Conceptual metaphors in dế mèn phiêu lưu ký by to hoai and its english version translated by dang the binh

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG THÁI

CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS IN “DẾ MÈN
PHIÊU LƯU KÝ” BY TO HOAI AND ITS ENGLISH
VERSION TRANSLATED BY DANG THE BINH

FIELD: English Linguistics
CODE: 8. 22. 02. 01

Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. NGUYEN TAT THANG


BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN

NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG THÁI

ẨN DỤ Ý NIỆM TRONG TÁC PHẨM “DẾ MÈN
PHIÊU LƯU KÝ” CỦA TƠ HỒI VÀ BẢN DỊCH
TIẾNG ANH CỦA DỊCH GIẢ ĐẶNG THẾ BÍNH

Ngành: Ngơn Ngữ Anh
Mã số: 8. 22. 02. 01

Người hướng dẫn: PGS. TS. NGUYEN TAT THANG


i

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
I

hereby

confirm

that

the

thesis

entitled

CONCEPTUAL

METAPHORS IN “DẾ MÈN PHIÊU LƯU KÝ” BY TO HOAI AND ITS
ENGLISH VERSION TRANSLATED BY DANG THE BINH
is the result of my own study and contains no materials published elsewhere
or extracted in the whole, or in part from a research by which I have qualified
for or been awarded another degree or diploma.
No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgments in
the thesis.
This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or
diploma in any other tertiary institution.
Quy Nhon, September, 2020

Nguyễn Thị Hồng Thái

ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to express my deepest gratitude and appreciation to my
supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Nguyễn Tất Thắng for his acceptance to be my
supervisor, and for providing me with insightful and valuable comments.
Thanks to his knowledgeable advice, I was able to narrow down the topic as
well as improve the content of my paper.
In addition, my sincere appreciation goes to my lecturers at Quy Nhon
University who provided me a lot of useful knowledge during the course. I
would not be able to carry out this research without their guidance, support,
and input.
Thirdly, I would like to express my deep gratitude to all those who
contributed, directly or indirectly, to this study. Particularly, I am thankful to
my colleagues of Cat Tien secondary school for their support and
encouragement. Without them, the study would have been impossible.
Last but not least, I want to send our special thanks to my family,
especially my parents and my husband whose tremendous care and neverending love lifted me up whenever things got tough. Without their support, I
would not have been able to complete this study.


iii

ABSTRACT
This study attempted to investigate the conceptual metaphors in “Dế
Mèn phiêu lưu ký” by To Hoai and its English versions translated by Dang
The Binh. The data for this research were chosen from 188 metaphoric
expressions in “Dế Mèn phiêu lưu kí”. In order to accomplish the objectives

of the study, both qualitative approach and quantitative approach were used to
identify conceptual metaphors in “Dế Mèn phiêu lưu ký” by To Hoai and
their English versions translated by Dang The Binh. Besides that comparative
and contrastive analysis, descriptive and inductive techniques were also used.
The finding indicated that the three types of conceptual metaphors used in the
work were quite different in distribution. In the Vietnamese version, the
ontological metaphors were found appearing 69 times with the highest
position, making up 36.7% of the total number of the conceptual metaphors
analyzed. Ranking the lowest position was the orientational metaphors, with
30.9%. The other metaphors were structural ones. In contrast, in “Diary of a
Cricket” by Đặng Thế Bính, the ontological metaphors took up the lowest
position, with only 31.6%. Both structural metaphors and orientational
metaphors occur 26 times, at a rate of 34.2%. Basing on the results, we found
out the loss and gain of the conceptual metaphors in “Dế Mèn phiêu lưu ký”
by To Hoai when they were translated into English by Dang The Binh. Most
of the metaphors found in the Vietnamese version were replaced by
metaphors or stylistics devices when they were translated into English by
Dang The Binh. The unchanged metaphors only took up 30.3%. Finally, the
results helped us suggest some implications for teaching and learning English
metaphors
.


iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ................................................................. i
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................................................................. ii
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................. iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................. iv

LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................... viii
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 ............................................................................. 3
1.5. Significance of the study ................................................................... 4
1.6. Organization of the study................................................................... 4
CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................ 6
2.1. Theoretical Background..................................................................... 6
2.1.1. Introduction .............................................................................. 6
2.1.2. Traditional metaphors ............................................................... 8
2.1.3. Metaphors from cognitive Linguistics....................................... 9
2.1.3.1. Cognitive Linguistics ..................................................... 9
2.1.3.2. Conceptual metaphors ................................................. 10
2.1.3.3. Classification of Conceptual Metaphors ...................... 12
2.1.3.4. Mapping in metaphors ................................................. 17
2.1.4. Theory of Translation ............................................................. 18
2.1.4.1. Definition of Translation .............................................. 18
2.1.4.2. Loss and gain in translation ......................................... 19


v
2.1.5. An overview of the Tale De Men Phieu Luu Ky ..................... 22
2.1.5.1. Biography of To Hoai .................................................. 22
2.1.5.2. Biography of Dang The Binh ....................................... 23
2.1.5.3. A brief review of “Diary of a Cricket” ......................... 24
2.2. Previous studies ............................................................................... 24

2.3. SUMMARY .................................................................................... 30
CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY ................................................................ 31
3.1. Research approaches ....................................................................... 31
3.2. Data collection................................................................................. 31
3. 3. Data analysis .................................................................................. 32
CHAPTER 4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS ......................................... 33
4.1. Quantitative analysis of metaphors in “Dế Mèn phiêu lưu ký” by
To Hoai and “Diary of a Cricket” by Dang The Binh ............................. 33
4.2. Qualitative analysis of metaphors in “Dế Mèn phiêu lưu ký” by To
Hoai. ...................................................................................................... 40
4.2.1. Semantic features of conceptual metaphors in “Dế Mèn phiêu
lưu ký” by Tơ Hịai. .......................................................................... 41
4.2.1.1. LIFE IS A JOURNEY ................................................... 41
4.2.1.2. LIFE IS WAR ............................................................... 43
4.2.1.3. TIME IS MONEY ......................................................... 45
4.2.1.4. AFFLICTION IS FIRE ................................................. 46
4.2.1.5. EMOTION IS expressed through THE HUMAN BODY
PARTS ...................................................................................... 46
4.2.1.6. CHARACTER IS expressed through THE HUMAN BODY
PARTS ...................................................................................... 47
4.2.1.6. STATE is expressed through THE HUMAN BODY
PARTS ...................................................................................... 49


vi
4.2.1.8. GROWTH is expressed through THE HUMAN BODY
PARTS ...................................................................................... 50
4.2.1.9. PART OF BODY is a PLACE ....................................... 51
4.2.1.10. BLOOD IS HEAT ....................................................... 52
4.2.1.11. ATTITUDE IS COLD ................................................. 52

4.2.1.12. EVENTS AND ACTIONS ARE NUTRIENTS .............. 53
4.2.1.13. CHARACTER IS A DISTANCE .................................. 53
4.2.1.14. DISTANCE IS TIME .................................................. 54
4.2.1.15. LIVING CONDITION IS expressed through EVENT .. 55
4.2.1.16. EMOTION AND CHARACTER are expressed through
ACTIONS .................................................................................. 56
4.2.1.17. NATURE is expressed through PLANT ...................... 57
4.2.1.18. CAPTIVE LIFE IS A FOUL CITY .............................. 57
4.2.1.19. NATURE IS A PERSON ............................................. 58
4.2.1.20. EMOTION IS A PERSON .......................................... 59
4.2.1.21. STOMACH IS A PERSON .......................................... 60
4.2.1.22. LANGUAGE IS A PERSON ....................................... 61
4.2.1.23. RANDOM IS A PERSON ........................................... 61
4.2.1.24. THINGS ARE HUMAN BODY PARTS ....................... 62
4.2.1.25. LESSON IS A AVAILABLE COMMODITY ................ 63
4.2.1.26. CHARACTER IS AN ENTITY ..................................... 64
4.2.1.27. MIND IS AN ENTITY ................................................. 64
4.2.1.28. PART OF BODY IS A CONTAINER .......................... 65
4.2.1.29. WEAK IS DOWN/ STRONG IS UP ............................ 66
4.2.1.30. HAPPY IS UP/ SAD IS DOWN .................................. 68
4.2.1.31. HIGH STATUS IS UP ................................................ 69
4.2.1.32. NIGHT IS DOWN/ SUN (DAY) IS UP ........................ 69
4.2.1.33. DEATH IS DOWN...................................................... 70


vii
4.2.1.34. BAD IS DOWN .......................................................... 71
4.2.1.35. ENDURANCE/ BONDAGE IS IN............................... 71
4.2.1.36. WINTER IS DOWN/ SPRING IS UP .......................... 72
4.2.2. Lexical features of conceptual metaphors in “Dế Mèn phiêu

lưu ký” by Tơ Hịai. .......................................................................... 76
4.2.2.1. Nouns ........................................................................... 76
4.2.2.2. Verbs............................................................................ 77
4.2.2.3. Adjectives ..................................................................... 78
4.2.2.4. Verbs and Nouns .......................................................... 79
4.2.2.5. Adjectives and Nouns ................................................... 80
4.2.2.5. Verbs and Adverbs ....................................................... 81
4.3. Loss and gain in conceptual metaphor in “Dế Mèn phiêu lưu ký”
by To Hoai and “Diary of a Cricket” by Dang The Binh ........................ 82
4.3.1. The unchanged metaphors in “Dế Mèn phiêu lưu ký” by To
Hoai and their English version by Dang The Binh ............................ 83
4.3.2. The unchanged metaphors with the modified metaphorical
expressions in English version by Dang The Binh ............................ 86
4.3.3. The replaced metaphor or other stylistic devices in English
version by Dang The Binh ................................................................ 89
4.3.4. The loss of metaphors “Dế Mèn phiêu lưu ký” by To Hoai in
English version by Dang The Binh ................................................... 92
4.4. SUMMARY .................................................................................... 97
CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS ............................. 99
5.1. Recapitulations ................................................................................ 99
5.2. Implication for language teaching and learning ............................. 101
5.3. Limitations and suggestions for further study ................................ 102
REFERENCES ..................................................................................... 104
APPENDICES


viii

LIST OF TABLES
Table

Title

number

Page
number

Table 2.1 Source and target domains in Ontological metaphors

14

Table 2.2 The metaphoric mapping of LOVE IS A JOURNEY

17

Table 2.3 Peter Newmark’s translation methods (1988:45)

20

Table 4.1 Types of conceptual metaphors

33

Table 4.2 Subtypes of ontological metaphors and their occurrence
frequency in “Dế Mèn phiêu lưu ký” by To Hoai
Table 4.3 Subtypes of orientational metaphors and their occurrence
frequency in “Dế Mèn phiêu lưu ký” by To Hoai
Table 4.4 Subtypes of structural metaphors and their occurrence
frequency in “Dế Mèn phiêu lưu ký” by To Hoai

Table 4.5 The frequency of metaphors in terms of semantics in “Dế
Mèn phiêu lưu ký” by To Hoai
Table 4.6 The parts of speech in the metaphor in “Dế Mèn phiêu lưu
ký” by To Hoai and their English version by Dang The Binh
Table 4.7 The unchanged metaphors in Dang The Binh’s version
Table 4.8 The unchanged metaphorical expressions in English version
by Dang The Binh’s version

34

36

38

74

82
83
86

Table 4.9 The changed metaphors by replacing metaphors with other
stylistic devices in English version by Dang The Binh’s

90

version
Table

The loss of metaphors “Dế Mèn phiêu lưu ký” by To Hoai

4.10

in English version by Dang The Binh’s version

Table

The translated metaphors in English version by Dang The

4.11

Binh

93

96


1

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
It is obvious that our life is very much dependant on communication.
Of all the means of communication, language is possibly the only one that can
satisfy all human needs. Therefore, it plays a crucial role in our life. Every
second goes by, there is someone talking, writing, or reading something. Our
lives depend a lot on the quick, elegant, and effective use of language so
people often use rhetorical measures, such as personification, simile,
metaphor, metonymy, in which metaphors are considered as the most
effective way to empower words. Metaphors can make our words come to

life; we can use a metaphor to make our subject more relatable to the readers
or to make a complex idea easier to understand. They can also be of
tremendous help when we want to enhance our writing with imagery.
According to Newmark (1988), metaphors are any figurative
expression: The transferred sense of a physical word, the personification of an
abstraction, the application of a word or collocation to what it does not
literally denote. Metaphors may be 'single' (one-word) or 'extended' (a
collocation, an idiom, a sentence, a proverb, an allegory, a complete
imaginative text).
Today, we can find metaphors represented in our minds more as literal
pieces of language other t han figurative, and people see cognitive linguistics
as the fastest growing and influential theories on explaining the natural
language, the mind, and their relationship with social physical experience.
Although they appear lately, people can publish their term into a dictionary
majoring in cognitive linguistics.
In 1980, Lakoff and Johnson introduce readers their cognitive theory on


2
metaphor. They state that “metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in
language but in thought and action”. From their point of view, we find that
metaphors are used as a tool for developing every natural language’s
semantics and vocabulary and it is the mean for the humans to describe the
world, realize the world’s perception, transform the world, and create the
spirit. Metaphors turn up everywhere, especially in the field of literature when
they are especially good and hard to miss. Metaphors help the authors make
their literary work effective and successful. Actually, it is difficult to
understand abstract ideas, so writers often use metaphors to help them come
to readers clearly and help readers gain an accurate insight into their meaning.
Culler (1975) claims that with metaphors in literary works, writers are helped

convey messages or ideas toward their readers by the poetic function of its
uniqueness, one of the features of metaphors.
In the Vietnamese literary field, one of the authors who is successful in
using metaphors is To Hoai. He took full advantage of the use of metaphors in
writing the “Diary of a cricket” and make his work live in the readers’ hearts
all over the world. The book is particularly attractive to not only Vietnamese
readers but also foreign readers both adults and children, both the ordinary
and researchers. It was translated into fifteen languages and writer Bang Viet
said ‘When the book is translated into foreign languages including Russian,
German, English, and French, the host countries’ readers are surprised about a
story full of humanity.’ According to many foreign writers, the book becomes
immortally.
With the above-mentioned reasons, I have come to a decision to carry out
a study entitled “Conceptual metaphors in “Dế Mèn phiêu lưu ký” by To Hoai
and its English version translated by Dang The Binh”. This study attempts to
investigate what types of conceptual metaphors are used in “Dế Mèn phiêu lưu


3
ký” by To Hoai and its English version translated by Dang The Binh and find
out the loss and gain of the conceptual metaphors in “Dế Mèn phiêu lưu ký” by
To Hoai when they are translated into English by Dang The Binh.
1.2. Aim and objectives
1.2.1. Aim
This study was aimed to examine how the conceptual metaphors in “Dế
Mèn phiêu lưu ký” by To Hoai were translated into English by Dang The
Binh in terms of loss and gain.
1.2.2. Objectives
In order to achieve the aims stated above, I tried to focus on the
following objectives.

First of all, I identified and classified the conceptual metaphorical
expressions used in “Dế Mèn phiêu lưu ký” by To Hoai and its English
version translated by Dang The Binh
Second, I tried to explore the loss and gain when these conceptual
metaphorical expressions are translated into English by Dang The Binh.
1.3. Research questions
To achieve the aim and the objectives of the study, the research is
trying to answer the following two questions:
1. What types of conceptual metaphors are used in “Dế Mèn phiêu lưu
ký” by To Hoai and in its English version translated by Dang The Binh?
2. What are the loss and gain of the conceptual metaphors in “Dế Mèn
phiêu lưu ký” by To Hoai when they are translated into English by Dang The
Binh?
1.4. Scope of the study
In this study, I only concentrated on analyzing the three types of
conceptual metaphors: ontological metaphors, orientational metaphors, and


4
structural metaphors. Then I also tried to find out the similarities and the
differences of the conceptual metaphors of this literary work in two languages.
Due to the time limit, this research is only carried out on “Dế Mèn phiêu lưu ký”
by To Hoai and its English version translated by Dang The Binh.
1.5. Significance of the study
This thesis is a contribution to understanding more about metaphors.
In terms of theory, the finding of the study will hopefully provide
knowledge about how the conceptual metaphors in “Dế Mèn phiêu lưu ký” by
To Hoai were translated into English by Dang The Binh in terms of loss and
gain.
Practically, the results of the study suggest some implications for

teachers, students, and especially those studying conceptual metaphor
translation. Specialfically, it helps teachers figure out how to identify
conceptual metaphorical expressions and classify their categories. Moreover,
They can train students better in translating conceptual metaphorical
expressions into English.
1.6. Organization of the study
There are five main chapters in this study
Chapter one, Introduction, introduces the study by giving its
rationale, aims, objective, research questions, significance, scope, and
organization.
Chapter two, Literature review and theoretical background. This
chapter will review previous studies relating to the research. Moreover, it will
also provide basic knowledge of metaphors and conceptual metaphors that the
subject involves.
Chapter three, Methodology, describes the research methods,
procedures, data collection, and data analysis…


5
Chapter four, Findings and discussion, analyzes, describes, and
discusses the results.
Chapter five, Conclusions and Implications, summarize the main
findings of the study, provides implications for teaching and learning English,
and gives suggestions for further research.


6

CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents a brief review of previous studies related to the
topic, and then the chapter concentrates on theoretical background that forms
the frame of the study including cognitive linguistics, the theory of conceptual
metaphors, and its three types. Finally, an overview of the tale “Dế Mèn phiêu
luu ký” is also mentioned.
2.1. Theoretical Background
In this chapter, I will give a brief review of the theoretical background
for the thesis in two main parts; traditional metaphors and conceptual
metaphors so that readers will be able to differentiate them clearly and
understand more about their relationship. Besides that, an overview of the tale
“Dế Mèn phiêu lưu kí” as well as the theory of translation will be also
mentioned.
2.1.1. Introduction
For a long time, metaphors have played important roles in our lives and
attracted the attention of many foreign and Vietnamese linguistic researchers
with a lot of different linguistic perspectives such as semantics, syntactic,
pragmatics, and translation.
Aristotle is known as the first researcher who has had a great impact on
the history of Western rhetoric and poetics. His two successful works,
Rhetoric and Poetics help people initially understand metaphor in detail. In
terms of poetics, he clarified metaphor as “the application of an alien name by
transference either from genus to species, or from species to genus, or from
species to species, or by analogy, that is proportion” (Aristotle, 2006).
According to his point of view, metaphor is considered as a kind of expressive
way, replacing one word with another and his explanations are the origin of


7
the comparison theory.
In the traditional view, Snell- Hornby (1988) confirms that whether a

metaphor is “translatable”, it must depend on the structure and function of the
metaphor within the text concerned without being decided by a set of abstract
rules. More typically, in “A textbook of translation”,

Peter New mark

explained that “By metaphor, I mean any figurative expression: the
transferred sense of a physical word (naitre as “to originate”, its most
common meaning); the personification of an abstraction (“modesty forbids
me”- entoute modestie Je ne peux pas); the application of a word or
collocation to what it does not literally denote, i.e., to describe one thing in
terms of another. All polysemous words (a “heavy” heart) and most English
phrasal verbs (“put off”, dissuader, troubler, etc.) are potentially
metaphorical.”
Besides that, in 1980, the two famous linguistic researchers, Lakoff and
Johnson help us have a new perspective on metaphors, whereby metaphors
not only make our thoughts more vivid and interesting but also structure our
awareness and understanding. With the work “Metaphors We Live By”
(1980) they open a new investigation on metaphor study in which the idea of
“conceptual metaphor” was first known. Lakoff and Johnson state that
“Metaphor is pervasive in everyday 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,
1980:3). Their results of the study are very significant because they indicate
that metaphor becomes a cognitive tool and popular with everyday human
communication, understanding, and reasoning.
After publishing “Metaphors We Live By” in 1980, many scholars and
researchers focus on studying this field. Ahrens in Politics, Gender, and

8
Conceptual Metaphors (2009) researches linguistic data from five countries to
find out the differences and the similarities between conceptual metaphors
used by women with political and those of men. And she comes up with a
conclusion that male and female politicians use femininity and masculinity or
not, it depends on their purposes and metaphors seem to be used very often
when they want to persuade people of their plans and appeal to constituents
for support.
In his book entitled Ngôn ngữ học tri nhận – Từ lý thuyết đại cương
đến thực tiễn Tiếng Việt, Lý Toàn Thắng (2005) helps readers have a whole
general view of cognitive linguistics. In this book, he mentions cognitive
maps, language model, and explains how the world's spatial models are.
However, this book only focuses on some key conceptions of cognitive
linguistics without its aspect – conceptual metaphor.
2.1.2. Traditional metaphors
It is true that metaphors are very necessary for daily discourse due to
their powerful abilities. Therefore, it is considered as a “linguistic
phenomenon” in our daily language. During the last decades, metaphors have
been given many definitions and concepts by researchers, linguists,
and scholars. Max Black (1962) insists that a metaphor is not an isolated
word. With the view that metaphors are not decorative substitutes or implicit
comparisons, Black proves an interaction theory, stressing the conceptual role
of metaphors. Metaphors’ cognitive contribution to language and thought
results from an interaction of “the principle subject” and “the subsidiary
subject”. Moreover, in Poetics (2006), Aristotle says that “Metaphors are the
application to something of a name belonging to something else, either from
the genus to the species, or from the species to the genus, or from a species
to another species, or according to analogy.” He means that metaphors are

9
comparisons without the words, “like” or “as”. The metaphor “She is a bee”,
for example, would be an ellipsis from the comparison “She is like a bee” He
also confirms that a metaphor has two main parts named the vehicle and the
tenor. The tenor is the subject to which the metaphors are applied. The vehicle
is the metaphorical term through which the tenor is applied. These two parts
come together to reach a point of similarity is known as a ground. Besides,
Cicero’s discovery in metaphors makes a big impression on linguists and
researchers who are extremely interested in them. Cicero (1994) believes that
metaphors make the language more lively and diversified: “The view that
metaphor was a decorative use of language prevailed first among the
proponents of metaphor’s virtues and later among its detractors.” It means
that metaphors enrich language by providing its speakers with more dignified
and delightful ways of expressing themselves. In this traditional approach,
metaphors are regarded as a stylistic device, mostly used in poems and songs.
Lakoff (1994) reveals that “the word metaphor was defined as a novel or
poetic linguistic expression where one or more words for a concept is used
outside of its normal conventional meaning to express a similar concept.”
Lakoff

and

Johnson

(1980)

summarize

metaphors

in

the pre-

cognitive periods:
Metaphors for most people is a device of the poetic imagination and the
rhetorical flourish - a matter of extraordinary than ordinary language.
Moreover, metaphors are typically viewed as characteristic of language alone,
a matter of words rather than thought or action. For this reason, most people
think they can get along perfectly well without metaphors.

2.1.3. Metaphors from cognitive Linguistics
2.1.3.1. Cognitive Linguistics
Cognitive Linguistics is a school of modern linguistics that rose in the
late 1970s and the early 1980s. George Lakoff and Ronald Langacker are


10
considered as its founders. According to Wikipedia, in 1975, Lakoff coins the
term “cognitive grammar” by publishing the paper "Cognitive Grammar:
Some Preliminary Speculations". The term "cognitive linguistics" is also
named by him in 1987 in his book "Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things",
one of his most famous writings. The two remarkable works were written by
Lakoff and Langacker in 1987 state the fact that cognitive linguistics had
become mature. In 1990, people published the magazine Cognitive
Linguistics and founded the International Cognitive Linguistics Association.
All of these activities contribute to marking the birth and the
development of cognitive linguistic. Taylor (1997) confirms that language
research is cognitive research and language is considered as a phenomenon of
cognition or a cognitive activity and is observed and studied from the

scientific study of human cognition by cognitive linguistics.
According to Ungerer and Schmid (2001), three main approaches
represent cognitive linguistics are the experiential view, the prominence view
and the attentional view of the language, whereas the experiential view insists
on the important experience of human that plays an important role in the
Conceptual Metaphor Theory from the cognitive point of view.
In Viet Nam, Ly Toan Thang (2005) defines cognitive linguistics as a
new school of modern linguistics. Cognitive linguistics studies language by
basing on the basis of not only experience and human perception of the
objective world but also the way people perceive and conceptualize things
and situations of that objective world.
2.1.3.2. Conceptual metaphors
Lakoff and Johnson (1980) change traditional views on metaphor by
presenting a new approach to help people understand and categorize metaphor with
their theory of conceptual metaphor. Through their theory, we are able to realize


11
that metaphor is in nature, not simply in language but in thought and action.
In cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor is described as a cognitive
device whereby one concept is partially mapped onto another. It refers to
understanding and experiencing one type of abstract entity in terms of another
type of concrete entity (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003).
The two domains that take part in a conceptual metaphor are known as
source domain (SD) and the target domain (TD). The SD is the conceptual
domain from that we tend to draw metaphorical expressions to grasp another
conceptual domain while we tend to use the target domain (TD) to call the
means by which the conceptual domain is known.
Kövecses (2002) gives his definition to metaphorical expressions in
which he states that metaphorical expressions are words or other linguistic

expressions that originate from the language of the terminology of the more
concrete conceptual domain. To explain this, let’s see the metaphor TIME IS
MONEY
I don’t have the time to give you
I’ve invested a lot of time in her
Do you have much time left?
You’re running out of time
(Lakoff & Johnson, 1980:7)
From the instance above, time is the target domain and an abstract
conceptual reality that is understood in terms of physical reality – money as
the source domain. In other words, the way people talk about time in English
is similar to the way they talk about money so time is understood and
experienced as money - a valuable and limited commodity which can be
given, invested, had left and run out of
According to Lakoff and Johnson (1980) metaphors are pervasive in


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everyday life, not only a matter of language but also a matter of thought and
action. They play an important role in daily language and are cognitive in
nature, verbalized in different linguistic expressions.
In conclusion, conceptual metaphors can aid our thinking in two ways;
as explanatory or constitutive metaphors. Explanatory metaphors are used to
make it easier for the layman to understand complex scientific, political, and
social issues. Constitutive metaphors are an integral part of theorizing about
these problems and popular theories about natural phenomena tend to rely on
constitutive metaphors.
This study is carried out basing on the conceptual metaphor’s
framework of Lakoff and Johnson (1980), which is to understand and
experience one thing in terms of another thing through the mapping based on

the similarities of the experience.
2.1.3.3. Classification of Conceptual Metaphors
In the work Metaphor We Live By, Lakoff and Johnson (1980) classify
conceptual metaphors into three categories, namely structural metaphors,
ontological metaphors, and orientational metaphors.
 Structural Metaphors
Lakoff and Johnson (1980) give the definition of structural metaphor in
which it is defined as “a case where one concept is metaphorically structured
in terms of another”. It means that structural metaphor allows us to
understand the target domain via means of source domain structured or by
means of conceptual mappings. Moreover, it is considered as a metaphorical
system that abstract concepts are interpreted in terms of concrete concepts.
Lakoff & Johnson (1980) illustrate this kind of conceptual metaphor clearly in
the following conceptual metaphor “TIME IS MONEY”.
You're wasting my time.


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This gadget will save you hours.
I don't have the time to give you.
I've invested a lot of time in her.
He's living on borrowed time.
In this example, we can see that time, an abstract conceptual reality is
structured according to money that is considered a very valuable commodity
and a limited resource we use to accomplish our goals. Through which, we
understand and experience that time can be wasted, saved, given, invested,
borrowed, and so on. In other words, the concept of work has developed where
it is typically associated with the time it takes and time is precisely quantified,
it has become customary to pay people by the hour, week, or year.
In Vietnamese literary work and our everyday life, structural metaphors

are also found. Let’s see the metaphorical concept LIFE IS A JOURNEY in
“Dế Mèn phiêu lưu ký” by To Hoai
Từ đây, tôi bắt đầu vào cuộc đời của From that day on, I started life on my
tôi. (p.9)

own. (p.8)

This example shows that the life of a cricket is structured according to a
journey. It means that from the day, he left his family to start his new life on his
own. He has to make friends, have new relationships with others, earn for his
living, struggle for his life. Like a journey, he will have a lot of fun, sometimes
meet difficulties and his life may be dangerous or safe, happy or unhappy, that
all depend on how wise he is.
 Ontological Metaphors
Among the three types of conceptual metaphors, the ontological
metaphor is regarded as one of the least noticeable ones. In this type,
something concrete is projected onto something abstract. They are so natural
and persuasive in our thought that they are usually taken as self – evident,


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direct descriptions of mental phenomena (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980:16).
On the whole, ontological metaphors help us to recognize the structure
delineated more sharply where we may not or hardly find them. We can also
use ontological metaphors to understand events, actions, states, and activities
that are conceptualized into groups; events, and actions as objects, activities
as substance, and states as containers on the view of ontological metaphors. In
Metaphor – A practical introduction (2002), Kovecses states source and target
domains in Ontological metaphors clearly in the following table:
Table 2.1 Source and target domains in Ontological metaphors (Kövecses, 2002:35)

Source domains

Target Domains
 NONPHYSICAL OR ABSTRACT ENTITIES (e.g.,

PHYSICAL

the mind)

OBJECT

 EVENTS (e.g., going to the race), ACTIONS (e.g.,
giving someone a call)

SUBSTANCE

 ACTIVITIES (e.g., a lot of running in the game)
 UNDELINEATED PHYSICAL OBJECTS (e.g., a
clearing in the forest)

CONTAINER

 PHYSICAL AND NONPHYSICAL SURFACES
(e.g., land areas, the visual field)
 STATES (e.g., in love)

Let’s study the INFLATION IS AN ENTITY metaphor to understand
the insight of the ontological metaphor.
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.


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Buying land is the best way of dealing with inflation.
Inflation makes me sick.
It is clear that take the experience of rising prices, which can be
metaphorically viewed as an entity via the noun inflation. In the above cases,
viewing inflation as an entity allows us to refer to it, quantify it, identify a
particular aspect of it, see it as a cause, act with respect to it, and perhaps even
believe that we understand it (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980:26).
We can also understand more about this type of conceptual metaphors
by analyzing the following metaphorical expressions appearing in “Dế Mèn
phiêu lưu kí” by To Hoai.
PLANT IS A PERSON
Liễu giương mày. (p.127)

Willow trees wink and marvel. (p.97)

The above examples show that To Hoai conceptualizes plant as a
person. The expressions such as “mỉm miệng”, “giương mày” are used to
indicate the characteristic of a person that is mapped onto the abstract thing.
To Hoai means that after the worse of the winter, the spring comes and brings
all species joy and happiness.
Moreover, ontological metaphors are also used to comprehend events,
actions, activities, and states. People conceptualize events and actions
metaphorically as objects, activities as sub-stances, states as containers.

Take STATES ARE CONTAINERS as an example.
We're out of trouble now.
He's coming out of the coma.
I'm slowly getting into shape.
He entered a state of euphoria.
He fell into a depression.
(Lakoff & Johnson, 1980:32)