AN INVESTIGATION INTO WAR METAPHORS IN ARTICLES ABOUT THE VIETNAM WAR FROM 1954 TO 1975 IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG ĐỖ THỊ KIM CHUNG AN INVESTIGATION INTO WAR METAPHORS IN ARTICLES ABOUT THE VIETNAM WAR FROM 1954 TO 1975 IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE Field : THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE Code : 60.22.15 MASTER THESIS IN SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES (SUMMARY) Supervisor: TRẦN QUANG HẢI, Ph.D Đà Nẵng, 2014 The thesis has been completed at the University of Foreign Language Studies, University of Danang Supervisor: Trần Quang Hải, Ph D Examiner 1: Assoc Prof Dr Lê Phạm Hoài Hương Examiner 2: Lê Tấn Thi, Ph D The thesis to be orally defended at Examining Committee Time: December 13th, 2014 Venue: Danang University The original of this thesis is accessible for purpose of reference at the University of Foreign Language Studies Library, University of Danang and the Information Resources Centre, Danang University CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE Metaphor plays a very significant role in human thought, because metaphor is one of the most popular types of figures of speech that are employed in nearly every linguistic aspect and it is used effortlessly by most of people Especially, conceptual metaphors are seen in language in our everyday lives Conceptual metaphors shape not only our communication, but also the way we think and act In Lakoff and Johnson’s work, Metaphor We Live By (1980), they claim that we see how everyday language is filled with metaphors we may not always notice Conceptual metaphors are used very often to understand theories and models A conceptual metaphor uses one ideal and links it to another to have better understand something Together with the development of Cognitive Linguistics (CL), a variety of studies on metaphors in general and cognitive metaphors (CMs) have been done However, until now, researchers on cognitive metaphor regarding war metaphors in articles about the Vn W (Vn W) have been left unexploited Cognitive metaphor is used a lot in articles about war to expose the atrocities of invaders to help every body in the world can see the ruthlessness of war Let us consider the following examples: (1) The same day that Hamburger Hill was finally captured, Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts called the operation "senseless and irresponsible" and attacked the military tactics of President Richard Nixon's administration [90] (2) Giặc Mỹ thất điên bát đảo trước địn đánh thơng minh bất ngờ chị [130] (3) Vô vọng việc thực mục tiêu, hoang mang phải đối mặt với lực lượng ẩn, trùng điệp núi rừng, lính Mỹ trở nên hãn, cuồng loạn [145] As can be seen from the mention of above examples, we can figure out that War is madness that can be realized through words denoting madness such as: thất điên bát đảo, cuồn loạn, senseless loss The source domain (SD) of the metaphor is madness and the target domain (TD) is war The cognitive metaphor that can be recognized in the examples above is War is madness Although Viet Nam war receded, the sorrow of war remains until now Each of us needs to look back the past to keep the peace There for, articles about war have been paid attention by lots of people and this will be a good research opportunity to have an insight look into this field to explore the varied uses of metaphor Moreover, these articles will be an invaluable source of reference for metaphor study Yet, in just a thesis, to cover all of articles about war is too wide Hence, I will choose an investigation into war metaphors in a narrow scope “An Investigation into war metaphors in Articles about the Vn W from 1954 to 1975 in English and Vietnamese” I hope that my study will help readers, teachers, learners and translators use English and Vietnamese metaphor more correctly and use language more effectively 1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 1.2.1 Aims This research aims: · To identify the CMs denoting the concept of war in articles about the Vietnam war (Vn W) from 1954 to 1975 in English and Vietnamese · To examine how the CMs are used to express the concept of war · To find out the similarities and differences in CMs of war in articles about the Vn W from 1954 to 1975 in English and Vietnamese 1.2.2 Objectives The study is intended to fulfill the following objectives: · To investigate the CMs denoting the concept of War in articles about Vn W from 1954 to 1975 in English and Vietnamese · To categorize the CMs of War in articles about Vn W from 1954 to 1975 in English and Vietnamese · To analyze and discuss the CMs of War in terms of meaning, structure, mapping · To discover the similarities and differences of CMs denoting the concept of War in articles about Vn W from 1954 to 1975 in English and Vietnamese · To suggest some implications for foreign language teaching, learning, and translation studies 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS In order to fulfill the objectives above, the study attempts to give answers to the following questions: How are the CMs of War conceptualized in articles about Vn W from 1954 to 1975 in English and Vietnamese? What are the similarities and differences of CMs denoting the concept of War in articles about Vn W from 1954 to 1975 in English and Vietnamese? What are the possible implications for the use of CMs of War in English language teaching, learning and translating from English into Vietnamese and vice versa? 1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY - Introduce to the readers the CMs denoting the concept of War and the ways they are created with their metaphorical mappings - The finding out the similarities and differences of the metaphorical expressions of War in articles about the Vn W from 1954 to 1975 in English and Vietnamese - Provide a valuable source of reference to learners, translators and researchers who have the same interest in studying metaphors 1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.2.1 Definition of Metaphor a Definition of Traditional Metaphor b Metaphor in Cognitive Linguistics 2.2.2 Classification of Cognitive Metaphors (CMs) a Structural Metaphor b Ontological Metaphor c Orientation Metaphor 2.2.3 Metaphorical Mappings a Mapping Principles · Source Domain · Target Domain · Mapping b Image Schemas 2.3 SUMMARY CHAPTER RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 3.2 RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS 3.3 SAMPLING 3.4 RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS 3.4.1 The Questionnaires 3.4.2 Interviews 3.5 RESEARCH PROCEDURE Ÿ Categorizing the collected data about CMs denoting the concept of War in articles about Viet Nam War form 1954 to 1975 into two sub-categories Ÿ Analyzing and comparing CMs of War in the two languages Ÿ Finding out the similarities and differences in CMs of War in English versus Vietnamese in articles about Vn W form 1954 to 1975 3.6 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 4.1 RESULTS FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRE AND INTERVIEW 4.1.1 With Yes/ No Questions 4.1.2 With Multiple-choice questions As we see in the Questionnair items and the Interview items, the number of students who understand CM is more than those who not know it (86.9% students in the questionnaires and 100% student in the interviews) This number demonstrates that the M.A candidates are very interested in studying CM However, the number of students who does not know the concept of CMs still exists (13.1% in the questionnaire) This figure makes us need to think of the reason why and how to find the solution for these students (Q1 & I1, Table1) With the second question in the Questionnaire and the Interview (Q2 & I2, Table2), there are 88.4 % of them stating that all of definitions describe CM Besides, 2.9 % out of students think that CM refers to the understanding of one idea, or conceptual domain, in terms of another The definition of CM that is the regularity with different languages employed the same metaphor, often appeared to be perceptually based, led to the hypothesis that the mapping between conceptual domains corresponded to neural mappings in the brain is agreed with 5.8 % Another 2.9 % reveals that a conceptual domain can be any coherent organization of human experience In addition, the result from the interview is that all students (100 %) think CM is the combination of A, B and C definitions Specifically, the result from the questionnaire (Q3&I3, Table 2) proves that CM occurs mostly in poet (37.5 %) following by music (25 %), literature (30,2 %) and lastly in newspaper (7.2%) In the interview, there are (40 %) students think that the frequent occurrence of CM is in poem The rest is equal in music, literature and newspaper (20 %) This means that although it is not a lot, newspapers are also one of the fields CM is used to convey many meaningful messages The fact that most of people like reading newspapers but each person likes different kind of newspapers The result from the questionnaire (Q4 & I4, Table2) reveals that women newspaper account for (25%), police newspapers (30.2%), economic newspaper (7.3%), and articles about war (37.5%) Meanwhile, in the interview we can see that all of the students usually read articles about war We see that when students were asked about the definition of articles about Vn W from 1954 to 1975 in (Q5 & I5, Table 2), most of them choose the answer D It is clear that through above results, I think students will have right recognition about CMs in the article about war In the section of Yes-No Question, regarding the question items from to 8, the percentages for “Yes” answers are from 92.7% to 95.7%, while there are some students answering “No” in the questionnaire (Q6, Table 1) 7.3%, (Q7, Table 1) 8.7%, (Q8, Table 1) 4.3% In the interview, most of them agree 100% Based on above figures, this demonstrates that the students have a lot of sympathy of the author’s view on the CM denoting the concept of “War is evil” (Q6&I6; Q7&7; Q8&I8, Table 1) 10 88.4% students and 80% in interview (Q21 & I21; Q22 & I22; Table 1) It is positive to see all students realize the CM denoting “War is disease” when being interviewed (100%) The rate is also high when the students were asked in the questionnaire (88.4 % and 91.3%) (Q23&I23; Q24&I24; Table 1) The percentages support for “War is storm” are quite high in the questionnaire There are 82.6% and 100% for the Q25& Q26 In the interview, there are 80% and 100% (Q25&I25;Q26&I26;Table1) Responses from the questionnaire proving that many students think that “War is business” occurs in Q27 & Q28 (91.3%, 94.2%, respectively) The responses also reveal in the interview that 100% agreeing in Q27& 80% say yes for question item 28 (Q27&I27; Q28&I28; Table 1) With question item 29, there is 94.2 % students doing questionnaire and 80% doing interview realize the CM denoting “War is cover” (Q29&I29; Table 1) In question 30, 100% student when being asked in questionnaire and 100% student when being interviewed they assume that there is CM denoting “War is brave actions” (Q30&I30; Table 1) In question 31, 5.8% student when being asked in questionnaire and 0% student when being interviewed assume that there is no CM denoting War in “War is hatred” (Q31&I31; Table 1) Especially, questions from 32 to 35, all the students think that comprehending CM will help them in many fields such as developing reading skill, improving translating and interpreting skills, as well as bettering communicating skills (Q32 &I32; Q33 & I33; Q34&I34; Q35& I35; Table 1) 11 4.2 COGNITIVE METAPHORS EXPRESSING WAR IN ARTICLES ABOUT THE VIETNAM WAR FROM 1954 TO 1975 IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE 4.2.1 War is Evil We cannot deny the fact that “War is evil” Because in any wars and war occur in any places, firing, killing, destroying, ruining, slaughtering… are main actions in a fight, they causes death, loss, pain and other bad things Especially, in the Vn W, American soldiers’ barbarities are expressed clearly based on the examples Let us consider following examples to have an overview of this cognitive metaphor “war is evil” (4.1) Elsewhere in the village, other atrocities were in progress Women were gang raped; Vietnamese who had bowed to greet the Americans were beaten with fists and tortured, clubbed with rifle butts and stabbed with bayonets [1] (4.16) Trận càn quét vòng ngày 25/9/1969 ấp 5, xã Thạch Phong, Thạch Phú, Bến Tre, quân Mỹ cắt cổ ông Bùi Văn Vát bà Bùi Thị Cảnh kéo em bé cháu nội ông bà ẩn nấp ống cống, đâm chết cháu, mổ bụng cháu Sau đó, quân lực Mỹ di chuyển đến hầm trú ẩn gia đình khác giết chết 15 người, có phụ nữ mang thai [105] Table 4.3 CMs expressing War: War is evil Target domain Source domain War Evil Cause of war Evil seed People who launch a war People who cause evil Actions taken in the fight Actions cause evil 12 Consequence of a war End of the war Consequence of evil End of the evil 4.2.2 War is a Hunt We can see that there are many actions that are used in war and hunting is the same so the metaphor of “War is a hunt” is shown in many articles about the Vn W We can find out this due to verbs such as seek and destroy, hunt out, hunt down and a series of above verbs used in the following examples demonstrate clearly the metaphor “War is a hunt” (4.32) 1st Cavalry Division, Colonel Thomas Brown, was instructed to move from Pleiku to seek and destroy the enemy [19] (4.36) Hồ sơ cho thấy nhà điều tra Mỹ vấn 137 nhân chứng săn lùng dấu vết cựu thành viên.Tiger Force 60 thành phố toàn giới [121] Table 4.4 CMs expressing War: War is a hunt Target domain Source domain War A hunt People who launch in war People who launch in a hunt Soldiers Animals Search the enemy Search the decoy Kill the enemy Kill the decoy War is over A hunt stops 4.2.3 War is Negative Emotion We find that negative emotion was one of the states of emotion in war Negative emotion was portrayed through fire and sword, massacres etc happened everyday in war-time This truth helps us find out the interrelationship in the metaphor “war is negative emotion” 13 In the face of Death, nobody can control his emotion although what citizen you are, Vietnamese or American people Americans burst in to tears when they stood in front of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C that is the consequence of Vn W (4.42) I was moved to tears as encountered the names of more than 58,000 of my fellow Americans etched in stone [23] Table 4.5 CMs expressing War: War is negative emotions Target domain Source domain War Negative emotions occurs Beginning a war Negative emotion is expressed Buồn (sad), khóc (cry), xót xa (tormented), nước mắt (tears), nhọc nhằn (fatigue), rưng People’s pain and rức (bitterly), nghẹn ngào (so choked with suffering in war emotion that can hardly say anything), buồn teo (extremely sad), đau (painful), day dứt (harassing) Consequence of war Negative emotion exists forever 4.2.4 War is Death We cannot deny the fact that war that is the most frightful thing of mankind always causing heart-breaking, death for humankind It is a judgment that does not need a verdict of the court In order to have general overview about the relationship between war and death we should see the following examples (4.70) Instead of admitting to a war that should have never been entered into, he kept troops over in Vietnam and many more lives were lost [44] 14 Table 4.6 CMs expressing War: War is death Target domain Source domain War Death Begin a fight Begin deaths Weapons were used in war Murder weapons caused deaths Violent battles happened in war Series of deaths happened in war Consequence of a war Stop war Fell, died, dead, buried, deaths, more lives were lost Stop death 4.2.5 War is Parts of Human Body Obviously, we cannot ward off the truth that war is loss Loss of youth, love, family, life, money, and more heart - breaking that is loss of a part of a whole body Human beings who incur those losses are soldiers at front Although they are American soldiers or Vietnamese soldiers, they cannot avoid that consequence There for the cognitive metaphor “war is parts of human body” springs from that true Let us look at following examples to understand clearly (4.90) During this fighting, the two platoon leaders were wounded, Lieutenant Casper in the leg and Lieutenant Jones in the foot [51] Table 4.7 CMs expressing War: War is parts of human body Target domain War People who are wounded in war Attack positions in a war Source domain Parts of human body Parts of human’s body (hand, limb, face, soul, eye, mouth, blood, body, heart, foot) Nose, back, armpit, slope, pharynx 15 4.2.6 War is Fire It became clearly that in the event of a war, fire was the symbol of fierce ruin in war, fire associates with lethal weapons Hence, fire was expressed a lots in articles about war both English and Vietnamese languages (4.107) As dawn broke on February 1, it was deathly quiet The village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, still smoldered [59] Table 4.8 CMs expressing War: War is fire Target domain Source domain War Fire Killer Flame Kill, destroy Burn People died in war House, village burned Corpses, ruin after war Ruin after a fire 4.2.7 War is Disease The concept of disease such as madness, berserk, frenzy, lunacy is comprehended via actions of soldiers in a war In the Vn W, American soldiers performed cruel killing actions that are usually acted by mental patients For this reason, journalists used metaphorically words that indicate diseases to talk about war Based on following examples, we can see it more clearly (4.120) William L Calley Jr and his troops slaughtered between 350 and 500 villagers in a daylong murderous frenzy [60] 16 Table 4.9 CMs expressing War: War is disease Target domain Source domain War Disease Enemy Disease Soldiers Doctors and nurses Weapons Medicine Winning a war Curing a disease Losing a war Failing in treatment Strategies in a war Strategies of treating a disease 4.2.8 War is Storm Why can we say the cognitive metaphor “war is storm”? These words, which are storm, rain, thunder, are usually expressed in articles about Vn W with metaphorical meaning (4.141) Tower ordered Charlie Company to attack eastward to clear the village of Ho Nai, a Bien Hoa suburb [71] Table 4.10 CMs expressing War: War is storm Target domain Source domain War Storm Invader troops land in an country Storm lands in an area Ruin of war Ruin of storm Weapons Rain, wind Consequence after war Consequence after storm Stop war Storm moves 4.2.9 War is Business Clearly, in combination with high frequency of words such as costly, losses, enterprise, billion, by journalists in articles about Vn W may be evidence for the relationship metaphor “war is business” 17 (4.150) The siege of Khe Sanh underscored the image of the war as an endless, costly, and pointless struggle [73] Table 4.11 CMs expressing War: War is business Target domain Source domain War Business Armies Companies Soldiers Businessmen Battles Price competition Winning a war Seizing market Losing a war Losing market 4.2.10 WAR IS A SUBSTANCE IN A CONTAINER Actually, when thinking of war, people are normally haunted with kinds of weapon that brings about death, wounds directly for human body (4.162) US Air Force aeroplanes were able to keep the NVA pinned down using either pinpoint bombing with napalm or blanket bombing [80] Table 4.12: CMs expressing War: War is a substance in a container Target domain Source domain War Weapons used in war Substance in a container bom đạn (bomb and bullet), lổ châu mai (loophole), thép gai (barbed wire), súng (gun), bom ( bomb), mìn (mine), bom napal (napal),… People who launch in war People who use substance in a container The consequence of using substance in a container The consequence of war 18 4.2.11 War is Cover It is clear that the truth about Vn W was covered by U.S military during war - time and American soldiers’ cruel actions always were hidden at that time (4.173) No one has ever conducted a systematic study of atrocities in Vietnam, and it's impossible to know how many went unreported or were covered up by senior officers [87] Table 4.13, CMs expressing War: War is cover Target domain Source domain War Cover Cruel actions in war Massacre, rape, kill U.S military cause evil U.S military hide evil 4.2.12 War is Brave Actions Actually, Vn W was different from other wars in the world because it was a war Vietnamese people vied with U.S military for the independence hence, both Vietnamese soldies and people tried all their best to fight against U.S military (4.177) Bất chấp nguy hiểm, Nguyễn Viết Xuân lao khỏi công sự, đứng bên đội đĩnh đạc tỏ rõ khí phách hơ lớn: “Nhằm thẳng qn thù, bắn!” [203] Table 4.14: CMs expressing War: War is brave actions Target domain War Source domain Brave action Vietnamese soldiers who Vietnamese soldiers who have brave launch in war Stop war action Stop brave action 19 4.2.13 War is Hatred We understand that war is hatred because war causes death, pain, loss (4.186) Ngày ấy, cha chị bị bọn giặc giết hại, chúng đốt nhà, cướp mang Nỗi căm hờn quân xâm lược thấm sâu vào tim gan cô bé vừa tròn 10 tuổi Table 4.15 CMs expressing War: war is hatred Target domain Source domain War Hatred People Flesh and skin War ends Hatred sinks deeply People no longer think of war Heart no longer nourishes hatred Vestige of war fades Vestige of the old hatred fades No war any more No hatred any more 4.3 SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES IN WAR METAPHORS IN ARTICLES ABOUT THE VN W FROM 1954 TO 1975 IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE Table 4.17: A comparison of CMs of war in English and Vietnamese in articles about Vn W Source Domain CMs of war English Vietnamese Evil + + A hunt + + Fire + + Hatred _ + Cover + _ Brave actions + 20 Negative emotion + + Parts of whole human body + + Business + + 10 Storm + + 11 Death + + 12 A substance in a container + + 13 Disease + + 4.4 SUMMARY 21 CHAPTER CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS This study has tried to analyze the CMs of War in articles about the Vn W from 1954 to 1975 In this chapter, I would like to summarize all the findings we have found in the process of analyzing and discussing before mentioning implications of the study Limitation of the research and suggestions for further studies are also mentioned in this chapter 5.1 CONCLUSIONS This study aims at practically analyzing CMs of “War” in articles about the Vn W in English and Vietnamese The more carefully samples under study were analyzed basing on the theory of CMs of Lakoff and Johnson (1980) as well as Kovecses (2010), especially for the creativity in forming metaphorical images expressing “War” or these two English and Vietnamese articles about the Vn W The author attempts to analyze the CMs of “War” in English and Vietnamese articles due to the theory of CM as the framework Then the researcher finds out the similarities and the differences of those CMs and provides some explanation of the cognitive universality and cultural specificity in the conceptualization of the two concepts There are some common expressions of CMs such as: War is evil, War is death, War is parts of human body, War is a hunt, War is negative emotion, War is fire, War is disease, War is storm, War is business, War is a substance in a container However, the differences found out are numerous If the metaphors of War is cover is utilized in English articles about the Vn W, Vietnamese composer 22 does not use this type of metaphor at all The composer exploits thorough the CMs of War is hatred, War is brave actions We hope that the findings in this study can make a small contribution to the learners They may realize as well as understand the most common CMs of “War” in English and Vietnamese articles about the Vn W These CMs are parts of our culture; we could use them to bridge the gap between the two cultures This makes sense in enhancing the understanding of the two cultures through articles about the Vn W Basing on the findings in the study, the researcher attempts to recommend some implications to helplearner grasp the use of CMs of “War” and make some suggestions for further researches 5.2 IMPLICATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 5.2.1 For Language Teachers and Language Learners The result of the study may be beneficial to teachers and learners of both languages because newspaper language is a challenge to the readers Moreover, it can help students enrich their knowledge of CMs and provide precious experience to write and translate an article, especial an article about the Vn W more effectively and successfully, so teachers can guide and provide students with basic knowledge about CMs Furthermore, articles about the Vn W are important to students nowadays, they need to know about the past to protect the independence of their country, so teachers can encourage learners to read and to write articles and story in newspapers in English The analysis of the similarities and differences of metaphor in English and Vietnamese newspapers is significant and important to native speakers of English and Vietnamese learners of English in 23 terms of language transfer The Vietnamese learners of English may not use metaphor as much as English in some grammatical categories and in some positions because they may not have enough knowledge and experience to make use of metaphor in various structures Besides that, showing the similarities and differences of using CMs expressions in English and Vietnamese articles about the Vn W can help the learners avoid misunderstanding and gain the implicational meaning of articles about the Vn W in English In addition, to help students to become more skilful in communicative interaction, teachers should help students to master this language device As long as they acquire the linguistic competence concerning metaphorical mechanism, they will no longer feel confused when countering with this Moreover, the confidence of CMs knowledge in both languages will help students have ability to translate correctly 5.2.2 For Translators and Interpreters We know that translating and interpreting have existed for years and the phenomenon of metaphor has regularly been of concern to translation scholars It cannot be denied that comprehending CMs help translators and interpreters can translate better because the cultural element in CMs might help them broaden their viewpoint, accept other cultures and improve their translation skills 5.3 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY This thesis mainly focuses on studying the CMs for War used in articles about the Vn W from 1954 to 1975 We have tried to find out the similarities and differences in the use of CMs for War However, this thesis still reveals a lost of gaps which need filling and 24 this is just a minor part in the research on CMs Actually, there are still many kinds of CMs for people who pay attention to this field 5.4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH Hopefully, CMs will be an interesting field for people who pay attention to it because there are many aspects that need to be explored due to CMs For instance, it will be a good idea to study on CMs of war in sport, argument, business and disease