(Luận văn thạc sĩ) a cognitive study of metaphors used in emily dickinson’s poems

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY TRINH THI THANH TAM A COGNITIVE STUDY OF METAPHORS USED IN EMILY DICKINSON’S POEMS h MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH Binh Dinh – 2021 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY TRINH THI THANH TAM A COGNITIVE STUDY OF METAPHORS USED IN EMILY DICKINSON’S POEMS h Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 Supervisor: HA THANH HAI, Ph.D Binh Dinh – 2021 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN TRỊNH THỊ THANH TÂM NGHIÊN CỨU TRI NHẬN VỀ ẨN DỤ ĐƯỢC SỬ DỤNG TRONG THƠ CỦA NHÀ THƠ EMILY DICKINSON h Chuyên ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh Mã số: 8220201 Người hướng dẫn: TS HÀ THANH HẢI Bình Định - 2021 i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that the research entitled A Cognitive Study of Metaphors Used in Emily Dickinson’s Poems is my own work Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contains no material published elsewhere or extracted in whole, or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the thesis Quy Nhon, 2021 h ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this graduation thesis is the result of not only my own efforts but also other assistance of organizations and individuals to whom I would like to express my deepest gratitude First of all, I would like to express my endless thanks to my supervisor, Dr Ha Thanh Hai for the generous and insightful guidance, critical comments and precious advice that he has spared for me His encouragement and comments have significantly enriched and improved my work Without his motivation and instructions, the thesis would not have been done effectively Secondly, my deep thanks come to all the lecturers at the Department of Foreign Languages for generously supporting me and giving me permission to h carry out this thesis And last, my special thanks come to my beloved family and friends for their endless love, care and motivations for the whole of my life They have given me strength to overcome all the troubles I encountered during the fulfillment of this research iii ABSTRACT Metaphor in poetic texts has been discussed from different perspectives In cognitive linguistics, metaphor is not only confined to literary studies but it has also become a commonality among all the sciences The present paper aims to shed light upon the cognitive metaphor and the implicit meaning of metaphor in the poems by Emily Dickinson, published by the Pennsylvania State University, Electronic Classics Series (2003) Moreover, the research is focused on the contribution of metaphor on the poems In analyzing the data, the metaphor theory introduced by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) has been used Based on the theory, the metaphorical expressions found in the data are classified into three types: Structural metaphor, Orientational metaphor, and Ontological metaphor The data analysis shows that the most frequently used type of metaphor in Emily h Dickinson’ selected poems is ontological metaphor, while structural metaphor ranks second, and in the least used is orientational metaphor Emily Dickinson is not only a great poet but also a skillful wielder of words She understands the metaphorical nature of our everyday language and thought She makes use of that knowledge to create poems that literally take our breath away by disrupting our commonsensical and folk theory ways of thinking about the world She makes metaphorical comparisons between the brain, the sea, and, sky, beauty and death The way she expresses metaphor in her poems is beautiful, unique, and worth further investigation in the field of literature Emily Dickinson's poetry powerfully indicates values of society of the time It does this through its conciseness, its simplicity and its control In her iv poems, she shows how society values the conformity of the whole community From the results and discussion, the study puts forward some implications for teaching and learning English to learners Hopefully, the result of the study can be somewhat beneficial for the teaching and learning of English This study may also be helpful for the readers of English h v TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF FIGURES ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aim and Objectives of the Study 1.2.1 Aim 1.2.2 Objectives 1.3 Research Questions 1.4 Scope of the Study h 1.5 Significance of the Study 1.6 Organization of Study 1.7 Summary CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Literature 2.2 Biography of Emily Dickinson 2.3 Cognitive Linguistics 10 2.3.1 An overview of Cognitive Linguistics 10 2.3.2 Cognitive Semantics 11 2.4 Metaphor Theory 13 2.4.1 An Overview of Metaphor 14 2.4.2 Traditional View of Metaphor 16 vi 2.4.3 Conceptual Metaphor 16 2.5 Classification of Conceptual Metaphor 17 2.5.1 Structural metaphors 17 2.5.2 Orientational metaphors 18 2.5.3 Ontological metaphors 19 2.6 Expression of Metaphor 20 2.7 Poetry 20 2.7.1 Definition of Poetry 20 2.7.2 Poetic metaphor 21 2.8 Previous studies 23 2.9 Summary 26 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 27 3.1 Research Methods 27 h 3.2 Data Collection 27 3.3 Data Analysis 28 3.4 Summary 29 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 30 4.1 An overview of Conceptual Metaphor in Emily Dickinson’s Poems 30 4.1.1 General description 31 4.1.2 Statistical analysis of conceptual metaphors 32 4.2 Structural metaphor in Emily Dickinson’s Poems 33 4.2.1 Occurrences of structural metaphor 33 4.2.2 Linguistic expressions of Structural Metaphor 35 4.2.3 The Contribution of Structural Metaphor in the Value of the Poem 44 4.3 Orientational Metaphor in Emily Dickinson’s Poems 46 vii 4.3.1 Occurrences of Orientational Metaphor 46 4.3.2 Linguistic expressions of Orientational Metaphor 46 4.3.3 The contribution of Orientational Metaphor in the Value of the Poem 47 4.4 Ontological Metaphor in Emily Dickinson’s Poems 49 4.4.1 Occurrences of Ontological Metaphor 49 4.4.2 Linguistic expressions of Ontological Metaphor 51 4.4.3 The Contribution of Ontological Metaphor in the Value of the Poem 63 4.5 Summary 65 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 67 5.1 Conclusion 67 5.2 Limitations and Recommendations for Further Research 69 REFERENCES English materials h Vietnamese materials APPENDIX LIST OF POEMS RESEARCH TIMELINES 34