A cognitive study of metaphor of love in english versus vietnamese

It aims at investigating and comparing the expressions of metaphor of romantic love in three linguistic dimensions- space, time and sensory perceptions- of English and Vietnamese modern

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

IN SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

SUPERVISOR: Assoc.Prof Dr Phan Văn Hòa

Da Nang, 2018

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

Except where bibliography is made in the text, the dissertation contains no material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from another author’s thesis or document It does not comprise any parts by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma

This dissertation is also assured that it has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution

Da Nang, January 2018

Hồ Trịnh Quỳnh Thư

ABSTRACT

The dissertation is carried out in the light of the conceptual metaphor theory fathered by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) It aims at investigating and comparing the expressions of metaphor of romantic love in three linguistic dimensions- space, time and sensory perceptions- of English and Vietnamese modern poetry The study uses the metaphor identification procedures raised by Charteris Black (2004), Pragglejaz Group (2007) and Steen (1999) to minimize the mistakes and increase the believability

of its results of linguistic and conceptual metaphor identification Besides, technological tools, namely SPSS20 and Microsoft Excel 2013, are also applied to the analysis process of 3300 samples (1650 in each language) collected from 547 love poems The finding is that love is conceptualized in terms of 21 conceptual metaphors

in English and Vietnamese Especially, one more source domain that is used for love

in Vietnamese but not uncovered in our English data is sight It is one of the differences found between English and Vietnamese conceptualization of love via the language of space, time and sensory perceptions Interestingly, 7 of 22 these source domains are considered partly or wholly new, including climate, drug, life, music, sight, source of energy, and time Besides, the expressions of metaphor of love are also determined both conventional and novel The novelty is manifested via four techniques- extending, elaboration, questioning, and combination, which once again proves the creativity and imaginativeness in poetic language In addition, the study also finds it that not only the conceptual metaphors but the spatial, temporal and sensory terms used to express love are similar between English and Vietnamese The similarities may result from the universality of conceptual metaphor and the objectiveness of natural world However, language is a cultural factor and directly under the effects of culture Metaphor is the reflection of individual thoughts and experiences As a result, the ways to express love identified in our study are different between these two languages

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ABSTRACT ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

ABBREVIATIONS AND TYPOGRAPHICAL CONVENTIONS viii

LIST OF THE TABLES ix

LIST OF THE FIGURES xi

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 4

1.2.1 Aims of the study 4

1.2.2 Objectives of the study 4

1.3 Research questions 4

1.4 Focus and scope of the study 5

1.4.1 Focus of the study 5

1.4.2 Scope of the study 6

1.5 Justification for the study 7

1.5.1 Theoretical significance of the study 7

1.5.2 Practical significance of the study 8

1.6 Organization of the study 9

1.7 Summary 11

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 13

2.1 Theoretical background 13

2.1.1 The conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) 14

2.1.1.1 The systematicity of conceptual metaphors 14

2.1.1.2 Partialness of conceptual metaphors 15

2.1.1.3 Metaphorical coherence and understanding 16

2.1.1.4 Cognitive mechanism of conceptual metaphors 18

2.1.1.5 Types of conceptual metaphors 19

2.1.1.6 Limitations of the CMT 20

2.1.2 Recent development in conceptual metaphor 21

2.1.2.1 Categorization view of metaphor 22

2.1.2.2 Blending theory of metaphor 22

2.1.2.3 Neural theory of metaphor 24

2.1.2.4 The view based on the main meaning focus 25

2.1.3 Expression of metaphor 26

2.1.4 Metaphor and culture 26

2.1.5 Metaphor in literature and in poetry 27

2.1.6 Concepts of space, time and sensory perceptions 31

2.1.6.1 Space 31

2.1.6.2 Time 32

2.1.6.3 Sensory perception 32

2.1.7 Love as an emotion 33

2.1.8 Conceptual metaphors of love 34

2.2 Previous studies of metaphors of love 37

2.3 Summary 42

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 44

3.1 Research design 44

3.1.1 Inductive approach 44

3.1.2 Qualitative and quantitative methods 45

3.1.3 Descriptive and contrastive methods 46

3.1.3.1 Descriptive method 46

3.1.3.2 Contrastive method 47

3.2 Data collection 47

3.2.1 Sources of data 48

3.2.2 Identification of linguistic metaphors 49

3.2.2.1 Charteris-Black’s method 50

3.2.2.2 MIP and MIPVU 51

3.2.3 Identification of conceptual metaphors 54

3.2.4 Identification of novel metaphors of love 55

3.3 Data analysis 56

3.3.1 Statistical analysis tool 56

3.3.2 Data analysis procedure 60

3.4 Summary 62

CHAPTER 4 EXPRESSIONS OF METAPHOR OF LOVE IN ENGLISH POETRY 63

4.1 General description 63

4.2 English spatial language used to express love 65

4.2.1 English terms of location used to express love 65

4.2.2 English terms of configuration used to express love 69

4.2.3 English terms of movement used to express love 72

4.3 English temporal language used to express love 76

4.3.1 English chronological terms used to express love 76

4.3.2 English kairotic terms used to express love 79

4.4 English sensory language used to express love 84

4.4.1 English terms of visual perception used to express love 84

4.4.2 English terms of tactile perception used to express love 87

4.4.3 English terms of gustatory perception used to express love 91

4.4.4 English terms of olfactory perception used to express love 93

4.4.5 English terms of auditory perception used to express love 94

4.5 Novelty of love metaphors in English poetry 97

4.5.1 Novelty of conceptual metaphors of love in English poetry 97

4.5.2 Novel use of love metaphors in English poetry 99

4.6 Summary 102

CHAPTER 5 EXPRESSIONS OF METAPHOR OF LOVE IN VIETNAMESE POETRY 103

5.1 General description 103

5.2 Vietnamese spatial language used to express love 105

5.2.1 Vietnamese terms of location used to express love 105

5.2.2 Vietnamese terms of configuration used to express love 108

5.2.3 Vietnamese terms of movement used to express love 112

5.3 Vietnamese temporal language used to express love 116

5.3.1 Vietnamese chronological terms used to express love 117

5.3.2 Vietnamese kairotic terms used to express love 120

5.4 Vietnamese sensory language used to express love 123

5.4.1 Vietnamese terms of visual perception used to express love 124

5.4.2 Vietnamese terms of tactile perception used to express love 126

5.4.3 Vietnamese terms of gustatory perception used to express love 129

5.4.4 Vietnamese terms of olfactory perception used to express love 130

5.4.5 Vietnamese terms of auditory perception used to express love 131

5.5 Novelty of love metaphors in Vietnamese poetry 132

5.5.1 Novelty of conceptual metaphors of love in Vietnamese poetry 132

5.5.2 Novel use of love metaphors in Vietnamese poetry 135

5.6 Summary 138

CHAPTER 6 SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE EXPRESSIONS OF METAPHOR OF LOVE 140

6.1 Similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese conceptual metaphors of love 140

6.2 Similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese expressions of metaphor of love 142

6.2.1 Similarities 142

6.2.2 Differences 147

6.3 Summary 152

CHAPTER 7 CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 154

7.1 Conclusions 154

7.2 Implications 156

7.3 Limitation and suggestions for further research 158

LIST OF PUBLICATIONS 159

REFERENCES 161

LIST OF THE POEMS 176

DECISION ON THE ADOPTION OF THE DOCTORAL RESEARCH TOPIC 212

APPENDIX 213

ABBREVIATIONS AND TYPOGRAPHICAL

CONVENTIONS

CD : Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

CMT : conceptual metaphor theory

LD : Longman Dictionary of comtemporary English online

MD : Macmillan Dictionary

MIP : metaphorical identification procedure

MIPVU : MIP extended by the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam MWD : Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary

VD : Vietnamese Dictionary (Từ điển tiếng Việt)

lower case : linguistic metaphor, e.g the season of love

upper case : conceptual metaphor, e.g LOVE IS A JOURNEY

LIST OF THE TABLES

Table 3 1 The missions of qualitative and quantitative methods in the study 45

Table 4 1 Top five source domains underlying English locative terms used for love 68 Table 4 2 Analysis of the images of moon, sun, stars, earth, sky and sea in the metaphor LOVE IS LIFE 70

Table 4 3 Top seven source domains underlying English configurative terms used for love 72

Table 4 4 Top three source domains underlying English moving terms used to express love 74

Table 4 5 Top five source domains under English spatial language used to express love 76

Table 4 6 LOVE-AS-TIME mapping 80

Table 4 7 Top three source domains underlying English kairotic terms used to express love 83

Table 4 8 Analysis of the visual terms of beautiful, dark, rounded, light beam and shine metaphorically used to describe love 85

Table 4 9 Analysis of the terms of temperature metaphorically used for love 89

Table 4 10 Analysis of the terms of pain perception metaphorically used to express love 90

Table 4 11 Analysis of musical terms metaphorically used to express love 95

Table 5 1 Analysis of the images of chùm, khóm, lá, cành, nụ and hoa in the metaphor LOVE IS A PLANT 110

Table 5 2 Analysis of the moving terms - lia and nhặt lên used for love 113

Table 5 3 Table 5.3 LOVE-AS-TIME OF A YEAR mapping 119

Table 5 4 LOVE-AS-FLOWER mapping 122

Table 5 5 Quantification of sensory language used for love in Vietnamese 123 Table 5 6 LOVE-AS-CLIMATE mapping 125

Table 5 7 Analysis of the tactile terms - mềm and ấm in the metaphor LOVE IS LIFE

127 Table 5 8 Analysis of Vietnamese temperature terms metaphorically used to express love 128 Table 6 1 LOVE - AS - TIME OF A DAY mapping 144 Table 6 2 Source domains used for love in English and Vietnamese 153

LIST OF THE FIGURES

Figure 1.1 Map of the thesis 12

Figure 2 1 The systematicity in the conceptualization of love in terms of a journey 15

Figure 2 2 The coherence of a complex metaphor of love structured by two single metaphors- LOVE IS A JOURNEY and LOVE IS A UNITY 16

Figure 2 3 The coherence of the conceptualization of love in terms of time that is understood metaphorically in terms of an entity 17

Figure 2 4 Conceptual mapping 18

Figure 2 5 Conceptual blending of “surgeon as butcher” 23

Figure 2 6 Neural theory applied to the LOVE IS A JOURNEY metaphor 25

Figure 3 1 Sample of detecting mistakes in the data inputs 57

Figure 3 2 Sample of the data statistics under linguistic fields 57

Figure 3 3 Sample of the data statistics under source domains 58

Figure 3 4.Sample of drawing charts on Excel 59

Figure 3 5 Sample of the comparisons of using metaphorical expressions of love between English and Vietnamese 59

Figure 4 1 Quantification of English expressions of metaphor of love under spatial, temporal and sensory languages 63

Figure 4 2 Source domains underlying English expressions of love metaphor 64

Figure 4 3 Quantification of English spatial terms used to express love under the aspects of location, configuration and movement 75

Figure 4 4 Source domains underlying English spatial language used for love 75

Figure 4 5 Cycle of a day 77

Figure 4 6 The lifetime of living-beings 81 Figure 4 7 The growth phases of living-beings 82 Figure 4 8 Quantification of English terms of sensory perceptions used to express

love 96 Figure 4 9 Source domains underlying English terms of sensory perceptions used to

express love 96 Figure 5 1 Quantification of Vietnamese expressions of metaphor of love under

spatial, temporal and sensory languages 103 Figure 5 2 Source domains underlying Vietnamese expressions of love metaphor 104 Figure 5 3 Quantification of Vietnamese spatial terms used to express love under the

aspects of location, configuration and movement 115 Figure 5 4 Source domains underlying Vietnamese spatial language used for love116 Figure 5 5 Source domains underlying Vietnamese temporal terms used to express

love 117 Figure 5 6 Cycle of seasons 118 Figure 5 7 The lifetime of a flower 121 Figure 5 8 Source domains underlying Vietnamese terms of sensory perceptions

used for love 124 Figure 6 1 Source domains used to express love in English and Vietnamese 140

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

Love, which is hardly definable, is one of the significant things in human lives Without it, people feel as though their lives were incomplete, “I’m incomplete

without you” (Bryan, My red heart is blue), for example; or even they are unviable

as the words described by Gordon “I cannot live/ Without you” (I look at you and

think: I cannot live), similar to what is expressed in Vietnamese “Làm sao sống được

mà không yêu…?” (Xuân Diệu, Bài thơ tuổi nhỏ) Nevertheless, to understand ‘what

love is’ is certainly not easy This question has long been addressed but the answer may be pretty abstract It may be the reason for which Xuân Diệu – a Vietnamese romantic poet – uttered “Làm sao cắt nghĩa được tình yêu!” (How to explain love!)

Several researchers (e.g Gray, 1993; Shaver, Schwartz, Kirson, and O'Connor, 2001) support that love is one of the basic human emotions It is a natural phenomenon that can be found in all cultures around the world However, much of semantics is culturally and experientially based (Casad, 1995; Steenbergen, 2006) It is especially right in description of abstract concepts like love, which has been demonstrated to be one of the concepts richest in imagery by cognitive linguists (e.g Lakoff & Johnson, 1980a,b; Kovecses, 1986, 1988, 2000; Tessari, 2001) The love expressions are thus diversified, dependent on individual experiences and under cultural influences

In the period of integration nowadays, the need of cross-cultural communication and interpretation becomes necessary Meanwhile, semantic field plays an important role in understanding a speech However in Langacker’s view, semantics does not just reflect objective reality but rather represent subjective perceptions of the world (see Casad, 2012) An expression does not only show its inflexibly literal meaning of its components but is also understood in a specific context based on our bodily experiences The words expressing love are not the exception Let us look at the following description

(1.1) You’ve slipped under my skin, invaded my blood and seized my heart (Snyder, Poison study)

Obviously, the saying cannot be understood based on the literal meaning of the words in it How can a person “slip under one’s skin”, “invade one’s blood” and

“seize one’s heart”? How can these words express love? In this case, the speech can just be interpreted thanks to our experiences and perceptions These expressions are metaphors whose meanings, according to the conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) fathered by Lakoff and Johnson (1980a), lie not just in language, but in thought and actions It can also be seen from the example that love is described not only by the word “love” but by many other words as well Based on “slip under one’s skin”,

“invade one’s blood” and “seize one’s heart”, love is interpreted as a war in which the lover has been defeated and controlled by his beloved Accordingly, it is evident that love becomes easier to approach and flexible to understand thanks to metaphor Let us consider another example,

(1.2) …we'll fly away together,/ Fly far away into our own secret place,/ Where you

and I can share this fire./ This fire in our hearts that will burn forever (Laset, Fire of love)

There is no word meaning love in the extract, but one can perceive here a sweet

love in which the lovers desire to “fly away together to a secret place” where they can share their love together forever The expression metaphorically draws a love journey with the couple’s travelling (to fly) and their common destination (secrete

place) Also in the poem, the image of fire is used to talk about the hope of a lasting

duration of love via the expression “burn forever” In this case, it can be seen that an expected durable love is presented smoothly in terms of a fire In Vietnamese, love is also depicted through metaphorical images

(1.3) cả vũ trụ say bừng men lửa/ từ em/ ôm trùm anh/ rạo rực/ nỗi yêu rền

(the whole universe is intoxicated by the fire from you which covers me, makes me

excited about a successive love) (Bùi Minh Quốc, Em đến)

(1.4) Cuộc đời chồng thêm tuổi/ Tình yêu càng mặn nồng/ Cây xanh rồi cây

cỗi/ Tình yêu vẫn không già (The older we are, the saltier (the more passionate) our

love is Unlike trees that become older over time, love will not be old.) (Diệp Minh

Tuyền, Tình yêu thì thầm)

Besides fire, love in (1.3) and (1.4) is also understood relating to an object that can “ôm trùm” (cover) the lover, in terms of a nutrient with its saltiness (“mặn nồng”) and in relation to time by the words “rền” (successive or repeated) and “già” (old)

It can briefly be seen from (1.1) to (1.4) that the kind of love mentioned is romantic love; and the expressions used to describe it can be classified into spatial

language (including slip under, invade, seize, fly (away/ far/ into), share, this, cover), temporal terms (successive or repeated) and terms of sensory perceptions (fire, burn)

The topic of love has so far been considerably explored in philosophy, psychology, anthropology, etc In linguistics, numerous studies of metaphors of love have been carried out in the light of both traditional and cognitive views Many of them are conducted along with the studies on emotion in general Some others examine metaphors of love just in one language in many different periods of time There are also some cross-cultural investigations that aim to discover the conceptual metaphors

of love in a certain language and compare them to the English metaphors found by Lakoff and Johnson (1980a) and Kovecses (2000) However, expressions of space, time and sensory perceptions that are used to detect romantic love are still left open, especially those in English and Vietnamese

In those senses, a cognitive study of expressions of metaphor of love in

English versus Vietnamese is chosen as the topic for our investigation The

expression (which is understood as a word or a group of words - Cambridge dictionary)

is analysed and put into one of three categories- space, time, and sensory perception- with the samples collected from modern poetry in these two languages The study also tries to find out whether there are similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese expressions of metaphor of love

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

1.2.1 Aims of the study

The study aims to examine and compare expressions of metaphor of love in English and Vietnamese modern poetry under three headings, “space”, “time”, and

“sensory perceptions” These expressions are semantically clarified in their respective poetic contexts to discover the principles or mechanisms of meaning transferring and the ways of adopting the conventional conceptual metaphors in poetry Subsequently, a comparison is made between English and Vietnamese spatial, temporal and sensory terms used to describe love

1.2.2 Objectives of the study

The study is carried out with a desire of investigating, analyzing and comparing the poetic metaphorical expressions of romantic love between English and Vietnamese; therefore, it is necessary to achieve the following objectives:

(i) Providing linguistic evidences collected from modern poetry to illustrate the existence of metaphors of love underlying English and Vietnamese expressions

of space, time and sensory perceptions

(ii) Analysing and clarifying how the terms of space, time and sensory perceptions are used to express love in English and Vietnamese

(iii) Comparing to find out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese expressions of metaphor of love in terms of space, time and sensory perceptions; at that time, the factors that have influences on these similarities and differences are also shed light on

metaphorically used to describe romantic love in English and Vietnamese poetry?

(2) What cognitive mechanism(s) can be constructed for understanding and interpreting romantic love via expressions of space, time and sensory perceptions?

(3) How similar or different are terms of space, time and sensory perceptions expressing romantic love in English and Vietnamese poetry?

(4) Which factor(s) contribute(s) to the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese expressions of metaphor of love?

1.4 Focus and scope of the study

1.4.1 Focus of the study

If other sciences study the nature and the operation mechanisms of love, linguistics treats the way how the concept of love is expressed via language Many linguistic studies have been carried out to learn about the way to express the experiences of this feeling They have discussed the love expressions in many

different senses In this thesis, only expressions of metaphor of romantic love are

chosen for our investigation for some following reasons

First, romantic love is a complex of attitudes, a complex sentiment involving erotic, cognitive, emotional and behavioral components which are difficult, if not impossible, to disentangle (Bartels & Zeki, 2004; Sternberg, 1988) Hence, studying romantic love means studying a sentiment with several components, which is an interesting challenge facing researchers who decide to study this kind of love

Second, expressions of metaphor of romantic love are plentiful and diversified It is common knowledge that love captures the attention of many researchers for its complexity, abstraction and being difficult to define literally Kovecses (2000) supposed that for lack of an adequate vocabulary to clearly explicate and discuss the abstract idea of love, our language utilizes metaphors that draw from concrete experience as a means to relate this emotion in understandable terms The concept of love, especially romantic love, is thus perhaps the most highly

“metaphorized” emotion concept because it is not only an emotion but a relationship

as well (Kovecses, 2000, p.27)

Besides, romantic love is regarded as one of the endless inspirations of writers, particularly poets, as a catalyst thanks to which their works are more tender and attractive This kind of affection is expressed or described depending on the writers’ thought and experiences Accordingly, it may be believed that poetical works provide our investigation with a considerably rich source of expressions of metaphor of romantic love It is the reason why our study just deals with the expressions of metaphor of romantic love collected from English and Vietnamese poetry

1.4.2 Scope of the study

The study focuses on investigating and analysing English and Vietnamese metaphorical expressions of romantic love which are classified into three categories: space, time and sensory perceptions Then, they are compared to draw out the similarities and differences between these two languages Therefore, the issues that are concerned with our study are determined and limited as follows

Firstly, except romantic love, the metaphorical expressions of other love kinds such as familial love, love of friends, religious love, and universal love are not examined The expression “full of love” in the lines “We're a proud family/ [ ]

Happy/ full of love” (Walton, A Mountain Family Full of Love), for example, is not

collected for our investigation because it expresses familial love

Secondly, the expressions of metaphor of romantic love must be arranged into one of three categories: space, time and sensory perceptions, which are defined in 2.1.6 If they cannot meet this criterion, they are not chosen For example, although the terms “intoxication”, “drunk” and “high” in “Intoxication, you're pure intoxication./ To me, you're like a drug./ I get, drunk, high off you.” (Gardiner,

Intoxication) are applied to express romantic love, they are not selected for our

investigation because they do not belong to any of three categories: space, time, or sensory perceptions

Thirdly, all the expressions of metaphor of romantic love are gathered from modern love poems that have been composed since the early 20th century Neither the poems before this period of time nor the language of other types of discourse (prose, novel, drama) is in our investigation Besides, the study is just conducted with the data sources in American-English, British-English and Vietnamese The love poems written by the authors who are not American, British or Vietnamese are eliminated

Fourthly, as a parallel contrastive analysis, the thesis treats the data equally between English and Vietnamese There is neither the source nor the target language

in the process of contrasting

Finally, there are many theories of metaphor but our study is carried out based

on the CMT developed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980a) The other metaphorical theories are not applied to this study

1.5 Justification for the study

Love, one of the most basic human emotions, appears frequently everywhere

in our daily life Romantic love is not only pervasive in our conventional life but inspiring to writers as well Expressions of romantic love are plentiful and diversified, but mainly metaphoric Understanding them seems not to be easy, especially for non-native speakers, because “each language has its own metaphors that have accumulated over time and that must be learned by second and foreign language learners” (Richards & Schmidt, 2002, p 201) Accordingly, the study can provide readers with

an approach to the use and understanding of expressions of metaphor of romantic love

On the other hand, the study is believed to make some contribution to the enrichment

of metaphorical study resources It becomes a piece of the large picture of metaphor study in general and that of expressions of romantic love metaphor in particular

1.5.1 Theoretical significance of the study

In view of a cognitive study of romantic love metaphor in poetry, the CMT set

up by Lakoff and Johnson (1980a) is chosen as the guideline on our work The

findings of the study on expressions of metaphor of love in English and Vietnamese poetry makes a contribution to the effectiveness of the updated classic CMT in the analysis and understanding of conceptual metaphors once again It is manifested in

22 conceptual metaphors of love identified underlying 3300 metaphorical expressions found in English and Vietnamese Besides, the theories that are directly related to the matter of metaphor, metaphors of love and metaphors in poetry in the light of cognitive view are collected and blended into a theoretical framework for our study that is presented in Chapter 2 It includes the CMT set up by Lakoff and Johnson (1980a), which is combined with the criteria of metaphor identification provided by Charteris-Black (2004), Pragglejaz group (2007), and Steen (1999), the issue of metaphors in poetry by Kovecses (2002), Lakoff and Turner (1989) In addition, the re-categorizing

of 24 English conceptual metaphors of love discovered by Lakoff and Johnson (1980a,b) and Kovecses (1986, 1988, 2000) into 14 ones helps prevent confusion on conceptual metaphor identification for the overlaps of metaphorical expressions among some conceptual metaphors of love, contributing to facilitate the procedure of analysis All the framework can be applied to subsequent studies of the similar interest

1.5.2 Practical significance of the study

Along with the terms that can express the emotional state of love by themselves such as adoration, affection, love, like, etc in English and yêu, thương, thích, etc in Vietnamese, there are many other expressions employed to describe this feeling but they do not mean ‘love’ literally People understand and use them thanks

to their thought, experiences and perception that are called cognition in the light of the CMT When the study is carried out, it hence provides readers with the mappings whereby romantic love is interpreted in terms of space, time and sensory perceptions Besides, the findings with the novelty in both conceptual and linguistic metaphors contribute to love interpretation, help to enrich the source of love metaphors

Because it is conducted on the basis of analysis of the data collected from the different nations (including Britain, the United States and Vietnam), the study

clarifies the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese expressions

of metaphor of romantic love, giving the explanations of them as clearly as possible

so as to uncover the cultural or geographical factors hidden in these expressions Thereby, the study helps the readers learn more about cultural values underlying the expressions of metaphors of romantic love in English and Vietnamese poetry The knowledge of cultural variation combined with that of mappings can be applied to learning, teaching and translation as well

1.6 Organization of the study

The dissertation is structured in seven chapters, comprising introduction, theoretical background and literature review, methodology, results (including 3 chapters), and conclusion

Chapter 1, Introduction, is a general introduction of the study It sheds light

on the reasons for choosing the topic including the role of love in human life, the importance of metaphor, and the role of spatial, temporal and sensory language in human cognitive system The chapter also involves general intentions of the study and specific tasks consistent with them It is the examination and comparison of the English and Vietnamese expressions of metaphor of love in poetry by answering four research questions which is shown in this chapter Besides, the focus of the study- expressions of metaphor of romantic love is pointed out along with its extent of the content to be covered In addition, the chapter is a place for the significances and structure of the study to be presented

Chapter 2, Literature Review and Theoretical Background encompasses

two sections The first section is a presentation of the CMT fathered by Lakoff and Johnson (1980a), in which metaphor is treated as a matter of thought and states the pervasiveness of metaphor in everyday language Also, some other cognitive theories

of metaphorical use and interpretation that have been developed on the basis of the CMT are mentioned in this section Besides, Section 2.1 is concerned with the concepts related to the study (i.e romantic love, space, time and sensory perception), the

expression of metaphor, the relation between metaphor and culture, metaphor in poetry, and conceptual metaphors of love identified by previous studies which is represented in the second section of the chapter Furthermore, Section 2.2 also gives some comments on their achievements and limitations The issues discussed in this chapter are selected based on the study intentions and blended into a theoretical framework for the study

Chapter 3, Research Methodology, contains the research design where the

strategy for the study is presented, including the methods used for collecting and dealing with the data It helps to orientate the research process to ensure that the study just focuses on the research problem (i.e expressions of metaphor of romantic love in poetry) The chapter is also a place for the sources of our study data (encompassing over 500 English and Vietnamese love poems composed since the early 20th century) to be described The data collection obeys the criteria for metaphor identification procedures by Charteris-Black (2004) and Pragglejaz group (2007), which is involved in this chapter Besides, the chapter also provides the guiding principles on which conceptual and novel metaphors of love are identified In addition, the tools for and the process of data analysis are also displayed clearly in this chapter

Chapter 4, Expressions of metaphor of love in English poetry, includes the

general and specific description of English spatial, temporal and sensory terms that are used to express romantic love metaphorically In this chapter, linguistic evidences

in English are pointed out and analysed to illustrate the existence of metaphorical expressions of romantic love under three categories- space, time, and sensory perception The findings of conceptual metaphors of romantic love in English are also mentioned in this chapter along with the representation of the novelty of metaphors

of romantic love in English

Similarly in chapter 5, expressions of metaphor of love in Vietnamese

poetry are presented

Chapter 6 presents similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese expressions of metaphor of love in poetry Besides, whether the source

domains used to conceptualize romantic love are similar or different between English and Vietnamese poetry, which is also made clear in this chapter Further in this chapter, some cultural characteristics that impact on expressions of metaphor of romantic love are mentioned and shed light on

The last chapter, Conclusions and implications, sums up the development of

the study, highlights the findings, puts forward some suggestions for practical applications in learning, teaching, and translating metaphors, points out some limitations and recommendations for further research

1.7 Summary

As the beginning of the thesis, the chapter Introduction has presented the whys

and the wherefores of the study in which the reasons for our work are clarified It can

be seen that, along with the focus of the study, Chapter 1 shows the research questions and identifies the range of the work so that it can achieve the aims and objectives of the research which are also included in this chapter Furthermore, some theoretical and practical significances of the study that are considered as the contributions of the thesis are mentioned This chapter also helps the readers have an overview of the study by provided them with the organization of the thesis and represented in Figure 1.1

Figure 1.1.

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL

BACKGROUND

Cognitive linguistics is a new approach to the study of language It centres on the role of meaning, conceptual processes and embodied experience in the study of language, the mind and the way they intersect (Evans, 2007) According to cognitive linguists, language cannot consequently be studied separately from the study of human experiences and senses, of the way people think and conceptualize realities It is a major manifestation of the human conceptual system which is stated to take over a key part

in defining our everyday realities and is largely metaphoric (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980a; Shindo, 2009) Thus metaphor is pervasive in our daily language and relatively familiar

to everybody in a community of language It is a process of conceptualizing a more abstract domain in terms of more concrete domains, called conceptual metaphor reflected in language through metaphorical expressions, which the dissertation is pursuing In the first section of this chapter, the classic view of conceptual metaphor is treated along with the theories of its development Besides, the concepts that are relevant to the topic of our study are also presented In addition, because the object of our study is expressions of metaphor of love examined in the light of cognitive view, the domestic and international studies of conceptual metaphors of love, their achievements and limitations are called up and presented in the second section of the chapter called “previous studies of metaphors of love”

2.1 Theoretical background

It is known that metaphor has long since been discussed in different views One of them is Aristotle’s, where metaphor is defined as “the application of an alien name by transference either from genus to species, or from species to genus, or from species to species, or by analogy” (Butcher, 2000, p.28) The definition has played an important role in understanding metaphor for a long time and had certain influences

on theories of metaphor later Traditionally, metaphor was regarded as “saying one

thing while meaning another”, “violating semantic rules” and “making implicit comparisons of different things” (Hoffman, Cochran, & Nead, 1990, p.176) It was consequently believed to create new meaning of the words, treated at the level of words, and restricted to study of changed meaning of words (Carbonell, 1981) However, Richards (1936) considered metaphor as a matter of thought claiming that

“thought is metaphoric” (p.94) This trend was successful in the interaction view of metaphor constructed by Black (1955), and then widely spread to others, cognitive view included with the pioneer of the CMT by Lakoff and Johnson (1980a)

2.1.1 The conceptual metaphor theory (CMT)

Conceptual metaphor is the key study subject in Cognitive Semantics, where language is studied in the relationship with mind and experience through embodied cognition (Evans & Green, 2006) It is a new light that accounts for metaphor contrastingly with traditional views of the distinction between literal and figurative meaning, and of rhetorical and literary contexts of metaphor (Crystal, 2008) The CMT

is known as originating from Reddy’s (1979) essay, where metaphor is stated to be

“pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action” (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980a, p.3) The discovery seems not to be new In fact, the novelty in the CMT is the detection of the metaphorization in human ordinary conceptual system, and that of the general concept underlying various linguistic expressions

Accordingly, metaphor should be understood as metaphorical concept (or conceptual metaphor) in distinction to metaphorical expressions (or linguistic metaphors) that

are interpreted as reflections of metaphorical concepts in language

2.1.1.1 The systematicity of conceptual metaphors

The CMT proved that one thing is partially conceptualized in terms of another systematically The systematicity is in the conceptualization which is expressed by language; thus, the metaphorical expressions are systematic, too In the metaphor LOVE IS A JOURNEY, for example, some aspects of a journey are used to talk about the process of love in a systematic way as follows

Figure 2 1 The systematicity in the conceptualization of love in terms of a journey

First, to make a journey, the participants should travel When the journey is used

to talk about love, the travelling refers to the relationship and the participants are lovers The start of the journey is understood as the start of the love relationship Second, since travelling depends on the route that the participants take When used to talk about love, the route of the journey tells the process of the relationship Next, the route will lead the travellers to their destination of the journey When used for love, the destination corresponds to the goal of the relationship However, the travelling sometimes stops but the travellers have never reached to their common destination yet At this case, the ending

of the journey refers to the ending of the relationship For example, the expression We

can’t turn back now is an application of the LOVE-AS-JOURNEY metaphor, where the

direction of the route is decided (not turn back)

2.1.1.2 Partialness of conceptual metaphors

Metaphor is systematic in both conceptual and linguistic levels In actuality, not all aspects of one concept are employed to talk about another; there are still some aspects hidden in the process of conceptualization In the metaphor LOVE IS THE SUN, for example, love is comprehended in terms of the sun via the correspondences

of love and some aspects of the sun such as sunrise (correspondent to the beginning

of love), sunset (referring to a love coming to an end), or sunlight (corresponding to the warmth and the life love brings to the partners) Besides sunrise, sunset and sunlight, another aspect relating to the sun is the cycle of a day and night which is ignored when the sun is used to conceptualize love

2.1.1.3 Metaphorical coherence and understanding

Since one concept is partially conceptualized in terms of another and one experience can be understood in terms of more than one other experience, the coherence of conceptual metaphors counts as a challenge facing the understanding of conceptual metaphors However, Lakoff and Johnson (1980a) found that the mechanism of coherence in structuring a conceptual metaphor was based on the systematicity of metaphor For the LOVE IS A JOURNEY metaphor, for instance, the thought of a journey appears when a route with the paths leading to the destination also takes shape in mind When love is conceptualized in terms of a journey, the image of

paths is reflected in language such as Look how far we’ve come; Our relationship is off

the track (Lakoff, 1993, p.206) The path of a journey should include the decisions of

directions When applied to love, it describes the decisions the couple makes in their

relationship and may be expressed as We can’t turn back now; We may have to go our

separate ways (Lakoff, 1993) In other words, the internal systematicity of the

metaphor LOVE IS A JOURNEY creates the coherence of this metaphor

The coherence and understanding of single metaphors have just been presented Then, how about complex metaphors that are defined as (1) there are more than one metaphor partially structuring a single concept and (2) there are concepts that are structured in terms of other metaphorical concepts? (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980a, p.97)

Figure 2 2 The coherence of a complex metaphor of love structured by two single metaphors- LOVE IS A JOURNEY and LOVE IS A UNITY

Firstly, to the concept that is structured in more than one metaphor and they

appear in a linguistic expression at the same time, the different conceptual aspects usually fit together in a coherent way Different metaphors serve different aspects of the concept because one metaphor cannot simultaneously satisfy more than one purpose of the concept For example, the concept LOVE is comprehended by the

experiences relating to JOURNEY and UNITY in the expression: I will go with you

anywhere (Passenger, Anywhere) In the JOURNEY metaphor, the aspects of process

(go) and destination (anywhere) are highlighted; and the aspect of closeness (with)

emerges in the UNITY metaphor Obviously, all three aspects of love cannot be satisfied by only one concept However as can be seen, two concepts JOURNEY and UNITY share a common property when they are used to conceptualize love Because

closeness is one of the goals a couple always pursue in their relationship, they can go

anywhere as long as they are with each other

Secondly, to the concept discussed in terms of the others that are themselves expressed metaphorically, there are overlapping conceptual aspects that can help the

metaphor to be understood coherently (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980a) In Xuân của đất trời

nay mới đến,/ Trong tôi xuân đến đã lâu rồi (Natural spring has just come while it came

to me a long time ago) (Xuân Diệu, Nguyên đán), there are two words xuân (spring) The first is natural spring which is understood literally The second is metaphoric spring

that is used to talk about love, hence (i) the metaphor LOVE IS SPRING In the

expression xuân đến (spring comes), spring is understood in terms of an entity that can

move; thus (ii) the metaphor SPRING (TIME) IS A MOVING ENTITY It can be inferred from (i) and (ii) that (iii) love is conceptualized in terms of a moving entity

Figure 2 3 The coherence of the conceptualization of love in terms of time that

is understood metaphorically in terms of an entity

In general, though they are understood singly or complexly, all the conceptual metaphors are structured in a coherent way The conceptualization occurs and is clearly delineated based on our concrete experiences about the natural world

2.1.1.4 Cognitive mechanism of conceptual metaphors

The CMT shows that metaphor operates at the level of thinking The essence

of a conceptual metaphor is the understanding of a concept in terms of another

through cross-domain mappings, the principal mechanism of meaning transfers in

metaphor These mappings are understood as the projections of basic knowledge elements from a source to a target in a metaphor through a cognitive framework involving “a three-part structure: two endpoints (the source and target schemas) and

a bridge between them (the detailed mapping)” (Lakoff & Turner, 1989, p.203) It is manifested in the structure TARGET DOMAIN IS/AS SOURCE DOMAIN Mapping is systematic, partial, asymmetric, unidirectional, laid from the source domain to the target domain and could be schematically presented in Figure 2.4

In this structure, a

source domain is the

conceptual domain from

which the input of the

mapping comes A target

domain is the conceptual

domain showing the output of the mapping that people try to understand It is often

an abstract concept (e.g love in our study) For example, one states, We can’t turn

back now Love here is being conceptualized in terms of a journey via the expression turn back; or the mapping LOVE IS A JOURNEY is structured In this mapping,

“LOVE IS A JOURNEY” is the name of the mapping or conceptual metaphor; LOVE

is the target domain, JOURNEY is the source domain; (not) turn back is individual

linguistic metaphor or metaphorical expression that is understood via that set of the correspondences between the source and the target domains (see Figure 2.1 again)

Figure 2 4 Conceptual mapping

2.1.1.5 Types of conceptual metaphors

Metaphors can be classified in different ways based on their conventionality, nature, function, level of generality Relying upon the degrees of conventionality of metaphors, they are categorized into two types, conventional and novel metaphors

a Conventional metaphor

Conventional metaphors are metaphors that make up the ordinary conceptual system manifested in our everyday language (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980a) They are mostly used unconsciously, automatically, and without noticeable effort Each conventional conceptual metaphor involves in several conventional metaphorical expressions, the manifestation of conceptual correspondences across conceptual domains For example in the conventional conceptual metaphor LOVE IS A PATIENT,

love can be strong and healthy, sick, on the mend or get back on feet (Lakoff & Johnson,

1980a, p.49) If such expressions can be understood immediately, it is because our comprehension of love as a patient becomes conventional and these expressions are also conventional in our everyday language system In other words, the conventional metaphorical expressions are comprehended thanks to the knowledge of conventional conceptual metaphors based on our experiences (p.151) Accordingly, the term

“conventional” can be applied to conceptual or linguistic level of metaphor; or “both conceptual and linguistic metaphors can be conventional” (Kovecses, 2006, p.127)

b Novel metaphor

Novel metaphors are metaphors that go beyond our conventional conceptual system and provide us with the new understanding of our experience (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980a) They are thus imaginative and creative The metaphor LOVE IS A COLLABORATIVE WORK OF ART is an instance that Lakoff and Johnson (1980a) employed to account for the unconventionality of conceptual metaphor in English In this metaphor, the aspects of activity in collaboration to build a work of art (i.e work, creation, pursuing goals, building, and helping) are used for love, which is considered abnormal and unavailable in our conventional conceptual system As a result, the source

domain “a collaborative work of art” is a novel concept applied in love description

In line with the term “conventional”, the term “novel” refers not just to conceptual metaphors but metaphorical expressions As mentioned above, the conceptualization in metaphor is partial A novel linguistic metaphor lies beyond the normally used part but not outside the system of cross-domain mappings in a conventional conceptual metaphor (Lakoff, 1993; Lakoff and Johnson, 1980a) The

statement is illustrated by Lakoff’s (1993) analysis of the song lyric- We’re driving

in the fast lane on the freeway of love, which is comprehensible thanks to the

conventional LOVE-AS-JOURNEY metaphor Driving in the fast lane may be

exciting but dangerous When being applied to the loving relationship, the excitement

is correspondent to sexual feelings and danger to the breakdown of the relationship These two factors are regarded as unconventional or novel extensions of the conventional metaphor LOVE IS A JOURNEY

In short, conventional metaphors count as familiar and easy to interpret while novel metaphors are unfamiliar and unreadily interpretable (Lai, 2009) However, the mechanisms for understanding conventional and novel metaphors are the same According to Kövecses (2010a, p.35), conventional and novel (i.e., unconventional)

metaphors are at two ends of what is called the scale of conventionality; but

unconventional metaphorical expressions under conventional conceptual metaphors are found more easily than unconventional conceptual metaphors

2.1.1.6 Limitations of the CMT

It can be undeniable that the CMT has so far been the powerful and fruitful theory of metaphor Significantly, cognitive linguists recognize the “thorough pervasiveness of metaphor in ordinary language and thought” (Grady, 2007, p.189) Metaphor is thus inseparable from human conventional way of understanding and experiencing the world However, there are still some restrictions found in the theory

First, various examples of verbal manifestations in Metaphors we live by

(Lakoff & Johnson, 1980) as linguistic evidences for several conceptual metaphors

are not dependable because they are provided without any sources In other words, these examples are all decontextualized while an expression of metaphor is just verified accurately within a context (Wilson & Carston, 2006; Remeo & Soria, 2005)

The second is lack of reliable criteria for metaphor identification in the CMT According to Pragglejaz Group (2007), the criteria help understand and identify metaphors in discourse easily, objectively and accurately but they are not provided specifically by cognitive metaphor scholars Lack of the criteria for identifying metaphors results in doubts about the precision and true values of empirical investigations, making it difficult to give out any comparison between different metaphorical analyses or any evaluation of theoretical statements about the frequency

of metaphor, its organization in discourse, and possible relations between language and thought in metaphor

The third is the question of determining the apt projection between the source and the target domains in a metaphor (Gibbs, 2011) There is a bit of a mystery of how the target of a given metaphor serves to constrain possible source domain, as well as to determine which parts of those source domains become conceptually active

in the metaphor (Romeo & Soria, 2005)

Although there are some shortcomings, the CMT is still regarded as an effective approach to structuring and comprehending metaphors at this time Furthermore, the studying of metaphor is being carried out continually The theory is consequently more and more bettered and improved The limitations have been basically remedied, particularly the guiding criteria for metaphor identification

2.1.2 Recent development in conceptual metaphor

The CMT has so far been considered groundbreaking in metaphorical use and understanding despite being criticised much In accompany with the criticisms, several studies have been carried out to reinforce and further develop the CMT The truth of the CMT has been demonstrated by metaphorical analyses in many kinds of registers such as politics (Lakoff, 2004; Charteris-Black, 2004), culture (Kovecses,

2005, 2010b), literature (Lakoff & Turner, 1989; Gibbs, 1994; Kovecses, 2010a; Steen, 2007; Weisberg, 2012), medicine (Semino et al., 2004) among others Many

of these researches are discourse/corpus-based analyses, which partially helps to stamp out the doubt about the reliability of the CMT Besides, the theory has been modified by some suggestions of identifying metaphors in language such as a 5-step procedure of conceptual metaphor identification by Steen (1999), the approach to metaphor identification by Charteris-Black (2004), the Pragglejaz’s (2007) method for identifying metaphors in discourse (MIP) and its expansion called MIP-VU All

of them help to better the CMT However, issues of the metaphorical understanding

is still controversial; as a result, several theories have been built up with the aim of supporting the interpretation of metaphors

2.1.2.1 Categorization view of metaphor

Bowdle and Gentner (1999) treated metaphor as a species of categorization The categorization view of metaphor makes use of an attributive category that is exemplified or typical of an entity to attribute to another entity According to this view, metaphor is a class-inclusion statement (Glucksberg & Keysar, 1993; cited in Kovecses, 2011) When one says “surgeon is a butcher”, for example, the attributive category of a butcher as being “bungling, atrocious” that is typical of “incompetence”

is assigned to the surgeon who is understood as being incompetent

2.1.2.2 Blending theory of metaphor

In line with the CMT fathered by Lakoff and Johnson (1980a), blending theory, or conceptual integration theory raised by Fauconnier and Turner (2002), talks

of metaphor as a conceptual phenomenon activated by a systematic projection between mental spaces The conceptual blending uses the 4-space model (instead of the 2-domain model of the CMT) to account for metaphorical concepts They includes two inputs (equivalent to source and target domains in the CMT), a generic space (where common properties of both inputs are shared), and a blend space (where information from the inputs combines and interacts) (Grady, Oakley, & Coulon,

1999, p 421) The blending includes three basic processes – composition, completion and elaboration Composition is the projection of properties from each of the inputs into the blend; completion refers to the process of matching projected content with the long-term memorized information in the blend; and elaboration shows cognitive activities of the event that are reproduced in the blend The utterance “surgeon is a butcher” is, for example, illustrated in Figure 2.5 and analysed as follows

Figure 2 5 Conceptual blending of “surgeon as butcher” (Grady et al.,1999)

The two input spaces (butchery and surgery) are connected by a set of their correspondent properties that are linked to shared properties in the generic space The blend space inherits the properties from both input spaces; therefore, in the blended space, there is a surgeon in the role of a butcher who cannot do a good job in trying

to heal a patient, which leads to such an understanding way of his incompetence

Approving of the integration view, Gibbs (2011) adopts the dynamic system theory to account for metaphorical phenomena According to this theory, metaphor

is employed and understood in a whole system of the interaction of brain, body and world based on the principle of self-organization through simulations To understand

a metaphorical utterance, there may be more than one conceptual metaphor being activated and used The dynamic system approach focuses on analysing linguistic expressions in a discourse in order to find out the trace of the metaphor that connects

to the thinking and language system This approach is consequently turned into a method of “metaphor-led discourse analysis” including the procedure of transcription, metaphor identification, coding metaphors and using software, finding patterns of metaphor use from coded data (Cameron, et al., 2009)

It is noteworthy that the projections in the blending theory may occur in more than one direction, which challenges the CMT However, Grady et al (1999) argued that the metaphorical blend inherit the directionality of conventional mappings when employing them

2.1.2.3 Neural theory of metaphor

Neural theory developed by Lakoff (2008) makes sense of metaphorical

phenomena via the so-called primary metaphors that evoke in the process of dealing

with a metaphor According to this theory, the metaphorical use and understanding is grounded on embodiment and the extension of conceptual blending called neural binding In the metaphor LOVE IS A JOURNEY, for example, there are the mappings from the source (journey) to the target (love) domains that are described as follows

- Travellers correspond to lovers;

- Vehicle corresponds to the relationship;

- Destinations is correspondent to life goals;

- Impediments to motion are correspondent to difficulties

Figure 2 6 Neural theory applied to the LOVE IS A JOURNEY metaphor

(Lakoff, 2008)

In the process of mappings, there is a chain of “evokes” constituting linking circuits between the component metaphors and the metaphor LOVE IS A JOURNEY (called “Self.”) The component metaphors activate based on the neural bindings All the process of understanding the metaphor LOVE IS A JOURNEY can be illustrated

in the following figure, where the arrows (→) are correspondent to linking circuits and the equal signs (=) specify the neural bindings

2.1.2.4 The view based on the main meaning focus

Kovecses (2011) proposed a view of treating metaphors by using main meaning foci that are set up by the central knowledge of the source domain; then, they are mapped onto the target domain The central meaning foci can be identified as the contrast of two concepts in a metaphor, or they can also be found in dictionaries In the metaphorical statement “The surgeon is a butcher”, for example, the surgery is understood as a precise work that is not required for butchery This aspect is an emergent contrast in

the comparison of these two concepts, whereby the central meaning focus is defined

in the source domain as bungling, sloppy or careless Then, this central meaning focus

is mapped onto the target domain of surgery and the metaphor is comprehended

In sum, the CMT after its birth has received both approvals and criticisms Many theoretical and practical studies have been carried out in order to demonstrate the truth of the CMT and better it Besides, there are other theories raised as alternative suggestions of the CMT Some of them challenge the CMT to the unidirectionality of conceptual metaphors; still, the issue of multi-directionality in conceptual metaphor mappings has been a matter of controversy Furthermore, the CMT is still the core on which most of the recent theories of metaphors are based to develop In addition, these theories can complement the CMT and each other in the interpretation of metaphor (Kovecses, 2011) As a result, the CMT is still the main choice for our study, which focuses on expressions of metaphor of romantic love

2.1.3 Expression of metaphor

According to the CMT, metaphor is understood as one mental domain being conceptualized in terms of another Therefore, metaphor is conceptual in nature; it is

manifested in language through linguistic expressions which are called expressions

of metaphor (or metaphorical expressions, or linguistic metaphors) in our study In

other words, expressions of metaphor are the linguistic evidence of a conceptual metaphor (or metaphorical concept) For instance, the conceptual metaphor LOVE IS

A JOURNEY is reflected by a variety of expressions: Look how far we’ve come It’s

been a long, bumpy road We can’t turn back now (Lakoff, 1993, p.206)

2.1.4 Metaphor and culture

Culture is a term with hundreds of different definitions in the world Making

a generalization of these definitions, Spencer- Oatey (2012) defined culture as basic assumptions and values that influence (but not determine) one’s behaviour and help

to understand the behaviour of other members in their community The manifestations of culture are found in lifestyle, beliefs, the system of procedures,