Life and death metaphors in some short stories by Jack London from cognitive perspective

Life and death metaphors in some short stories by Jack London from cognitive perspective Hoàng Diệu Thu Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành Linguistics: English; Mã số: 60

Life and death metaphors in some short stories

by Jack London from cognitive perspective

Hoàng Diệu Thu

Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành Linguistics: English; Mã số: 60 22 15

Người hướng dẫn: Associate Professor Võ Đại Quang

Năm bảo vệ: 2012

Abstract The major purpose of this thesis is to analyze metaphorical sayings of Life

and Death in some short stories by Jack London from the cognitive perspective, more particularly from the perspective of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory In order to fulfill this study, both theoretical analysis and empirical study are made on the topic The Findings of the study which show the commonly seen conceptual metaphors of Life and Death are summarized and ranked according to their proportions of linguistic manifestations in those short stories In the LIFE system, the main conceptual metaphors are “LIFE IS A JOURNEY”, “LIFE IS A FIGHTING/ LIFE IS A BATTLE”, “LIFE IS FIRE/ HEAT/ WARM”, and “LIFE IS LIGHT/ LIFE IS DAYTIME” Conceptual metaphors of death have a close relationship with the LIFE system, and the ones that are most commonly seen are “DEATH IS THE END OF THE JOURNEY”, “DEATH IS COLD”, “DEATH IS NIGHT/ DARKNESS” and “DEATH

IS SLEEP / REST” On the analysis of the collected data, it is clearly observed that Life and Death are such encompassing matters that there can be no single conceptual metaphor that will enable us to comprehend them There is a multiplicity of metaphors for Life and Death, and a number of the most common ones can be seen in the selected short stories by Jack London Interestingly, these metaphors have connections with each

other and this link is presented through the coherence and the consistence that prevail Keywords Ẩn dụ; Truyện ngắn; Phương pháp giảng dạy; Tiếng Anh

Content

1.1 Rationale of the study

Nowadays people have witnessed a great proliferation of works in cognitive grammar, most of which are related to the field of metaphor According to Lakoff & Johnson (1980), there is a set

of metaphorical concepts with which we conceptualize the world, or better, our worldviews Following this, metaphor is rather a matter of daily life experience, or a matter “of thought and reason” (Lakoff, 1993: 208) than merely a matter of language

Lakoff & Johnson (1980: 6) claim that part of “the human conceptual system is metaphorically structured and defined.” This means that we tend to conceptualize metaphorically certain aspects

of life in a systematic way These authors offer a wide range of metaphors that cover basic aspects of life by structuring metaphorically one concept in terms of another

Apparently, the high frequency of metaphor in general and conceptual metaphor in literature is one of the interesting fields for linguistics because it has an undeniable influence on the poetic character of a literary works Moreover, literature seems to be the superior choice to consider the

product of imagination which reflects the real life Because of the woven of imagination and real life, the language used on literature is not only imaginative but also realistic, which allows people to examine metaphors in both “ordinary and extraordinary” perspectives

There are a number of researchers and linguists take metaphors in literature as favorite topic for their studying As Semino & Steen, (2008: 233) metaphors in literature is considered “more create, novel, original, striking, rich, interesting, complex, difficult, and interpretable” than conventional metaphor Among various metaphor concepts, Life and Death metaphors have been taken into consideration by many linguistics But it seems that the Life and Death metaphors are often investigated separately For that reason, the present paper would like to take investigation

in both metaphor concepts for the image of Life and Death

Jack London, whose fiction clearly indicates the ways in which both his personal experiences and his reading shaped his outlook, always showed the theme of man's attempts to survive the forces of nature, the threat of savages, and the competition with other fortune seekers In Jack London’s short stories, the battle between Life and Death is presented clearly and interestingly, without the existence of the other

For that reason, the present paper would like to investigate the metaphor concept of Life and Death in some short stories by Jack London from the cognitive perspective

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

1.2.1 Aims of the study

This paper is to find out the mapping of conceptual metaphors for Life and Death in some short stories by Jack London It is expected that with the finding established, an overview of LIFE and DEATH metaphors in the obtained literature will be brought about Also, implications for language teaching and learning are offered

1.2.2 Objectives of the study

The objectives of the study can be elaborated into the following research questions

- What are the common types of metaphors for the Life and Death image in Jack London’s short stories seen from the cognitive perspective?

- What are the markers of coherence and consistence of Life and Death metaphors based on the framework advocated by Lakoff & Johnson?

- What are the possible implications for language teaching and learning?

1.3 Significance of the study

Metaphor is one of the most basic phenomena in human language This kind of study has significance not only for investigation into language in use, but also for the research of human mind Besides theoretical significance, this study also sheds light on second language teaching and learning This thesis aims to analyze metaphorical sayings of Life and Death from the cognitive perspective, i.e to view the sayings of Life and Death from the perspective of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory Both theoretical analysis and empirical study are conducted on the topic

1.4 Scope of the study

The present study takes its basic theoretical background from the work of Lakoff & Johnson (1980), Lakoff & Turner (1989), and Lakoff (2006), where metaphorical expression is conceived

as the surface realization of cross-domain mapping in the 128 conceptual systems

Due to the limited time, space and the author’s ability, the present paper just investigates the conceptual metaphors for Life and Death expressed in some famous works by Jack London in the light of theory raised by G Lakoff & M Johnson

1.5 Structure of the study

The study consists of five chapters

Chapter 1, Introduction, is spared for the presentation of the rationale, aims, significance,

scope, and the structure of the study

Chapter 2, Literature review, provides the necessary information about the theoretical

background related to metaphor based on Lakoff & Johnson’s perspective

Chapter 3, Methodology, provides information about the principles that govern the research and

the methods to be employed

Chapter 4, Findings and Discussion, presents the findings obtained and sound discussions on

those findings

Chapter 5, Conclusion, provides a recapitulation of the main issues and problems presented in

the study The main content in this chapter is the specific conclusions on each of the research question Also, implications for teaching and suggestion for further research have been supplied This subsection brings about the practical value to the thesis from which readers can, to different degrees, benefit

References

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WEBSITES AS SOURCE FOR THE DATA OBTAINED IN THE THESIS

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_metaphor

2 http://www.jacklondons.net/northstories.html

3 http://www.jacklondons.net/writings/ShortStories/index.html