Theoretical backgrounds of metaphor and practically is its application in teaching language

In the language, concepts are not isolated from each other; their association makes up a huge network; for example, PAGE 0 MAI TUYET NHUNG K18C TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION 1 2 DEVELOPMENT 1 2 1 What is metaphor? 1 2 2 Features of metaphor 3 2 2 1 Conventionality 3 2 2 2 Systematicity 3 2 2 3 Asymmetry 3 2 3 The role of metaphor 4 2 4 Functions of metaphors 5 2 4 1 Naming function 5 2 4 2 Cognitive function 5 2 4 3 Symbolic function 5 2 5 Types of metaphors 6 2 5 1 Living metaphors 6 2 5 2 F.

0 MAI TUYET NHUNG_K18C TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………….1 DEVELOPMENT……………………………………………………… 2.1 What is metaphor? .1 2.2 Features of metaphor………………………………………………….3 2.2.1 Conventionality……………………………………………………….3 2.2.2 Systematicity………………………………………………………….3 2.2.3 Asymmetry……………………………………………………………3 2.3 The role of metaphor………………………………………………….4 2.4 Functions of metaphors……………………………………………….5 2.4.1 Naming function…………………………………………………… 2.4.2 Cognitive function……………………………………………………5 2.4.3 Symbolic function……………………………………………………5 2.5 Types of metaphors……………………………………………………6 2.5.1 Living metaphors…………………………………………………….6 2.5.2 Faded metaphors…………………………………………………….6 2.5.3 Dead metaphors …………………………………………………….6 2.6 The transference………………………………………………………7 2.6.1 The names of the parts of human body…………………………… 2.6.2 The names of animals ……………………………………………….7 2.6.3 Proper names…………………………………………………………7 2.7 Implications for teaching language………………………………… 2.7.1 Increasing student vocabulary………………………………………8 2.7.2 Activities in classroom………………………………………………9 2.7.3 Using English creatively……………………………………………10 FINAL ASSIGNMENT_SEMANTICS MAI TUYET NHUNG_K18C 2.7.4 Developing student autonomy……………………………………… 10 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………11 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………12 INTRODUCTION In the language, concepts are not isolated from each other; their association makes up a huge network; for example, words with identical or very similar meanings create synonyms, words that lie in an inherently incompatible binary relationship as in the opposite pairs refer to opposites or antonyms, the relation in which words stand when their extensions stand in the relation of class to subclass is hyponym, we also have the figures involving the substitution of one term for another but in metaphor, this substitution is based on similarity, whereas, in metonymy, the substitution is based on contiguity, etc… Hence, objects are called out and human thoughts are expressed All of these belong to semantic In the limitation of time, I only want to focus on metaphor to my interest in the literary or poetic language Through the process of study, I understand that metaphor is not only the language of literature but also of everyday communication It is indeed worldwide so as to convey people’s ideas, feeling, emotion or attitude instead of using the direct way, in other words, metaphor is a good example of the association of one concept in terms of another based on similarity This study is intended to review all the theoretical backgrounds of metaphor and practically is its application in teaching language DEVELOPMENT 2.1 What is metaphor? FINAL ASSIGNMENT_SEMANTICS MAI TUYET NHUNG_K18C It’s the definition of metaphor which makes the learners have an insight into metaphor in general There are many ways to identify metaphor by denoting it, but the followings are the trustworthy sources According to the linguistic point of view, “metaphor is an extension in the use of the word beyond its primary meaning to describe referents that bear similarities to the word’s primary referent”.(Language-its structure and use, 1994) In addition, to cognitive viewpoint, Barcelona said that “Metaphor is the cognitive mechanism whereby one experiential domain is partially mapped or projected onto a different experiential domain so that the second domain is partially understood in terms of the first one” Given by Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, metaphor is defined as the imaginary use of a word or a phrase to describe somebody/something as another object in order to show that they have the same qualities and as to make the description more forceful The term metaphor is also clearly mentioned in the textbook Metaphor that comes from Greek means “transference” Therefore, metaphor is word meaning transference based on similarity between two things as regards function, character, size, shape, age, colour, etc… All the above definitions show the using metaphor in the transference of meaning, extension of meaning and conveying imagination is to communicate more persuasively and effectively Although metaphor is viewed from different angles, the common thing is that metaphor is the way we call one object in terms of another thanks to comparison and finding some common features between these objects Take this example: Mary is a fox I love her In this example, the word “fox” has a positive meaning because fox is considered to be a cute little animal; therefore, the term is used to describe a FINAL ASSIGNMENT_SEMANTICS MAI TUYET NHUNG_K18C woman thought as of beautiful, attractive, and sexy Clearly, the similarity in this case between an animal “a fox” and a person “Mary” is based on the character However, in another situation, fox maybe has a negative meaning: for example, a cunning person is commonly referred to as a fox “Mary is a fox I hate her” That’s the transference of meaning- Metaphor and we can liken something to something else on certain grounds 2.2 Features of metaphor 2.2.1 Conventionality The first, conventionality raises the issue of the novelty of the metaphor The original sentence meaning is bypassed and the sentence acquires a new literal meaning identical with the former metaphorical meaning This is a shift from the metaphorical utterance… to the literal utterance For instance, “Movie studio love a good fight, and a bad one too But the Oscar battles have become trench warfare and dirty tricks” (From reports on the 2002 Hollywood film awards) The awards competition here is portrayed in terms of warfare Apparently, metaphor has passed into literal language which the speaker isn’t adding rhetorical or poetical flourishes to his language 2.2.2 Systematicity The second feature, systematicity, refers to the way that a metaphor does not just set up a single point of comparison: features of the source and target domain are joined so that the metaphor may be extended, or have its own internal logic We can take an example from a Science magazine article about the sun, where the development of suns is metaphorically viewed as children growing up: “A nursery of unruly stars in the Orion Nebula has yielded the best look at our sun’s baby album…” 2.2.3 Asymmetry Our third feature, asymmetry refers to the way that metaphors are directional They don’t set up a systematrical comparison between two FINAL ASSIGNMENT_SEMANTICS MAI TUYET NHUNG_K18C concepts, establishing points of similarity Instead they provoke the listener to transfer features from the source to the target We can take the metaphor LIFE IS A JOURNEY as an example: this metaphor is asymmetrical and the mapping does not work the other way around We don not conventionally describe journeys in terms of like, so that it sounds odd to say Our flight was bourn(i.e arrived) a few minutes early or By the time we got there, the boat had died (i.e gone) Even if we are able to set up such a metaphor, it is clear that the meaning would be different from that of the original structure The last feature, abstraction, is related to this asymmetry It has often been noted that a typical metaphor uses a more concrete source to describe a more abstract target Again the LIFE IS A JOURNEY metaphor exhibits this feature: the common, everyday experience of physically moving about the earth is used to characterized the mysterious processes of birth and death, and the perhaps equally mysterious processes of ageing, organizing a career, etc this is not a necessary feature of metaphors: the source and target may be equally concrete or abstract, but as we shall see, this typical viewing of the abstract through the concrete is seen in cognitive semantics as allowing metaphor its central role in the categorizing of new concepts, and in the organization of experience 2.3 The role of metaphor There are two traditional views on the role of metaphor in language The first one, classical view sees metaphor as a kind of decorative addition to ordinary plain language; a rhetorical device to be used at certain times to gain certain effects This view portrays metaphor as something outside normal language and which requires special forms of interpretation from listeners or readers The second traditional approach to metaphor is Romantic view In this view, metaphor is integral to language and thought as a way of experiencing the FINAL ASSIGNMENT_SEMANTICS MAI TUYET NHUNG_K18C world It is evidence of the role of the imagination in conceptualizing and reasoning and it follows that all language is metaphorical In particular, there is no distinction between literal and figurative language An important characteristic of cognitive semantics is the central role in thought and language assigned to metaphor Given the classical/ Romantic opposition we have describe, the cognitive semantics approach can be seen as an extension of the Romantic view 2.4 Functions of metaphors According to Dinh Trong Lac (1994:53), a Vietnamese linguist, there are three basic functions of metaphors called naming, cognitive and symbolic functions 2.4.1 Naming function Metaphor is only intended to give names to things based on the experience with the existing vocabulary This metaphor has no or very little rhetoric value but it can reflect the way in which things in the world are viewed together For example, the lowest part of the mountain is called the foot of the mountain as the foot on the human body is the lowest part 2.4.2 Cognitive function This metaphor doesn’t give new names to things but conceptualizes them in terms of another It is also conventional and of little rhetoric effect For instance, the word “sunny” has positive connotation and it is transferred to talk about the mood of people happy and optimistic because when it is sunny, the sun is shining and brings pleasant weather that can make people happy and comfortable 2.4.3 Symbolic function Metaphor reflects the imaginative and creative way individuals judge and comment things, which can make the language more expressive and more persuasive It is very popular in poetic language and thought to be the FINAL ASSIGNMENT_SEMANTICS MAI TUYET NHUNG_K18C conventional function of metaphor For example, flowers often symbolize for the beauty, hence, they are often compared with women’s beauty 2.5 Types of metaphors Metaphors can be classified into three main types based on the degree of unexpectedness according to Mr Nguyen Hoa (2004:109) such as: living metaphors, faded metaphors and dead metaphors 2.5.1 Living metaphors In these metaphors, the word is used in unusual meaning and metaphors are poetic and created by individuals, which are unexpected and unpredictable e.g Peace is a fortress We can see that fortress is a fortified defensive structure for the life, so something considered to be a fortress is necessary to be protected and reserved With this symbolic function, living metaphors are also called creative or poetic metaphors, they are commonly used in literature and poetry, not in everyday language use 2.5.2 Faded metaphors Faded metaphor or trite metaphor is which lost its freshness because of long use and became habitual For example, in the way of saying “golden youth” is to imply that the youth is a valuable period as gold This expression is so popular in daily communication that it is sometimes recognized not to be metaphor 2.5.3 Dead metaphors Dead metaphors are words which have lost their direct meaning and are used only figuratively, in other words, metaphoric sense is not felt To ponder, for instance, originally meant “to weigh”, but it is used now only in the meaning “to meditate, to consider thoughtfully” 2.6 The transference FINAL ASSIGNMENT_SEMANTICS MAI TUYET NHUNG_K18C 2.6.1 The names of the parts of human body are transferred to other objects It is clear that people first of all knew their own body and gave names to its parts Later in the process of cognition of the world they began comparing the surrounding objects with their own body and finding common features That is why parts of our body are used as metaphors For example, metaphor relating to “head” has many meanings First, head is the first, highest and foremost part of all in comparison with the other parts; therefore, the first referent is the first and more important part of a place or thing We have “head of the page, head of the stair Head of the bed, head of the table Head of the train, head of the lake, head of the river, head of the valley, head of the village, head of the queue…”.Additionally, the word “head” is also used to refer to the abstract thing that is at the highest position in a system or a class like this example: “Tom is at the head of his profession” Moreover, other parts of body are also used widely such as face of the diamond, eye of the potato, nose of a plane, ear of a cup, teeth of the comb, tongue of flame, shoulder of the bottle, hand of the clock, arm of a chair, back of a house, body of the plane, leg of a lamp, foot of the mountain, heart of the country, skeleton of the building, etc… 2.6.2 The names of animals are also often transferred to the human beings If two objects or phenomena are compared and common features are found we speak of metaphor In the world of animals, we can see a lot of the same characteristics as human beings a cunning person is a fox, a spiteful person is a snake, a rude person is a bear, a hard working person is a bee, or a beaver There are many expressions based on names of animals (bird’s view, crocodile tears) FINAL ASSIGNMENT_SEMANTICS MAI TUYET NHUNG_K18C 2.6.3 Proper names are transferred to common ones Another subgroup of metaphors comprises proper names transferred to common ones For instance, a jealous person is called an Othello (Othello, a character in Shakespeare's Othello (c.1601-1604) killed his wife out of jealousy) and an eloquent speaker is a Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists) 2.7 Implications for teaching language 2.7.1 Increasing student vocabulary Being a teacher of English, I can see that teaching metaphor is very important to students and understanding metaphor can help students enrich their vocabulary so as to make their communication more persuasive and effective Metaphors provide a handy and memorable way of organising new vocabulary to be learned Most teachers are familiar with the notion of a lexical set, where vocabulary is grouped according to a topic area, such as 'food' or 'transport' This idea can be extended to create 'metaphorical sets', where we group together the words and expressions that have a metaphorical, rather than a literal, meaning Here are some examples: Body vocabulary Weather vocabulary Colour vocabulary the heart of the city a warm welcome to see red the to freeze somebody out a grey area mountain/bed/stairs to be snowed under a white lie to give a hand to storm out to give somebody the the to foot break of somebody's a hail of abuse green light heart FINAL ASSIGNMENT_SEMANTICS MAI TUYET NHUNG_K18C 2.7.2 Activities in classroom In the classroom, there are different ways we can incorporate this idea of metaphorical sets One way is to ask students in groups to research and design a poster related to a particular topic Take the body, for example Students could be asked to draw an outline of a human body on a large sheet of paper, and to include a heart, feet, hand, eye, nose, etc Using English dictionaries, they could then research any metaphorical uses of language connected with the different parts of the body and write them in the appropriate place on the poster The same activity can be done for weather vocabulary (using little sketches of different types of weather) or for colours (using sheets of paper of different colours) Another way is to ask students to brainstorm the words in a particular lexical area, such as plants They may come up with words such as: roots, branches, seed, to blossom, to bloom, to plant Once you have checked that students have understood the literal meaning of all the words involved, ask them to guess what the metaphorical meaning of these words might be And once you have established the metaphorical meanings for these words (such as the roots of a problem or to plant an idea in somebody's mind) ask students to write a story using as many of these words as they can I find the stories are always very inventive, and reveal the real pleasure that students take in using another language creatively! 2.7.3 Using English creatively As we have seen, many metaphors in English form part of the ordinary repertoire of the native speaker We can help students to learn some of these fixed metaphors while simultaneously encouraging them to play creatively with language FINAL ASSIGNMENT_SEMANTICS 10 MAI TUYET NHUNG_K18C One way is to ask students to write short poems with one of the following titles: WEATHER METAPHORS A sunny smile An icy look A stormy relationship People metaphors A chip off the old block A rough diamond A shoulder to cry on An ugly duckling A fairy godmother Parts of proverbs A new broom Early birds Birds of a feather Silver linings A rolling stone 2.7.4 Developing student autonomy Finally, we can develop students' awareness of metaphors by encouraging students to 'collect' metaphors - by noting them down when they encounter them on the Internet, in pop songs, etc These metaphors can then be explained and discussed in the classroom You may even want to keep a record of these on a wall poster….and at the end of the term ask students to vote on the most useful metaphor, the most surprising metaphor, their favourite metaphor, etc.! FINAL ASSIGNMENT_SEMANTICS 11 MAI TUYET NHUNG_K18C CONCLUSION To sum up, the study provides a systematic and clear view on metaphor in theory and its applications in teaching language in practice In general, both theoretically and experimentally, the approach to metaphor has been applied not only to the study of grammar and semantics, but also to historical linguistic, categories of thought, poetic language, rhetoric and ethics In my discussion, I concentrate on semantic issues and I see the role of metaphor in language It’s not so strange, vice versa; it is one kind of personification because everything in the world is not viewed in isolation but in the association with human beings That is, things in the world are always seen in the associative eye of the human beings So metaphor is familiar and understandable to ordinal people It is hoped that this study on basic metaphor , to some extent, helps readers not only acquire this interesting and popular use of words, which sis helpful to them in language but also motivate them their further language study FINAL ASSIGNMENT_SEMANTICS 12 MAI TUYET NHUNG_K18C REFERENCES Nguyen Hoa (2004) Understanding English semantics Nha xuat ban Dai hoc Quoc gia Ha noi Nguyen Thi Yen Thoa (2005) A contrastive analysis of metaphors relating to parts of human body in English and Vietnamese Vietnam National University, the college of Foreign Languages René Driven Ralf Porings (2003) Metaphor and Metonymy in comparison and contrast Mouton de Berlin- New York John I Saeed (2003) Semantics Blackwell Publishing 5.http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsAConventionalMetap hor.htm http://www.writesville.com/writesville/2006/01/examples_of_met.html http://www.teachersmind.com/metaphors1.htm http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/exploring-metaphors-classroom FINAL ASSIGNMENT_SEMANTICS ... of one concept in terms of another based on similarity This study is intended to review all the theoretical backgrounds of metaphor and practically is its application in teaching language DEVELOPMENT... language is metaphorical In particular, there is no distinction between literal and figurative language An important characteristic of cognitive semantics is the central role in thought and language. .. provides a systematic and clear view on metaphor in theory and its applications in teaching language in practice In general, both theoretically and experimentally, the approach to metaphor has been