CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS IN LYRICS BY MICHAEL JACKSON

THESIS CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS IN LYRICS BY MICHAEL JACKSON ẨN DỤ Ý NIỆM TRONG CA TỪ CỦA MICHAEL JACKSON HA THI KIEU DIEM Field: English Language Code: 60220201... THESIS CONCEPTUAL METAP

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS IN LYRICS BY MICHAEL JACKSON

(ẨN DỤ Ý NIỆM TRONG CA TỪ CỦA MICHAEL JACKSON)

HA THI KIEU DIEM

Field: English Language Code: 60220201

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS IN LYRICS BY MICHAEL JACKSON

(ẨN DỤ Ý NIỆM TRONG CA TỪ CỦA MICHAEL JACKSON)

HA THI KIEU DIEM

Field: English Language Code: 60220201 Supervisor: DANG NGUYEN GIANG

Hanoi, 2017

Hanoi, 2017

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR IN LYRICS BY MICHAEL JACKSON 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, 2017

HA THI KIEU DIEM

Approved by SUPERVISOR

(Signature and full name)

Date:………

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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

Dr Dang Nguyen Giang, my supervisor, for his clear guidance, insightful comments and dutiful supervision

My deep thanks also go to all the lecturers at Hanoi 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

With the passion for literature and semantics, I am really interested in the lectures of Prof Dr Ho Ngoc Trung and Assoc Prof

Dr Hoang Tuyet Minh which have inspired me to do this study

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 plays an impotant role in language It appears in literature, daily life and music Particularly, music is considered as bridge to connect people together It is the best way to communicate That is why studying metaphor is a great idea With the hope of highlighting the profound philosophy of human life in songs, this thesis would focus on the conceptual metaphors in lyrics by Micheal Jackson

In this thesis, the orientational metaphor and structure metaphor will analysis clearly.Qualiitative analyzing and contrastive analyzing are used in this study

The thesis is limited to the conceptual metaphors in the lyrics by of Michael Jackson, and the other issues related to cognitive linguistics are mentioned as a more convenient way to clarify the conceptual metaphor models within the scope of the subject Due to the limitation of time and the

author’s ability, there are thirty songs investigated and analyzed in the present study

1.5 Scope of the study

1.6 Significance of the study

1.7 Design of the study

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

11

1.2 Previous studies

2.2 Review of the Theoretical Background

Chapter 3: : ORIENTATIONAL AND STRUCTURAL METAPHORS

IN LYRICS BY MICHAEL JACKSON

4.1 Reality of English Teaching and Learning throughthe songs

4.2 English Teaching and Learning through the songs by Micheal Jackson

4.2 English Teaching and Learning through the songs by Micheal Jackso

Chapter 5: CONCLUSION

40

5.1 Concluding remarks

5.2 Limitation of the research

5.3 Suggestions for further research

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale

Music plays an important part in our spiritual lives It is also able to show its own features in each culture Different cultures lead to the different languages; different languages lead to the difference in the cultural behavior, and metaphor is one part of the language According to cognitive view, language is a tool of human cognition, in which, the metaphor is one of the

typical and effective tools Cognitive linguistics indicates the relationship between language and psychology Metaphors do not appear in poetry, but also play an important role in every utterance

In Vietnam, cognitive linguistics is a quite new research approach However, it has gained many achievements It can be said that cognitive linguistics in general, and the conceptual metaphors in particular are getting the attention of Vietnamese linguists and is a potential and promising direction

However, among researches on cognitive linguistics, there have not been any individual studies about conceptual metaphor in lyrics by Michael Jackson Michael Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, a songwriter, and a dancer He is called the "King of Pop", his contributions to music along with his publicized personal life His significant music videos include video "Beat it", "Billie Jean" and "Thriller" from his 1992 album Thriller, these were credited with breaking racial barriers and transforming the medium into an art form and promotional tool

He continued to innovate people with videos such as "Black and White" and

"Scream" throughout the 1990s, and forged a reputation as a touring solo

a singer However Michael Jackson is like an expert of both He was the King

of Pop because most of his songs achieved many awards Therefore he was one of the most-influential men in the world He has inspired people through

his songs He was fantastic skillful songwriter although his life was full of controversial thins and he was well-known as scandalous artist Nevertheless hisworks were enjoyable enough to make people loved him Most people didn’t care how perculiar his personality was because his songs were very touching and inspiring

The researcher, as an English teacher, author thought that teaching English through songs make a great interest for the learners

Moreover, new theory of metaphors suggested by Lakoff has attracted many other authors and people who study stylistic devices The researcher would like to introduce and apply this theory into a new area which is music lyrics

Due to the above reasons, "Conceptual metaphors in lyrics by Michael Jackson" is chosen for my research topic

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

Conceptual metaphors are used continually, both intentionally and unintentionally, in poetic and everyday language (Lakoff & Johnson 1980, p.3) Song lyrics may often be associated with a more poetic language, but when analysing lyrics thoroughly metaphorical expressions appear which are not solely used as rhetorical devices However, since the language of songs is somewhat rhetorical and since songs have a rather limited time frame, the probability of distinguishing numerous metaphorical expressions illustrating various conceptual metaphors is rather great This because lyrics are required

to be as concise and straightforward as possible in order for their meaning to

be conveyed properly, and this makes lyrics rather useful in studies of conceptual metaphors The aim of this thesis is to find out which conceptual metaphors are reflected in some of Michael Jackson's song lyrics

In addition, The aim of the research is also to apply the conceptual metaphors in teaching and learning English through the songs by Michael Jackson

In order to achieve the aims, the study is expected to reach the following objectives:

- Describing the orientation metaphors employed in the lyrics by Michael Jackson;

- Uncovering the structural metaphors implicitly indicated in the lyrics

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 quantitatively analyzed in terms of the percentage of the occurrence of metaphorical images in all 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 details, synthesized and evaluated

1.5 Scope of the study

The thesis is limited to the conceptual metaphors in the lyrics by of Michael Jackson, and the other issues related to cognitive linguistics are mentioned as a more convenient way to clarify the conceptual metaphor models within the scope of the subject Due to the limitation of time and the author’s ability, there are thirty songs investigated and analyzed in the present study

1.6 Significance of the study

Theoretically, the research results will confirm the theory of cognitive linguistics as a believable approach to analyze the language in general and clarify several issues about the conceptual metaphors through the lyrics by Michael Jackson in particular Indeed, conceptual metaphor, which is not just

a figure of speech but also a matter of thinking, is an extremely important mechanism for people

Practically, the findings of the research, to some extent, are applied to analyze, evaluate and translate English songs They help the readers and the listeners uncover the implicit thinking of Michael Jackson through the lyrics

he use in his songs By this, we mean that knowledge from this sort of work will be of great benefit to translators, who should be able to find the possible equivalents in the target language, and the teachers, who would apply these kinds of patterns to their semantic teaching periods

In practical application of the conceptual metaphor in term of the cognitive objects like emotional, the space time….obtained the result on

different fields, such as poetry, education and special in everyday language

In addition, the researchers have found a close relationship between conceptual metaphor and culture, the conceptual metaphor is regarded a door

to understand the mind, human thinking and social characteristics

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 research is composed of five chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Chapter 3: Orientational Metaphors and Structural Metaphors in Lyrics by Michael Jackson

Chapter 4: Applying the Conceptual Metaphors in English teaching

and learning through the songs Michael Jackson

Chapter 5: Conclusion

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.2 Previous studies

Up to now, there have been various studies on the metaphor based on theories of linguistic scholars such as:

1.2.1 “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 byǁ (1980) is 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 authors 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 Lakoff and Johnson launch into a stimulating deconstruction

of what they term "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

In “Metaphor we live by” , The authors asserted “the common conceptual system of as basing on it, we both thinking and acting, mainly have metaphoric in nature” Besides, there are many authors have generalized and research metaphors from different view such as: Stylistics (19), Contexts of metaphor (23) In 1995, Lakoff examined metaphor, morality and politics in which metaphor has something to do with morality and conservative politics In English Guides Metaphor (15), Alice Deignan studied many English words used metaphorically Clair (14) did a research

on Visual Metaphor, which is, according to him, a term that shows how visual space is organized as a mean of sharing cultural and social knowledge

1.2.2 “A holographic study of metaphors concerning love in Chinese” by Renying Yang

This work makes a thorough analysis of love metaphors in Chinese Based the conceptual study of emotional metaphors by Lakoff, Kovecses and the others, this paper structures a conceptual metaphor of love in Chinese and reveals an understanding of its characteristics and cultural models It also presents the cultural-specific characteristics by giving a diachronic study of love metaphors in Chinese

1.2.3 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, razor…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 theory background

In Vietnam, Cognitive linguistics has made some contribution to the development of cognitive linguistics with researchers Lý Toàn Thắng (2005), Trần Văn Cơ (2007,2009), Nguyễn Đức Tổn (2008) and Nguyễn Văn Hiệp (2008) Especially, in “Ngôn ngữ học tri nhận : Từ lí thuyết đại cương đến thực tiễn tiếng Việt” (Cognitive linguistics from general theory to Vietnamese practical) Conceptual metaphor has been become the research subject which cognitive study in Vietnam has taken into consideration

2.2 Review of the Theoretical Background

2.2.1 Metaphors from Traditional View

Metaphor has been traditionally viewed as characteristic of language

as opposed to everyday language Since the late 1970s , it has become clear that everyday language is thoroughly suffused with metaphor and that the proper locus of metaphor is in our conceptual system, where it plays a major role in characterizing the structure of abstract concepts, permitting us to understand the logic of abstract concepts in term of logics of more concrete concepts Metaphor is secondarily reflected in language, where metaphor linguistic expressions reflect metaphorical thought

2.2.2 Metaphors from Cognitive View

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 Kövecses believes that metaphor involves using one conceptual domain to understand another conceptual domain (Kövecses, 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 Kövecses emphasizes that we need to differentiate conceptual metaphor from metaphorical linguistic expressions

He proves 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

2.2.2.1 Classification of conceptual (cognitive) metaphors

According to Lakoff and Johnson in Metaphors We Live By (1980) and Zoltan Kovecses in Metaphor: A Practical Introduction, there are 3 kinds of

conceptual metaphors: structural metaphors, orientational metaphors, ontological metaphors

a a Structural metaphors:

Structural conceptual metaphors are considered by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) as the group with the highest number In this kind of conceptual metaphor, complicated and abstract experiences are conceptualized based on the experience of simple and specific experiences

An example often used to illustrate this type is the conceptual metaphor

“ARGUMENT IS WAR” which is expressed through a series of the following expressions in English:

• Your claims are indefensible

• He attacked every weak point in my argument

• His criticisms were right on the target

• I demolished his argument

• I’ve never won an argument with him

• You disagree? OK, shoot!

• If you use that strategy, he’ll wipe you out

• He shot down all of my arguments (Lakoff & Johnson 1980:4) The above examples show that many actions that we perform when debating are structured from the concept of war We can win or lose in a debate During the debate, we consider the one we argue with as the opponent Therefore, we “attack” the opponent’s point of view and

“protect” our opinion We can win or lose and also use tactics to win When

we see the adverse situation making it difficult to protect our views, we often “retreat” and “open the new attack route” In this case, even without a fight causing casualties, obviously we have a war of words through the words of war that we use

Through these examples, Lakoff and Johnson explained that an abstract conceptual domain “debate” is understood through a specific conceptual domain of “war” Therefore, the concepts used in the sample expressions above come conceptual domain of “war” This is the basic

characteristics of the structural conceptual metaphor Besides, in this group

of conceptual metaphor, the phenomenon of highlighting and hiding in the conceptual domain is an important characteristic For example in a fierce war of words, where people only seek to put the views of their opponents down and defend their opinion, they cannot see the aspect of “cooperation”

in the war of words When someone argues, he or she spends time with us and tries to find out what we think and why we have such views to understand each other better However, while focusing on the debate, we often forget this aspect of cooperation In other words, the aspect of debate

is highlighting and aspect of cooperation is hiding

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 ǁ, as Lakoff and Johnson (1980: 61) write, e.g Love is a journey In

Metaphors we live by Lakoff and Johnson state that 'the conceptual system is metaphorical in nature' (Lakoff, 1980:4)

b Orientational metaphors:

In orientational conceptual metaphor, a system of ideas is organized in the relation and interaction in space like up-down, inside- out, front-behind, shallow-deep, center- periphery etc Lakoff and Johnson (1980) called this group the orientational metaphor because they are related to the orientation

in space The origin of this metaphor group is explained as follows by researcher Tran Van Co (2007):

“We are the physical entity limited in a certain space and separated from the rest of the world by our skin; we perceive the rest of the world as the world outside us Each of us is contained in limited space by the

surface of the body, which is potentially orientational type of “inside-out” This orientation makes us imagine other physical objects also limited by the surface At the same time we also see them as containers with inner space and separated from the world outside.”

An example often cited to illustrate the orientational conceptual metaphor group is “HAPPY IS UP, SAD IS DOWN” (Lakoff &

Johnson 1980) illustrated in these examples:

• I’m feeling up

• That boosted my spirits

• My spirits rose

• You‘re in high spirits

Conceptual metaphor “HAPPY IS UP, SAD IS DOWN” is derived from the human body posture while they are happy or sad Normally, when people are depressed or sad they often bow down and when they are happy they raise up their head and straight up their back Thus we see that the orientational conceptual metaphors are not arbitrary but based on culture and experiences Also according to Lakoff and Johnson (1980), the conceptual domain “up-down", “inside- outside” are the spatial domain concepts in the material world but the metaphors based on these conceptual domains may vary in different cultures For example, in some cultures, the future is seen as the front but other cultures see the future lying in the back Another orientational conceptual metaphor with sharp cultural origin is

“RATIONAL IS UP; EMOTIONAL IS DOWN” (Lakoff 2004):

• The discussion fell to the emotional level, but I raised it back up to the rational plane

• We put our feelings aside and had a high-level intellectual discussion of the matter

• He couldn’t rise above his emotions

In many cultures, people themselves see as owners who have control over animals, plants and the surrounding environment Indeed, the ability to think and reason have placed human above all else and entitle human the ability to control the world In this case the conceptual metaphor “Control is up” is the foundation for conceptual metaphor “Human is up” and from which we have conceptual metaphor “Reasonal is up; emotional is down” This conceptual metaphor may have different justifications In human body, wisdom lies in the brain and the brain locates in the head Emotions of human are often thought in various cultures to be arising from the abdomen

or chest Obviously, heads are above the belly or the chest, so “Reasonal is up; emotional is down”

c ontological metaphor

Lakoff and Johnson (1980) believed that the conceptualization of our experience under the conceptual domain of material or tangible things helps us extract abstract experiences and ideas out and see it as objects or concrete substances According to Tran Van Co (2007), the semanticization

of experience by terms allow us to extract a part of experience and interpret them Once we can conceptualize the experience into a specific object or material, we can classify, group, quantify, etc… As a result of this we can reason about the experience Even if the boundary of things in the objective world is not clear, we still classify them as: range of mountains, corners of street, the row of trees etc Setting such boundaries is so as to serve the purpose of communication of human like defining a geographical area or a location for appointment According to Lakoff and Johnson, experience in

an interactive process with the specific object or substance is the foundation for a wide variety of conceptual metaphors in which events, activities, feelings, ideas etc are considered as the essence For example,

in English, human thinking is seen as a particular object, can be a machine

or a fragile character shown by the following examples:

THE MIND IS A MACHINE

• We’re still trying to grind out the solution to this question

• My mind just isn’t operating today

• Boy, the wheels are turning now!

• I’m a little rusty today

• We’ve been working on this problem all day and now we’re running out of steam

THE MIND IS A BRITTLE OBJECT

• Her ego is very fragile

• You have to handle him with care since his wife’s death

• He broke under cross-examination

• She is easily crushed

• The experience shattered him

• I’m going to pieces

The above ontological conceptual metaphors allow us to focus attention

on different aspects of thinking Conceptual metaphor “thinking is a machine” tells us that thinking can be seen as a machine operating under on-off mechanism The machine can work with high or low performance, can damage or rust and can use the fuel Conceptual metaphor “thinking is a fragile thing” also allow us to discuss the tolerance of the pressure of human psychology The ontological conceptual metaphor like this frequently occurs

in human thinking According to Lakoff and Johnson, this kind of conceptual metaphors appears frequently and is used so commonly that people take them for granted

2.2.3 Conceptual metaphor

A conceptual metaphor is a metaphor (or figurative comparison) in which

one idea (or conceptual domain) is understood in terms of another

Conceptual metaphor is the conceptualization of a conceptual domain through a different one,called "mapping", it has a system from a soucre domain to a target domain so as to create a cognitive model ( metaphor model), help to acquire a more specific target domain

Cognitive linguistics distinguishes conceptual metaphor and language metaphor ( just a form of metaphor Metaphor is classed into : structral metaphor, ontological metaphors and orientation metaphor

Conceptual Metaphor Theory, sometimes called Cognitive Metaphor Theory, was developed by researchers within the field of cognitive linguists It

became widely known with the publication of Metaphors We Live By, by

Lakoff and Johnson, in 1980 Conceptual metaphor theory has since been developed and elaborated For further discussion of the theory and recent developments within the field of cognitive linguistics, see Gibbs (1994), Kövecses (2002, 2005), and Evans and Green (2006) This section attempts

to describe the central points of Conceptual Metaphor Theory and outline implications for researchers in the social sciences

The fundamental tenet of Conceptual Metaphor Theory is that metaphor operates at the level of thinking Metaphors link two conceptual domains, the

‘source’ domain and the ‘target’ domain The source domain consists of a set

of literal entities, attributes, processes and relationships, linked semantically and apparently stored together in the mind These are expressed in language through related words and expressions, which can be seen as organized in groups resembling those sometimes described as ‘lexical sets’ or ‘lexical fields’ by linguists The ‘target’ domain tends to be abstract, and takes its structure from the source domain, through the metaphorical link, or

‘conceptual metaphor’ Target domains are therefore believed to have

relationships between entities, attributes and processes which mirror those found in the source domain At the level of language, entities, attributes and processes in the target domain are lexicalized using words and expressions from the source domain These words and expressions are sometimes called

‘linguistic metaphors’ or ‘metaphorical expressions’ to distinguish them from conceptual metaphors

For proponents of Conceptual Metaphor Theory, thought has primacy over language The theory was not intended to account for language in use, which

is merely the surface manifestation of more important phenomena

Nonetheless, patterns of word use are the main evidence presented for the theory These linguistic data have tended to be generated intuitively, either by the researcher or by informants, but in recent years some researchers are beginning to analyse naturally occurring language data

Proponents of Conceptual Metaphor Theory argue that few or even no

abstract notions can be talked about without metaphor: there is no direct way

of perceiving them and we can only understand them through the filter of directly experienced, concrete notions The conceptual metaphor a purposeful life is a journey is cited widely in the literature (for example, Lakoff 1993) This is realized linguistically through expressions such as “He got a head start in life He’s without direction in life I’m where I want to be in life…” (Lakoff 1993: 223) It is difficult to find linguistic expressions about the development of an individual’s life which are not also used to talk about literal journeys Other metaphors are used to talk about different aspects of life; Lakoff cites a purposeful life is a business (1993: 227) It is very

difficult to find expressions used to talk about the subject of life which are not metaphorical in some way If it is true that abstract subjects are generally talked about using metaphor, and a mass of linguistic evidence has been gathered to support this contention, a close examination of the metaphors