A contrastive study on metonymy in english and vietnamese

Practically, this study is intended to help Vietnamese learners of English to have more knowledge of metonymy as a transference mode of meaning in English and Vietnamese.. The difference

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

A CONTRASTVE STUDY ON METONYMY IN

ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

(NGHIÊN CỨU ĐỐI CHIẾU VỀ HOÁN DỤ TRONG

TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT)

TRẦN PHƯƠNG THANH

Hanoi, 2016

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

A CONTRASTIVE STUDY ON METONYMY IN

ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

(NGHIÊN CỨU ĐỐI CHIẾU VỀ HOÁN DỤ TRONG

TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT)

TRẦN PHƯƠNG THANH Field: English Language Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Vo Dai Quang

Hanoi, 2016

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled

A CONTRASTIVE STUDY ON METONYMY IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree

of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2016

Tran Phuong Thanh

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Assoc Prof Dr Vo Dai Quang

Date: 22/12/2016

I have completed this thesis with the help and support from the following people First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Assoc Prof

Dr Vo Dai Quang, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported

me during the process of conducting study and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions are very helpful for my academic research

I would like to acknowledge a special word of thanks to Mrs Van Anh, an English lecturer of Hanoi College of Pharmacy and many others If there were not their support and encouragement, it would be impossible for me to complete the thesis Last but not least, I am grateful to my family, my colleagues for the sacrifice they have devoted to the accomplishment of this academic research

ABSTRACT

This study provides a contrastive analysis of metonymy in English and Vietnamese Theoretically, this is a systematic study on the metonymy as a transference mode of meaning in English Furthermore, it is aimed at finding the similarities and differences in the ways of using metonymy in English and Vietnamese Practically, this study is intended to help Vietnamese learners of English to have more knowledge of metonymy as a transference mode of meaning in English and Vietnamese Therefore, they will get use of the knowledge of metonymy to enhance their vocabulary Contrastive analysis is the main method based on the data collected from many books, websites and previous studies

The findings of the study provide evidence that metonymy is very widely used in both spoken and written language Using this mode of transference of meaning brings more rhetorical color for the language English and Vietnamese share some similarities and differences in using metonymy The differences in the ways

of using metonymy between English and Vietnamese are based on the different culture and history The results of the study are significant because they enrich the knowledge of metonymy As a result, learners, teachers or translators can apply this knowledge for their career

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

BofE.: Bank of English

BNC.: British National Corpus

OALDCE: Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English

ICM.: Idealized Cognitive Model

S.: Same

D.: Different

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 2 Similarities and differences of metonymy in English and

Vietnamese

41

2.2.1.2.1 Definition of transference of meaning 6

2.2.2.1 Metonymy as a means of meaning transference 8

2.2.2.3.The contiguity notion of metonymy 11

4.1.Similarities and differences of metonymy in English and

Vietnamese

41

4.1.1 The similarities of metonymy in English and Vietnamese 45

4.1.1.3 In terms of classification of metonymy 46 4.1.2 The differences between metonymy in English and Vietnamese 49 4.1.2.1 In terms of classification of metonymy 50

4.2 Implications in teaching and learning and translating English as a

foreign language

53

4.2.1 Implications in teaching and learning English as a foreign

5.4 Recommendations/Suggestions for a further research 60

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale for the research

Vocabulary plays an important part in a language The more vocabularies we have, the better results we get in learning a language Among the issues related to vocabulary, the transference of meaning is taken into consideration and studied

by many linguists all over the world Among some mode of meaning transference, we realize that metonymy is a very effective way to use language

We can come across many examples of metonymy both from literature and in everyday life We use language very naturally in daily life but do not know about the term metonymy Many people have difficulties in understanding some contexts in which metonymy are used This is because of their lack of knowledge about the term metonymy and its usage Therefore, understanding the context of a metonymy is very important The main purpose of using metonymy is to add rhetorical flavor to the texts Using metonymy serves two purposes- it avoids repeating the same phrase and it makes the sentences more interesting and profound Metonymy is a linguistic phenomenon that is very popular in English and Vietnamese There are some relationships between two languages in terms of metonymy That is very interesting and useful to find out the beauty of the two languages and use our knowledge of metonymy in learning and teaching language Because of being attracted by metonymy as a means of transference meaning, I decide to choose the metonymy as the subject for my study I also make some comparisons in the use of metonymy in both English and Vietnamese

1.2 Aims of research

This is a systematic study on the metonymy as a means of meaning transference

in English The aims of this study are:

(i) To enhance learners’ awareness of metonymy as one means of meaning

transference

(ii) To help learners of English enrich their vocabulary, identify and avoid

some mistakes in learning English Teachers of English also get useful background knowledge of metonymy as a means of meaning transference Therefore, they can help their students improve vocabulary in learning English

1.3 Objectives of research

With the above-mentioned purposes, this study is intended to:

(i) Point out the similarities and differences of metonymy in English and

Vietnamese

(ii) Put forward some suggestions for teaching, learning and translating

from English to Vietnamese and vice versa

1.4 Scope of research

The study will identify the different cases of metonymy in English and Vietnamese and figure out the similarities and differences in using metonymy of both languages However, for the limited time and personal knowledge, this study only concentrates on some most common cases of metonymy used in communication and literature works of both languages

1.5 Significance of research

The result of the study is very useful for both learners and teachers of English As for teachers, this research is a good reference of the use of metonymy as a figure

of speech As for students, they will have better understanding of the metonymy and will have better result in learning English in general and learning vocabulary

in particular This study is also helpful for translators As for translators, they will

be more aware of the similarities and differences of metonymy in both two languages Therefore, they will have better translating from English to Vietnamese and vice versa

1.6 Structure of the thesis

The study is divided into five chapters The first chapter “INTRODUCTION” outlines the background of the study In this chapter, a brief overview of relevant information is given about the rationale, aims, and scopes Chapter 2, entitled

“LITERATURE REVIEW”, is an overview of some previous researches on the same subject both in English and Vietnamese In this chapter, it gives a theoretical background to this study with theoretical preliminaries directly related

to the investigation of metonymy in both English and Vietnamese

Chapter 3 – RESEARCH METHODOLOGY – focuses on the researching approach of the study and the method to collect and analyze the data

Chapter 4 with the title FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS summarizes the findings in metonymy in English and Vietnamese

Chapter 5 – CONCLUSION points out the recapitulations, the limitation of the study, implications of the study and suggestions for further studies

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Review of previous studies

Metonymy, a means of meaning transference, has a greatly expressive value It is

an interesting topic for studies all over the world In fact, metonymy has been dealt with by many famous linguists or scholars in both English and Vietnamese The study of metonymy in cognitive linguistics starts with the publication of the

influential book Metaphor we live by of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in

1980 In this book, the author noted that: “metonymic concepts… are parts of the ordinary, everyday way we think and act as well as talk” (Lakoff and Johnson,1980: 37) However, the book emphasized the main cognitive mechanism guiding human conceptualization was conceptual metaphor The major contribution to the study of metonymy in linguistics is the publication of

(1999:1) pointed out that “metonymy is a cognitive phenomenon that may be even more fundamental than metaphor” There are still many research papers about metonymy in English and some other languages Each researcher tried to discover different aspects of metonymy However, metonymy is still controversial issue for many researchers “For instance, one of the main problem arise from the claim that metonymy operates within the same conceptual domain, whereas metaphor connects two different conceptual domains.” (Barcelona et al, 2011) In recent years, metonymy is studied in some research works such as

metonymy such as Metonymy in English and Vietnamese: A contrastive analysis ( Trịnh Minh Hải, 2003) and Metonymy as the transferences of meaning: a

contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese (Phạm Thị Hoài Thu, 2007) These authors have made great contributions to the theoretical background of metonymy From the previous studies, it can be seen that metonymy have been discussed in many aspects, especially in comparison with metaphor However, there have not been many studies on metonymy in both English and Vietnamese, which leave room for me to conduct the research thesis For this reason, the study attempts to deal with the similarities as well as differences in metonymy in English and Vietnamese and give some suggestions for the teaching, learning and translation of English

2.2 Review of theoretical background

2.2.1 Theoretical framework

2.2.1.1 Word meaning

There have been many definitions of word meaning According to the theory of naming, one of the oldest views, a word in a language refers to an object It can

be understood that words are only names or labels for the things While this view

is acceptable for nouns, it is not really suitable for other parts of speech such as adjectives, prepositions, articles, etc Besides, this theory is only true to define concrete objects, but it seems to be ineffective to define abstract things such as happiness, sadness, hope, etc That is the limitation of this theory Therefore, linguists try to explain the term in another way They realize that it is necessary

to differentiate what a word denotes from what they refer to According to this view, word meaning can be classified into denotation and reference Denotation

is the literal meaning or dictionary meaning of a word in contrast with its

connotative or associated meanings Reference is a relation between objects in which one object designates, or acts as a means by which to connect to or link to, another object The first object in this relation is said to refer to the second object The second object, the one to which the first object refers, is called

the referent of the first object (Wikipedia) Many theories of meaning have been discussed in the book “An introduction to Semantics” of Nguyen Hoa (2001:14-16) According to the referential (or denotational) approach, the meaning of

a word or expression is understood as what it refers to, denotes, or stands for The ideational (or mentalistic) theories, on the other hand, considers it the idea, or concept associated with it in the mind of anyone who knows and understands the word According to the verificationist theory, the meaning of word, is determined by the verifiability of the sentences, or propositions, containing it, i.e the meaning of word is verified by concrete situation Linguists following functionalist theory, however, divide the word meaning into ideational meaning, interpersonal meaning and textual meaning In general, there are many theories of word meaning but it seems that the meaning

of a word is not the same all the time but keeps changing in different situations

2.2.1.2 Transference of meaning

2.2.1.2.1 Definition of transference of meaning

According to Nguyen Hoa (2001:64) transference of meaning refers to the situation when one object is named and understood in terms of another In other words, one word can extend its meaning or narrow its meaning to refer to another object (another referent)

There are some ways to transfer a word meaning into the new one based on certain relations As a result, we also have some means of transference of meaning as the following

2.2.1.2.2 Means of meaning transference

There are various means of meaning transference such as metaphor, metonymy, hyperbole, irony, etc Metaphor, according to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, is

a figure of speech which refers to one thing by mentioning another thing The

metaphor is used to enhance rhetorical effect, provide clarity and identify hidden similarities between two ideas A simile is used to compare two items while a metaphor directly equates them without using "like" or "as" as a simile Metaphor

is defined as a means of transference of meaning based on similarity between the two objects (the domain and the target) An object is named after another because there are some similarities between them Metaphor is also considered as hidden comparison

Metonymy, on the other hand, is a figure of speech that replaces the name of a thing with the name of another thing closely associated Metonymy, as a means

of meaning transference, will be discussed in detail in the next two chapters because it is the main subject of this research

Hyperbole, according to Wikipedia, is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical

device or figure of speech In rhetoric, it is also known as auxesis In poetry and oratory, it evokes strong feelings and impressions As a figure of speech, it is usually not meant literally Hyperbole is also used for instances of exaggerations for emphasis Hyperboles are frequently used in casual speech as intensifiers, such as saying "the bag weighed a ton" Hyperbole is used to emphasize the point that the bag is very heavy There is nothing like a literal ton here.Understanding hyperboles and their use in context can enhance one's ability to understand the messages from the speaker.Hyperbole can be used in a form ofexcitementdistress,humour and other emotions All of these emotions depend

on the context in which the speaker uses

According to Wikipedia, irony, in its broadest sense, is a rhetorical device, literary technique In this figure of speech,what appears, on the surface, to be the case, differs radically from what is actually the case Irony is classified into three categories: a verbal, dramatic, and situational

There are other types of transference of meaning involve litotes which is a figure

of speech that uses understatement to emphasize a point by stating a negative to confirm a positive or combining double negatives for effectand euphemisms which is an innocuous word or expression used in place of one that may be offensive or describe something unpleasant (Wikipedia)

To sum up, language in general and its components like word meaning in particular is changing day after day This changing of word meaning is because

of both linguistic and extra linguistic causes The means of the meaning transference also play an important role in the changing of word meaning In the next part we will discuss one of the most basic mode of meaning transference called Metonymy

2.2.2 Theoretical background

2.2.2.1 Metonymy as a means of meaning transference

According to Nguyen Hoa (2001), metonymy is the transference of meaning from one object to another based on contiguity of notions.One famous example of metonymy is the saying, "The pen is mightier than the sword" which came from

Edward Bulwer Lytton's play Richelieu We can see two examples of metonymy

in this sentence

• The "pen" refers to "the written word."

• The "sword" refers to "military aggression and force."

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, metonymy is a figure of speech in which

a thing or concept is called not by its own name but by the name of something associated with that thing or concept in meaning The

words metonymy and metonym come from the Greek µετωνυµία, metōnymía, "a change of name", from µετά, metá, "after, beyond" and -ωνυµία, -ōnymía, a

suffix which is used to name figures of speech People commonly use understood and easy-to-perceive aspect of something to refer to it Metonymy as

well-a figure of speech is very common in everydwell-ay speech well-and writing For exwell-ample, it’s very popular to refer to celebrity life and culture in the United States as

“Hollywood,” as in “Hollywood is obsessed with this new diet.” This statement does not mean that the place has any obsession, but refers to the celebrities and wannabe celebrities who reside there

In Metaphors We Live By George Lakoff and Mark Johnson devote a complete

chapter to metonymy and define it: "Using one entity to refer to another that is related to it." (1980:35-39)

Metonymy is defined by Lakoff (1987: 78) as a stand-for relation which exists in one particular ICM (Idealized Cognitive Model) A conceptual domain, or ICM, can be considered as a whole Specifically, the conceptual entities, or element, are the parts constituting the ICM as a whole There are some background conditions in an ICM including the “stands for” relation between two elements A and B In this case, one element of the ICM, B, may stand for element A The ICM’s metonymies may emerge in two ways (1) either a whole stands for a part

or a part stands for a whole (2) a part stands for another part ( Kövecses, 2002: 150) Lakoff and Turner (1989) consider metonymy as a type of conceptual mapping Metonymy is seen as a cognitive tool used for conceptualization rather than a linguistic strategy or a rhetorical device In the traditional view, metonymy

is chiefly the use of a word in place of another if the meaning of words contiguously related In the cognitive linguistic view, metonymy is conceptual in nature Its main function is to provide mental access through one conceptual entity to another It is based on ICMs with specific conceptual relationship among their elements (Kövecses, 2002: 160)

In short, according to the above definitions, metonymy is a means of transference

of meaning based on a logical or physical relation between entities In metonymy

a thing is named by its action, its function or by some significant features Metonymy is one of the modes of forming the new meanings of words in the language Metonymy helps us think about people and things creatively We can substitute one thing for the other in a sentence in case the two things are associated

2.2.2.2 Metonymy and Metaphor

In order to understand deeply about metonymy, it is really important to differentiate between metonymy and metaphor which are two basic means of transference of meaning

Metaphor and metonymy are both figures of speech which use one word in place

of another However, especially in cognitive science and linguistics, the two figures of speech are very different Roman Jakobson (2002) showed that they represent two fundamentally different ways of processing language

From Wikipedia, metonymy works by the contiguity(association) between two concepts, whereas the term "metaphor" works by their analogous similarity When people use metonymy, they do not typically transfer qualities from one referent to another as they do with metaphor There is nothing press-like about reporters or crown-like about a monarch However "the press" and "the crown" are both popular metonyms

Two examples using the term "fishing" will clarify the distinction.The phrase "to fish pearls" is an example of metonymy drawing from "fishing" the idea of taking things from the ocean The domain of metonymy is what is carried across from

"fishing fish" to "fishing pearls" In contrast, "fishing for information" which is the metaphorical phrase, transfers the concept of fishing into a new domain If

someone is "fishing" for information, it does not mean that the person is near the ocean In fact, we transpose elements of the action of fishing (waiting, hoping to catch something that cannot be seen) into a new domain (a conversation) Hence, metaphor is used by presenting a target set of meanings and using them to suggest a similarity between items, actions, or events in two domains, whereas metonymy references a specific domain The differences between metonymy and metaphor are described in the table which is drawn from the study of Pham Thi Hoai Thu ( 2007:15)

A phrase that is silently related to the

concept is substituted for the

Table 1: Features of Metonymy and Metaphor

2.2.2.3 The contiguity notion of metonymy

Both traditional rhetorician and cognitive linguists agree with the concept that the notion of “contiguity” (i.e nearness or neighborhood) is the key term in understanding of the definition of metonymy While cognitive approaches locate contiguity relationship at the conceptual level, traditional approaches locate them in the real world Lakoff (1987) locates metonymic contiguity within the framework of ICMs (idealized cognitive models) Croft (1993) regards contiguity relations as in terms of encyclopedic knowledge

representation within a domain or domain matrix; Blank (1999) and Panther and Thornburg (1999) have a description of the network of conceptual contiguity by using the notion of frame and scenario respectively

While all of these are comparable with respect to claiming a cognitive basis, we will consider Lakoff’s (1987) framework of idealized cognitive models (ICMs) as the cognitive mechanism of metonymy because it captures the metonymic processes very well

The ICMs are regarded as the mental representations of typical situations in life and their typical elements The mental representations are both static and dynamic Concepts within ICMs are associated by “conceptual contiguity”.“An ICM concept is meant to include not only people’s encyclopedic knowledge of a particular domain but also the cultural model they are part of”(Radden& Kovecses, 1999: 20).The content of an ICM is based on people’s everyday experience, their knowledge about the world: beings, things, processes, and actions that occur together are described in the mind as ICMs For example, there are Possession ICM, Production ICM, Control ICM, etc ICMs and the network

of conceptual relationships give rise to associations in metonymic transfer When

a specific ICM is accessed, all concepts belong to this ICM are activated For

example:

A: How did you get to the railway station?

B: I waved down a taxi

According to Jialing Guan (2009), speaker B wants to inform listener A that “ I got to the railway station by hailing a taxi, having it stop and getting into it, and then the driver drove me to the railway station and parked there, then I got out and arrived at the railway station”.The whole process is so complicated that

it is difficult for the speaker to express it by a few words Speaker B does

not give outall thesedetails of the event It is understood that traveling from one place to another can be considered as a whole event or more accurately, a

Travel ICM This Travel ICM includes a series of actions And ICM of this series

of event is described as the following:

Precondition: You have (or have access to) the vehicle

Embarkation: You get into the vehicle and start it up

Center: You drive (row, fly, etc.) to your destination

Finish: You park and get out

Jialing Guan (2009) figures out that in everyday life, people often speak only one part of this ICM such as the Precondition, Embarkation or Center, to refer to the

entire series of Travel ICM Hence, this metonymic way of thinking and

speaking can curtail the process of pragmatic reasoning in information exchange and improve its efficiency

In general, it can be understood that ICM works as a background of metonymy and, it plays an important part in the human communication with the world

2.2.2.4 Types of metonymy in English

There are many ways of classifications according to the linguistics from the early stage until now Each pattern of classification tries to cover all cases of metonymy However, it is very difficult to give out a perfect classification of metonymy There are some types of metonymy which are ambiguous and difficult to realize Therefore, in the limitation of time and length of the thesis, only some most typical types of metonymy are listed The metonymy

classification is based on the close relationship between entities in everyday experience There are several varieties of metonymy based on many kinds of association between objects The following types are the most popular ones which are collected and chosen from theories of Panther and Radden (1999), Lakoff and Johnson (1980)

Type 1: A -part-for-whole metonymy:

The relation between a part and a whole is always easy to be seen, so that metonymy can base on this relation to transfer the meaning of words This is a metonymy in which a reference to a characteristic or an important part of entity is used to stands for the whole entity This type of metonymy is common in English In this case, body parts are often used to transfer the meaning of the whole person We firstly look at some examples in which the words denoting the parts can substitute for the word of the wholes

We will have clear understanding through some examples:

(1)We don’t hire long hairs

(2) She’s just a pretty face

(Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 37-39)

In the above example, hair and face - parts of body stand for the whole

person.We will consider some more examples:

In these sentences, the parts of the body are used to refer to the whole person Therefore, we do not understand the utterances directly but in a more imaginative

way thanks to the figure of speech In the above examples, hired hands refer to hired people Similarly, counts of heads refer to count of people in the following sentences

Type 2: A whole-for-part metonymy

This is the reserve type of the part- for-whole metonymy, in which the whole is used to refer to the part Metonymy, in this case, is the use of the whole object to refer to a part of the object This type of metonymy tends to be somewhat rare in real world data It is not as common as the part-for-whole metonymy Some examples as following will make it clear

In these examples, the whole university is used as a metonymic sense to stand for University Council and Governing Committee, and the police refer to some members of the police force

Type 3: Material for object metonymy

This is a metonymy in which material is used to stand for thing made of the material We will consider some following examples from the Bank of English:

In these examples, furs are used to metonymically stand for clothes made of fur

In English, there are also many examples of this type of metonymy For example:

A taffeta refers to a dress made of taffeta A mink refers to a mink coat A jersey refers to a knitted shirt or sweater A glass refers to container made of glass

Type 4: Salient Property for category

We can account for the metonymies in which the defining property of a category stands for the whole category Let’s consider some examples:

In example (9), backs stand for back people In this case, the salient property- black is used to refer the whole category- back people

Type 5: Cause for effect metonymy

(10)Healthy complexion if used for the good state of health bringing about the

effect of healthy complexion ( Panther and Radden, 1999: 38)

Type 6: Effect for Cause metonymy

(11)Slow road stands for slow traffic resulting from poor state of road

( Panther and Radden, 1999: 38)

Type 7: Producer for Product metonymy

This is a metonymy in which a reference to the producer of a product is used to stand for the product

For example:

(12) He bought a Ford

(Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 38-39)

In the first example, Ford refers to the car produced by the firm names “Ford” Similarly, it is very popular to use a Mercedes, a Toyota, a Suzuki refer to the products made by these firms In the second example, Picasso metonymically stands for Picasso’s drawing

Type 8: A name-of-author-for-work metonymy

Author and his works share a very close relation and his name can normally not

be separated from his works That seems to be the reasons why authors’ names are transferred to denote their works

Examples:

(13) People are hungry for Shakespeare in America.( BofE)

(14) He’s got a Picasso in his den (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 38-39)

In the example (13), the noun “Shakespeare” refers metonymically to the noun

“plays written by Shakespeare” Picasso metonymically stands for Picasso’s drawing

We also observe the transfer of names of inventors or authors as in “volt”,

“ampere”, “watt” This is a metonymy in which name of author is used to stand

for his work Watt (name of a scientist) refers to unit measuring capacity of electricity Ampere (name of a scientist) refers to unit measuring intensity of electricity Volt (name of a scientist) refers to unit measuring productivity of

electricity

However, these metonymies are so popular and international ones and have no rhetorical meaning We also see many cases using names of writers, painters instead of their works This way of using language is very familiar and popular in everyday life For example: Picasso refers to paintings drawn by Picasso Dickens refers to literary works written by Dickens

Type 9: Possessor for Possessed metonymy

One example is drawn from the book of Panther and Radden is as follows

(15) That’sme (Panther and Radden 1999:40)

In this case, me refer to my car The car is possessed by a person Hence, the

person is the substitution for the car in the context

Type 10: Possessed for Possessor metonymy

(16) He married money (Panther and Radden, 1999: 40)

In this situation, money has the metonymic sense which stands for person with money

Type 11: An object-used-for-user metonymy

This is a metonymy in which a reference to a tool is used to represent the user of the tool

For example:

(17)The Sax has the flu today

(18)The buses are on strike

(Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 38-39)

The Sax refers to person who plays saxophone The buses stand for the bus drivers.To understand this sentence, it is very important to know the means of transference of meaning there Therefore, this sentence will be meaningless if they are understood in direct meaning We are very familiar with use this way of speaking in our everyday life Therefore, this sentence is still understandable and clear for almost everyone

Type 12: Place for inhabitant metonymy

(19) The whole town showed up (Panther and Radden, 1999: 41)

In this case, the whole town is the substitution for people living in the town

Type 13: Inhabitant for Placemetonymy

(20) The French hosted the World Cup Soccer Games (Panther and Radden,

1999: 41)

In this example, the French who live in France is used as the substitution for France In fact, France hosted the World Cup Soccer Games

Type 14: Place for Institution metonymy

This is a metonymy in which a reference to the place at which an institution is located is used to stand for the institution itself We will consider some examples drawn from previous research

(21)The White House is not saying anything

(22)Paris is introducing longer skirts this season

(23)Wall Street has reacted positively to the change in interest rates

(Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 38-39)

In the first example of this type of metonymy, the White House(the place where the home and office of the president of the United States is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C) refers to the office of the U.S government Wall Street (the street which is the center of New York’s financial district where the New York stock Exchange is situated) refers to the stock Exchange or America’s Economy Paris (the capital of France) represents the kingdom of the world fashion We will have a look at some more examples

(24)Washington has started negotiating with Moscow

(25)Hollywood is putting out terrible movies

(Panther and Radden, 1999: 64)

(26) Cambridge won’t publish the book (Panther and Radden, 1999: 41)

In the example (26), Cambridge , a city in England, is a substitution forCambridge University Press

Type 15: Institution for place metonymy

(27) I live close to the University (Panther and Radden, 1999: 41)

In this case, we can understand that the person live close to the place in which the

University is situated

Type 16: Place for event metonymy

We will consider the following example:

(28) Remember the Alamo (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 38-39)

army of about 4000 Mexican soldiers killed 187 Taxans defending it in 1836.)

(29) Napoleon lost at Waterloo.(Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 38-39)

In the example (26),Waterloo stand for battle fought at Waterloo

Type 17: Event for place metonymy

(30) Battle is the name of the village in East Sussex where the Battle of Hasting

was fought (Panther and Radden, 1999: 41)

Type 18: Institution for people responsible

This is a metonymy in which a reference to a whole institution is used to represent the people who perform an action

This is a metonymy in which a reference to the controller entity is used to represent the controlled entity

Let’s consider following the example

(32) Schwartzkopf defeated Iraq (Panther and Radden, 1999: 45)

In this sentence, Schwartzkopf has a metonymic sense and stands for US army

that did the fighting We will have a look at some other examples drawn from

Metaphor we live by:

(33) Nixxon bombed Hanoi.(Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 38-39)

It can be understood in the second sentence that Nixxon is used as a metonymy to refer to American army

Type 20: Controlled for Controller metonymy

(34) The Mercedes has arrived (Panther and Radden, 1999: 41)

In this case, the Mercedes is used as a substitution for the driver of the Mercedes

In English, the Controlled for Controller metonymy seems to apply only to situations in which the things controlled is really salient or the controller is

unknown

Type 21: Container for content metonymy

In this case of metonymy, we use the name of container instead of the thing contained The transfer goes from the container to its contents Let’s have a look

at some example as below:

(35)The kettle is boiling

(36)He drank three bottles

(37)The dam has dried up

(Panther and Radden, 1999: 103)

It is clear that neither “kettle” can boil nor the man can swallow the “bottles” In fact, it is not the kettle but water in that kettle is boiling The case is nearly the same when we look at the second example and find that in fact the man drank some beer or water or juice in the bottles not the bottles themselves The third sentence uses the dam to substitute for the water in the dam In other words, the words “kettle” and “cup” or “dam” in these examples are used to refer to other things, which are contained in those kinds of containers

We will consider some more examples which are less common

(38)She (re)arranged the bookshelf/ closet

(39)The lecture hall burst into laughter

(Panther and Radden, 1999: 103)

In fact, she rearranged the books on the bookshelf; the audience in the lecture hall burst into laughter “The bookshelf/closet” and “the lecture hall” are all substitutions for what they contain

Type 22: Content for the container metonymy

In this case, the milk is used as a substitution for the milk container

a. Physical items- related concept metonymy

Let’s consider the following example:

(41)A book written in a careful hand

In example (41), careful hand stands for careful writing In example (42), means

controlling something

Body parts make particular good objects; we routinely use human parts to refer to abstract human domains Special subcases of concrete over abstract metonymy are as following:

For example, head is normally considered as the most important part of the body which control the operation of the whole body and it contains your brain which has direct relation to a person’s intelligence So if that person is very clever, the word “head” is employed to symbol that characteristic The same way of explanation also works effectively in the case of the next example about “kind

heart” to refer to a kind person From Wikipedia, stomach or belly stands for appetite or hunger, mouth stands for speech

c A behavioral-reactions-for-emotion metonymy

In this type of metonymy, the description of the behavior of a person experiencing a particular emotion represents that emotion In English, this type of metonymy is frequently used in everyday language

English, tongue-lashing, dirty look are used in reference to anger People often

have these behavioral reactions when they get angry Therefore, we use these special expressions to stand for our anger

In general, from what have been analyzed and discussed, it can be found that metonymy is an effective means to transfer meaning of a word to refer to other referent By simply using the contiguity between notions basing on metonymical relations, English people have brought many significant changes to their language Because associative thinking is so important in creative work, literary devices like metonymy are commonly found In both literature and daily conversation, we express ideas thoughtfully and creatively by substituting them with associated phrases In the next chapter we will point out how Vietnamese people use their metonymy After that, we make a contrast between metonymy in English and Vietnamese

2.2.2.5 Types of metonymy in Vietnamese

In daily life, people use metonymy very often in many different situations without any awareness of its existence Diep Quang Ban (1998:203) gives some example of addressing someone by employing metonymy as a means of meaning transference

- appearance: anh lùn (a short man), chị béo (a fat woman), con bé cận (a

short-sighted girl)

- clothes or properties: anh áo đỏ (the man in red), bác xích-lô (the man who ride

a cyclo)

- career: bà giáo (a teacher), bác lái xe (a driver)

- post: ông hiệu trưởng (the headmaster), lớp trưởng (the monitor)

As in English, in Vietnamese there is a system of metonymic relations which is the base of meaning transference of words There are also some types of metonymy based on the system of metonymic relations However, of all various relations and different types of metonymy, we will attempt to list the most commonly used and easily recognized ones The following cases are drawn from the theories of Diep Quang Ban (1999) and Dinh Trong Lac (1997)

Type 1:A behavioral-reactions-for-emotion metonymy

Like English, in Vietnamese, the description of behavior experiencing a particular emotion is used to stand for that emotion

In Vietnamese, there is a type of metonymy in which the name of an observed concrete position is used to denote behavior or physiological, psychological state accompanying with it

For example: Cúi đầu refers to resignation Quỳ gối refers to humiliating submission Ngẩng đầu refers to indomitable courage Khoanh tay refers to

submission

This type of metonymy is used not only in daily language but also in

literature as a means of describing and creating poetic image

For example:

Type 2: A-controller-for-controlled metonymy:

In Vietnamese, they also use the name of the controller instead of the

controlled entity This way of speaking is used much in science contexts

For example: (44) Năm Tân Dậu (1801), Nguyễn Ánh ra đánh Phú Xuân Quang

phong kiến Việt Nam)

In the above example, Nguyễn Ánh, Quang Toản is the name of controllers

which are used to stand for the army they control

Type 3:An -institution-for-people-responsible metonymy: We also find this

way of speaking in Vietnamese:

For example:

(45) Trên cơ sở các điều kiện thỏa thuận này, VietinBank và Bộ Y Tế sẽ cụ thể

Available at: tac-30-000-ty-dong-tiep-suc-cho-nganh-y/c/17530435.epi

http://www.baomoi.com/bo-y-te-va-vietinbank-ky-thoa-thuan-hop-(46) Nhân tưởng niệm 28 năm ngày mất của nhà viết kịch Lưu Quang Vũ, Nhà

at:http://www.baovanhoa.vn/VANHOAVANNGHE/print-85692.vho

In this situation, VietinBank refers to the manager (and other members) of the bank Bộ Y Tế refers to the leaders of Ministry of Health Nhà hát tuổi trẻ-

Theatre of Youth- represents for the actors and actresses in the theatre

Type 4: An object-used-for-user metonymy

In Vietnamese this type of metonymy is prevailing They also take the

tool that is used mainly in a job to name the job itself

For example: Tay búa tay súng refers to worker and soldier Tay cày tay súng refers to farmer and soldier Tay bút tay súng refers to writer and soldier Sân khấu stands for acting profession Cây viôlông stands for person who plays the violin Cây sáo refers to person who plays the flute Cây bút trẻ stands for young

writer

Type 5: A -part-for-whole metonymy:

In Vietnamese, part-for -whole metonymy is widely used, especially withparts of human body

In daily conversation, Vietnamese often say as follows:

(47) Anh ấy là một chân sút siêu đẳng

(48) Cô ấy là một tay đua cừ khôi

(49) Ở đây có đủ mặt anh hùng hảo hán