Conceptual metaphors in english and vietnamese idioms relating to love and desire for life

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

HUỲNH LỆ MY

CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS
IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMATIC
EXPRESSIONS
RELATING TO LOVE AND DESIRE FOR LIFE

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 8.22.02.01

Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Phan Văn Hòa
BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN


HUỲNH LỆ MY

ẨN DỤ Ý NIỆM TRONG
••
CÁC YẾU TỐ THÀNH NGỮ TIẾNG VIỆT VÀ TIẾNG ANH
LIÊN QUAN ĐẾN TÌNH YÊU VÀ KHÁT VỌNG SỐNG

Chuyên ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh
Mã số: 8.22.02.01

Người hướng dẫn: PGS. TS. Phan Văn Hòa

1

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

There are no materials published anywhere. Of course, this study doesn't get
any materials extracted in the whole, or in part from a thesis by which it has
qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma except where reference is
made in the thesis.
No other person's work has been used without any acknowledgement in the
thesis.
The thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in
any other tertiary institutions.
Binh Dinh, 2020

Huỳnh Lệ My


ACKNOWLEDGMENT

First and foremost, I would like to extend my deepest and most sincere thanks
to my supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Phan Van Hoa, who always instructs me with
patience and enthusiasm. My thesis would not have been finished without his
enormous help. This work has been fulfilled with his giant and meaningful guidance.
I also would like to show my deep gratefulness to all of the lecturers of
Foreign Languages Department of Quy Nhon University. Especially, the lecturers are
the pioneers in introducing the classic essential theory on conceptual metaphor and
translation for my thesis. I would like also express my best feelings to the lecturers
from other universities for their great teaching.
Finally, I would love to emphasize my appreciation to my family who is
always on my side to support me and my best friend Le Thi Trinh Nu, who has

encouraged me with patience.
Binh Dinh, 2020
'

Signature

Huynh Le My


ABSTRACT
This study has been conducted with my tremendous attempt to investigating
conceptual metaphors expressing to Vietnamese and English idioms relating to love
and desire for life. Many idioms have been collected with a large number. The
chosen idioms are popular with both Vietnamese and English people. The theory of
cognitive linguistics raised by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (1980) and
Kovecses (2002)are considered as the main theories in this study. There are 200
samples concluding Vietnamese and English idioms used with the total of 30
conceptual metaphors. By applying with various methods comprising quantitative,
qualitative, descriptive and contrastive approaches, the study achieved the important
aims and objectives. The result points out those kinds of metaphors used with the
different purposes in English and Vietnamese idioms.
Keywords: Conceptual Metaphors, Vietnamese and English Idioms, Love,
Desire for Life


TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP .................................................................. i
ACKNOWLEDGMENT...................................................................................ii
ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................iv
ABBREVIATIONS.......................................................................................... x
LIST OF TABLES ...........................................................................................xi
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................. 1
1.1. RATIONALE .......................................................................................... 1
1.2. AIM AND OBJECTIVES....................................................................... 3
1.2.1. Aim....................................................................................................... 3
1.2.2. Objectives............................................................................................. 3
1.3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS..................................................................... 3
1.4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY ....................................................................... 4
1.5. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY........................................................ 4
1.6. ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY ..................................................... 4
CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL
BACKGROUND ............................................................................................ 6
2.1. LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................ 6
2.2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ........................................................ 9
2.2.1. Conceptual Metaphor .......................................................................... 9
2.2.1.1. Definition .......................................................................................... 9


2.2.1.2. Classification
13
2.2.1.3. Conceptual Metaphorical Mappings ............................................... 18
2.2.2. The Idioms in English and Vietnamese ............................................. 19
2.2.2.1. Definition ........................................................................................ 19
2.2.2.2. Features ........................................................................................... 20
2.2.2. The differences and similarities between idioms and proverbs ......... 21
CHAPTER 3. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY ............. 24
3.1. RESEARCH METHODS ..................................................................... 24
3.2. DATA COLLECTION .......................................................................... 24

3.3. DATA ANALYSIS................................................................................. 25
3.4. RESEARCH PROCEDURES............................................................... 26
3.5. SUMMARY .......................................................................................... 26
CHAPTER 4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ........................................ 27
4.1. CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE
IDIOMS RELATING TO LOVE ................................................................... 27
4.1.1. Love is a journey ............................................................................... 27
4.1.1.1. In English Idioms ............................................................................ 27
4.1.1.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ..................................................................... 27
4.1.2. Love is an object ................................................................................ 28
4.1.2.1. In English Idioms ............................................................................ 28
4.1.2.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ..................................................................... 28
4.1.3. Love is fire ......................................................................................... 29
4.1.3.1. In English Idioms ............................................................................ 29
4.1.3.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ..................................................................... 30
4.1.4.1. In English Idioms ............................................................................ 30
4.1.4.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ..................................................................... 31
4.1.5. Love is heaven.................................................................................... 31
4.1.5.1. In English Idioms ............................................................................ 32
4.1.5.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ..................................................................... 32
4.1.6. Love is a container ............................................................................. 33
4.1.6.1. In English Idioms ............................................................................ 34
4.1.6.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ..................................................................... 34
4.1.7. Love is parts of body.......................................................................... 34
4.1.7.1. In English Idioms ............................................................................ 35
4.1.7.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ..................................................................... 35
4.1.8. Love is vegetation .............................................................................. 36
4.1.8.1. In English Idioms ............................................................................ 36
4.1.8.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ..................................................................... 37
4.1.9. Love is an unstable state .................................................................... 37

4.1.9.1. In English Idioms ............................................................................ 37
4.1.9.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ..................................................................... 38


4.1.4. Love is a unity
30
4.1.10. Love is a game ................................................................................. 38
4.1.10.1. In English Idioms .......................................................................... 39
4.1.10.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ................................................................... 39
4.1.11. Love is a valuable commodity ......................................................... 40
4.1.11.1. In English Idioms .......................................................................... 40


4.1.11.2. In Vietnamese Idioms
41
4.1.12. Love is flavour ................................................................................. 41
4.1.12.1. In English Idioms .......................................................................... 41
4.1.12.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ................................................................... 42
4.1.13. Love is a colour ............................................................................... 42
4.1.13.1. In English Idioms .......................................................................... 42
4.1.13.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ................................................................... 43
4.1.14. Love is an animal ............................................................................. 43
4.1.14.1. In English Idioms .......................................................................... 44
4.1.14.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ................................................................... 45
4.1.15. Love is food...................................................................................... 46
4.1.15.1. In English Idioms .......................................................................... 46
4.1.15.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ................................................................... 46
4.1.16. Love is a choice................................................................................ 47
4.1.16.1. In English Idioms .......................................................................... 47
4.1.16.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ................................................................... 47

4.1.17. Love is life........................................................................................ 48
4.1.17.1. In English Idioms .......................................................................... 48
4.1.17.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ................................................................... 49
4.1.18. Love is foolishness........................................................................... 49
4.1.18.1. In English Idioms .......................................................................... 49
4.1.18.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ................................................................... 50
4.1.19. Love is a rope ................................................................................... 50
4.1.19.1. In English Idioms .......................................................................... 50
4.1.19.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ................................................................... 51
4.1.20. Love is a natural force...................................................................... 51
4.1.20.1. In English Idioms .......................................................................... 52
4.1.20.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ................................................................... 52
4.2. CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE
IDIOMS RELATING TO DESIRE FOR LIFE.............................................. 56
4.2.1. Desire for Life is an object................................................................. 56
4.2.1.1. In English Idioms ............................................................................ 56
4.2.1.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ..................................................................... 57
4.2.2. Desire for Life is an animal................................................................ 58
4.2.2.1. In English Idioms ............................................................................ 58
4.2.2.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ..................................................................... 58
4.2.3. Desire for Life is a container..............................................................59
4.2.3.1. In English Idioms ............................................................................ 59
4.2.3.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ..................................................................... 59
4.2.4. Desire for Life is a valuable commodity............................................ 60
4.2.4.1. In English Idioms ............................................................................ 60


4.2.4.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ..................................................................... 61
4.2.5. Desire for Life is vegetation............................................................... 61
4.2.5.1. In English Idioms ............................................................................ 62

4.2.5.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ..................................................................... 62
4.2.6. Desire for Life is fire.......................................................................... 62
4.2.6.1. In English Idioms ............................................................................ 63


9

4.2.6.2. In Vietnamese Idioms
63
4.2.7. Desire for Life is a unity .................................................................... 63
4.2.7.1. In English Idioms ............................................................................ 64
4.2.7.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ..................................................................... 64
4.2.8. Desire for Life is heaven .................................................................... 64
4.2.8.1. In English Idioms ............................................................................ 65
4.2.8.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ..................................................................... 65
4.2.9. Desire for Life is human beings ......................................................... 66
4.2.9.1. In English Idioms ............................................................................ 66
4.2.9.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ..................................................................... 66
4.2.10. Desire for Life is a game.................................................................. 67
4.2.10.1. In English Idioms .......................................................................... 67
4.2.10.2. In Vietnamese Idioms ................................................................... 67
CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS ........................... 71
5.1. CONCLUSION ..................................................................................... 71
5.2. IMPLICATIONS................................................................................... 73
5.3. LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ..
74
REFERENCES ............................................................................................ 75
APPENDICESI

10

ABBREVIATIONS

MIP

: metaphor identification
procedure

SD

: source domain

TD

: target domain


LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1. The metaphorical correspondences between Source
Domain and Target Domain.
Table 2.2. Metaphorical Mapping between Conceptual Domains.

12
18

Table 4.1. Conceptual metaphorical mapping of the source domain
'—Heaven' and the target domain '—Love'.

32

Table 4.2. The occurrence and percentage of conceptual metaphors
denoting love in Vietnamese and English idioms.

53

Table 4.3. The occurrence and percentage of conceptual metaphors
denoting desire for life in Vietnamese and English idioms.

68


1


2
1.4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The study mainly focuses on the conceptual metaphors of love and desire for
life in the English and Vietnamese idioms. Also, the study precisely analyses the
conceptual metaphors of love and desire for life, and this study just mentions on
idioms, not in any poems, short stories or pieces of literature. So the idioms will be
explored exactly to gain the deep knowledge in the future.
1.5. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
People demonstrate their erudite learning about the topic, as well as their
attractive and impressed ways of talking, and therefore, they usually use a lot of
idioms, especially, relating to love and desire for life. It is undeniable that love and
desire for life is the eternal issues in the human life. However, applying their incisive
knowledge about English and Vietnamese idioms of love and desire for life is very
mechanical and unconscious, they do not really understand the nature of them. Thus,

this study is hopefully the practical work to comprehend the conceptual metaphor in
general, and the conceptual metaphors of love and desire for life in specific. Then,
the study identifies the conceptual metaphor of love and desire for life in English and
Vietnamese idioms.
1.6. ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY
This thesis is organized into five chapters as follow:
Chapter 1, INTRODUCTION, presents the rationale, the aims and objectives
of the study, the research questions, the scope, the significance and the organization
of the study.
Chapter

2,

LITERATURE

REVIEW

AND

THEORETICAL

BACKGROUND, firstly presents briefly the previous studies of conceptual
metaphor. Secondly, the theoretical knowledge about conceptual metaphors relating
to love and desire for life includes the definitions of conceptual metaphors, their
classification, and conceptual metaphoric domains. Then it discusses English and
Vietnamese idioms relating to love and desire for life, and the similarities between
them. Finally, typical examples in each idiom will be mentioned.


3

Chapter 3, RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY, describes the
intended process of the study that is the design, methods, research procedures, data
collection and data analysis.
Chapter 4, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION, emphasizes on the metaphors
about love and desire for life in English and Vietnamese idioms and how they are
used. The problem of difference and similarities between them will be also
mentioned.
Chapter 5, CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS, summarizes all the major
points discussed in the study. Moreover, implications for the learning, using of
idioms of love and desire for life will be provided.


CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW AND
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
2.1. LITERATURE REVIEW
For centuries, metaphor has always been considered a common form in literary
works and common daily saying. Metaphor has been studied for a long time from
different perspectives. While philosophers tend to consider language as literal,
thinking metaphor as aberrant only to be used by poets, cognitive linguists view
metaphor as important and not marginal at all, emphasizing the construal of meanings
and our embodied understanding of the situation.
The most elemental theory of metaphor originated from the Greek philosopher
Aristotle (383-322 B.C), who is credited with introducing the word “metaphor” in
two of his major treatises (Rhetoric and Poetics, 1997). In Greek, “metaphor” means
“to carry beyond” or “to deliver”. This meaning refers to an implied comparison or
transference of meaning between two objects formulated as “A is B” or “A implies
B”. Aristotle declared that “metaphor is the transference of a word of another
significance either from genus to species, or from species to genus, or from species to
species or by analogy or proportion” (1997, p. 150). According to Aristotle, metaphor
stands in contrast to ordinary language.

Ivor Armstrong Richards (1936) is one of the lecturers who doubted the
traditional viewpoint of metaphor. He introduced the technical terms “vehicle” and
“tenor” for the metaphorical words. The first term represents the underlying idea that
is illustrated or illuminated by the other, which is applied to it. From a different
perspective, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (1980) published the book entitled
“Metaphors We Live By”, which revolutionized the field of cognitive linguistics.
Lakoff and Johnson clearly stated their opinion about metaphor:
Metaphor has been viewed for a long time as a characteristic of language
alone, a matter of words rather than thought or action. However, as we have
recognised, the new explorations of metaphor show that it is pervasive in daily


life, not just in language but in thought and action. Our ordinary conceptual
system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally
metaphorical in nature. (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, p. 3)
Lakoff and Johnson's research has brought about a variety of studies within
this field of study, and many of the conceptual metaphors relating to ARGUMENT,
TIME, LIFE, and LOVE, for example, that they discovered are used by people
continually and are also extensively studied by linguists. The utilization of conceptual
metaphors in daily language may not always be evident since they are used almost
automatically (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, p. 3). Zoltán Kovecses (2002) gives us more
insight into conceptual metaphors based on the cognitive point of view, stating the
important role of metaphor in our cognitive activities. In addition, conceptual
metaphors of LOVE have been focused on in detail in his '—Metaphors of Anger,
Pride and Love: A Lexical Approach to the Structure of Concepts” (1986).
In Vietnam, conceptual metaphors have been studied by many researchers such
as Ly Toan Thang, Nguyen Duc Ton (2007), Nguyen Lai (2009). It cannot be
uncounted to Phan The Hung (2007) with his article named —Ẩn dụ ý niệm”
(Conceptual Metaphors). A variety of publications exploring the different aspects of
conceptual metaphors have been made such as “Suy nghĩ về ẩn dụ khái niệm trong thế

giới thi ca từ góc nhìn của ngơn ngữ học tri nhận” (Thinking about conceptual
metaphors in the poetic world from the perspective of cognitive linguistics) by Nguyen
Lai (2009) or “An investigation into conceptual metaphors for life, death and time in
English and Vietnamese” by Phan Van Hoa and Nguyen Thị Tu Trinh (2010). Phan
Van Hoa and Ho Trinh Quynh Thu (2011) studied “Ẩn dụ ý niệm Tình yêu là cuộc
hành trình’ trong tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt” (Conceptual metaphor „Love is a journey’
in English and Vietnamese) (Linguistics and Life, Vol. 9 (191), p. 15). Moreover, Le
Thi My Nhat (2002) investigated "The
Metaphoric Devices in English and Vietnamese Proverbs”. Ho Vi Nu My Linh (2011)
researched —Metaphor in Newspapers (English versus Vietnamese)”. Lately, Nguyen
Thị Thanh Huyen (2009) has researched into —Ẩn dụ trị nhân - Mơ hình ẩn dụ cầu
trúc trên cử liệu ca từ của Trịnh Công Sơn” (Perceptual metaphors - model of


structural metaphors on lyrics evidence from Trinh Cong Son) under the supervision
of Assoc. Prof. Tran Van Co.
Conceptual metaphors of idioms in Vietnamese and English have vividly been
discussed for their practical meaning in literature and in everyday language for a long
time. Idioms have a simple structure that combines with different types of metaphors
to make them profound and popular. Therefore, there have been many authors
interested in this topic and since then many research papers have been born. In 2016,
Tran The Phi carried out his research with the title —Ẩn dụ ý niệm về cảm xúc trong
thành ngữ Tiếng Việt (so sánh với thành ngữ Tiếng Anh)”. Besides, Tran Thi Thu Ba
(2011) conducted a research with the title —An investigation into English and
Vietnamese idioms containing words denoting time”.
Nguyen Tan Thanh (2017) conducts research entitled —Conceptual metaphors
denoting love in The Tale of Kieu by Nguyen Du and its English versions by Michael
Counsel and Huynh Sanh Thong”. His thesis mainly focuses on analysing the
conceptual metaphor of love which is the forever topic. He finds out the metaphorical
elements in the original work and compares them to the translation between Michael

Counsel and Huynh Sanh Thong. By his knowledge, he gives the gaps between the
translations. However, the other stylistic devices and other conceptual metaphors were
explored.
Nguyen Thi Mong Cam (2012) writes the thesis with the title —An
investigation in English and Vietnamese idioms related to love and marriage”. She
mainly investigates the syntactic, stylistic, and semantic features of love and marriage
idioms in English and Vietnamese and finds out the similarities and differences
between English and Vietnamese love and marriage in the two aspects mentioned.
However, she does not examine metaphors in every idiom. She just focuses on a small
aspect of the thesis.
Nguyen Thi Khanh Ly (2015) conducts the thesis with the title —A study on
conceptual metaphors of “rain”/ “mưa”, “sunshine”/ “nắng” in English and
Vietnamese 20th century songs”. In her thesis, many metaphorical elements are shown


clearly, she collects qualified data related to —rain” and —sunshine” from songs. By
understanding the content of the songs, she analyses the conceptual metaphors in
every expression precisely.
2.2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
2.2.1. Conceptual Metaphor
2.2.1.1. Definition
To understand conceptual metaphor, we have to get its origin. What conceptual
metaphor means, why it is called conceptual metaphors, and what conceptual
metaphor is for. In cognitive linguistics, the term —conceptual” is very important
because it is the basis of conceptual metaphor. As reported by Tran Van Co (2007), the
expression —conceptual” is formed in people's consciousness. Essentially, according
to cognitive science, ordinary people mainly think with concepts, which not only
include notions but also images of it, or the culture included in it. Therefore, it is more
correct to say that the conceptual metaphor is a human's thinking and consciousness.
The basis of the concept is the direct emotional experience that people gain in the

process of communicating with society, with the outside world through their senses.
According to the above interpretation, conceptual metaphor is one of the forms
of conceptualization, a cognitive process which has the function of expressing and
forming new ideas, the new knowledge cannot be formed without it.
In other words, conceptual metaphor is to show people's mind in the world, how they
see things, phenomena, concepts, and many other things. Conceptual metaphor also
shows a block of knowledge that people perceive in the course of life, it shows the
knowledge block of perception in terms of words. To be clear, conceptual metaphor is
to make some abstract concept understandable by associating it with a simple, or
palpable, thinking concept.
Conceptual metaphor is exploited in literary works, poems, idioms, and also in


everyday human language. Conceptual metaphor is seen as a key element in cognitive
linguistics. A metaphor is commonly understood as a special comparison of two things
in languages, usually taking a particular one to represent a certain abstraction.
According to Wikipedia, — a metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect,
directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity
or identify hidden similarities between two ideas. Metaphors are often compared with
other types of figurative languages, such as antithesis, hyperbole, metonymy and
simile.”
The —All the world's a stage” monologue from William Shakespeare's —As
You Like It” is one of the most commonly cited examples of a metaphor.
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances ...
(William Shakespeare, 1623)
This quote shows several metaphors such as “all the world’s a stage ”, which
means that the world in the eyes of a playwright is like a stage; then, the metaphor
“all the men and women merely players” means the people of society as characters in

that play. It can be seen that “world” and “stage” have similarities with each other.
Lakoff and Johnson (1980) argued that “the essence of metaphors is
understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another.” They said:
The most essential claim we have made up to now is that metaphor is not just a
matter of language, which means that the problem of mere words. We will
argue that, on the other hands, human thought processes are largely
metaphorical. This is what we mean when we say that the human conceptual
system is metaphorically structured and defined. Metaphors as linguistic
expressions are possible clearly because there are metaphors in a person's
conceptual system. (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, p. 6).
Considering the basis of all metaphors the concept, Lakoff and Johnson named
their theory of metaphors the “conceptual metaphor”. It is also called “cognitive
metaphor” because this new concept of metaphor lies in the school of cognitive
linguistics.
In the cognitive linguistic view, metaphor is defined as understanding one


conceptual domain A in terms of another conceptual domain B (Kovecses, 2002, p. 4).
In fact, in conceptual metaphor there exist “Source Domain” (A) and “Target
Domain” (B), which (A) is understood through (B) (Kovecses, 2002, p.4). The
“Source Domain” is often abstract concepts such as life, love, arguments, ideas and
the other “Target Domain” like fire, vegetation, journey, nutrient and others. The
relationship between two domains is called “Mapping”. Some conceptual metaphors
are drawn from “Metaphors We Live By”” by Lakoff and Johnson (1980). Let us take
the typical metaphor “Love is a patient” as an example. “Love” is the target domain,
and “Patient” is the source domain. This conceptual metaphor can result in the
following linguistic expressions.
This is a sick relationship.
They have a strong, healthy marriage.
The marriage is dead—it can't be revived.

Their marriage is on the mend.
We're getting back on our feet.
Their relationship is in really good shape.
They've got a listless marriage.
Their marriage is on its last legs.
It's a tired affair (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, p.106)
The above conceptual correspondence between two domains shows the same
properties. The source domain “ Patient” has some properties like “sick” "strong",
“healthy”, “dead”, “revived”, “on the mend”, “back on your feet”, “in really good
shape”, listless, on its last legs, tired which are assigned to the target domain “Love”.
We can see that if “Love” and “Patient” stand separately from each other, it
seems that the two concepts have nothing to do with each other. However, when it
comes to each of these properties, they have many similarities. Let us compare.
Table 2.1. The metaphorical correspondences between
Source Domain and Target Domain.

SD: Love

TD: Patient


Lovers

Patients

The Lovers are sick in love

The patients are sick in health

strong, healthy marriage

strong, healthy health

The marriage is dead

the live is dead

The marriage can't be revived

the health can’t be revived

marriage is on the mend

the hurt is on the mend

The lovers are getting back on their feet

the patients are getting back on their fee

The relationship is in really good shape

the health is in really good shape

a listless marriage

a listless spirit

The marriage is on its last legs

the health is on its last legs

a tired life
a tired affair
This set of correspondences helps us to comprehend more about the abstract
concept of — Love”.
Furthermore, to determine what expressions are metaphors, a group of
researchers called Pragglejaz Group (2007) listed four steps of MIP as follows:
1. Read the entire text/discourse to establish a general understanding of the
meaning.
2. Determine the lexical units in the text/discourse.
3. a. For each lexical unit in the text, establish its meaning in context, i.e. how
it applies to an entity, relation or attribute in the situation evoked by the text
(contextual meaning). Take into account what comes before and after the
lexical unit.
b. For each lexical unit, determine if it has a more basic contemporary
meaning in other contexts than the one in the given context. For our purposes,
basic meanings tend to be:
- more concrete; what they evoke is easier to imagine, see, hear, feel,
smell, and taste;
- related to bodily action;
- more precise (as opposed to vague);
- historically older.
Basic meanings are not necessarily the most frequent meanings of the lexical
unit.
c. If the lexical unit has a more basic current/contemporary meaning in other
contexts than the given context, decide whether the contextual meaning
contrasts with the basic meaning but can be understood in comparison with it.
4. If yes, mark the lexical unit as metaphorical.

2.2.1.2. Classification
According to Lakoff and Johnson (1890), conceptual metaphors are divided
into four basic categories: structural metaphors, ontological metaphors, orientational
metaphors and conduit metaphors.
2.2.1.2.1. Structural Metaphors
Structural metaphors are cases in which one concept is metaphorically
structured in terms of another. In a simple way, structural metaphor is to semantically
reconstruct the concept at the target domain about semantics after receiving new
attributes thanks to mapping. Let us take a look at the — Love is madness" metaphor
in which —Love” is the target domain and “Madness” is the source domain. In terms
of semantics, these two domains are not related at all, but in terms of each property of
the two concepts, they have a lot of similarities. Check out the similarities in the
below structures:
I'm crazy about her.
She drives me out of my mind.
He constantly raves about her.
He's gone mad over her.
I'm just wild about Harry.
I'm insane about her.
Obviously, the italicized phrases all show the human's strongly states in love.
2.2.1.2.2. Ontological Metaphors
The ontological metaphors are essentially the process of "materializing" of
abstract entities and which are delimited in space. This kind of metaphor means we
conceive of our experiences in terms of, events, action, ideas, emotions as real objects
and materials.
The ontological metaphors are useful for different uses, for example, inflation
can be seen as a certain object although it is an abstract object. Therefore, we have the
following cases:
Inflation is lowering our standard of living.
If there's much more inflation, we'll never survive.

We need to combat inflation.
Inflation is backing us into a comer.


Inflation is taking its toll at the checkout counter and the gas pump.
Buying land is the best way of dealing with inflation.
Inflation makes me sick.
(Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, p. 26)
From the above sentences, the word “inflation” has become easier to
understand, it seems we can see it, we can consider it as a real existence rather than a
vague concept. Although it can be viewed as inanimate, the properties assigned to it
are drawn from those of the human being. This means it is given the same attributes as
humans. Perhaps the kind of metaphor that takes human features to give an abstract
concept has partly helped these phrases cease to be a dry concept. Besides, it can be
referred to like the word “price”, which is also materialized into a single object that
we can “increase/decreaseprice”, “estimateprice”.
2.2.1.2.3. Orientational Metaphors
This type of metaphor is completely different from the structural metaphor
where one concept is metaphorically structured in terms of another. That's the
orientational metaphors which organise a whole system of concept with respect to one
another. They are named the orientational metaphors because most of them have to do
with spatial orientation: up-down, front-back, in-out, on-off, deepshallow, centralperipheral. The appearance of these kinds of spaces results from we having bodies of
the sort we have and that they function as they do in our physical environment.
The orientational metaphors often have target domains that are abstract
concepts assigned with words that indicate the spatial orientation of the source
domain. This kind of metaphor is intrinsically very popular in English and is
expressed very clearly and easily. Some following metaphors can be considered. The
“happy is up”” metaphor shows the fact that “happy” is oriented “up””, which
results in English expressions like “I'm feeling up today”” (Lakoff and Jonhson,
1980, p.14). In English, “happiness, health, consciousness, rationality”” is described

through the up metaphor, while “unhappiness, sickness, death”” - through the down
metaphor. Although spatially oriented phrases have contradictory meanings, such
metaphorical orientations are not arbitrary, that is, they can be used arbitrarily