A CONTAINER are the examples to illustrate one-to-many mapping. In these
metaphors, three different targets LOVE, LIFE, and EVENT are mapped onto
one source domain CONTAINER (see the following table).
13


Source

domain

CONTAINER

Table 1.2: One-to-many domain mapping example (Lackoff, 1980)
LOVE, LIFE, and EVENT are the abstract concepts and understood by the more
concrete domain CONTAINER through the words like “in, empty, out of” which
indicate something surrounded by boundaries.
1.2.4.3. Many-to-one domain mapping
Many-to-one domain mapping is understood as a number of concepts acting as
source domains of one target domain. For example:
Source
domain
PEOPLE

PLANTS

PRODUCTS

FASHIONS
Table 1.3: Many-to-one domain mapping example (Lackoff and Johnson,
1980:46-48)


14


Through the above examples of conceptual metaphor about IDEAS, one target
domain – IDEAS is conceptualized by many source domains as PEOPLE,
PLANTS, PRODUCTS, and FASHIONS.

1.2.5. Power
Power is defined in Cambridge dictionary as “ability to control people or event”,
the amount of political control on a person or group, and “an official or legal
right to do something”. Sharing the same point, Dahl (1957) interprets that
power is a relation among people. Based on each situation, power is understood
as control, influence, or authority. For example, supposing a policeman stands on
a street corner and says: “I command all automobile drivers on this street to drive
on the right side of the road”. It means that he uses language “to command” them
to do something and he also has power over automobile drivers to compel them
to use the right side of the road.
According to Fairclough (2001), ideology, power and language have close
relationship. Language is the way to express power and ideologies. Therefore,
power is also expressed under such concepts as force, and strength.
Studying about different aspects of power, Hofstede(1991), Nguyễn Quang
(2002, 2004) and Locher (2004) have the same results such as age, gender,
physical capacity, intellectual capacity (education), wealth and social status.
Power and language are proved to be closely interconnected. Power affects the
voice of verbal strategies and can be realized through verbal interactions. Power
conception is different in different cultures, which affects human behaviors in
each culture: “in many cultures, power or status is given more weight than
solidarity, even in personal interactions. You speak respectfully to a superior no
matter how well you know them” (Home, 1985:22)
To sum up, each approach helps us understand more about the concept of power.
General speaking, power is understood as the relation among people in which one
person (Speaker) has control, influence or authority over the others (Hearers)
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based on one of six aspects of power (Nguyễn Quang, 2002:128-129) such as
power of social status, age, gender, qualifications, economic status, and physical

strength. In the scope of the study, I only focus on the power of the speaker over
the hearer in politics and society based on one of six related aspects of power.
1.2.6. Idioms
Such expressions as “Lay down the law” and “iron hand in velvet glove”, are
called idioms, so “what is an idiom?” According to the traditional view, idioms
consist of two or more words and the overall meaning of which is unpredictable
from the meanings of the constituent words. Idioms are also defined in
Cambridge dictionary as “a group of words in a fixed order that have a
particular meaning that is different from the meanings of each word
on its own”. Another noticeable semantic feature of idioms is affirmed by Cruse
(1986:37-38): “although idioms consist of more than one word, they display to
some extent the sort of internal cohesion that we expect of single words”.
Fernando (1996), on the other hand, gives a more concise definition of idioms:
“conventionalized multi-word expressions often, but not always, non-literal”.
All the definitions and viewpoints share the common features of an idiom
including: it is a term, a phrase or an expression; it is used in non-literal,
metaphoric way and its meaning is not the total sum of the meanings of its parts.
Another feature of idiom is that you cannot make up your own idiom because it
is fixed and only recognized by native speakers (Wright, 1999).
Idioms sometimes are misunderstood with collocations, proverbs and sayings. If
some word combinations like “do homework” or “heavy smoker” are called
collocations, it is obviously that they are “sequences of lexical items which
habitually co-occur, but which are nonetheless fully transparent in the sense that
each lexical constituent is also a semantic constituent” (Cruse, 1986). It means
that in collocations, we can add, replace or change the order of all constituents
and their meanings are not ambiguous. On the contrary, the meanings of idioms
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