the use of conceptual metaphors in advertising slogans of nokia, samsung, apple, blackberry and sony ericsson cell phones = việc sử dụng ẩn dụ ý niệm trong các khẩu hiệu quảng cáo cho điện thoại di động

Objectives of the study and the research questions The study aims to describe a language phenomenon happening in advertising slogans, specifically conceptual metaphors.. To go further,

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

***********

PHẠM THỊ HẰNG

THE USE OF CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS

IN ADVERTISING SLOGANS OF NOKIA, SAMSUNG, APPLE,

(Việc sử dụng ẩn dụ ý niệm trong các khẩu hiệu quảng cáo cho điện thoại di động Nokia, Samsung, Apple, Blackberry và Sony Ericsson)

THESIS SUMMARY

M.A THESIS (Minor Programme)

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15

Hanoi - 2012

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

***********

PHẠM THỊ HẰNG

THE USE OF CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS

IN ADVERTISING SLOGANS OF NOKIA, SAMSUNG, APPLE,

(Việc sử dụng ẩn dụ ý niệm trong các khẩu hiệu quảng cáo cho điện thoại di động Nokia, Samsung, Apple, Blackberry và Sony Ericsson)

THESIS SUMMARY

M.A THESIS (Minor Programme)

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15

Supervisor: Ngo Huu Hoang, PhD

Hanoi - 2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS v,vi CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Objectives of the study and the research questions 2

3 Scope of the study 3

4 Method of the study 3

5 Design of the study 3

6 Previous studies 4

CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 7

1 Definition of metaphors 7

2 Conceptual metaphors/ Cognitive metaphors 8

2.1 Conceptual metaphors in relation with cognitive linguistics 8

2.2 Conceptual metaphors 10

3 Classification of conceptual metaphors 14

3.1 Structural metaphors 14

3.2 Ontological metaphors 17

3.3 Orientational metaphors 19

4 Advertising slogans 22

4.1 Definition of an advertising slogan 22

4.2 Qualities of an effective slogan 23

CHAPTER III: THE USE OF METAPHORS IN CELL PHONE ADVERTISING SLOGANS 26

1 Conceptual metaphors in advertising slogans 26

1.1 The effects of conceptual metaphors on audience 26

1.2 Conceptual metaphors in advertising slogans 30

2 Research procedures 32

2.1 Data collection 32

2.2 Data analysis 32

3 Results and discussion 33

3.1 Research question 1 33

3.2 Research question 2 34

CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION 40

1 Recapitulation of main ideas 40

2 Limitations of the study 40

3 Suggestions for further research 41

4 Implications 41

REFERENCE 42,43,44

APPENDIX I, II

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

In the epoch of information explosion, it is inevitable for any of us to bump into advertising words and images Advertising is all around us, though we like it or not, we hear it, see it and feel it albeit on purpose or just by some chance In order for a brand name to go global, a good advertisement of their product is a key matter, no wonder why billions of bugs have been spent on copywriting English, an international language, is used in every single advertisement with an aim of the company going places world wide The utmost aim of the advertisement is to capture our attention

“The whole aim of the copywriters is to get us register their communication either for purposes of immediate action or to make us more favourably disposed in general terms

to the advertised product or service […] so copywriters have to find ways to shout at

us from the page.” (Goddard, A., 1998: 11) A question may arise that how advertising can impinge on people‟s life so much and it is given a short answer by Fairclough:

Advertising has made many people into consumers, i.e has brought about a change in the way people are, in the sense that it has provided the most coherent and persistent model for consumer needs, values, tastes and behaviour It has done this by addressing people as if they were commonsensically already fully fledged consumers The general point is that if people are obliged day-in day-out to occupy the subject position of consumer, there is a good chance that they will become consumers […] Advertising can show people lifestyles (and patterns of spending) which they might not otherwise meet, but also invite them to “join” (1989: 207)

The researcher is captive in advertisements especially those of mobile phones That is the reason why I took a hook to go ahead with mobile phone advertising slogans

In order to achieve the aim of getting customers noticed, copywriters have contributed a non-stop effort in creating an attractive, memorable, distinct advertising slogan for each brand The methods used in writing advertising slogans range from employing phonological aspect, lexical and morphological aspect, syntactic aspect to semantic aspect More concretely, in phonological aspect, rhyme, homophone, alliteration are often put into consideration while in lexical and morphological aspect, verb phrase, noun phrase, collocation, idiomatic construction, formation of new words and phrases are of great approval What‟s more, when syntactic aspect can be found in sentence types, sentence structure like ellipsis, semantic aspect is often realized through rhetorical devices such as simile, hyperbole, metonymy, polysemy and metaphors The researcher is absolutely engaged in metaphors which have long been a part of my interest This explains the my reason to choose metaphors in advertising

Metaphors are a part and parcel of everyday life in that they appear in nearly all our everyday concepts without our realization of it Lakoff and Johnson give the notion

of conceptual metaphors which have explained this all in an easy-understanding way This attributes to the cause for choosing Lakoff and Johnson‟s theory as a foundation

in analyzing the data obtained in the study

2 Objectives of the study and the research questions

The study aims to describe a language phenomenon happening in advertising slogans, specifically conceptual metaphors To go further, it targets at five cell phone brands to find out the frequency of conceptual metaphors used in their advertising slogans and the subtypes of conceptual metaphors employed based on the theory of Lakoff and Johnson In other words, the study tries to seek out the answers to two research questions

Research question 1: How are conceptual metaphors frequently used in five

brands‟ cell phone advertising slogans?

Research question 2: What are subtypes of conceptual metaphors employed in

five brands‟ cell phone advertising slogans?

3 Scope of the study

Due to the time constraint, the thesis only focuses on five cell phone brands‟ slogans which are world famous ones

The selected slogans of five brands are randomly taken from newspapers, TV and the Internet at the researcher‟s ease

A corpus of 65 chosen slogans is not a big one, so to some extents, the results provided are just selective, not comprehensive

In this study, the analysis is based on the theory and classification of metaphors given by Lakoff and Johnson

4 Method of the study

This research is a mixture of qualitative and statistical research Firstly, qualitative research is employed in analyzing the conceptual metaphors as well as the subtypes of conceptual metaphors in each slogan The researcher uses statistical research method in order to give a description of a language phenomenon occurring in advertising slogans of five mobile phone brands in quantitative data In addition, the exploratory research method is employed with an aim to examining the correlations among three subtypes of conceptual metaphors namely structural, ontological and orientational metaphors

5 Design of the study

The thesis consists of four chapters: CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION, CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND, CHAPTER III: THE USE OF

METAPHORS IN CELL PHONE AND ADVERTISING SLOGANS and CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION

In INTRODUCTION, the researcher provides the reason for conducting the research Moreover, readers can find out the objectives of the study as well as the research questions for the thesis The scope, method, design of the study and an overview of previous studies are also stated in this chapter

The second chapter named THEORETICAL BACKGROUND will deal with definition of metaphors, conceptual metaphors, the classification of conceptual metaphors Moreover, a definition of advertising slogans, qualities of an effective slogan are also given through which readers can be aware of the role of a slogan to a company

The third chapter entitled THE USE OF METAPHORS IN CELL PHONE ADVERTISING SLOGANS provides the information about the effects of metaphors

on audience, conceptual metaphors in advertising slogans and the research procedures

in which data collection and data analysis methods are represented Further more, the

“results and discussion” section is a statistical description of metaphors used in advertising slogans of five cell phone brands

The last chapter entitled CONCLUSION represents a recapitulation of the main ideas of the study, the limitations of the study, some suggestions for further research and the implications of the studies

6 Previous studies

Since advertising is crucial in evoking customers‟ actions, copywriters have spent abundant time researching for the linguistic devices to employ in their advertisements Among the linguistic devices, metaphors can really work wonders

To begin with Lapsanska‟s (2006) “The language of advertising with the concentration on the linguistic means and the analysis of advertising slogans”,

Lapsanska provides the analysis of language of advertising from linguistic point of view and specifies linguistic means used in advertising texts Her work brings knowledge about the use of linguistic devices in print advertising The result of her research reveals that, among three groups of meaning transference including metaphor, personification and polysemy/homonymy, metaphor is most frequently used in advertisements with 75/270 ads while the figures for the other two are 24/270 and 9/270 respectively (2006:76) Czerpa has the same opinion when she notes that metaphors in advertisements are powerful and compelling tool because they not only enrich an add but also extend the meaning of textual/ visual message, creating multi-leveled layers of interpretation (Czerpa, 2006:3) Their point is made even stronger by

Kovesces‟s statement, “an appropriate selected metaphor may work wonders in promoting the sale of an item” (2002:59)

Leiss, Kline, and Jhally have used metaphors to study social communication in advertising They suggest that metaphors in advertisements have become a powerful and commonly used strategy “Metaphor is the very heart of the basic communication form used in advertising” (Leiss et al., 214)

The study of metaphors in advertising has been used to gain insight about consumers‟ behavior (Zaltman and Coulter, 1995) Zaltman‟s Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) is a research tool developed to define and describe the metaphors which drive consumers‟ behaviour with implications for copy-writing Metaphors are relevant to the study of advertising since they are “laden with symbols and imagery that might be used creatively in implementing decisions that will animate or bring appropriate reasoning processes and mental models to life.” (as cited in Lapsanska, 2006)

Charles Forceville tries to look at previous literature metaphor in hope of developing a theory of pictorial metaphor in advertising, but notes that most of the literature metaphor is primarily on verbal metaphors (Forceville, 4)

Similarly, Fazio, Zanna and Cooper have found that direct experience may affect attitude formation by altering the way in which the available information is processed (Fazio et al., 51) Since metaphors in consumer advertising require the consumers to become more actively involved and experienced on things in terms of another, advertising using metaphors may affect attitude formation towards a product

or brand At the very least, the active involvement stimulated by metaphors will alter the way in which the information is processed (Fazio et al., 51

However, all the above mentioned research mainly studied the visual metaphors

in advertising in particular and non-verbal metaphors in general

There have been some researches in Vietnam concerning the matter of advertising Trang, B T (2010) reveals the typical techniques employed in advertising slogans in terms of graphology, phonology, lexicology, syntax and semantics; however, she does not point out the use of metaphors in the advertising slogans Trang,

B T P (2011) gives an insight into metaphors used in English slogans by some banks

in the world In her research, Trang argues that the approachability of conceptual metaphorical expressions in banking context is very high and the use of ontological metaphors is of great approval

To the researcher‟s knowledge, there has been no study about metaphors in cell phone advertising slogans but in cosmetics, foodstuff, banking, etc Therefore, by conducting this research, I hope to contribute into the metaphor world in advertising another field

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1 Definition of metaphors

An enormous effort has been made in the course of finding a way to define what metaphor is by many scholars and researchers all around the world Gibbs (1999:29) even introduces an ironical statement by Wayne Booth that by the year 2039 “there would be more students of metaphor than people” (quoted in Michael White, Estudios Ingleses de la Universidad Complutense, Vol.10 (2002) 309-315)

Aristotle who is the first to provide a scholarly treatment of metaphors give a somehow detailed definition A metaphor “consists of giving the thing a name that belongs to something else; the transference being either from genius to species, or from species to genius, or from species to species, or on the ground of analogy” (quoted in Reck, D 2002:3) I A Richards goes further when he defines metaphors through two

terms topic and vehicle in which the latter term is used metaphorically and the relationship between two terms is call ground Kovecses, one of the most significant

Hungarian researchers of metaphors gives out his definition as follows:

In the cognitive linguistic view, metaphor is defined as understanding one conceptual domain in terms of another conceptual domain […] The conceptual domain from which we draw metaphorical expressions is to understand another conceptual domain called source domain, while the conceptual domain that is understood this way is the target domain […] Understanding one domain in terms of another involves a set of fixed correspondences (technically called mappings) between

a source and a target domain (2002: 4) (quoted in Agnes (2009:20))

All definitions have in common that they speak of two terms related to each other thanks to the similarities they have But they also limit the function of metaphors

to embellish or decorate the language

In their work, Lakoff and Johnson (1980:3) said:

Metaphor is for most people a device of the poetic imagination and the rhetorical flourish – a matter of extraordinary rather than ordinary language Moreover, metaphor is 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 metaphor We have found, on the contrary, 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

By what they have found, Lakoff and Johnson indicate that metaphors not only influence our “linguistic behavior but also our thought processes and our system of value.” (cited in Agnes, 2009: 21)

2 Conceptual metaphors/cognitive metaphors

2.1 Conceptual metaphors in relation with cognitive linguistics

In order to understand conceptual/ cognitive metaphors, there‟s a need to have

an understanding of cognitive linguistics As we all know, language is not only a tool

of thought and communication but a spiritual “product” of human beings which has in

it the specific cultural distinctions of each nation

Cognitive science began to develop in America in the 60s of 20th century, along with the new tendency of linguistics namely transformational grammar and later generative grammar advocated by Noam Chomsky Along with the flourishing of cognitive psychology, cognitive linguistics was formed on the foundation of famous researches by Noam Chomsky, Ronald W Langacker, Charles J Fillmore, R Jackendoff, Gilles Fauconnier Langacker developed the concept profile theory which latter became the center of cognitive linguistics In 1989, international conference on cognitive linguistics was held in Duisburg, Germany In this conference, the

International Cognitive Linguistics Association was established and the cognitive linguistics journal (led by Dirk Geeraerts as chief editor in 1990) was also born

The way of exploring language of transformational – generative linguistic theory and cognitive linguistic theory is different Those supported transformational – generative linguistic theory paid great attention to language knowledge while the representatives of cognitive linguistic theory had their concern in our knowledge about the world and studied how natural language contributed to that knowledge The former studied the linguistic structure depth on the basis of the language directly observed and tried to model them as mathematics formula; however, the latter tended to study the everyday language of human beings on the basis of the language directly observed and the language which cannot be observed like concepts, psychology, senses, cultural ethnic distinctions However, they both had one way in common, that is, both were concerned about spiritual structure which constituted knowledge and their utmost goal was to reach the awareness of human language nature

According to Ly Toan Thang (2005), if there is a need to say briefly what cognitive linguistics is about, it can be defined as follows: “it is a new school of modern linguistics which studies language on the basis of experience and human‟s perception of the objective world as well as the way people perceive and conceptualize things and situations of that objective world.”

Lakoff and Johnson (2003: 4) say that:

“The concept that govern our thought are not just a matter of the intellect They also govern our everyday functioning, down to the most mundane details Our concepts structure what we perceive, how we get around in the world, and how we relate to other people Our conceptual system thus play a central role in defining our everyday realities If we are right in suggesting that our conceptual system is largely metaphorical, then the way we think, what we experience, and what we do everyday is very much a matter of metaphor”

From their point of view, we can see that metaphors are pervasive in every day life without our realizing about it The only way for us to realize our using of

metaphors is to look at language “Since communication is based on the same conceptual system that we use in thinking and acting, language is an important source

of evidence for what that system is like.” (Lakoff and Johnson, 2003: 4)

Because of Lakoff‟s aim to uncover deeply embedded conceptual relations in the mind, for him the ideal metaphorical expressions to analyze are not the widely discussed type of examples in (1), but rather those in (2):

(1) a Juliet is the sun (Shakespeare)

b my wife…whose waist is an hourglass (Lakoff and Turner, 1989: 90)

(2) a I‟ll see you at 2 o‟clock

b He is in danger

c Her anger boiled over

d She‟s had to contend with many obstacles in her life, but she has come a long way since her days in the orphanage

The metaphors in (1) are novel creations while the metaphors in (2) are conventionalized linguistic expressions, another aspect of their common everyday character

The literal meaning of “at” in (2a) is locative in nature, but it has been metaphorically extended to apply also to time Likewise, “in” in (2b) has a basic locative meaning, and the use in (2) is a metaphorical extension of this: here, a stage (danger) is conceived as a container that one can be inside of or outside of

For the above relation of metaphors in cognitive linguistics, the researcher decided to choose conceptual/ cognitive metaphors

2.2 Conceptual metaphors

Lakoff and Johnson introduce the notion of conceptual metaphors in Metaphor

we live by (1980) with some famous metaphors like LOVE IS A JOURNEY,

ARGUMENT IS WAR, HAPPY IS UP Black also gives the metaphor MAN IS WOLF (Black, 1955:286) which, as our first glance, resembles the structure of conceptualization given by Lakoff and Johnson However, in his work, Black does not

give out two terms target and source domain, instead he calls MAN and WOLF two

subjects: the principle subject (MAN) and the subsidiary subject (WOLF), then he tries

to suggest a set of standard believes about wolves that are the common possession of the members of some speech community from which we note that wolves refer “to something fierce, carnivorous, treacherous”, hence man “preys upon other animals” and is “fierce, hungry, engaged in constant struggle, a scavenger” (Black, 1995:287) Black calls the similarities between MAN and WOLF “the commonplaces” and the

“corresponding system” (1995:288) From Black‟s analysis of his metaphor, we can see that the notion of conceptual metaphor had been conceived long ago, before the introduction of Lakoff and Johnson

To give some ideas of what it could mean for a concept to be metaphorical and for such a concept to structure an everyday activity, Lakoff and Johnson started with the concept ARGUMENT and the conceptual metaphor ARGUMENT IS WAR which

is reflected in our daily language by a wide variety of expressions

ARGUMENT IS WAR

Your claims are indefensible

He attacked every weak point in my argument

His criticisms were right on the target

I demolished his argument

I‟ve never won an argument with him

You disagree? Okay, shoot!

If you use that strategy, he‟ll wipe you out

He shot down all of my arguments

(Lakoff and Johnson, 2003:5)

With our knowledge of the physical world, we know how a war is We can fight

in the war and at last, we can either win or lose In order to win the battle, we need a good strategy and every shoot should be right on the target There is no physical battle

in here but the verbal battle, thus ARGUMENT IS WAR structures the actions we perform in arguing

Croff, W and Cruse, D A (2004) also give a definition of conceptual metaphor:

“a conceptual mapping between two domains The mapping is asymmetrical, however: the metaphorical expression profiles a conceptual structure in the target domain, not the source domain.” The mapping between source and target domains involves two

sorts of correspondences, epistemic and ontological The ontological correspondences hold between elements of one domain and elements of the other domain; epistemic correspondences are correspondences between relations holding between elements in one domain and relations between elements in the other domain (this includes, for instance, encyclopedic knowledge about the domain) The phenomenon of correspondence can be illustrated using the example of ANGER IS HEAT OF A FLUID (Lakoff 1987: 387)

Agitation of boiling fluid

Limit of container‟s resistance

Explosion

Target: ANGER Body

Anger Anger scale Experienced pressure Experienced agitation Limit of person‟s ability to suppress anger Loss of control

Epistemic correspondences

When fluid in a container is heated When anger increases beyond a certain

beyond a certain limit, pressure increases

to point at which container explodes

An explosion is damaging to container

and dangerous to bystanders

Explosion can be prevented by applying

sufficient force and counterpressure

Controlled release of pressure may occur,

which reduces danger of explosion

limit, “pressure” increases to point at which person losses control

Loss of control is damaging to person and dangerous to others

Anger can be suppressed by force of will

Anger can be released in a controlled way,

or vented harmlessly, thus reducing level

(Croff, W and Cruse, D A (2004: 197)

In general, metaphors are conceptual structures, and are not merely linguistic in nature, although they are normally realized linguistically, of course

It‟s undoubtedly true that conceptual metaphors are pervasive in communication and in any single text Take the lyric of the following song as an example:

“…I‟m on the top of the world lookin‟ down on creation

And the only explanation I can find

Is the love that I‟ve found ever since you‟ve been around

Your love‟s put me at the top of the world…”

(“Top of the world” by The Carpenters)

In the above lyric, LOVE has been conceptualized as a concrete thing that “I” can “find” LOVE is also personified as a person who can “put me at the top of the world” The conceptual metaphors LOVE IS A THING and LOVE IS A PERSON is drawn therefrom Moreover the conceptual metaphor HAPPY IS UP allows us to comprehend that the person in the song is in a happy state since “at the top of the world” means UP

3 Classification of conceptual metaphors

Lakoff and Johnson (2003) classify conceptual metaphors into three different

kinds, namely structural metaphors, orientational metaphors and ontological

metaphors Kovecses (2010), despite having three other criteria for categorizing

conceptual metaphors, has the same classification as Lakoff and Johnson, regarding cognitive function of metaphors

3.1 Structural metaphors

In this kind of metaphors, “the source domain provides a relatively rich knowledge structure for the target concept” (Kovecses, 2010:37) In other words, the cognitive function of these metaphors is to enable speakers to understand target A by means of the structure of source B This understanding occurs by means of conceptual mappings between elements of A and elements of B

For example, in the metaphor: LOVE IS A JOURNEY, the target domain LOVE is understood via the source domain JOURNEY through a range of mappings The mappings include:

LOVE IS A JOURNEY

Look how far we’ve come

We are at the crossroads

We‟ll just have to go our separate ways We can‟t turn back now

I don‟t think this relationship is going anywhere

Where are we?

We‟re stuck

It‟s been a long, bumpy road

This relationship is a dead-end street We‟re just spinning our wheels

Our marriage is on the rocks

We‟ve forgotten off the track

This relation is foundering

(In the above poem, our knowledge about the elements of A JOURNEY are very clear from which readers can draw an understanding of LOVE.)

- Lovers corresponds to Travelers

- The relationship between lovers corresponds to the means of transportation (the vehicle)

- The means for achieving purposes correspond to routes

- The lovers‟ common goals correspond to their common destination on the journey

- Progress in the relationship corresponds to the forward motion (the relationship is going anywhere)

- The difficulties in the relationship corresponds to the impediments to travel

If love is conceptualized as a journey and vehicle as the relationship, then our understanding about the vehicle can help understand the relationship as Kovecses (2005:7) exemplifies:

If the vehicle breaks down, we have three choices: (1) we get out and try to reach our destination by some other means; (2) we try to fix the vehicle; or (3) we stay

in the vehicle and do nothing Correspondingly, if a love relationship does not work,

we can (1) leave the relationship; (2) try to make it work; or (3) stay in it (and suffer)

Carol Herron‟s model of language learning and teaching (1982) focuses on the factory metaphor as a way to flag her deep unhappiness with the memorization and mindless repetition involved in audiolingual teaching She indicates five characteristics which match the aspects of factory production from which people can grasp the idea that LEARNING IS (BEING) ON A FACTORY PRODUCTION LINE

Teaching or Learning Characteristic Factory Correspondence

1 “Proficiency in the basic skills”

2 “Minimizing any possibility of

“a usable product”

“an assembly line technique”

student error”

3 “Rewarding students…in the

classroom”

4 “Inducing students to behave”

5 Planned structural drills without

From the two above example and analysis, we can see clearly that structural metaphors involve “the structuring of one kind of experience or activity in terms of another kind of experience or activity” (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980:197) The set of mappings structures our notion of LOVE and LEARNING in a clear-cut way Without the metaphor, it would be difficult to imagine what our concept of LOVE and LEARNING could be albeit countless definition of LOVE and LEARNING given

This kind of metaphors also appears in Vietnamese poetry and everyday life

“Giá đành trong nguyệt trên mây

Hoa sao hoa khéo đọa đầy bấy hoa” (Nguyễn Du)

“Hoa” is a metaphor used to infer a beautiful woman based on our experience of the objective world that “hoa” (flower) is beautiful and weak

Surprisingly, “hoa” in “Truyện Kiều” by Nguyễn Du is also used to denote a man:

“Nàng rằng khoảng vắng đêm trường

Vì hoa nên phải đánh đường tìm hoa” (Nguyễn Du)

In the above sentence, “hoa” is used to denote Kim Trong, an elegant man in Kieu Story Thus, from the perspective of Nguyễn Du, “hoa” (flower) is not only an attribute of women but of men, too

3.2 Ontological metaphors

It is necessary to make the concept of ontology well-defined in assistance to understanding ontological metaphors Ontology is traditionally listed as a part of the major branch of philosophy known as metaphysics, which “deals with questions concerning what entities exist or can be said to exist, and how such entities can be grouped, related within a hierarchy, and subdivided according to similarities and differences” (www.wikipedia.org/wiki/ontology) Kovecses (2010: 38) also reads

“ontology is a branch of philosophy that has to do with the nature of existence”

Ontological metaphors base on our experiences with physical objects, that is

“ways of viewing events, activities, emotions, ideas, etc as entities and substances.” (Lakoff and Johnson, 2003: 26) By this way, when the target domain is not discrete or bounded, we can still categorize and identify them There are many kinds of ontological metaphors with different purposes one of which being the concept ABSTRACTS ARE THINGS:

An accumulation of problems

The solution was within rich

The joy was seen in his face

In these examples, by setting an artificial boundary, we can bound the

“problems”, “solution”, and “joy” in a way that we can see it, can touch it

Panasonic‟s slogan is “Ideas for life”, which employs an ontological metaphor

of IDEAS ARE PRODUCTS/COMMODITIES in that Panasonic‟s products are just the solution for your better life

Another concept is CONTAINER metaphor According to Lakoff and Johnson (2003), human beings are containers with boundaries and an orientation of inside and outside Let take the lyric of “Goodbye”, the song played by Air Supply as an example:

“I can see the pain living in your eyes

And I know how hard you try…”

From the above citation, it‟s obvious that “your eyes” are the CONTAINER from which “I” can see the tangible thing namely PAIN

Besides, states and emotions also play the role of a CONTAINER

“Well I hope that I don‟t fall in love with you

„Cause falling in love just makes me blue…”

(“Hope I don’t fall in love with you” by Tom Waits)

Personification can be conceived as another type of ontological metaphors In personification, human qualities are given to nonhuman entities Personification is not only common in literature but also omnipresent in everyday discourse We can find a numerous examples of ontological metaphors of this kind:

Life betrayed me

Love speaks through her words

Actions speak louder than words

The word betray and speak are merely human-attributed; however, through

ontological metaphors, those abstracts like love, life or action are addressed with the human capacities

Like the expression of love through “journey” in English, Vietnamese also have their own way of expressing abstract idea, love, through concrete things

“Thuyền về có nhớ bến chăng

Bến thì một dạ khăng khăng đợi thuyền”

“Thuyền”, a moving object is used to talk about a man who travels many places and is capable of forgetting the places he has been to By personification, “thuyền” has been given the capability of “missing” and “bến” (the metaphor denoting a woman) the capability of “waiting”

Being HAPPY IS HIGH/UP

Being SAD IS LOW/DOWN

Lakoff and Johnson saw the physical state in the fact that someone sad has a bow posture and a happy person is upright Hence the lyric:

“…She‟s up in the good times

She‟s down in the bad.”

(“How can I tell her’ by Lobo)

Another possibility could be seen in the fact that heaven standing for happiness

is high above us but hell standing for misery is below us, therefore we have:

I‟m in a high mood

I‟m in low spirits

Another example can bee seen in the song “You raise me up” by Josh Groban:

“…You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;

You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;

I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;

You raise me up To more than I can be…”

A metaphor can serve as a vehicle for understanding a concept only by “virtue

of its experiential basis.” (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980: 204) MORE IS UP has a very different kind of experiential basis from HAPPY IS UP or CONTROL IS UP presented

as follows:

MORE IS UP: seeing the level rise when we add more of a substance

CONTROL IS UP: physical dominance, where the winner in fight typically winds up above the loser, and where parents who are much larger, control infants Thus, instead of writing MORE IS UP, CONTROL IS UP, we might have the following representation:

Lakoff & Johnson (1980: 204)

This representation would emphasize that the two parts of each metaphor are linked only via an experiential basis and that it is only by means of this basis that the metaphor can serve the purpose of understanding

Though the conceptual metaphor MORE IS UP meaning MORE IS BETTER and BIGGER IS BETTER is often true universally, it is not always coherent in context-specific situation or culture For example Nissan car slogan says “It‟s time to expect

more from a car” from which we can note that MORE IS BETTER We expect that the

Nissan car can provides consumers with better features and functions Nevertheless, the

UK BT Telecom‟s slogan “The cost of calling keeps on falling” denotes that LESS IS

BETTER

In English, the notion of TIME is incoherent as follows:

a, “In the week ahead of us…” (future) and “That‟s all behind us now…” (past)

→ FUTURE IS IN THE FRONT and PAST IS BEHIND

b, “In the following weeks…” (future) and “In the preceding weeks…” (past)

→ FUTURE IS BEHIND and PAST IS IN THE FRONT

Albeit this contradiction, the two slogans below denote FUTURE IS IN THE FRONT:

Toshiba: “Leading innovation”

Honda Lead: “Lead to the future”

We can see from the above slogans that LIFE IS A JOURNEY and Toshiba always leads your way to the front in terms of creating new things while Honda Lead will be your companion to the beautiful future awaiting for you ahead

In Vietnamese everyday life, the orientational metaphors are also abundant The HAPPY IS UP can be found in:

(1) Tôi cảm thấy phấn chấn hẳn lên

(2) Bài thơ đó đã nâng tâm hồn tôi lên

(3) Những ý nghĩ về nàng luôn luôn làm tôi phấn khởi lên

(Trần Văn Cơ, 1997)

The BAD IS DOWN metaphor is realized in the following examples:

(4) Giá cả giảm xuống

(5) Tinh thần suy sụp

(Trần Văn Cơ, 1997)

HEALTH IS UP conceptual metaphors can be found in:

(6) Tôi thấy khỏe lên

(7) Lúc nào đỡ lên thì ra viện

To conclude, Lakoff and Johnson stated that “The division of metaphors into three types – orientational, ontological and structural – was artificial All metaphors are structural (in that they map structures to structures); all are ontological (in that they create target-domain entities); and many are orientational (in that they map