A LOVE METAPHORS IN SOME ENGLISH LOVE SONGS IN COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS INVESTIGATION

Understanding love metaphors in English songs helps us master to improve our communication, discover composers’ view about love and learn how to share and multiply the comprehension of t

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

-

M.A THESIS

A LOVE METAPHORS IN SOME ENGLISH LOVE SONGS IN

COGNITIVE LINGUISTIC INVESTIGATION

NGHIÊN CỨU ẨN DỤ VỀ TÌNH YÊU TRONG MỘT SỐ BẢN TÌNH CA

TIẾNG ANH DƯỚI GÓC NHÌN TRI NHẬN

DAO THI HAO

Major : English Linguistics Code : 60220201

Supervisors : Assoc Prof Dr PHAN VAN QUE

Ha Noi 2017

CERTIFICATE OF THE STUDY

I certify that this thesis Love metaphor in some English love songs in cognitive linguistic investigation is the result of my own research and the substance

of this thesis has not been submitted for a degree to any other university or institution

The work was done under the guidance of Assoc Prof Dr Phan Van Que,

my supervisor

Ha Noi, ………

Dao Thi Hao

Approved by Supervisor

Phan Van Que Date:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My deep thanks also go to all the lecturers I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the following people for their great supports during my two-year time for the MA course

First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Assoc Prof

Dr Phan Van Que, my supervisor, for his clear guidance, insightful comments and dutiful supervision at Ha Noi Open University for their knowledge, experience and enthusiasm in their lectures, from which I have acquired valuable knowledge and inspiration to fulfill this minor thesis

I also would like to express my sincere thanks to my family any many of my friends and colleagues for their valuable sharing and encouragements

Finally, my sincere thanks are for the people who will give me the precious comments after reading the graduation thesis

ABSTRACT

Metaphor is traditionally believed to be associated with literacy or poetic language, now invade to music domain English songs have become an ideal land for us, who study English in a non- native atmosphere Understanding love metaphors in English songs helps us master to improve our communication, discover composers’ view about love and learn how to share and multiply the comprehension of the images of love metaphor In this thesis, the writer has tried to give an over view of the relevant literature review in the concern of the knowledge related to metaphors basing on the theory of the famous writers, especially Lakoff and Kovecses It will help the readers have a deeper sight into the theoretical knowledge on metaphors in order to be able to find out, comprehend and analyze the metaphors in songs The writer also suggests some suitable ways for learners to learn English better, for teachers to give the effective listening lectures by using songs as a supplementary material and readers to translate the texts more exactly

In the paper, the writer introduces, analyzes more than 80 quotes from about

60 love songs in 16 basic sets of metaphors: “Love is a natural phenomenon”,

“Love is Game”, “Love is war”, “Love is music”, “Love is the light”, “love is the concrete objects”, “Love is the madness”, “ Love is abstract things”, “ Love is closeness”, “Love is heaven” “Love is a religion”, “Love is high/ deep”, “Love is a journey”, “Love is living creature”, “Love is magic”, and “ Love is fire” The writer clarifies the metaphorical images of love in songs, analyzes and categories them into 3 three subtypes: ontological, structural or orientation metaphors with some sets of metaphors Then, the writer introduces and explains the ways how these metaphors are used as well as their artistic value in these songs

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table: 1.1 Occurrence and percentage of conceptual metaphors denoting Love in some English songs from the cognitive perspective 40Table: 1.2 The occurrence and percentage of conceptual metaphors denoting love

in three types 41Table 1: students’ favorite activities while they are listening to songs 49Table 2: the effectiveness of English songs in teaching listening and vocabulary skill 50

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF THE STUDY i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES iv

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale of the study 1

1.2 Aims of the study 2

1.3 Research questions 3

1.4 Methods of the study 3

1.5 Scope of the study 5

1.6 Significance of the study 6

1.7 Design of the study 6

CHAPTER 2: LTERATURE REVIEW 8

2.1 The previous studies 8

2.1.1 In English 8

2.1.2 In Vietnamese 9

2.2 Theoretical background 9

2.2.1 Cognitive linguistic 9

2.2.2 Concepts of metaphor 10

2.2.3 Classification of metaphor 11

2.2.4 Conceptual (cognitive) metaphors 11

2.2.5 Classification of conceptual (cognitive) metaphors 12

2.2.6 Target domain and source domain of conceptual metaphor 13

2.3 Summary 14

CHAPTER 3: LOVE METAPHORS USED IN SOME ENGLISH SONGS 15

3.1 The types of love metaphors used in some English songs from cognitive linguistic 15

3.1.1 Ontological metaphors 15

3.1.1.2 Love is a living creature 18

3.1.1.3 Love is a natural phenomenon 19

3.1.1.4 Love is a game 21

3.1.2 Structural metaphors 22

3.1.2.1 Love is light 22

3.1.2.2 Love is madness 23

3.1.2.3 Love is the abstract thing 25

3.1.2.4 Love is religion 26

3.1.2.5 Love is closeness 27

3.1.2.6 Love is magic 31

3.1.2.7 Love is music 32

3.1.2.8 Love is journey 33

3.1.2.9 Love is the heaven 34

3.1.2.10 Love is fire 35

3.1.2.11 Love is war 37

3.1.3 Orientional metaphors 38

3.1.4 Occurrence of linguistic items used metaphorically in songs 39

3.1.5 Occurrence of love metaphors in English songs in three types 41

3.2 How these metaphorical images are expressed in songs 42

3.3 Summary 44

CHAPTER 4: USING ENGLISH SONGS AND THE SONG LYRICS AS A SUPPLEMENTARY IN TEACHING VOCABULARY AND LISTENING FOR THE FIRST – YEAR- SUNDERLAND PROGRAME STUDENTS AT BANKING ACADEMY 45

4.1 Subject profile 45

4.2 Procedures 45

4.3 Questionnaire and test 46

4.4 The use of songs in the lectures 46

4.5 Difficulties in teaching listening skill through English songs 47

4.6 Tests’ result analysis 53

4.7 Findings 59

4.7.1 Achievements 59 4.7.2 Challenges 60

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 64

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study

Metaphor has been studied for a long time by many linguistic It is merely a figure of speech used in literature However, cognitive linguistics presents a different view of metaphor stating that metaphor is not only in literature but also pervasive in daily life language, and it is served as a mean of expressing thoughts as well as vehicle of cognitive that helps human beings recognize the world Life becomes more beautiful with the colorful flowers and language becomes more legend and lovely with the metaphorical images Understanding metaphors is crucial to comprehend figurative language in literature and to enhance practicing skills of learning English

Metaphors are used to describe something that the author can not adequately represent in a literal fashion or in a simple declarative sentence They can broaden

or bring a fresh perspective to a familiar or overused subject Writers use metaphors

to give clarity to their writing or to paint a visual picture by words Whatever the author’s intent, analyzing the context in which metaphors are used will reveal much about the poem’s or prose work’s meaning By adding metaphors when writing stories, poems or songs means adding interest and depth to writing Metaphors create more specific and clearer visual images of what the writer is trying to express

Metaphors, which are traditionally believed to be associated with literary or poetic language, are an ideal new land in music world for musicians and the language learners It is an effective device to make the communication more lively and colorful

By teaching students how to understand metaphors, we can lead them unleash their creativity and imagination Metaphors can be also effective in training learners in abstract thought as well as familiarizing them early with literary skills they will need later in their education

Love is a beautiful song in life People in love create the unique words to give the lovely messengers to each other and with the power of metaphor, love

becomes the wings in sky Metaphors are wonderful device for musicians to write love songs Through the love songs, metaphor is understood and studied more interestingly and effectively

The research was carried out at Banking Academy with the participation of sixty first – year students They are all in the second term and from different classes

of Economic management Department To those students, English was not their major but a compulsory subject in the schedule Being economic students, English

to them is really an impossible subject as they always complained that “it has so many rules, it is so complicated” and that they “have no head for English” However, as English was taught and examined through four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, it has become more indigestible to them Of the four skills, listening and understanding the lyrics of the songs were always the most horrible to the students as it was the first time they learn English via skills so they could not get used to listening to English and understand all words of the lyrics that they hear because there are metaphorical words that students cannot get on well with That was the reason why many of them either often played truant or did their private things during listening lessons That state resulted in their very low marks or even failure in the examination of English That was the reason why the author would like to investigate the “love metaphors used in some English songs” in order

to help students and other learners to understand and use English metaphor better

1.2 Aims of the study

Aims of the study

In this paper the researcher found out how metaphor is used in English love songs that helps Vietnamese students understand and acquire the beauty of music lyrics through the metaphors of love in English love songs

Objectives of the study

- To find out love metaphors used in English songs

- To understand and use love metaphor which is used in some English love

- To enrich the English vocabulary

- To use, teach and learn English more effectively

2 How are the metaphors of love expressed in the English love songs?

3 What are some possible suggestions for teaching, learning and translating English metaphors in songs?

1.4 Methods of the study

The study is mainly carried out through the documentary analysis and descriptive study with the support of qualitative and quantitative approach The data

is quantitative analyzed in terms of the percentage of the occurrence of metaphorical images in the songs to see the preference for which sets of expressions

as well as frequencies of three types of metaphors: structural, ontological, and orientational Through qualitative approach, the metaphors, after being divided into categories according to the procedure of transferring meaning from the vehicles to the tenors guided by a theoretical lens, will be analyzed in detail, synthesized and evaluated

Data collection and data analysis

- Data

The data for analysis are mainly samples taken from the famous English love songs of all kinds There are 68 songs used with 86 sentences quoted They almost come from the collections of Carpenter, Beatles, Holly Knight, Blink, Amy Wine House, etc… They are also collected from internet, newspapers, magazines, books… In this way, the natural and practical manner of the materials will reinforce the accuracy of the results The major method to collect data is surveying with observation of instances of linguistic expressions used to signal metaphor, selecting the samples related to the research

- Data collections instruments

Reading, reviewing, and selecting documentary are considered as the main ways for selecting data that is selected in textual form on the basic of observation of previous works and songs and references related The author reads any and all kinds

of documentation related to metaphors used to provide useful information

To gather the various and valuable data, the author had to listen to any song she heard by chance anywhere and write down all the sentences related to metaphor, then categorize them according to the criteria such as time published, types and choose the one suitable for the topic After the process of researching and collecting data, the information continues to be classified into different categories depending

on the requirements of the research in order to make it easy for the researcher to find and to analyze the data

- Data analysis techniques

After the process of reading and collecting data from the songs found, the researcher starts to analyze the image of love in terms of conceptual metaphor From numerous samples, the researcher tries to choose the most interesting and concrete ones to illustrate important points under the investigation The next step is

to synthesize to information analyzed in order to fit into the thesis The stage of analyzing and synthesizing are all conducted manually By analyzing and synthesizing the researcher hopes to be on the right way of mapping out the images

of love in songs

- Data analysis

All the samples are categorized and described, then qualitatively and quantitatively processed In order to achieve the aims of this study, both qualitative and quantitative methods are adopted for data analysis The data is qualitatively analyzed and in sixteen sets of expressions denoting love according to the conceptual metaphor theory, Lakoff and Johnson (1980) and Kovecses (1986): Love

is conceptualized as natural phenomena, games, war, music, light, concrete things, madness, abstract things, closeness, heaven, religion, journey, living creature,

of occurrence of metaphorical images in all the songs to see the preference for which sets of expressions as well as frequencies of structural, ontological, and orientational metaphors which are suggested by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) The metaphors, after being divided into categories according to the procedure of transferring meaning from the vehicles to the tenors, will be analyzed in details In the procedure of analyzing, the researcher will make clear the value of figure language in songs

- Research procedures

After choosing the topic, the author will orient the research by the appropriate steps to support the content At the same time, reading and searching the relevant materials related to metaphor are compulsory Then, the writer must determine the reason why she choose the topic by clarifying the aims and objectives with three research questions above When reading the materials on metaphor, the writer will collect the important and representative theoretical framework of metaphors for discussing in order to guide the study The most decisive process is collecting and analyzing data because of its effect the whole procedures of the study After reading and considering a great number of songs, the author finally decides to choose sixty eight representative love songs with eighty six quotes

Next, all the collected data are mostly qualitatively processed Metaphors are divided into different categories to analyze according to the procedure of transferring meanings from the vehicles to tenors In this model, conceptual metaphors are classified into three different kinds, namely structural metaphors, ontological metaphors, and orientational metaphors Afterwards, they are categorized and synthesized basing on the similarities and differences of metaphors

of love Then, the writer suggests some ways of perceiving metaphors and look for their distribution in the value of songs Last but not least, the implication for learning, teaching , and translating together with the limitation, and suggestions for further study will be presented

1.5 Scope of the study

In this paper the researcher focuses on the metaphors of love in some famous English songs from cognitive linguistic

In this study, the author also intended to deal with the question of how to motivate students through the English songs not taking care of other kinks of

activities such as poems, stories, or games They included love songs that have soft music with quite easy words and simple content These songs were experimented for the period of one term (15 weeks) They were used at the end of the lesson not at the beginning as warmer Due to the limited time, the author could not implement the research for a longer term and study on a larger population The chosen

population contained 60 students from two classes at the same level The aimed teaching purpose was practicing listening skill and enriching the vocabulary fro students through some English love songs

1.6 Significance of the study

This study is to find out typical images of love in some famous love songs with a view to contribute to the study of linguistics from cognitive perspective That how these metaphorical images are expressed in cognition and the artistic value of these images in songs will be analyzed specifically can provide a new look into English literature

This research is performed with the purpose of helping Vietnamese learners and teacher of English better understand conceptual metaphors in English songs and then create the suitable tips to apply language flexibly As a result, they will be able

to learn and teach English effectively In addition, it can contribute to the teaching

of literature, semantics, cultural linguistics applied in Vietnamese universities of foreign languages Especially, the translators will take the necessary notes when working with metaphors in the process of translation

1.7 Design of the study

The thesis is divided into five chapters as follows:

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION which includes the rationale, the aims and objectives, the purpose of the study, the scope of the study, research questions and

Chapter 2: Briefly reviews previous research works related to the topic and presents the theoretical background of the study

Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion in which the writer will present the metaphors

of love in the data Various kinds of metaphors of love present the different aspects

of the most powerful emotion of human beings

Chapter 4: The implications of the study: After studying metaphors of love in some English love songs, the researcher has found out implications for using metaphors in general and metaphors of love in particular for learners, teachers, and translators… Chapter 5: in the last chapter the writer summarizes the results of the tasks done This part also gives out some suggestions for further studies

CHAPTER 2: LTERATURE REVIEW 2.1 The previous studies

2.1.1 In English

- Richard Nordquist on his article “Love is metaphor”

The writer lists 99 metaphors of love in many literature works These metaphors come from the real and concrete things in our life such as rose, star, journey, flame… However, this is only the examples of love metaphors The readers expect to have a more specific interpretation on these kinds of metaphors basing on the theoretical background

In short, these works play an important role in building language instructions

in general and instructions for use of metaphors in particular However, up to now, not many studies base on the cognitive perspective to analyze the metaphors of love

in songs deeply and systematically Also, the number of metaphors of love quoted are not diverse and various In addition, these have little authentic and practical value in teaching and translating It is the reason why the researcher decided to do the research entitled “ A study on metaphor of love in some English songs from the cognitive perspective” with the hope to give the reader the interesting experience through the metaphoric images in songs as well as their artistic value and from this analysis to make a meaningful contribution to learn English in reading and writing skills for learners, teachers and translators

- “Metaphor we live by” (1980) by Lakoff and Johnson

Lakoff and Johnson are the most remarkable writers with the famous books

on metaphor that introduce the overview and deep knowledge on metaphor Of all,

“Metaphor we live by” (1980) is the most helpful and worth for the researcher to take as a basic theoretical background for their thesis The book has a great influence on our understanding of metaphor and its role in language and the mind The author s supply an afterword surveying how their theory of metaphor has developed within the cognitive sciences to become central to the contemporary understanding of how we think and how we express our thoughts in language

“conceptual metaphors”, and the complex way in which they interact to structure our experience of reality Lakoff sets out to show that metaphors are a fundamental part of our thought processes whenever we try to think abstractly His book does not provide a rigorous scientific proof, but it does present a lot of evidence in favor of the thesis

2.1.2 In Vietnamese

There have been proposed various definition of metaphor Nguyen, H (2: 106) stated that “Metaphor ….is the transference of meaning from one object to another based on the similarities between the two objects” He explained that speakers of a language compare one object with another, if they find some common features between the two objects they will call the second by the name of the first

Dinh, T.L (3: 5-6) introduced a similar view that “metaphor is the transference of meaning from one object to another based on similarity between these two objects”

Do, H.C said, “metaphor is “the symbolic name of one object, which is based on the similarity, realistic or imaginary, between the identified object called “A” and the object called “B” of which the name is transferred to “A” (3:6)

To cut it short, from the traditional view, metaphor is a hidden comparison and transference of name of one thing for another, and it is a linguistic means used by writers to serve the purposes of creating certain effects in their work

2.2 Theoretical background

2.2.1 Cognitive linguistic

According to Lakoff (1991:53) argues that the cognitive linguistics enterprise is

identified by two key commitments The first key commitment is the Generalization commitment which represents the characterization of general principles that are

responsible for all aspects of human language Other approaches try to separate the language into distinct aspects or modules such as phonology (sound), semantics (word and sentence meaning, pragmatics (meaning in discourse context), morphology (word structure), syntax (sentence structure), and so on As the result, the generalization across these aspects of language or the study of their interrelation

is incompletely recognized Conversely, cognitive linguistic when mention

Generalization Commitment, disagree that “the ‘modules’ or ‘subsystems’ of

language are organized in significantly divergent ways, or indeed that distinct modules or subsystem event exist” (Evan and Green, 2006: 28) Thus, Generalization Commitment extensively investigates the abilities of linguistic knowledge emerge from a common set of human mind upon which they draw, rather than amusing that they are produced in encapsulated modules of the mind

The second defining key feature of Cognitive linguistic is Cognitive Commitments While the common Generalization Commitment concentrates on the research of the common principles of all aspects of language, Cognitive Commitments helps

cognitive linguistics recognize the principles of linguistic structure in which the knowledge about human cognitive is reflected from other cognitive and brain

disciplines Naturally, Cognitive Commitment is basically interdisciplinary such as

psychology, artificial intelligence, cognitive neuroscience, and philosophy

In brief, how people can draw unconsciously on enormous cognitive and cultural resources, call up models and frames to set up numerous connections, organize large arrays of information, and use creative mappings, transfers, and elaborations when human beings engage in any language activity are undoubtedly recognized thanks to cognitive linguistics

2.2.2 Concepts of metaphor

Language is a very powerful tool as it reflects the way we categorize and conceptualize the world we live in it is almost impossible to understand a thing without grouping it with other category members that share the same properties In doing so, we acquire different kinds of concepts and, as a result, build our general knowledge Metaphors supply these requirements Often we treat them only as stylistic devices, but in fact metaphorical expressions verbally represent the way of human thinking and reasoning People tend to conceptualize emotions, love being one of them, metaphorically because both emotions and metaphors connected with them are inevitable parts of everyday life

“Without our ability to categorize, we would not function at all, either in the physical world or in our social and intellectual lives” (1990: 6), Lakoff explained

So many definitions of metaphor are created but it can be understood in the most common way: according to Lakoff and Johnson (1980: 4), “Metaphor is for most people a device of the poetic imagination and the rhetorical flourish – a matter of

in the other ways for instance, “The application of a word or phrase to an object or concept it does not literally denote, suggesting comparison to that object or concept” (Baars B.J, 1998: 4), it is clear that the term metaphor refers to the meaning of the word that can be expended beyond its literal meaning For example,

“a sea of troubles” or “All the world’s a stage” – Shakespeare

According to Tran Van Co (2011: 4), confirmed that metaphor is meaning transference These definitions give the readers the insight into the metaphorical nature of the concepts that structure our everyday activities Metaphor is one kind of comparisons It is the same given to a way of using language in a way that relies more on imagination than literal reality For example “Love is a rose” In this example, the word “rose” has a connotative meaning that is thought to be a very beautiful and fresh object to people The essence of love is likened and understood

in terms of characteristic of a rose So, this meaning is transferred to refer to the characteristic of love to simply that love is lovely and wonderful

2.2.3 Classification of metaphor

There are many ways to classify the metaphor According to Lakoff and Johnson, three types of metaphoric concepts can be distinguished, marginal metaphoric concepts (Lakoff and Johnson 1980: 55), conventional metaphoric concepts (Lakoff and Johnson 1980: 4), and new metaphoric concepts (Lakoff and Johnson 1980: 145) Metaphoric concepts tale public form in metaphoric expressions, also called “metaphor” Metaphors, like any other stylistic devices, can

be classified according to their degree of unexpectedness As it is stated by Nguyen Hoa (2004: 109), basing on the degree of unexpectedness, there are three main types

of metaphors namely living metaphors, faded metaphors and dead metaphors

2.2.4 Conceptual (cognitive) metaphors

George Lakoff and Mark Johnson claimed that metaphor is not just a matter

of language, but a matter of thought (1980: 7) They believe that language is an indicator of the nature of our conceptual system, and metaphor is so pervasive in language that it actually structures how we make sense of and interact with the world around us Hence the term “conceptual metaphor” appeared

Metaphor is a way of understanding a concept and according to Lakoff and Johnson, meaning and truth depend on understanding Truth is not objective, but depends on context; it relies on a human thinker Thus, metaphors structure what we perceive as truth Kovecses believed that metaphor involves using one conceptual domain to understand another conceptual domain (Kovecses, 2002: 4)

Cognitive Linguistics allows us to understand that metaphorical thinking is crucial to human cognition Thus, Lakoff and Johnson propose a cognitive theory of metaphor, as a process thanks to which one concept is understood using another concept (Lakoff, 1980: 5) The best example of this is talking about love in terms of journey As mentioned previously, our ability to categorize allowed us to gather knowledge about journeys that we can depend on in understanding love Kovecses emphasized that we need to differentiate conceptual metaphor from metaphorical linguistic expressions He proved that the latter disclose the existence of the former

To know a conceptual metaphor is to know this set of mappings A is B it was also pointed that metaphor in cognitive linguistic view is primarily conceptual metaphor

2.2.5 Classification of conceptual (cognitive) metaphors

According to Lakoff and Johnson in “Metaphors we live by” (1980: ) and Zoltan Kovecssesors in “Metaphor : A practical introduction”, there are three kinds

of conceptual metaphors: structural metaphors, orientational metaphors, ontological metaphors

a Structural metaphors:

Structural metaphors are generally understood conceptual metaphors where one concept is metaphorically structured in terms of another Structural metaphor is the most productive type of all conceptual metaphors “Structural metaphors” occur when a concept is metaphorically structured by another concept”, as Lakoff and

Johnson (1980) wrote, eg: Love is a journey In “Metaphor we live” written by

Lakoff and Johnson stated that “the conceptual system is metaphorical in nature” (Lakoff, 1980: 61)

b Orientational metaphors:

Orientational metaphors organize immaterial concepts in terms of physical orientation: happiness is up (high spirits) and sadness is down (feeling low), the future is ahead and the past behind The group of orientational metaphors is said tobe connected with our orientation in space (Lakoff, 1980: 16)

c Ontological metaphors:

In ontological metaphors experiences are treated as concrete objects, e.g containers (I put a lot of energy into preparing decorations) When we deal with them in such a way we can “refer to them, categorize them, group them, and quantify them – and by these means, reasons about them” (Lakoff, 1980: 25)

Love is fire metaphor is an example for the structural metaphor “My heart is

on fire, I do not want to get burned again, that kindled love in his heart” Thanks to metaphorical expression that kindled love in his heart, we can conceptualize love as having a beginning and an end just as fire has When the fire is kindled, the love begins; when it goes out, the love ends These examples also prove that we not only talk about love in terms of fire The lover can be consumed by love when he/she is

so in love that it is all that he/ she thinks about If the lover does not want to get burned again it may mean he/she does not want to experience the same serious disappointment after an unsuccessful relationship

2.2.6 Target domain and source domain of conceptual metaphor

Conceptualist views consider metaphor as a cognitive mechanism used to structure our knowledge in the mind by means of one domain of experience understood in terms of the first one

A metaphor has two conceptual domains: one is the thing that is to be understood, which is called the target domain, and the other is the thing that used to understand the first one, and it is called the source domain (Kovecses, 2001:4) The source domain and the target domain interact in “a set of systematic correspondences between the source and the target” which “are often referred to as mapping” (Kovecses, 2002: 6)

According to Barcelona (2000:3), Metaphor is the cognitive mechanism whereby one experiential domain is partially mapped or projected onto a different

experiential domain so that the second domain is partially understood in terms of the first one In the example “love is a game, “love” is compared to a game, describing it with the attributes of “game”; “love” is the tenor, and “a game” is the vehicle

2.3 Summary

To sum up, in this part, the researcher has tried to give an overview of the relevant literature in the concern of the study It has dealt with the knowledge related to metaphors such as word, word meaning, meaning transference as well as detailed description about metaphors introduced such as definitions of metaphor, cognitive metaphor, types, mapping Furthermore, the chapter helps the readers understand more profoundly and typically about metaphors- a very important knowledge to learn, teach, translate and study

CHAPTER 3: LOVE METAPHORS USED IN SOME ENGLISH SONGS 3.1 The types of love metaphors used in some English songs from cognitive

linguistic

In this section, the writer will present the metaphors of love in the data Various kinds of metaphors of love present the different aspects of the most powerful emotion of human beings Only a few of them, the most fascinating and outstanding ones have been chosen In spite of the fact that it is impossible to present all the sides of this special feeling, the writer tries to give a general overview on metaphors Therefore, it is very important to comprehend this abstract

feeling by using more concrete concepts such as a journey, war, or fire, etc…

Thanks to metaphors, we create in our minds the breathtaking pictures of an incredible world we live in

There are a variety of ways to classify metaphors, as Kovecses (2002:46) states As for this thesis, the metaphors found in the lyrics are categorized under appropriate conceptual metaphors, which in turn are classified either as, ontological, structural or orientational metaphors

3.1.1.1 Love is a concrete and real object

Kovecses (2001: 4) proposed that in the majority of cases, the roles of source and target domains are irreversible since our experience lays a foundation for the

comprehension of more abstract domains - Love is an abstract emotion but thanks

to metaphor – an effective language tool, it turns out a concrete thing that we can

possess, can use senses to perceive Therefore, we can conceptualize this knowledge

to reason for “ love is a concrete thing” metaphor

Relationships as real objects are perceived to develop in a natural order from infancy to maturity They are born, they grow, they mature, they require nurturing, and they can wither and die They are like “love” They have five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch to receive knowledge of things in the world around The heart can use its eyes to catch the images of love in these example bellows:

“ Here’s the morning that my heart had seen Here’s the morning that just had to come through”

(The Carpenter/ Those Good Old Dream)

The eyes of heart are really sensitive and gentle to feel everything in the world, especially the changes in love stories: love can be a pristine and fresh morning with the exciting new feeling and full emotion of the lovers It also can be

a sunset when the souls are closed and blue It is not easy to have the sophistication

in one’s mind unless they are in the real love

Love is a part of mental life It is familiar and essential as a part of body

“You were my eyes when I couldn’t see”

(Celine Dion- Because you love me)

A imagine is so touching that it can make everyone arouse strong feelings of sympathy: lovers are the eyes and the light of each other no matter how dark it is and how blind the lover’s eyes are An eye is enough for them to go to the end of life He is every reason Every hope, and every dream she has ever had, and no matter what happens to them in future, every day they are together is the greatest day of my life

In feeling of lover, the heart is melody, sound of which only lovers can hear

“Take my heart, don’t lose it Listen to my heart.”

(Modern Talking- Cherry Lady)

It’s hard to find words to tell how much lovers mean to each other Maybe, the man doesn’t say anything at all But the girl will understand, will realize what his heart is whispering

We can see sweet taste of love through the song lyrics in English

“You’ll always be a part of me

If you should find you miss the sweet and tender love we used to share”

(Naked Eyes- Always Something There To Remind Me)

To the world, you maybe one person, but to one person you are the world

That is the message lovers want to send to each other “You’ll always be a part of me” That part belongs to body and it is indispensable in life: “you are all what I live for”- you and I are growing up and together go through the storms of life My

love for you is like a sweet and tender candy both taste That love experiences the wonderful memories which make their love be a beautiful never – ending story

Love can be the concrete things such as: the voice when a person couldn’t speak, the shoulder to cry on in the moment of disappointment, the strength or power to make lovers stronger; here are examples:

“You were my strength when I was weak You were my voice when I couldn’t speak”

(Celine Dion- Because you love me)

“Chiquitita, tell me the truth I’m a shoulder you can cry on And your love’s a blown out candle”

(Neil Young- Heart of gold)

“Ooh you’re a holiday, everyday, such a holiday Now it’s my turn to say, and I say you’re holiday”

(Bee Gees- Holiday Lyrics)

Being deeply loved by someone gives her/him strength and loving someone deeply gives courage and power to overcome every difficulty and challenge in life

It is love that gives us strength to transform pain to power In the hardest situations, when a person falls down to an abyss, the other will find the way to save her/him That strong person can break through the walls, love you through the pain, pull you from the dark life, and is a reliable shoulder to lean and cry

3.1.1.2 Love is a living creature

a Love is a human being

Love is like a body of human being that is sometimes weak, but sometimes very strong, as a result, there is also the eternal love but there is also temporary love like a wrong arrangement of God Like a person, it has the different tones of emotion such as waiting, being angry, being jealous…

“Don’t tell me that love’s not waiting for us”

(Tokyo Square – That is Love)

But without carefulness, it may pass away:

“And yet you don’t believe her when she says her love is dead”

(Carpenter- Someday)

Like a creature, love is born with the shaking of the heart, and when it is over, love cannot exist With the word “dead”, the listeners can feel all the feelings

of hurt and upset of the character Love has a life cycle like human

“I’ve tried too hard to keep love alive That I had your love and let it go”

b Love is a tree/ plant

In the eyes of people who are in love, sometimes love becomes a living thing Like a plant, it needs nutrition to grow up and develop It needs supplying fertilizer to bloom and fructify Koveses (2002/2010) opens the conceptual metaphor by explaining the usage of plants as a source domain They have different growth stages and they consist of different parts – all of which can be used for

the plant can represent the development of love, the flowering of plant can represent the best of times in a love relationship, the fruits can represent beneficial consequences of the love 9such as children), and so on

“When a dozen red roses came my way Warm up my heart”

(Minogue – Count the Days)

A dozen red roses from a lover is a token of love; the lover wishes to express her/ his love – and more metaphorically, the red roses represent love As Feber writes, especially in Renaissance poetry red is one of the colors of love (1999: 169) The language of flowers, the messages the given flowers convey from the giver to the recipient, tell us that red roses convey passionate love

3.1.1.3 Love is a natural phenomenon

The most common metaphors of love are natural phenomena Many natural sources like the sun, the star or the moon are used to express the power as well as the importance of love

a.Love is the Sun

Sunlight and dark belong to the most fundamental terms used metaphorically The Sun usually represents goodness or knowledge In many religions the Sun is brought to the world by or originated from God Love can be

interpreted as a positive feeling, representing righteousness and virtue when one is pure at heart, one is innocent and virtuous…

“And brightened my day…

Now it all seems, light years away”

(Carpenter – Cant smile without you)

The Sun provides people with light, heat and energy Without the Sun, nothing can exist here When the metaphorically refers him/her as the sun, it has demonstrated the essential role which love has played in his life

“Who sings of all of lover’s eternity Whose shines so bright.”

(Tangerine Dream – Love by the Sun)

This metaphor is built base on the similarity in function of both objects: the Sun and the lover The Sun lights up the Earth, while the lovers lights up the life of the singer, makes it warmer and more colorful And because the Sun is eternal, the singer hopes that the magic of love will go with him until the end

b.Love is the Moon/ the Stars

The Moon and Stars are beautiful images in literature and art Love shows the lovers in the best possible light: lovely and luminescent

“The moon that rose now descended, And the love one shared now had ended”

(Carpenter – Another song)

“You ask me why the moon is bright…

Love is like the moon in your heart”

(Jessica Jay – Love is like the moon)

“You’re a falling star, you’re the get away car

You’re the line in the sand when I go too far”

(Michael Buble – Everything)

Perhaps the writer wants to point out that when in love, we tend to see the object of our love through rose- colored glasses We see the only good sides and closed our eyes from the worse one But then again, to see the good in people is virtuous and also love neither counts wrongs nor dishonors others, this is indeed seeing people lovely in their lights Light can bring enlightenment and it can illuminate mind as well

3.1.1.4 Love is a game

According to Kovecses (2002: 20) we play and invent activities in order to entertain ourselves Games and sports share many similarities such as rules, and thus we play by the rules and toys with ideas but then again may try to checkmate someone, he continues The source domains of game and play fit well together with the target domain of love: the game of love

“Girl, this game can’t last forever”

(Modern Talking –Brother Louie) Love is a game that two can play and both can win but are easy to lose because it is temporary and false Although the endings are happy and the man invariably gets the woman, we see the marriages without true love easily come to an end

“Love is just a game Love is just a lie”

(Magic Number – Love is a game)

Love is a game, easy to start but hard to finish Love – it’s just a game, never won, never lost, just full of lost dreams and broken heart The love is not a game and the heart is not a playground

‘It’s all in this game of love You roll me”

(Michelle Branch – The game of love)

Whoever came up with the idea that love is a game destroyed by it soul We can’t think of anything more than the belief that your partner is an “opponent” to be

defeated People that are loved, need to change the way they look, act, and feel about true love They have to clever to realize what is true, what is false, whether their love should continue or not

If they never let themselves fall freely, they won’t get anywhere near authentic love The more they bury the singular spirit under some self- help game, the more difficult they make it for love to find them And, if a woman needs to play games to hold a man’s interest, he’s not the right man for her The trouble with games of romance is that eventually the mask will have to come off Eventually they’ll have to reveal who they actually are, and then what? The rules of love may allow them to hoodwink their partner for a while, but ultimately they’ll lead them to

3.1.2.1 Love is light

Wherever lovers go, no matter how the weather is, love always brings them the sunshine

“A light in the dark shining your love into my life”

(Celin Dion – Because you love me)

When lovers possess that light within, they will see it exactly because it is the soul’s light So, keep that flame lit, and we will never feel darkness We all walk

in the dark and each of us must learn to turn on our light with a warm heart Love is light that dissolve all the walls between souls Love is light that brightens every heart’s darkness

“Love is the soul’s light”

(The taste of morning – Rumi)

“Cause we have the brightest love Two lights that shine as one Morning glory and midnight sun Ageless and ever evergreen…”

(Arbra Streisand – Evergreen)

“Here is the rainbow I’ve been praying for

It’s gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright) sunshiny day”

(Johnny Nash – I can see clearly now)

“Love is light” is one metaphor used in these sentences Light is an indispensable thing for human beings as love The items such as “shine” and

“brightest” are used to seek for light They have indicated the essential role of love played in life, and his intention of searching for love

“What a feeling in my soul love burns brighter than sunshine It’s brighter than sunshine let the rain fall, I don’t care”

(Aqualung –Brighter than Sunshine)

“He’s my laughter, my lover, my life He’s my sunlight”

(Nina – Sunlight)

3.1.2.2 Love is madness

In “Love is madness” metaphor love is presented as a state of insanity When one is in love, she/ he experience certain kinds of emotions which are, in fact, similar to mental states of madness Only intensity differentiates these emotions from each other Each time we go through them, we have symptoms indicating a psychological illness

Very often the object of love is treated as a cause of a particular feeling or illness One in love is shown as an insane person and a feeling of love as an illness

people, thus human tend to compare it to the state of madness As following examples:

“I’m crazy about her She drives me out of my mind”

(Lakoff 1980: 49)

According to Young (2009: 148), love can partially be viewed “after all, love

is insanity” He shows that as a drug, the hormone enhances trust in humans and makes them more empathetic towards other people’s emotions Many lexical items are used to express this type of emotion such as: surreal, a fool, foolish beat or a riot

“The ordinary is surreal, Peace and terror all in one”

(Minogue – Cowboy Style)

“See me loving you

“A fool without a lover”

(Diana Ross – Experience)

“Just a foolish beat of my heart”

(Debbie Gibson – Foolish beat)

In “Drunk” the protagonist is experiencing psychosomatic symptoms caused by his/ her desire for love

“I ache for great experience There’s a riot in my senses”

(Minogue – Drunk)

The protagonist explains these symptoms by saying there’s a riot in his senses; again, the grip on reality seems to disappear, resulting in the protagonist confusing the sensory perceptions This desire for love is causing a shock in the protagonist; one sensory perception is causing a complete sensory chaos, a literary

3.1.2.3 Love is the abstract thing

Love is an eternal topic, whether in daily life, in literary works, or in films, which are universal and complex Due to certain cultural contexts or specific geography, love has it own uniqueness; even an individual has his or her own way

in expressing love While some people consider love as concrete things, the others hold love as elusive and abstract things Hence, the conceptual metaphor theory has provided us an important method to explore the conceptual meaning of such emotional words as love There are many examples of metaphors of love as the abstract thing They are common in everyday life as the present different aspects of this powerful emotion Without the notions of metaphor, we would not be able to comprehend such an abstract feeling as love The intensity plays an essential role in

the way we think of love The abstract thing can be elaborated to the items: inspiration, truth, dream, chance, happiness, loneliness, etc…

“You’ve been my inspiration Through the lies you were the truth

My world is better place because of you”

(Celine Dion – Because you love me)

Loving and being loved is a great happiness in life The world will be better because of you, because you are always in my inspiration, my belief But love is not always sweet and beautiful For the broken heart people, love is a dark sky or lost way, broken dream and plan His/ her future seems to stop because love is over

“I thought I’d lost my way forever Every dream and every plan Every last chance slipped through my hand And you smiled at me and it was over”

(Aaron Neville – I owe you one)

A true love is important in life If someone who gives each other the unconditional love her/ his supports present and encourages her/ his future and their life will be full of happiness and sweet caress Love means never having to say

“sorry” But in life not many people luckily have the forever true love:

“Bye bye happiness, hello loneliness

I think I’m a gonna cry-y Bye bye love, bye bye sweet caress, hello emptiness

I feel like I could di-ie”

(Everly Brothers – Bye Bye love)

Love is happiness, loneliness, sweet caress or emptiness… depending on the lover’s emotion and the tones of passion and love

“And you complete the heart of me Our love is all we need

Circle in the sand, circle in the sand”

(Belinda Carlisle – Circle in the sand)

“Circle in the sand” is a concrete thing but it bears an abstract meaning that

is a full love without any fracture It is an expected image of all lovers

3.1.2.4 Love is religion

There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion If we put our heart in God’s hand, he will place our heart in the hand of a worthy person From the early day, love is considered as religion Kovecses (2002: 14) gives the conceptual metaphor of the object of love is deity Typically, he explains, conceptual metaphors use a source domain better understood and more concrete to define a more abstract and complex target domain

As the title of the song suggests, the lyrics of “Looking for an Angel” include

multiple expressions of metaphorical use of language

“I’m waiting for my Seraphim

Oh, I’m looking for an angel”

(Minogue – Some kind of Bliss)

Minogue extends the metaphoric expressions throughout the song and the

metaphors build on each other, creating a whole which utilizes the domain of

religion or of theory Angels are considered winged messengers of God The Seraph

“With a peaceful smile, You are from the temple Won’t you stay a while?”

(Minogue – Cowboy Style)

The same can be said of his love interest in “Cowboy style”, she is from the temple This, in conjunction with line with a peaceful smile, bring into mind Buddhism The calming, peaceful presence of the writer’s love interest encourages her to wish the love interest to stay for a while, thus possibly through guidance providing enlightenment The surreal feelings the writer goes through later in the lyrics point out to this as well: the protagonist now finds and now feels and he feels

as if his future life has just begun Again, the different aspects of love merge: Eros

is present, but so is stored and agape

3.1.2.5 Love is closeness

The conceptual metaphor “Love is closeness” is used by Kovecses (2002: 64) Kovecses writes about statues portraying two people in love and the imagery used in depicting the love relationship: the two people can be bound together or inside each other – at the very least they are very close to each other From this proximity of the subjects Kovecses derives the conceptual metaphors of love is closeness

a Being in love is being physically close

The distance between the two lovers is changed, which leads to the result that they fall in love, or that they want to fall in love

- Only the first person is active

“Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London,

I’ll show you something to make you change your mind”

(Beatles – The streets of London”

“But still something between us holds together Cos I’ve been holding you so damn tight”

(Ace Reject – Sugabage)

In these two examples, the first person touches the second person by the hand and by the upper body respectively This kind of physical closeness which can

be called getting touched seems to be quite popular and preferred between lovers

“Anything, baby just let me get next to you

I only want to be by your side”

(Sade – By your side)

“Get next to you and by your side” are the expressions to show the closeness

of the lovers which has the meaning that the first person is just near the second person and he can protect the second person from harm

“What’s inside of my heart?

It ain’t gonna change

So it shouldn’t be so easy to walk away”

(Lionel Richie – I call it love)

This first person wants to part with his beloved one at first However, he finds that his heart does not change so he says “it shouldn’t be so easy to walk away” Though it seems that the first person is in a dilemma, the last sentence reveals his tendency to stay with the beloved one Since “it shouldn’t be so easy to walk away” then it is better to stay together with the beloved one

- Only the second person is active

“Just can’t live my life without you Baby come here, don’t have any fear”

(Elliott Yamin – Moody’s Mood for love)

“Run to me baby and hold out your hand”

(P Y T – Simply in love with you)

On the surface, all the examples here mention that the second person is dynamic and is the one who needs to be loved However, the real interpretation is as follows the first person is the one who is eager to be loved But for some unknown

person asks the second person to be the dynamic one so that the first person can be

in love

- Both the two persons are active

“In these desperate times

We get pushed and shoved from every side”

(The Scorpions –Love will keep us alive)

This is the positive example It looks like the two have no choice and are passive in getting together since they “get pushed and shoved from every side” But

no matter whether they are passive or reluctant to do anything, the truth is that they get together

“Though we go our separate way Lookin’ for better days”

(Neil Young – Separate ways)

This native example is quite clear that both of the two go their separate ways and looking for better days Then not a single one wants to keep this love The reason is not that the days they stay together are bad, but they want to find “better days”

b. Being in love is being mentally close

Lovers do not always pursue the physical satisfaction For most of the time they also expect the spiritual satisfaction That is why mental closeness comes to be

a concept apart from physical closeness

“And tell me, what can I do?

You’re always on my mind”

(Willie Nelson – Always on my mind)

Though the two set apart physically, the last sentence shows that the second person is still on the first person’s mind, which implies that the first person still loves the second person

The negative examples are found in connection with the mind

“When you walk away

There’s an empty feeling in my mind”

(Scorpions –Love will keep us alive)

The second person is the one who refuses to keep in love with the first person so that the second person left him with his mind empty There is one positive example and one negative example with other concepts to describe the mental closeness of the two loved persons

“That you got a hold Down deep in my soul”

(Exile – She’s a miracle)

Though the soul and the heart are two different words, to some extent, they mean the same since there is a love expression “I will love you heart and soul” Then this example can be interpreted as you got a hold down deep in my heart, which means the first person’s heart is close to the second person

Closeness can be of any type of love, but the Eros side of love is a prevalent theme

in Minogue’s lyrics In “Count the days” the use of metaphoric language from the domain of closeness is very extensive

“It’s gonna be alright You’ll be by my side”

(Minogue –Count the days)

The lovers are in a long distance relationship, counting the days they will be together again Although at the moment of loneliness the fears take over and she doubts whether she is the only one When she conquers these fears, she remembers that the lover would describe the love relationship well Loneliness, here, is an extreme form of lacking closeness The lovers attempt to surpass the distance and the misery of being apart by any means

Finally, in “Rhythm of love”, the protagonist states being together is good

“So good together Some people work better solo”

She does suggest that some people work better on their own: alone or “solo”

as Minogue writes The protagonist is not like that; she could never be without the love interest Being without the loved one would be not being at all

3.1.2.6 Love is magic

Magic is something supernatural, something that defies or even breaks the laws of nature, and can not be explained by them Magic is something outside of religion proper The amount of metaphoric expression in the data required separating some elements, and treating magic and religion as separate source domains was a logical choice Some examples of magic metaphor are mentioned in:

“She cast her spell over me She is bewitching”

(Lakoff (1980: 49)

Although it is not important whether humans believe in magic or not, what is important is the fact that people are not different to it Magic affects people and fascinates them profoundly Women especially are said to have the power to seduce men, hypnotize them or even, cast spells on them As love is treated almost as a magical and inexplicable phenomenon, it is not difficult to understand why love is comprehended in terms of magic “Love is magic” metaphor definitely emphasizes the existence of an almost magical connection that bonds lovers, while hiding the aspect of the mortality of partners and their inability to use magic In “cowboy style”, Minogue uses the metaphoric expression stopped time

“Awoke my senses yet you stopped time, You took me to a deeper high”

(Minogue – Cowboy style)

At least so far, the scientists have not been able to prove it possible to stop the space – time continuum so stopping the time must be interpreted metaphorically

No one can stop the time but as the passing of time can be subjective – we say that time flew by or it was as if time stood still – so perhaps spending time with one’s loved one, completely immersed in love and infatuation, can feel like spending an eternity with her Moments can feel like hours – or vice versa