METONYMY IN ENGLISH AND IN VIETNAMESE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES METONYMY IN ENGLISH AND IN VIETNAMESE SUBJECT SEMANTICS (END TERM ASSIGNMENT) Student Bùi Thị Ánh Ngọc Course M A 18 Supervisor Hà Cẩm Tâm, Ph D Deadline June 28th, 2010 Hanoi, June 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS PART 1 RATIONALE 3 PART 2 DEVELOPMENT 4 2 1 Transference of meaning 4 2 2 Metonymy in English 4 2 3 Metonymy in Vietnamese 8 2 4 Comparison.

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES METONYMY IN ENGLISH AND IN VIETNAMESE SUBJECT: SEMANTICS (END-TERM ASSIGNMENT) Student: Course: Supervisor: Deadline: Bùi Thị Ánh Ngọc M.A.18 Hà Cẩm Tâm, Ph.D June 28th, 2010 Hanoi, June 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS PART 1: RATIONALE PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 2.1 Transference of meaning -4 2.2 Metonymy in English 2.3 Metonymy in Vietnamese 2.4 Comparison between metonymy in English and in Vietnamese 2.4.1 Similarities 10 2.4.2 Differences 12 2.5 Implications for teaching vocabulary for Vietnamese learners -12 PART 3: CONCLUSION 14 REFERENCES PART 1: RATIONALE There is an intimate connection between each language and its culture A language cannot be studied separately from the cultural traditions of its speakers The origin of language is still argued When time passes by, language has been enriched and changed Semantic change is a change in one of the meanings of a word Every word has a variety of senses and connotations which can be added, removed or altered The transference of meaning results from both linguistic and extra linguistic causes In the process of cognition of the world and in the process of using language effectively and creatively, human beings try to use one linguistic element to refer to different things Beside, when the new or the professional concepts come into life, language needs to be changed accordingly There are various ways of transferring a word meaning into the new ones Due to time limitation, this study is only focused on Metonymy Metonymy is an important way of expressing ideas It is the substitution of one word for another with which it is associated A metonymic description of a subject is an essential part of any language; thus metonymic thought can be considered as an element of the cultural identity of a person When learning English, some students feel very confused and spend a lot of time finding the Vietnamese equivalents for the expression of English like: The ham sandwich has asked for the bill The main reason rooted from their unawareness of the term metonymy and the similarities as well as differences between metonymy in English and in Vietnamese Therefore, metonymy is chosen as the topic of my study in the hope that the researcher will get thorough and sound understanding of the field that it is envisioned PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 2.1 Transference of meaning The transference of meaning, as defined by Nguyen Hoa (2001:64), refers to a situation when one object is named and understood in terms of another In other words, one word can extend its meaning or narrow its meaning to refer to another object There are some types of transference of meaning, such as metaphor, metonymy, hyperbole, irony, etc In the next parts, one among those types called Metonymy will be discussed in detail 2.2 Metonymy in English 2.2.1 Definition According to Nguyen Hoa, metonymy is the transference of meaning from one object to another based on contiguity of notions, i.e instead of the name of one object or notion we use the name of another because these objects are associated and closely related Metonymy, therefore, is the substitution of one word for another with which it is associated In other words, instead of the name of one objector notion, we use the name of another because these objects are associated and closely related For example: The White House announced a press conference for four o’clock Sunday The White House means the people in the White House Moreover, the metonym is a kind of “local” word perceived in a system of beliefs that is available only to a sub-section of the community For example: The white jersey was very nice 2.2.2 Basis of the transference The transference is based on material, causal or conceptual relation 2.2.2.1 Object – for – possessor Example: The Crown in fact has little power The “Crown” is used to indicate the Monarchy 2.2.2.2 Part – for – whole Example: We don’t employ long hairs “Long hairs” mean girls with long hairs 2.2.2.3 Place – for – event Example: Pearl Harbor was a sad event in America’s history “Pearl Harbor” is a place-for-event metonymy: it refers to the battle at Pearl Harbor in December 7th, 1941 2.2.2.4 Place – for – institution Example: The Pentagon announced its new policy yesterday “Pentagon” is a metonymy: institution refers to persons in charge It refers to chiefs of staff at the Pentagon - the Unites States Department of Defense 2.2.2.5 Thing – for – perception Example: There goes my knee (The pain in my knee) 2.2.3 Cases of metonymy 2.2.3.1 Name of container instead of the thing contained Examples: The kettle is boiling (1) He drank the whole cup (2) It is obvious that the “kettle” cannot boil and the man cannot swallow the “cup” It is not the kettle but water in that kettle is boiling Also, the man drank some beer or water in the cup, not the cup itself In other words, the words “kettle” and “cup” in those examples are used to refer to other things, which are contained in those kinds of containers 2.2.3.2 Parts of human body as symbols Sometimes, names of parts of human body are used to be the symbol for characteristics of a kind of person Examples: I was moved by his kind heart (3) John has a clever head (4) Metonymic sense Kind heart It’s a symbol of a kind person Clever head It’s a symbol of an intelligent person 2.2.3.3 The concrete instead of the abstract Concrete is what we can see or feel, whereas abstract is something existing in thought or an idea but not having a physical or practical existence It is not easy to express something abstract, so people tend to use the concrete to visualize the abstract For example: From cradle to the a baby which can be the whole of a person's grave the - cradle: a small bed for A way of referring to pushed gently from side life, from birth until to side death - grave: a place in the ground where a dead person is buried up Roll up a part of a piece To prepare to work or Roll your sleeves of clothing that covers fight all or part of your arm 2.2.3.4 Materials instead of the things made of the materials In many cases, the name of materials is taken to name their products Let’s take some examples: “Put it on the plastic”, the bank officer said “Plastic” is a metonymy: the material, instead of the object made - the credit card, is used He got Gold in the Winter Olympics “Gold” is a metonymy: the material, instead of the object made - the gold medal, is used 2.2.3.5 Name of the author instead of his works Author and his works share a very close relation and his name can normally not be separated from his works Hence, the authors’ names are transferred to denote their works For example: She likes to read Poe “Poe” is a metonymy: the works of Edgar Allan Poe He’s got a Picasso “Picasso” is a metonymy: it is a Picasso’s work 2.2.3.6 Part for the whole Example: We live in the same roof “Roof” is the structure that covers or forms the top of a building It means the house/building He’s always running after the skirt “Skirt” is a piece of clothing for a woman or girl that hangs from the waist It is used as a metonymy to mean “the girl” 2.2.3.7 Name of places and name of products made there Example: He used to smoke Havanas “Havana” is the capital of Cuba It is used as a metonymy to denote “the cigar” 2.2.3.8 Others Beside above cases, there are some more can be found in English including: spatial relation (1), causal relation (2), functional relation (3) and geographical relation (4) Illustrations are shown in the following table Word the chair Original use Metonymic sense the position of being in the person who hold the charge of a meeting or a position of being in charge committee fear fer (danger) of in English a meeting or a committee Old the bad feeling that you have when you are in pen danger an instrument used for to pen: to write something holland writing with ink name of a country linen 2.3 Metonymy in Vietnamese In Vietnamese, there is a system of metonymic relations which can help to transfer the meaning of many words Some most common cases from the theories of Diep Quang Ban (1999) and Dinh Trong Lac (1997) are listed as follow 2.3.1 Name of container instead of the thing contained The relation between container and things contained is used with almost of containers such as “Ăn ba bát” (eat up three bowls), uống vài chén (drink some cups), etc The term “container” has more general sense like in the following examples: Cả hội trường đổ xem “Vì trái đất nặng ân tình Nhắc tên người Hồ Chí Minh.” (Tố Hữu) bát chén hội trường trái đất Original use bowl cup hall the Earth Metonymic sense bowl of rice/soup, etc cup of tea/wine, etc members in the hall people on the Earth 2.3.2 The concrete instead of the abstract In Vietnamese, especially in poems, we can find some cases using working tools to refer the result of labor For instance: “Bàn tay ta làm nên tất Có sức người sỏi đá thành cơm.” The result of an action which is normally visible sometimes used to refer to that long lasting action: “Mồ hôi mà đổ xuống đồng Lúa mọc trùng trùng sáng đồi nương.” With the use of the word “mồ hôi” (sweat), we can imagine how hard farmers work in order to have a good crop 2.3.3 Name of the author instead of his works “(…) Người ta nói đọc Nguyễn Tuân phải đọc lúc nhàn rỗi thế…” (Nguyễn Đăng Mạnh) In this example, Nguyễn Tuân refers to Nguyễn Tuân’s works 2.3.4 Part - for - whole and whole - for - part Any object has its part which can be taken to substitute to the whole or to convey extra meaning For instance: “Đầu xanh có tội tình Má hồng đến q nửa chưa thôi.” “Đầu xanh” – a part of human body is used to refer to a young person “Má hồng” indicates a girl or a young woman “Những mái nhà lụp xụp đứng chen lấn ngõ nhỏ tồi tàn.” “Mái nhà” here (roofs) means houses In other cases, the whole is used to replace the part as in the following example: “Bao nhiêu năm qua, đầu muối tiêu mà cịn tính trăng hoa ấy.” The word “đầu” (head) refers to “tóc” (hair) 2.3.5 Object - for - possessor “Áo chàm đưa buổi phân ly Cầm tay biết nói hơm nay.” (Tố Hữu) “Áo chàm”, a kind of clothes of the minority in the North East of Vietnam is used to substitute for people there 2.4 Comparison between metonymy in English and in Vietnamese 2.4.1 Similarities As it can be seen, English people and Vietnamese people utilize some same relations as the means of metonymy, such as part – whole, container – things contained, concrete – abstract, author’s name – his works, etc 10 English Vietnamese We live in the same Chúng sống chung Part – whole roof mái nhà Container – things He’s just eaten three Anh vừa ăn bát contained Concrete – abstract bowls He rolls up his sleeves Anh ta xắn tay áo lên to meet the cho kịp thời hạn deadline định Author’s name – his She used to read Sidney Trước works Sheldon before thường bed time đây, đọc cô Sidney Sheldon trước ngủ From those examples, we can realize that metonymy in both English and Vietnamese share some common in the use of particular words “Head”, “hand” are usually used to substitute for “Person”; “bowl” refers to things contained, etc 2.4.2 Differences First, to name a thing, Vietnamese people and English people use the name of different things For example: In English: He is always running after the skirt In Vietnamese: Hắn chạy theo bóng hồng/áo dài It can be explained that the image of woman in Western in general has a close association with the image of a “skirt”, whereas not many Vietnamese women wear skirts Whenever people talk about Vietnamese women, they often think of a traditional long dress Furthermore, some cases of metonymy which are popular in English are rarely used in Vietnamese For example: Word Glass Metonymic sense in English container 11 Vietnamese equivalent cốc Rubber eraser tẩy This is because the concepts “cốc, tẩy” came to life and had a fixed idea in Vietnamese people’s mind before the appearance of those objects which are made of or from 2.5 Implications for teaching vocabulary for Vietnamese learners Metonymy is not just a figure of speech, but reflects an important part of the way people conceptualize themselves, events and the everyday world Metonymy also helps structure various aspects of inference generation in discourse, as well as people’s understanding and use of contextual expression, indirect speech acts, common gestures, and colloquial tautologies Therefore, in teaching English in general and in teaching vocabulary in particular, teaching metonymy is essential Learning metonymy will help students enrich their vocabulary so as to make their communication successful and effective Teachers should help students find the link between the word’s original use and metonymic sense, i.e provide them some relations which can help students to understand metonymic sense without the help of their teacher Moreover, one of the best ways to realize the matter and avoid any mistakes in using language and translation is to make a comparison between the two languages A simple grid can be useful as follows: Word English Original Metonymic Word Vietnamese Original Metonymic use use sense …… 12 sense As a result, students will have their own collection of vocabulary as well as their metonymic senses Students need some more practice on metonymy so that teachers should provide students with time in class With a little time together, students can show their friends what they have know about metonymy and share with one another their collection All students then also try to use their vocabulary with some metonymic senses to make up a joke, for example Moreover, teachers can ask students to create some situations which are normally funny in form of a small role-play This activity will bring a lot of fun to the whole class as well as helps them to remember the vocabulary and the metonymic senses in a meaningful way PART 3: CONCLUSION This small study provides readers with a systematic and clear view on metonymy in English and in Vietnamese The most common cases of metonymy have been presented and then compared to find out the similarities as well as differences between the two languages First, in both English and Vietnamese, words are used creatively and metonymy is one of the most popular means to transfer meanings of words Second, metonymy is both based on some similar relations, such as part-whole, concreteabstract, container-contained, etc On the other hand, because each country, 13 each culture has their own way of thinking and conceptualizing things, sometimes the same term in English and in Vietnamese is used to substitute to different things It can be also seen that English and Vietnamese people have different habit of employing metonymic relations so that some popular in this language are rarely used in the other Based on the theory, some pedagogical implications are drawn Teachers should help students find the link between the word’s original use and metonymic sense Besides, it is recommended that students had better make a contrastive comparison between metonymy in English and in Vietnamese through grids, tables, etc Moreover, students need some more practice on metonymy in the way of role plays assigned by the teacher Word count: 2,577 REFERENCE ENGLISH Nguyen Hoa (2001) An introduction to semantics Hanoi: VNU Press Jackson, A (2000) Words, meaning and vocabulary London and New York: Cassell Lyons, J (1995) Linguistic semantics Cambridge: Cambridge University Press McMahon, A.M.S (1994) Understanding language change Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 14 Yule, G (1985) The study of language Cambridge: Cambridge University Press VIETNAMESE Diệp Quang Ban (1999) Ngữ pháp tiếng Việt Hà Nội: Nhà xuất Giáo dục Đinh Trọng Lạc (2004) 99 Phương tiện biện pháp tu từ tiếng Việt Hà Nội: Nhà xuất Giáo dục Đinh Trọng Lạc (chủ biên) (1997) Phong cách học tiếng Việt Hà Nội: Nhà xuất Giáo dục Nguyễn Đăng Mạnh (2005) Nhà văn Việt Nam đại, chân dung phong cách Nhà xuất Trẻ 15 ... of meaning -4 2.2 Metonymy in English 2.3 Metonymy in Vietnamese 2.4 Comparison between metonymy in English and in Vietnamese. .. concreteabstract, container-contained, etc On the other hand, because each country, 13 each culture has their own way of thinking and conceptualizing things, sometimes the same term in English and in Vietnamese. .. that you have when you are in pen danger an instrument used for to pen: to write something holland writing with ink name of a country linen 2.3 Metonymy in Vietnamese In Vietnamese, there is a system