A contrastive study of conceptual metaphors in english and vietnamese newspapers on social violence

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN THỊ THANH XUÂN

A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF
CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS
IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE NEWSPAPERS
ON SOCIAL VIOLENCE

FIELD: English Linguistics
CODE: 8220201

Supervisor: HÀ THANH HẢI, Ph.D.


BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN

NGUYỄN THỊ THANH XUÂN

NGHIÊN CỨU SO SÁNH ĐỐI CHIẾU
PHÉP ẨN DỤ Ý NIỆM TRONG CÁC BÀI BÁO
TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT VỀ BẠO LỰC XÃ HỘI

Chuyên ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh
Mã số: 8.22.02.01

Người hướng dẫn: TS. Hà Thanh Hải

i

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby confirm that the thesis entitled
A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS
IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE NEWSPAPERS ON SOCIAL VIOLENCE

is submitted to complete fulfillment for my degree of master of English
Linguistics at Quy Nhon University and has not been submitted elsewhere in
any other form for the fulfillment of any other degree or qualification.
This thesis does not contain any materials which have been written by
another person except where referenced within the text.

September 2020

Nguyễn Thị Thanh Xuân


ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my appreciation to several
people for helping me through my master thesis. First of all, I would like to
express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Hà Thanh Hải, for his
continuous support and advice as well as his excellent guidance to help me
complete this thesis.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the lecturers of my

master’s course for their valuable lectures that help me cultivate and gain a
deep knowledge of linguistics and research skills.
In addition, I would like to thank my friends for their concern, love, and
moral support.
Special thanks from the bottom of my heart go out to my dear husband
who stayed beside me through all the stages of my study in the postgraduate
program and encouraged me to finish this thesis.
Last but not least, some special words of gratitude go to my parents who
took care of my sons so that I could spend more time concentrating on my
thesis. I could not have finished this thesis without their continued supports
and encouragement that gave me strength and confidence to fulfill my dream.

September 2020

Nguyễn Thị Thanh Xuân


iii

ABSTRACT
Conceptual metaphor, which is a cognitive device, reflects the way
people conceptualize the surrounding world. The capture of conceptual
metaphors plays a vital role in facilitating journalists to convey their
information to readers vividly and effectively. This is what prompted the
present study. Based on the cognitive perspective of Lakoff and John (1980,
2003), 176 samples from four English newspapers and four Vietnamese ones
were intentionally collected to indicate how conceptual metaphors were
employed as well as compare the similarities and differences between English
and Vietnamese conceptual metaphors. This study aims to provide a
comprehensive overview of cognitive linguistics in general and analyze

English and Vietnamese conceptual metaphors collected from online
newspapers regarding social violence between a three-year period from the
beginning of 2018 to August 2020 in particular. The result reveals that
English and Vietnamese share many conceptual metaphors in common while
various features of the two cultures still come into existence. All three types
of conceptual metaphors comprising structural, ontological, and orientational
metaphors are found in the collected data with the different frequency of
occurrences and percentage. The finding also indicate that the English media
writers tend to use more conceptual metaphors than the Vietnamese ones.
Despite the limitations of a small-scale study and time shortage, the
researcher does hope that the findings would shed more light on the whole
picture of conceptual metaphors.
Keywords: Cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphors, source domain, target domain,
structural metaphors, orientational metaphors, ontological metaphors, online newspapers,
social violence.


iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ......................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT .......................................................................................... iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................................... iv
LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................... vii
LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................. viii
CHAPER 1: ............................................................................................ 1
INTRODUCTION .................................................................................. 1
1.1. Rationale..................................................................................... 1

1.2. Aim and Objectives ..................................................................... 3
1.2.1. Aims of the Study ................................................................. 3
1.2.2. Objectives of the Study ......................................................... 4
1.3. Research questions ...................................................................... 4
1.4. Scope of the study........................................................................ 4
1.5. Significance of the study .............................................................. 4
1.6. Organization of the study ............................................................. 5
1.7. Summary ..................................................................................... 7
CHAPTER 2: ......................................................................................... 8
LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................... 8
2.1. Introduction to cognitive semantics ............................................. 8


v

2.1.1. Conceptual metaphor theory .............................................. 11
2.1.2. Classification of conceptual metaphors ............................... 22
2.2. Previous studies on conceptual metaphors ................................. 26
2.3. The online newspapers on social violence ................................. 30
2.3.1. Definition of violence and social violence .......................... 30
2.3.2. Online newspapers .............................................................. 31
2.4. Summary ................................................................................... 32
CHAPTER 3: ....................................................................................... 33
METHODS AND PROCEDURES ....................................................... 33
3.1. Research designs........................................................................ 33
3.2. Research methods ...................................................................... 33
3.3. Research procedures .................................................................. 34
3.4. Data collection and data analysis ............................................... 34
3.4.1. Data collection .................................................................... 34
3.4.2. Data analysis ....................................................................... 36

3.5. Validity and reliability ............................................................... 37
3.6. Summary ................................................................................... 38
CHAPTER 4: ....................................................................................... 39
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .......................................................... 39
4.1. Metaphor in English newspapers on social violence .................. 39
4.1.1. Structural metaphors ........................................................... 39
4.1.2. Orientational metaphors ...................................................... 43


vi

4.1.3. Ontological metaphors ........................................................ 45
4.2. Metaphor in Vietnamese newspapers on social violence ............ 53
4.2.1. Structural metaphors ........................................................... 53
4.2.2. Orientational metaphors ...................................................... 55
4.2.3. Ontological metaphors ........................................................ 56
4.3. The similarities between conceptual metaphors in English and
Vietnamese newspapers on social violence............................................... 61
4.4. The differences between conceptual metaphors in English and
Vietnamese newspapers on social violence............................................... 68
4.5. Summary ................................................................................... 76
CHAPTER 5: ....................................................................................... 78
CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION ................................................ 78
5.1. Conclusions ............................................................................... 78
5.2. Implications ............................................................................... 80
5.3. Limitations ................................................................................ 81
5.4. Suggestions for further research ................................................. 81
REFERENCES ..................................................................................... 83

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1. The Occurrences and Percentages of Conceptual Metaphors in
English ......................................................................................................... 39
Table 4.2. The Occurrences and Percentages of Conceptual Metaphors in
Vietnamese Newspapers............................................................................... 53
Table 4.3. The Occurrences and Percentages of Conceptual Metaphors in
English and Vietnamese Online Articles ...................................................... 62
Table 4.4. The Conceptual Metaphors Sharing the Same Meaning in
English and Vietnamese Newspapers ........................................................... 67
Table 4.5. The Most Commonly Used Conceptual Metaphors in Both
Languages .................................................................................................... 70
Table 4.6. The Differences of Same Conceptual Metaphors in English
and Vietnamese Newspapers ........................................................................ 74
Table 4.7. The Absence and Presence of Conceptual Metaphors in
English and Vietnamese Newspapers ........................................................... 74


viii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1. The mappings of conceptual metaphor ANGER IS FIRE ........... 15
Figure 2.2. The mappings of conceptual metaphor ANGER IS HOT FLUID
IN A CONTAINER .................................................................. 17
Figure 2.3. The mappings of conceptual metaphor LOVE IS A JOURNEY . 19
Figure 2.4. The Source-Path-Goal Schema in LOVE IS A JOURNEY ......... 20
Figure 2.5. Metaphorical Relationship .......................................................... 21

Figure 2.6. Metonymic Relationship ............................................................ 21
Figure 2.7. The Source and Target Domains of Ontological Metaphor ......... 24
Figure 3. Eight Online Articles in English and Vietnamese…...……….…...35
Figure 4.1. The mappings of conceptual metaphor VIOLENCE IS A
PLANT…...……….……………………………………………49
Figure 4.2. The mappings of conceptual metaphor A CRIMINAL RECORD
IS A BUILDING…………………………………………..…...61
Figure 4.3. The Total Conceptual Metaphors in English and Vietnamese
Online Newspapers. .................................................................. 68
Figure 4.4. The Occurrences and Percentages of Ontological Metaphors in
English and Vietnamese Online Newspapers.Error! Bookmark
not defined.
Figure 4.5.The Occurrences of Structural Metaphors in English and
Vietnamese Online Newspapers ............................................... 70


1

CHAPER 1:
INTRODUCTION

1.1. Rationale
In our daily lives, metaphors are used as one of the stylistic devices to
express our thoughts and beliefs naturally and effortlessly. Metaphors exist
everywhere in our daily lives, so they have a strong impact on the ways of
people’s recognition of the surrounding world. Take the myth of Oedipus in
Kövecses 's (2010) book as an illustration of the pivotal role of metaphors.
As part of the myth, Oedipus arrives in Thebes where he finds that a
monster, called the Sphinx, is guarding the road to the city. She poses
riddles to everyone on their way to Thebes and devours them if they are

unable to solve the riddles. So far, everyone has been devoured when
Oedipus arrives. The Sphinx asks him the riddle: Which are the animal
that has four feet in the morning, two at midday, and three in the
evening? Without hesitation, Oedipus answers: Man, who in infancy
crawls on all fours, who walks upright in maturity and his old age
supports himself with a stick. The Sphinx is defeated and kills herself.
Oedipus has become the king of Thebes. (p. 11)
In this case, Oedipus is believed to have been able to successfully deal
with the problem thanks to the knowledge of conceptual metaphors. Two
metaphors are employed to solve the riddle consisting of THE LIFE OF
HUMAN BEINGS IS A DAY and HUMAN LIFE IS A JOURNEY. In the
former metaphor, life is considered as a day. The morning represents infancy,
midday for maturity and, the evening for old age. In the latter metaphor, feet
evoke the concept of a journey, giving the solution to the riddle.


2

Examples like the above conceptual metaphors are shaped by both our
communication on a daily basis and literature. Conceptual metaphors,
therefore, have received an enormous amount of attention from many
linguistic researchers as well as scholars. Up to now, plenty of studies have
been conducted to investigate metaphor usage. However, since 1980, a new
viewpoint of cognitive linguistics has been introduced by Lakoff and Johnson
in the pioneering work entitled “Metaphors We Live By”, which introduces a
major revolution of linguistics to study conceptual metaphors. They are of
primary importance in cognitive linguistics, which is a key to decode the
knowledge in mind and cognitive process. This contrastive study in search of
conceptual metaphors can help to recognize similarities as well as differences
between concepts in specific languages, i.e. English and Vietnamese.

Metaphor appears to be quite popular in daily life as well as in
information transmission channels. Specifically, metaphors are linguistic
expressions that give a simple definition or explanation of something that can
often be extremely complicated. In newspapers, journalists always take
metaphors into account to catch the reader’s curiosity and excitement.
Additionally, thanks to the technology explosion, readers all over the world
can easily approach information. When social media is being rapidly
developed, all up-to-date breaking news is available by one click or a tap. For
example, in June of this year 2020, the hot news about the death of a black
man caused by an American police officer was updated instantly on online
articles. In addition to the outstanding advantage of the digital revolution, it is
undeniable that the growing problem of social violence seems to appear at a
considerable rate in most of the reports, which has gained widespread
attention from local as well as international communities. Horrible things are
heard and seen every day now on social media and the news. Social violence


3

in many forms such as school violence, domestic violence, racial violence,
etc. is considered a social crime that exerts negative effects on each person
and entire social development. Therefore, more and more people in the world
deal with their problems by hitting, punching, stabbing, shooting, and killing.
These are exemplars of acts of violence in social life; however, many
different forms of social violence may occur every day all around the world.
The issue of social violence has been an alarming bell for the whole society.
These above reasons show that mastering the employment of the metaphor in
the news reports on social violence is of great significance to grasp accurately
the information conveyed by newspapermen or women. Furthermore, it is also
interesting to distinguish between English and Vietnamese metaphor, which

reporters mainly use to attract the reader’s attention.
To my knowledge, no prior studies have examined conceptual metaphors
in newspapers on social violence although there is a variety of research about
conceptual metaphors carried out in distinct aspects such as political
discourse, climate change discourse, conceptual metaphors about food, moon,
fire, and many things. Besides, people from separate countries may have a
different cognitive interpretation of one social phenomenon. That is why this
study is conducted to identify and compare Conceptual Metaphors used in
English and Vietnamese online newspapers on social violence from the
perspective of cognitive linguistics.
1.2. Aim and Objectives
1.2.1. Aims of the Study
The purpose of this thesis is to identify conceptual metaphors used in
English and Vietnamese online news discourse on social violence in the light
of cognitive semantics raised by Lakoff and Johnson (1980, 2003) and
Kövecses (2002, 2010). Besides, the study also investigates the similarities


4

and differences between English and Vietnamese conceptual metaphors in
online news sources on social value.
1.2.2. Objectives of the Study
With the aims stated above, the detailed objectives have been set as
follows:
The first objective is to identify and classify the conceptual metaphors
used in both English and Vietnamese electronic journalistic texts on social
violence. The second objective is to figure out the similarities and differences
of conceptual metaphors in social violence reports between the bilingual data.
1.3. Research questions

To achieve the above aims and objectives of the study, the following
questions have been raised and answered:
(1) What types of conceptual metaphors are employed in English and
Vietnamese online articles on social violence?
(2) What are the similarities and differences between these conceptual
metaphors in English and Vietnamese online articles on social violence?
1.4. Scope of the study
This study focuses on three types of conceptual metaphors in English and
Vietnamese online articles on social violence, i.e. structural, orientational, and
ontological ones. These metaphors are analyzed in terms of semantic features.
Additionally, the similarities and differences, the frequencies of occurrence of
these conceptual metaphors in English and Vietnamese articles on social violence
are also presented in the study. For reasons of time, only the social violence topic
is addressed in this paper. An analysis of the other violence such as sexual and
economic violence is outside the scope of this paper.
1.5. Significance of the study
As previously mentioned, metaphors are not only employed to be a figure of


5

speech in literature but also used to express the author’s thought, experience, and
cognition about facts or events in nature, society, and the real world. More
specifically, metaphors are deeply embedded not only in daily use of language but
also in thought and action (Black et al., 1981). In the same way, Ungerer and
Schmid (1996) also believe that “everyday language is rife with metaphorical
expressions” (p. 116). To master metaphors used in the newspaper, hence, has a
pivotal role to comprehend the text. This study attempts to facilitate a better
insight of conceptual metaphors as well as to provide a discovery of conceptual
metaphors in newspapers on social violence that decodes the language involving

human thought about this topic, and contribute to enhancing understanding the
necessity of these metaphors in this specific discourse. Moreover, the study helps
to identify the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese
cultures in the use of conceptual metaphors.
1.6. Organization of the study
The study consists of five chapters as follows:
Chapter 1, Introduction, embraces the rationale for the research, the
aims, and objectives of the study that outlines the knowledge gap to produce
the research. Following this, the significance of the study is described in more
detail. The importance of metaphors and conceptual metaphors can be
recognized in this section. Another significance of this study is to make a
comparison of the use of conceptual metaphors between two languages,
English, and Vietnamese. And then, research questions are raised to meet the
aims and objectives of the study. Additionally, the organization of the study
gives a general overview of the structure of the paper.
Chapter 2, Literature Review and Theoretical Background, provides
readers with the fundamental knowledge of cognitive linguistics based on the
theoretical framework of Lakoff and Johnson (1980, 2003) and Kövecses


6

(2002, 2010). It comprises key terms and the categories for conceptual
metaphors analyzed in the study. Theoretical matters related to the study such
as definitions of cognitive semantics and conceptual metaphor theory. Some
metaphorical expressions are added to illustrate source and target domains,
and the relations holding between them. Extra information that distinguishes
conceptual metaphors from metonymies is included to support the process of
identifying metaphors easily. This thesis focuses on three main types of
conceptual metaphors that are made up of structural metaphors, orientational

metaphors, and ontological metaphors. The features of newspaper language
are also discussed in this chapter. After Theoretical Background, it continues
to the selective summary of the previous studies in the light of conceptual
metaphors, which inspire the author to conduct this research. That is,
contrastive theses from conceptual metaphors are categorized according to
various researchers.
Chapter 3, Methods and Procedures, addresses the central elements of
research methods, and research procedures of the study, which are specific
plans on how the research is conducted. This contrastive study is conducted to
examine the conceptual metaphors employed in online news reports on social
violence in English and Vietnamese. In addition to quantitative and
qualitative methods, descriptive and comparative methods are chosen in order
to explore how the conceptual metaphors work in both languages. This
chapter also explains the choice of the source data and deals with the
description of samples and how the data are collected, described, and
analyzed in detail. The data of the study is accumulated from the authentic
web pages in English and Vietnamese. There are 90 online news reports in
English and 86 ones in Vietnamese with similar lengths (more than 47.000
words each). To ensure the quality of the research, validity, and reliability are


7

also included in this chapter.
Chapter 4, Findings and Discussion, is devoted to present the result of
data analysis. Findings of the study led by data presentation, interpretation,
and discussion, as well as the conclusion are placed in this chapter. The
frequency of occurrence, similarities and differences between these
conceptual metaphors are also intensively discussed. The typical conceptual
metaphors on the topics of social violence are selected to present in the

finding. To demonstrate and summarize the finding, we employ tables and
figures with explanations.
Chapter 5, Conclusions, summarizes what has been learned from the
study containing the major findings. Although Lakoff and Johnson (1980,
2003) and others show the pervasiveness of metaphors in human
understanding, not many conceptual metaphors were found in this thesis’s
corpora. Besides, the implications point out the contributions to the field of
cognitive semantics. Next, the limitations follow, resulting in the open
avenues for further studies. Then, the bibliography and appendices are
appended at the end of the thesis.
1.7. Summary
Violence is a significant social problem, which attracts the attention of
the whole community. Correspondents often deliberately exploit metaphors
and conceptual metaphors to produce special effects and vividly describe the
burning issues related to social violence. Metaphors or conceptual metaphors,
however, make us hard to perceive if we do not have sufficient background
knowledge.


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CHAPTER 2:
LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Introduction to cognitive semantics
Cognitive linguistics is a powerful approach to structure the ultimate
concepts about the word that people bear in mind and experience. It
fundamentally focuses on the relation of language and mind, so it helps us
know how language is represented in the mind. As it is of great prominence in
our lives, it has become an influential approach in many fields like cognitive

science, social science, and applied linguistics (Evans, 2019a).
Cognitive Linguistics has begun to emerge since the second half of the
1970s in the work of the so-called founding fathers namely George Lakoff,
Mark Johnson, Ronald W. Langacker, and Leonard Talmy. Cognitive
semantics is said to be originated from cognitive linguistics and a part of the
cognitive linguistics movement. It mainly focuses on what language
denotation is and how the meaning of language is encoded (Nguyễn Hòa,
2004). The language in cognitive semantics is considered as an effective tool
for the purpose of “organizing, processing, and conveying information”
(Geeraerts & Cuyckens, 2007). Lyons (1995) believes that several theories
have been developed in accordance with cognitive semantics. Focusing on
specific phenomena and concerns, every linguist started developing their own
approach to describe the features of the language and linguistic theory. It must
be emphasized that Lakoff and Johnson (1980, 2003) made a breakthrough
and laid the foundation for new cognitive linguistics that is a fundamental part
of human cognition. Many linguists inspired from this perspective have
continued researching for over thirty years.


9

Since notable works on metaphor and metonymy of Lakoff (1981) and
Lakoff (1987) was launched, Lakoff has become the leading cognitivist (cited
from About Cognitive Linguistics of International Cognitive Linguistics
Association). Lakoff used to be a follower of Noam Chomsky; however, he
later became the most active critic of the school of Transformational
Generative Grammar. Although the generative grammarian took a keen
interest in knowledge of the language, cognitive linguists believed that there
was a mutual interaction between natural language and knowledge of the
world (Geeraerts & Cuyckens, 2007).

In addition to Lakoff and Johnson’s theory, Langacker (1988) developed
the theory of Space Grammar and Cognitive Grammar (as cited in Evans,
2019b). By the mid to late 1980s, influenced by the views of Oswald Ducrot,
Fauconnier (1994) had developed a new theory called Mental Spaces. This
theory interestingly meshes both Langacker's (2008) Cognitive Grammar and
Lakoff's theory of Metaphor. Besides, Talmy (1985, 1988) engaged in the
study of linguistic imaging systems. He also determined that cognition is the
main feature of semantics (Nguyễn Hòa, 2004). In general, various theories
shared a common correlation of language in nature with people’s cognition.
Modern cognitive linguistics comprises cognitive grammar and cognitive
semantics which was believed to have been originally derived from generative
grammar (Phan Thế Hưng, 2009).
According to Ungerer and

Schmid (1996), there are three main

approaches to cognitive linguistics consisting of experiential view,
prominence view, and attentional view. While the prominence view is
interested in the allocation of information, the attentional view concerns what
we express attracts our attention. As its name indicates, the experiential view
mainly concentrates on experience that language users describe “in their


10

minds when they produce and understand words and sentences” (Ungerer and
Schmid, 1996, p. xi). The characteristics that language users describe seem to
reflect the way he/she conceptualizes the surrounding world. Accumulated
experience which can be gained from the way we express our ideas is stored
in our daily communication. For example, the word “car” is defined as a 4wheel motor vehicle. When we talk about an object that looks like a car, we

immediately imagine a typical car stored in our minds. That is a box-like
shape equipped with doors, windows, steering wheels, acceleration, brakes,
and seats for drivers and passengers, and is driven by an engine. The
experiential view can be exemplified by the following sentence:
Our car has broken down.
In this case, our car does not really break down like the chair collapse
having its parts come into pieces or fragments. Because of a lack of
vocabulary concerned with automobile terminology and its operation, the
knowledge of chair or other equally familiar things collapsing is adopted to
understand effortlessly what happens when the car’s engine suddenly stops
working or functioning. How ideas are expressed, hence, can be developed
from our shared experience of the concrete world around us.
In general, despite three individual points of view in cognitive
linguistics, most linguists working within this paradigm believe that linguistic
knowledge reveals human being’s mental world and cognition. “Cognitive
linguistics takes an experiential view on conceptualization and meaning,
observing that many of our concepts are grounded in our experience, cultural
and physical” (Lemmens, 2015, p. 4). Therefore, this thesis only pursues the
framework of the experiential view pointed out by Lakoff and Johnson (1980,
2003) and Kưvecses (2002, 2010).
In Vietnam, Lý Tồn Thắng and Trần Văn Cơ who are two among the


11

pioneers in bringing cognitive linguistics into Vietnam have pinpointed basic
aspects of cognitive linguistics in comparison with the traditional viewpoint of
metaphors. Both Lý Toàn Thắng (2005, 2008) and Trần Văn Cơ (2007), in fact,
in their books, give an introduction and a comprehensive picture of cognitive
linguistics from the world to Vietnam, which enlightens readers about all novel

notions in the field. And again, Trần Văn Cơ (2011) not only provides the
linguistic overview but also emphasizes the cultural coherence that plays a crucial
role in determining relations between language and thought.
2.1.1. Conceptual metaphor theory
2.1.1.1. Overview of conceptual metaphors
In literature, metaphors used to be defined as one of the rhetorical
devices to express effectively what writers want to convey their messages to
the audience. In Lakoff and Johnson's (1980, 2003) view, not only are
metaphors a linguistic ornament but it also is an essential process indicating
the thinking and explanation. Various definitions of metaphor have been
proposed. According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 8 th edition,
metaphor is defined as follows:
A word or phrase used to describe somebody/ something else, in a way
that is different from its normal use, to show that the two things have the
same qualities and to make the description more powerful.
Similarly,

Lakoff

and

Johnson

(1980)

define

metaphors

as

“understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another” (p. 5).
To gain a better understanding of complicated or abstract things in view of
more concrete or simpler ones that we can relate to is called a conceptual
metaphor. As Lakoff (1987) and Johnson (1987) state, the use of conceptual
metaphors will reason the abstract concepts.
Besides, conceptual metaphors have linguistics manifestations that are


12

called metaphorical linguistics expressions (Kövecses, 2010, p. 63). Ungerer
and Schmid (1996, p. 116) state that “everyday language is rife with
metaphorical

expressions”.

Conceptual

metaphors

are

revealed

by

metaphorical linguistic expressions which are the lexical items or the
linguistic expressions of the source domain. Conceptual metaphors are not
often directly utilized in a sentence while the metaphorical expressions are in

contrast. The use of metaphorical expressions is to understand the target
domain. Lakoff and Johnson (2003) find that:
Since metaphorical expressions in our language are tied to metaphorical
concepts in a systematic way, we can use metaphorical linguistic
expressions to study the nature of metaphorical concepts and to gain an
understanding of the metaphorical nature of our activities. (p. 7)
The conceptual metaphor TIME IS MONEY (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980,
pp. 7-8) is an example of a metaphorical concept that structures what we do
and how we understand when we use the word “time”. Metaphorical
expressions in the following example sentences or phrases are italicized.
You're wasting my time.
This gadget will save you hours.
I don't have the time to give you.
How do you spend your time these days?
That flat tire cost me an hour.
I've invested a lot of time in her.
I don't have enough time to spare for that.
You're running out of time.
You need to budget your time.
Put aside some time for ping pong.
Is that worth your while?


13

Do you have much time left?
He's living on borrowed time.
You don't use your time profitably.
I lost a lot of time when I got sick.
Thank you for your time.

From now on, any conceptual metaphor-like TIME IS MONEY means a
metaphorical concept. The above exemplars show that time is a valuable
commodity. Because the time is typically connected to work, it gets familiar if
someone uses their time to get money. Therefore, time can be understood as
“the kind of thing that can be spent, wasted, budgeted, invested wisely or
poorly, saved, or squandered” (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, p. 8). Metaphors
make it easier for us to visualize and apprehend the concept of time.
Conceptual metaphors that help us grasp one aspect of a concept in
connection with another appear to be so common in our ordinary language. In
reality, we use linguistic expressions everyday so much that we don't realize
they are metaphors. Kövecses (2010) claims: “metaphors that may have been
alive and vigorous at some point but have become so conventional and
commonplace with constant use that by now they have lost their vigor and
have ceased to be metaphors at all” (p. xi).
Because these metaphors are commonly used and can be easily
understood, they are so-called dead metaphors or conventional metaphors. To
demonstrate these metaphors, consider the two following examples:
. . . a local branch of this organization.
. . . cultivating business relationships that can lead to major accounts.
These metaphors originated from a part of a plant (branch) or an action
to prepare and use the land for growing plants (cultivating). Indeed, it is quite
easy for us to recognize that “branch” in this context is not a part of a plant;


14

however, it refers to a local office or factory that belongs to a larger
organization. In the second illustration, “cultivating” is not employed for
plants, but it means developing a business relationship.
According to Lakoff and Johnson (1980), conventional metaphors are

“metaphors that structure the ordinary conceptual system of our culture, which is
reflected in our everyday language” (p. 139). Look at the following sentence:
He is in trouble now.
Without realizing that a metaphorical conceptualization (a state as a
container) is being processed, the above expression can be understood easily.
Hence, Lakoff and Turner (1989) believe that conventional metaphors can be
employed in both cognitive and linguistic levels (as cited in Yu, 2013).
2.1.1.2. Source domain, target domain, and mapping
In conceptual metaphor theory, metaphor is thought to conceptualize one
domain of experience in connection with another domain (Kövecses, 2015, p.
2). For the sake of clarity, the domain of experience which is typically more
common and better known is used to comprehend another domain which is
more abstract and less known. According to Lakoff and Johnson (1980,
2003), the domain of experience is called the source domain and the other is
called the target domain. Understanding the domains implies understanding
the correspondences existing between the two domains. To put it in another
way, these domains are connected by a set of correspondences or mappings.
They are regarded as the relations between domains that are said to be
mapped from one domain, the source domain, onto the other domain, the
target domain.
Take the ANGER IS FIRE metaphor (Kövecses, 2010, p. 235) as an
example.
After the row, he was spitting fire.


15

Smoke was coming out of his ears.
He is smoldering with anger.
She was fuming.

Boy, am I burned up!
A set of mappings is constituted as follows:
Source domain

Target domain

the fire

 the anger

the thing on fire

 the angry person

the cause of fire

 the cause of anger

the intensity of fire

 the intensity of anger

Figure 2.1. The mappings of conceptual metaphor ANGER IS FIRE

Through these mappings, the metaphorical expressions shown above can be
explained why, for instance, spitting fire, smoke was coming out, smoldering, and
fuming indicate more intense anger than merely burning with anger. It is this
systematic set of mappings in the sense that points out how two domains, fire
(source domain) and anger (target domain), are connected. As a matter of fact,
something takes place that causes a thing not burning to burn. The fire can burn at

various degrees of intensity. Similarly, something happens that causes the person
not to be angry to become angry. The person is now in a state of anger. The degree
of anger is variable. From this demonstration, it can be concluded that the way
people think is largely metaphorical. In other words, “the human conceptual
system is metaphorically structured and defined. Metaphors as linguistics
expressions are possible precisely because there are metaphors in a person’s
conceptual system” (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, p. 6).
Following the Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) point of view, Lee (2001)
believes: “A metaphor is essentially a device that involves conceptualizing
one domain of experience in terms of another. Thus, for any given metaphor,