Nghiên cứu về ẩn dụ trong các văn bản kinh tế về thị trường chứng khoán

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VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITIY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

A STUDY ON METAPHOR IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE
BUSINESS TEXTS UNDER THE TOPIC SECURITIES MARKET

Supervisor: Prof. Asoc. Nguyen Xuan Thom
Student : Nguyen Thuy Ngan
Course number : 42

Hanoi, 2012
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3


ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ
KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ ẨN DỤ TRONG CÁC VĂN BẢN KINH TẾ VỀ
THỊ TRƯỜNG CHỨNG KHOÁN

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: PGS. TS. Nguyễn Xuân Thơm
Sinh viên: Nguyễn Thùy Ngân
Khoá: 42

HÀ NỘI – NĂM 2012
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CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale of the study
More than two decades of economic renovation has created many positive
changes in the Vietnam‘s economy, and the changes have become more apparent
when Vietnam became the 150th official member of WTO (World Organization) in
2007. The new position of Vietnam‘s economy as well as the context of economic
globalization has resulted in the development of economic communication among
people.
It is the increasing importance of economic communication that leads to the
natural of approaching written economic texts. In board sense, economic activities
involve all individuals in the society, thus many people now consider reading
economic texts such as journals, newspapers, online articles, etc. as one way of
informing themselves on how the economy is fairing. Besides, people feel the need
to keep themselves updated since the status of the economy in long-term basis and
its changes in short-term one can affect individuals in both positive and negative
ways. In that way, economic texts have become popular and conventional to the
masses.
In approaching economic texts under the viewpoint of a language learner, the
researcher has been attracted by the use of metaphors in those texts. Metaphors,
according to Lakoff and Johnson (1980), is ―not just matters of the intellect‖ but
―pervasive in everyday life‖. Indeed, ―most of our ordinary conceptual system is

metaphorical in nature.‖ Economic texts as a mean of communication cannot be an
exception in the coverage of metaphor.
Being an element in economic texts, metaphors have made economic texts
more comprehensible and appealing to keep people reading. According to Anne
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Miller (2005), the author of Metaphorically Selling, while the left brain processes
language, the right brain processes imagery, pictures, visuals, stories- and
metaphors; the imagination processes by the right brain helps us to understand and
remember things easier. Therefore, when an economic term or phenomenon is
referred to an image through metaphor, it will be more accessible. In o ther words,
metaphors in economic texts has colored our views and understanding about
economics.
Since the popularity of economic texts and metaphor associated with them, as
well as the importance of metaphor in communication in general and economic texts
in particular, the researcher decided to study in the depth the subject of metaphor in
a specific area of English and Vietnamese economic texts, which is business articles
under the topic securities market.
1.2. Aims of the study and the research questions
The study is firstly aimed at studying metaphors through some economic texts.
The second aim is discussing the use of different themes in metaphors in some
Vietnamese and English economic texts, and if possible, to conclude about the
differences in using themes in metaphorical expressions in Vietnam and English
business articles. In summary, the study is conducted to answer the following
research questions:
1. How a metaphor is recognized and understood in its hidden meaning?
2. What are the similarities and differences in using metaphor in English business
texts and Vietnamese ones under the topic securities market?
1.3. Significance of the research

The paper would be particularly useful for language learners, economists and
researchers who happen to have an interest in the topic.
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First, the study is expected to introduce to the reader that metaphor is not just a
matter of linguistics. Indeed, what we say and write in daily life mostly contain
metaphor, and economic article is not an exception.
Second, the masses in general and the economists in particular could base on
the findings of this study to understand the use of metaphor in business articles.
Also, the findings of this study could offer reliable and updated information for
interested and further studies.
1.4. Research Methodology
1.4.1. Sampling
The researcher employs a random sampling technique to select the data for the
study.
The business articles are collected from online newspapers. More specifically,
the articles chosen are those concern with the topic securities market. The sources
for English economic texts are online newspapers such as: New York Times
( />
Reuters

(),

Financial

times ( Vietnamses business texts are collected from Vneconmy
– an online Vietnamese economic newspaper ( />The sources of the articles were collected for two reasons. First, all the sources
for collecting economic texts are available and very easy to approach. For the online
newspapers, the researcher can use the internet to collect articles.

Besides,

regarding the credibility of the above news agencies, it is possible to assume that the
writers of articles have good command of ability in using language as well as the
knowledge in economics, thus the risk of linguistic incompetence of writers can be
minimized.
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1.4.2. Data collection procedure
To address the research questions with clear and satisfactory answers, the
researcher employs observation as the data collection instrument. The process of
collecting data includes two main steps.
First, the research will skim among various online business articles to
understand the general content of the articles on the mentioned sources.
Second, the researcher chooses the articles whose contents concern with
securities market.
Third, for the online articles, the researcher copies them and saves in the
format of word documents.
1.4.3. Data analysis procedure
The research is based on the combination of both quantitative and qualitative
methods. The choice originates from the fact that the use of quantitative method
helps us to build up a general picture over all the selected cases and the exploitation
of qualitative analysis allows us to research each specific case.
Quantitative method helps to fulfill the task of defining frequencies of
metaphors in use.
Qualitative method is applied to analyze metaphors in selected business
articles. The researcher gives personal reflection and comments on the metaphors

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CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Text
2.1.1. Definition of text
Text in general is a familiar term with all people in the society, in everyday
communication we normally use and understand the term ―text‖ with its dictionary
meaning. Some definitions of text as a noun in Oxford dictionary 8th edition:
1. The main printed part of a book or magazine, not the notes, pictures, etc
2. Any form of written materials
…
4. The written form of a speech, a play, an article, etc.
Under linguistics‘ view, the term ―text‖ can be defined and analyzed in
different dimensions. Halliday and Mathiessen (2004) in their work An Introduction
to Functional Grammar, third edition commented about text: ―When people speak or
write, they produce text. The term ‗text‘ refers to any instance of language, in any
medium, that makes sense to someone who knows the language.‖
Besides, they also explain:
… The term ―text‖ is usually taken as referring to the product – especially the
product in written form, since this is the most clearly perceptible as an object
(though since that we have had tape recorder it has become easier for people to
conceive of spoken language also as text (Halliday and Mathiessen, 2004).
In their work Stylistics, Verdonk and Widdowson (2002) begin their
explanation about the nature of text by giving commonsensical understanding of it:
―When we think of a text, we typically think of a stretch of language complete in
itself and some considerable extent: a business letter, a leaflet, a news report, a
recipe, and so on.‖

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2.1.2. Business texts – features of business texts
In this research, the term business texts refers to journalistic texts that deal with
current economic and business matters for an audience of experts and non-experts,
and those articles seek to inform readers about how the economy is fairing.
In his/her research paper The Use of Metaphor in Business Press Articles,
Daniela Dălălău (n.d.) presented about business English. Among researcher that has
carried out studies on the topic of business English, Douglas Pickett is one of the
important names. He himself has admitted that business English is one part of ESP
and he also specifics some characteristics of it: ―…as business and commerce are by
definition an interface between the general public and the specialist producer…it
must be a lot nearer the everyday language spoken by the general public than many
other segments of ESP‖ (Daniela Dălălău n.d.).
Also in his/her summary, Daniela Dălălău restated the viewpoint of Douglas
Pickett that ―there are two communication areas: an internal communication –
among business and external communication – with general public‖ (Daniela
Dălălău n.d), more specifically:
According to Pickett, when considering business texts, various specific lexical
features have to be taken into account. First of all, it has been agreed on the
fact that the business lexis is layered – technical vocabulary and the subtechnical one. Secondly, business texts abound in abbreviations and acronyms.
Thirdly, there is a certain sociolinguistic orientation – people choose how to
speak business language depending on the subject, situation and a whole range
of sociolinguistic factors. As Pickett puts it, the language used by business
people display ―sensitivity to subject matter, the occasion, shared knowledge
and social relations holding between companies and communicators.‖ (Daniela
Dalalau, n.d.)

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2.2. Metaphor
2.2.1. Conceptual theory of metaphor
In his research about Cross-culture communication and metaphorical
competence, Saeed Taki (2011) mentioned about the different dimension in
approaching metaphors. First of all, Aristotle is the person who studied metaphor
and view it in its poetic and rhetorical function, after that this way of approach was
further developed by Ricoeur and Black in the twentieth century. Nevertheless,
other linguists studied about metaphor in cognitive approach. In this way, they
viewed metaphor as a matter of thought or a set of ―fixed mappings between two
conceptual domains‖ (Saeed Taki, 2011). Lakoff and Johnsons are considered to be
one of the pioneers to develop this point of view about metaphor in advanced during
the 1980s. Based on the theory about conceptual metaphor the two famous linguists
has studied, a new strand of metaphor begun in the end of 1990s once again placed
the major concern on the language of metaphors. This approach linked the
conceptual theory of metaphor with the practical use of it. For the purposes of this
study the cognitive approach, explained below, has been used.
The book Metaphor We Live by by Lakoff and Johnsons in 1980 was the first
publication that introduce the theory of conceptual metaphor in detail. Because this
theory views metaphor as a matter of words rather than the matter of thought or
actions, it has ―questioned and challenged the traditional linguistic views‖ (Saeed
Taki, 2011). Metaphor is conventionally thought of as something above everyday
language. Many people believe that metaphor is the device poets and writers, which
means that it is used for poems and ―rhetorical flourish‖ (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980).
Conceptual theory of metaphor, on the other hand, indicates that metaphor can
be essential and pervasive in language and thought. Metaphor is not only ―a matter
of words‖, but also ―a matter of thought‖ (Lakoff & Turner, 1989). Human thought
processes

are

largely

metaphorical,
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and the human conceptual system is


structured

and

defined

in

a

metaphorical

way. According to this view,

metaphor plays a major role in people‘s everyday language use and thought.

The

foundation of this cognitive theory of metaphor is Sapir-Whorf hypothesis,
one articulation of which reads as follows:
On the other hand, under the cognitive approach, metaphor shows its vital role

in people‘s everyday language and thought. Metaphor is not only ―a matter of
words‖, but also ―a matter of thought‖ (Lakoff & Turner, 1989). The conceptual
theory of metaphor has proved that metaphor can be indispensable and prevalent in
language and thought. As Taki summarized, ―human
largely
defined

metaphorical,
in

a

and

thought

processes

are

the human conceptual system is structured and

metaphorical

way.‖ The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis which is the

foundation for the cognitive theory of metaphor presents this theory as follows:
We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and ascribe significance as we do,
largely because we are parties to an agreement to organize it in this way – an
agreement that holds throughout our speech community, and is codified in the

patterns of our language … all observers are not led by the same physical
evidence to the same picture of the universe, unless their linguistic
backgrounds are similar, or in some way can be calibrated (Saeed Taki, 2011).
2.2.2. Definitions of metaphors
As mentioned above, Aristotle was the first person who provided a scholarly
treatment of metaphor. He said that ―a metaphor consist in giving a thing a name
that belongs to something else; the transference from being genus to species, or
from species to genus, or from species to species, or on the ground of analogy.‖
For many people, metaphors are means of poet or writers, in other words,
creative people. Nevertheless, Lakoff and Johnson assumed that metaphors are not
just a phenomenon of linguistics; indeed, they are omnipresent in our everyday
language. Because people have to deal with a complex world, they use the
possibility of conceptualization to structure their experience which is not normally
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concrete or tangible. Everything happens around us become an experience in mind,
and we try to make them more understandable by comparing to something we know
exactly and try to draw a relationship between the two concepts, the abstract and the
exact one. This relationship is then metaphorical.
Through analyzing and explaining metaphorical concepts, Lakoff and Johnson
(1980) defined metaphor as ―understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in
terms of another.‖
Kövecses‘ book Metaphor – a Practical Introduction also studied about Lakoff
and Johnson‘s paradigm. To have a clearer view about metaphor, let us consider the
lead in example of Kövecses:
He‘s without direction in life
I‘m at the crossroads in my life
She‘ll go places in life
…

(Kövecses, 2002)
Given all these examples, we can see that a large part of the way we speak
about life in English derives from the way we speak about journeys. In light of such
examples, it seems that speakers of English make extensive use of the domain of
journey to think about the highly abstract and elusive concept of life…Cognitive
linguists suggest that they do so because thinking about the abstract concept of life
is facilitated by the more concrete concept of journey.
Kövecses defined metaphor: ―In the cognitive linguistic view, metaphor is
defined as understanding one conceptual domain in term of another conceptual
domain.‖
He explained about conceptual metaphor: ―A convenient shorthand way of
capturing this view of metaphor is the following: CONCEPTUAL DOMAIN A IS
CONCEPTUAL DOMAIN B, which is what called conceptual metaphor…‖
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The conceptual domain from which we draw metaphorical expressions to
understand another conceptual domain is called source domain, while the conceptual
domain that is understood this way is the target domain…The target domain is the
domain that we try to understand through the use of the source domain.Some more
examples of metaphors given by Lakoff and Johnson:
He attacked every week point in my argument
I don‘t have time to give you
When you have a good idea, try to capture it immediately in words
My spirit sank
The meaning is right here in the word
(Lakoff and Johnson, 1980)
2.2.3. Types of metaphors
Lakoff and Johnson divided metaphors into three categories which are
presented in the

following, starting with structural metaphors, following

orientational and ontological metaphors.
2.2.3.1. Structural metaphor
According to Kövecses (2002), in structural metaphor the source domain
provides a relatively rich knowledge structure for the target concept. In other words,
the cognitive function of these metaphors is to enable speakers to understand target
A by means of the structure of source B. For example, the concept of time is
structured according to motion and space. Given the time is motion metaphor, we
understand time in the following way:
We understand time in terms of basic elements: physical objects, their
locations, and their emotion.
There is a background condition that applies to this way of understanding time:
the present time is at the same location as a canonical observer.

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Thanks to the basic elements and the background condition, we get the
mappings that times are things, the passing of time is motion, future times are in
front of the observer, past times are behind the observers:
Time will come when…
The time has long since gone when…
The time for action has arrived…
On the preceding day…
Kövecses (2002)
Another example is the sentence by Francis Bacon: ―some books are to be
tasted, other to be swallowed and some few to be chewed and digested. This is a
typical structural metaphor which implies the structural metaphor that ―Books are

food.‖ The structure of reading books is understood by the vivid structure of eating
food. Different people may read books in different ways, some read extensively
while other read intensivel. The process of reading is compared to that of eating
food. Some people swallow the food and some chew it, with the use of structural
metaphor, the process of reading books is more easily understood.
2.2.3.2. Orientational metaphor
Kövecses showed his similar explanation about orientation metaphor with
Lakoff and Johnson.
Lakoff and Johnson (1980) defined orientational metaphor as a metaphorical
concept that ―organizes a whole system of concepts with respect to one another‖
Kövecses (2002) added more explanations: ―The name of orientational
metaphor derives from the fact that most metaphor that serve this function has to do
with basic human spatial orientations, such as up-down, center-periphery, and the
like.‖

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In short, Lakoff and Johnsons (1980) summarized: ―spatial orientations like
up-down, front-back, on-off, center-periphery, and near-far provide an extraordinary
rich basis for understanding concepts in orientational terms.‖
Some examples:
HAPPY IS UP, SAD IS DOWN
My feeling is up
He‘s really low these days
CONCIOUS IS UP, UNCONCIOUS IS DOWN
Wake up/ I‘m up already.
He sank into a coma.
HEALTH AND LIFE ARE UP, SICKNESS AND DEATH ARE DOWN
He came down with the flu

He‘s in top shape
He‘s at the peak of his health
Lakoff and Johnsons (1980)
2.2.3.3. Ontological metaphor
In the case of orientational metaphor, the spatial orientation can only provide
understandings related to orientations. Nevertheless, since metaphors are universal,
there are more subjects and substances which are out of the coverage of
orientational understanding. In that case, ―our experience of physical objects and
substances provides a further basis for understanding – one that goes beyond mere
orientation‖ (Lakoff and Johnsons, 1980). Those experiences can be identified and
categorized as entities restricted by a surface. So we can categorize things that
normally do not have boundary by using entities:
Understanding our experience in terms of objects and substances allows us to
pick out parts of our experience and treat them as discrete entities or
substances of a uniform kind. Once we can identify our experiences as entities
or substances, we can refer to them, categorize them, group them and quantify
them - and by this mean, reason about them (Lakoff and Johnsons, 1980).

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Just as the basic experiences of human spatial orientations give rise to
erientational metaphors, so our experiences with physical objects ( especially our
own bodies) provide the basis for an extraordinary wide variety of ontological
metaphors, that is, ways of viewing events, activities, emotions, ideas, etc., as
entities and substances.
There are many purposes of using ontological metaphor in language, Lakoff
and Johnson took an example of rising prices which can be viewed as an entity in
the examples:
INFLATION IS AN ENTITY:

Inflation is lowering our standard of living.
If there‘s much more inflation, we‘ll never survive .We need to combat
inflation
Inflation is hacking us into a corner.
Inflation is taking its toll at the checkout counter and the gas pump.
Buy land is the best way of dealing with inflation. Inflation makes me sick.
(Lakoff and Johnsons, 1980)
In the above cases the inflation is viewed as an entity, so it is possible for us to
refer to it, quantify it, identify a particular aspect of it, see it as a cause, act with
respect to it and even understand it by referring to our own daily experiences. In
short, we can treat an entity as whatever we need it to be.
Some more examples about ontological metaphor by Lakoff and Johnson
(1980):
Referring
My fear of insects is driving my wife crazy
That was a beautiful catch
We are working toward peace
(…)
Quantifying
It will take a lot of patience to finish this book. There is so much hatred in the
world
DuPont has a lot of political power in Delaware. You‘ve got too much hostility
in you
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Pete Rose has lot of hustle and baseball know-how
Identifying Aspects
The ugly side of his personality comes out under pressure. The brutality of war
dehumanizes us all

I can‘t keep with the pace of modern life
His emotional health has deteriorated recently
Identifying causes
The pressure of his responsibilities caused his breakdown. He did it out of
anger.
One influence in the world has declined because of our lack of moral fiber.
Internal dissension cost them the pennant.
Setting goals and motivating actions
He went to New York to seek fame and fortune
Here‘s what you have to do to insure financial security. I‘m changing my way
of life so that I can find true happiness. The FBI will act quickly in the face of
a threat to national security (Lakoff and Johnsons, 1980).
Besides, according to Kovesces (2002), ―we can conceive of perso nification as
a form of ontological metaphor. In personification, human qualities are given to
nonhuman entities.‖ Personification is common in literature, but it also abounds in
everyday discourse, as the examples below show:
His theory explained to me the behavior of chickens rose in factories.
Life has cheated me.
Inflation is eating up our profits.
Cancer finally caught up with him
The computer went dead on me.
(Kovesces, 2002)
Theory, life, inflation, cancer, and computer are not humans, but they are given
qualities of human beings, such as explaining, cheating, eating, catching up and
dying, Personification makes use of one of the best source domains we have
ourselves. In personifying nonhumans as humans, we can begin to understand them
a little better.
By analyzing many examples about metaphorical concepts, Lakoff and
Johnsons (1980) drew conclusions about metaphors, some important points are
summarized as the following. Most of the fundamental concepts are built basing on

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one or more specialization metaphors. Specialization metaphors are rooted in
physical and cultural experience; they are not randomly assigned. Moreover, there
are many possible physical and social bases for metaphor.
2.2.4. Understanding a metaphor
According to Kövecses, metaphor understood can be ―online‖ and ―offline.‖ In
―online‖ understanding, the readers/hearers will use their short-term memory to
comprehend the metaphorical concept in real time, at the time they interpret the
metaphors. In ―offline‖ understanding, the readers/hearers will base on their longterm memory, ―the comprehension take place over a long stretch of time, as when
metaphorical meaning of a word goes back to a source domain (such as the time related meaning of before and after derive from the space-related meaning of before
and after)‖ (Kövecses, 2002).
Also under Kövecses‘ view, the process of understanding metaphors requires
knowledge and image. Most of the metaphors are understood under our basic
understanding of concepts. In those concepts, basic knowledge structures constituted
by some basic elements are mapped from a source to a target.
2.2.5. The metaphorical expressions used in economics
Metaphorical expressions appear to be pervasive in business articles. Marisol
Velasco Sacristan (2005) provided evidences for this in numerous figurative
expressions of animate metaphors used to describe notions in economics:
Economy (i.e. growth, depression, etc.) and economic organizations (i.e.
parent/sister company, etc.); inanimate metaphors used to describe, for
instance, market movements as animals (i.e. bear market, bull market, etc.) or
inflation as horse (i.e. galloping inflation, trotting inflation, etc.); business as
war (i.e. advertising campaign, corporate raiders, market competition, etc.);
business as sports (i.e. an outsider, a stalemate, key players, etc.), and so on.

19

Stating many examples, Sacristan (2005) explained that the use of metaphor in
business articles serves various purposes. Thanks to metaphors, some aspects of the
target are put into spotlight while the other are left in dark. To demonstrate this
viewpoint, he took the example of describing socio-economic processes in terms of
―machines and mechanism,‖ this metaphorical expression brings about the
impression that socio-economic processes can be totally anticipated and controlled.
Meanwhile, the employers can concept socio-economic processes in terms of
―healthcare and fitness‖ to discuss about the bad situation of the companies, etc. For
the protectionist measure initiated by the government, the employers of the
companies put it in the theme ―fighting and warfare‖ of metaphorical expressions.
Besides, Sacristan (2005) summarized the theory of Boers (2002) about typical
themes of metaphors in economics texts, which are: MECHANISM and
MACHINES, ANIMALS, PLANT and GARDENING, HEALTH and FITNESS,
FIGHTING and WARFARE, SHIPS and SAILING, and SPORTS (Marisol Velasco
Sacristan, 2005).
2.2.6. The expression of “increase” and “decrease” in business texts
Dealing with economics texts, especially the business articles under the topic
securities market, readers and writers must encounter with many cases of
metaphorical expressions of ―increase‖ and ―decrease.‖ In short, it can be said that
metaphors of ―increase‖ and ―decrease‖ are pervasive in business articles.
Conventionally, the language used to describe these notions make the readers refer
to the terms in describing graph. For instance: bonds rise, share drops, GDP slides,
etc. There would seem to be two levels of metaphor to work at because the graph
itself a metaphor and the language used to refer to the graph also uses conceptual
metaphor of mountainside or ocean, etc. The metaphor involving graphs to express
―increase‖ and ―decrease‖ was shown in table 1 below.

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Table 1: Metaphor involving graphs to express increase and decrease
Conceptual

Conceptual

metaphor

metaphor

Movement

up

and

Lexical examples

rise,

Graph

down

fall,

plummet, sink

21

climb,

soar,


CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
3.1. Analysis of metaphor expressions of “increase” and “decrease”
Ten business articles analyzed in the study are under the same theme which is
stocks and bond. The articles were collected from different online newspaper
websites.
Table 2a: Expression of increase in five English business articles
(Corpus size: 3,775 words)
No

Lexis

Number

of

Percentage

occurrence
1

Move up /be up

4

14.8%

2

Rise/ Rose/Rising

10

37%

3

Increase/ Increased/Increasing

2

7.4%

4

Pick(ed) up

1

3.7%

5

Add(ed)

1

3.7%

6

Boost(ed)

3

11.1%

7

Jump(ed)

3

11.1%

8

Surge(d)

1

3.7%

9

Exceed

1

3.7%

10

Extend

1

3.7%

Total: 27

100%

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Table 2b: Expression of increase in five Vietnamese business articles
(Corpus size: 3,904 words)
No

Lexis

Number

of

Percentage

occurance
1

Tăng/Bật tăng/ Đà tăng

28

71.8%

2

Tiến

5

12.8%

3

Nhảy/ nhảy vọt

2

5.1%

4

Vọt

1

2.7%

5

Đẩy lên

1

2.7%

6

Cộng

2

5.1%

Total: 39

100%

First, it should be emphasized that the corpus sizes of the total of 5 English
business articles is approximated to that of the total of 5 Vietnamese business
articles (3775 words and 3904 words). The first point that can be seen in the two
tables is that the range of lexis used to express ―increase‖ in English is more varied
than in Vietnamese. More specifically, the authors of the 5 English business articles

used 10 words to metaphorically express the rise in stock and bond index and other
aspects of the market. Meanwhile, in 5 Vietnamese business articles which are on
the same theme as the chosen English ones, only 6 metaphorical expressions of
―increase‖ are found. Because cause the size of samples is quite small (5 articles in
each languages) and content of the chosen articles are not exactly the same, so it
will be subjective if the researcher concludes that English has a wider range of
metaphorical expressions of ―increase.‖ However, look at the table Table 2a:
Expression of decrease in five English busniess articles, the results implicates that
the expressions for ―increase‖ in metaphor in English are various, there are many
words to stand for ―increase‖ that authors of business articles can use. Besides, the
23


results also infer that the words ―rise ―are most frequently used to express ―increase‖
in the area of stock and bonds and in the securities market in general, with 37% of
frequency.
On the other hand, the results shown in Table 2b: Expression of decrease in
five Vietnamese busniess articles infers that the expressions for ―increase‖ in
Vietnamese articles of securities market are not very plenty. More specifically, to
express ―increase‖ in stock and bonds index and in securities market in general, the
most popular word used is ―tăng‖ (equivalent of ―increase and ―rise‖). The word
―tăng‖ alone accounts for over 71.8% of use, which can be considered dominated in
frequency of use, five times higher than the second popular expression (―tiến‖),
other words are used with low frequency, this infers that the word ―tăng‖ is the most
suitable word in describing ―increase‖ in the topic securities market Vietnamese.
Some examples for the metaphorical expression of ―increase‖ in the sample
Vietnamese business articles:
Đáng chú ý, cổ phiếu của Bank of America Corp tăng 3% lên 11,14 USD/cp
(Dương 2011).
Các cổ phiếu hàng hóa cũng tăng mạnh do đồng Euro tăng giá và chỉ số đồng

USD (thước đo giá trị của đồng bạc xanh so với giá các loại tiền tệ chủ chốt khác)
giảm (Dương 2011).
Chỉ số FTSE 100 của Anh tăng 110,52 điểm, tương ứng 2,11% lên 5.377, 54
điểm (Dương 2011).

24


Table 3a and 3b provide the same analysis for expression of decrease.
Table 3a: Expression of decrease in five English business articles
No

Lexis

Number

of

Percentage

occurance
1

Be down/move down

7

24.1%

2

Fall/fell

10

34.5%

3

Drop/dropped

6

20.7%

4

Dip/dipped

2

6.9%

5

Slip/ slipped

1

3.4%

6

Decline/declined

1

3.4%

7

Shed

2

6.9%

Total: 29

100%

Table 3b: Expression of decrease in five Vietnamese busniess articles
No

Lexis

Number

of

Percentage

occurance
1

Hạ

6

21.4%

2

Giảm

10

35.7%

3

Đổ dốc

1

3.6%

4

Trượt dốc

5

17.9%

5

Mất

1

3.6%

6

Rớt

2

7.1%

7

Sụt/ sụt giảm

2

7.1%

8

Bốc hơi

1

3.6%

Total 28

100%

25