A study of expressions denoting psychological time in english versus vietnamese in the lingt of cognitive linguistics

THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES NGUYỄN VĂN VIỆT A STUDY OF EXPRESSIONS DENOTING PSYCHOLOGICAL TIME IN ENGLISH VERSUS VIETNAMESE IN THE LIGHT OF COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS Major : ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Code : 60.22.02.01 MASTER THESIS IN SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES (A SUMMARY) Da Nang, 2017 This thesis has been completed at University of Foreign Language Studies, The University of Da Nang Supervisor: Trần Quang Hải, Ph.D Examiner 1: Assoc Prof Dr Phạm Thị Hồng Nhung Examiner 2: Assoc Prof Dr Hồ Thị Kiều Oanh The thesis will be orally defended at the Examining Committee Time: 09 September 2017 Venue: University of Foreign Language Studies – The University of Da Nang This thesis is available for the purpose of reference at: - Library of University of Foreign Language Studies, The University of Da Nang CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE In the past few years, time has been of interest to linguists It is clear that different conceptions of time depend on various situations, cultures and religions As far as I am concerned, time has existed in both physical form and human cognition Based on human thoughts and perceptions, time has been classified into the following categories, including physical time, psychological time, biological time, science time, time in philosopher’s perception, time in religious perception Time perception is characterized by the ability to estimate duration or speed of time Among the categories of time, psychological time is the form of sensing the pace of the flow of time experienced by human Conceptualization of the magnitude of time duration can vary from individual to individual in different circumstances Therefore, it plays an important role in daily communication In general, expressions denoting psychological time seem to be combinations of physical time with adjectives or adverbs in particular situations to deal with subjective states of time experiencer From the practice of teaching English as a foreign language, we have discovered that more learners tend to use expressions denoting psychological time to express their emotions, and thoughts in different communicative situations with their own purposes Having a good grasp of such expressions seems to be a difficult task for learners of English From the above-mentioned reasons, it is necessary for me to carry out the thesis entitled “A Study of Expressions Denoting Psychological Time in English versus Vietnamese in the Light of Cognitive Linguistics” for the purpose of helping learners of English language understand how to use expressions involved in psychological time more effectively to reach their communication targets better 1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 1.2.1 Aims This study aims at analyzing and comparing expressions denoting psychological time in English versus Vietnamese through the cognitive linguistics It is hoped that the results of this study can help raise Vietnamese learners’ awareness of how to use expressions denoting psychological time appropriately in English in order to achieve their communicative purposes every day 1.2.2 Objectives In order to achieve these aims, this thesis focuses on the main following objectives: - To identify, describe, analyze and compare expressions denoting psychological time quoted from artistic texts, literary works, poems, and daily communicative situations - To find out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese in using psychological time - To suggest some ideas for teaching and learning how to use psychological time more successfully 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS a/ How can psychological time be expressed in English and Vietnamese under the aspect of cognitive linguistics? b/ What are the similarities and differences in using psychological time expressions in English and Vietnamese? 1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY This study is restricted to dividing expressions denoting psychological time into six main groups of psychological time: quick passage of time, slow passage of time, “positive” feelings, “negative” feelings, flashback and foreshadow The research does not focus on all expressions, but on more frequently-used expressions like “all/in/through/during/only/for /almost/actually/this/that/these /those+ adjs + Xtime” in English and “cả/mấy/chuỗi/suốt/từng/hàng/cịn/mới mà đã/mới có + Xtime+ form words” or “Xtime+ demonstrative pronouns/adjs” in Vietnamese These expressions are explored in artistic texts, daily conversations, literary works in English and Vietnamese 1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY This study is hoped to be a practical piece of work to help Vietnamese learners to have a comprehensive understanding of expressions denoting psychological time in English and Vietnamese in different situations so as to get successful in cross-cultural communication More importantly, it can be used as a reliable source of reference for those who are interested in psychological time under the aspect of cognitive linguistics 1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY - Chapter 1: Introduction - Chapter 2: Literature Review and Theoretical Background - Chapter 3: Research Methods - Chapter 4: Findings and Discussions - Chapter 5: Conclusions and Implications CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 THE REVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDIES Until now, there have been a lot of published works on general time and psychological time locally and internationally Internationally, the research “Cognitive Models of Psychological Time” by Richard (1990) was to clarify and enrich what is known about temporal aspects of cognitive processes Concentrating on how adult humans experience, remember, and construct time, its chapters surveyed recent work on such topics as mental representations of time, timing in movement sequences, time and timing in music, and the processing of temporal information In Vietnam, some researches were done locally at the University of Danang Initially, the thesis “Time Expressions and Time Locations in English and Vietnamese.” by Hồ Quảng Hà (2001) presented time expressions and time locations in English with Vietnamese equivalents on the basis of contrastive analysis Secondly, the research “An Investigation into Adverbs and Adverbial Phrases Expressing Time in English versus Vietnamese- A Cognitive Semantic Perspective.” by Ngô Thị Mỹ Dung (2011) mentioned some adverbs and adverbial phrases expressing time under the aspect of cognitive linguistics as well as some clear distinctions between the phrases denoting time in English and Vietnamese Thirdly, another thesis “An Investigation into Words and Expressions Denoting Time in English versus Vietnamese- A Cognitive Semantic Perspective.” by Nguyễn Thị Phương (2012) dealt with time expressions in English versus Vietnamese on the basis of cognitive perspective Finally, the research “An Investigation into Conceptual Metaphors Denoting Time in Truyện Kiều versus Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.” by Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Hiền (2016) was about a contrastive analysis of conceptual metaphor denoting time in Truyện Kiều by Nguyễn Du and Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare on the background knowledge of cognitive semantics As a matter of fact, the previous studies only mentioned the concept of time, cognitive models of psychological time, time expressions and time locations, conceptual metaphors in time To the best of my knowledge, there has been no bilateral contrastive analysis of expressions denoting psychological time in English and Vietnamese in detail Therefore, my study makes an attempt to discover the related aspects still unsolved 2.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.2.1 Concept of Time and Classification of Time According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (1948), “time is what is measured in minutes, hours, days, etc” In general, time is a measuring device for physical events running in space As far as I am concerned, there are different conceptions of time in different cultures Western culture sees time as being linear from past to present and future, so we can see that time is usually shown in arrows towards the right- future or ahead These cultures tend to change, move or evolve and be quite mobile Meanwhile, Eastern culture considers time as being cyclical Through human thoughts, time can be divided into the following categories: physical time, psychological time, biological time, science time and so on Of all the types of time, physical time and psychological time are the most typical categories of time in human daily life 2.2.2 Differences between Physical Time and Psychological Time Richard (1983, p.216) asserted that “physical time or clock time is cyclical, validly measured by using a clock, and is composed of discrete duration” In contrast, According to Simon (2008:29), the term “psychological time” is viewed as time subjectively estimated without the aid of clocks and without direct guidance by such external factors as the position of the sun It includes both the direct awareness of duration and judgement of time based on the number of experiences that have intervened 2.2.3 Cognitive Linguistics and Temporal Cognition Geeracrts and Cuykens (2007:16) asserted: Cognitive linguistics is a new school of modern language It conducts research language based on the experience of feeling about the worldview as well as the ways in which humans percept and conceptualize things and state of affair of that worldview According to Gilles Fauconnier from Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, cognitive linguistics has emerged in the last twenty-five years as a powerful approach to the study of language, conceptual systems, human cognition, and general meaning construction It addressed within language the structuring of basic conceptual categories, such as space and time, scenes and events, motion and location, force and causation Language does not “represent” meanings, but it prompts for the construction of meaning in particular contexts with particular cultural models and cognitive resources Therefore, cognitive linguistics goes beyond the visible structure of language and investigates the considerably more complex backstage operations of cognition that create grammar, conceptualization, discourse, and thought itself According to David Lee (2001, p.30), “different speakers of the same language have variants on ways of interpretation and encoding of a particular situation” In cognitive linguistics, the “frame” definition covers all intensional aspects of a thing, including: concepts and cultures The same thing is sometimes expressed by different words with different meanings when being put in different frames As we know, traditional grammar only focuses on forms, structures and rules, while cognitive grammar focuses on language as a tool of conceptualization to express human experience In cognitive grammar, its words and structures show psychological and social experiences of the participants The principles of cognition are the most decisive factor of grammatical rules Vyvyan Evans (2005, p.8) concludes “A study of temporal cognition is very important because it reveals the hidden depths of the human mind and how dependent our perceived world is on the nature and organization of the cognition which happened to evolve in a human body” According to Talmy (2000:4), “Research on cognitive semantics is research on conceptual content and its organization in language” In cognitive semantics, language is the mental manifestation and human language competence seems to be an epistemic form, so there is an approach to internal language Language research is considered as a body of knowledge in thoughts of individuals and communities together with cognitive psychology 11 According to Vyvyan Evans and Melanie Green (2006: 112), the context in which an utterance or usage event is situated is central to the cognitive explanation This is particularly true for word meaning, which is protean in nature This means that word meaning is rather changeable 2.2.5.3 Cognitive context According to the Dictionary on Linguistic Definitions by Nguyễn Thiện Giáp (2016), in cognitive linguistics, context is considered as a mental phenomenon Cognitive context consists of explanations on time, places, events, communicators CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODS 3.1 METHODOLOGY The descriptive method and the contrastive analysis were chosen to be the key methods for this thesis 3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN 3.2.1 Sampling The data for analysis are taken from American and Vietnamese famous poetries, short stories, novels and literary works in the 20th and 21st century to ensure the authenticity The samples under investigation were selected with 141 samples in English and 119 ones in Vietnamese from the abovementioned works To identify phrases denoting psychological time, we have to depend on particular contexts and subjective perceptions of each participant 12 3.2.2 Data Collection There are the following steps to collect data from the corpus - Reading thoroughly the chosen American and Vietnamese famous poetries, short stories, novels and literary works in the 20th and 21st century written by Judith McNaught, Margaret Mitchell, Enrich Segal, Nicholas Sparks, William Faulkner, Robert Frost published by Random House Publisher, Macmillan Publisher, Pocket Books Publisher, and by Hồ Xuân Hương, Xuân Diệu, Huy Cận, Chế Lan Viên, Hàn Mạc Tử, Tố Hữu, Xuân Quỳnh, Đinh Hùng, Nguyễn Du, Nhất Linh from Văn học Publishing House, Văn hóa Thơng tin Publishing House, Thanh niên Publishing House, Đời Publishing House,Trẻ Publishing House, Thời đại Publishing House, Thông Publishing House as well as some daily conversations in English and Vietnamese - Collecting 260 samples (141 in English and 119 in Vietnamese) denoting psychological time, listing and grouping all of them - Analyzing them under the aspect of cognitive linguistics 3.2.3 Data Analysis The data collected were qualitatively and quantitatively processed to investigate the similarities and differences of expressions denoting psychological time in the two languages mentioned The following specific stages were involved: 13 - Firstly, the data were grouped into categories depending on their syntactic and semantic features Secondly, syntactically, the classification of data was mainly based on the different conceptual structures of expressions denoting psychological time semantically, expressions denoting psychological Thirdly, time were subcategorized based on cognitive semantic aspects in English versus Vietnamese, such as quickness, slowness, positiveness, negativeness, flashback and foreshadow - Through cognitive linguistics, analyzing the samples carefully and then putting them into categories of psychological time - Comparing expressions of psychological time in English and its Vietnamese equivalents on semantic and syntactic aspects - Drawing conclusions on semantics and cultural characteristics of expressions denoting psychological time - Putting forward some implications for learning, and teaching expressions denoting psychological time 3.2.4 Research Procedures The research was conducted with the procedures as follows: - Collecting samples on different subgroups of expressions denoting psychological time in English and Vietnamese - Calculating the frequency of occurrence to decide the focus of the study - Analyzing the cognitive syntactic, and semantic features of expressions denoting psychological time in both languages 14 - Making a comparison to find out the similarities and differences of expressions denoting psychological time in two languages in terms of cognitive linguistics - Making tables on frequency of occurrence of expressions denoting psychological time in English and Vietnamese to see how they work - Finding related problems based on the findings of the study - Putting forwards some implications for teaching and learning languages and giving some suggestions for further researches 3.3 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY Comparing and contrasting the uses and meanings of expressions denoting psychological time in English and Vietnamese require collecting corpora of literary works to be studied and analyzed Since the whole research work relied on the corpora, it was essential that these works be carefully read and that examples be carefully selected so as to ensure a satisfying reliability of results In addition, in this study, materials consisting of cognitive linguistic books are a totally authentic source of data, so the quality of the data is quite reliable The research design, research methodology and research procedures were strictly followed With the above-mentioned factors, it can be said that reliability and validity of the study are guaranteed CHAPTER 15 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 4.1 FEATURES OF EXPRESSIONS DENOTING PSYCHOLOGICAL TIME IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IN THE LIGHT OF COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS 4.1.1 Cognitive Syntactic and Semantic Features of Expressions Denoting Psychological Time in English As mentioned in the chapter 2, language is considered as a tool of conceptualization Words or expressions are formed by human social and psychological experiences In cognitive semantics, lexical meanings are not fixed Semantic structure is conceptual structure Conceptual structure is embodied In English, expressions denoting psychological time are demonstrated in the structures, such as: “Xtime+ V (tenses)” or “Pre-determiner + Xtime” The elements “pre-determiners”, and “tenses” in main verbs as well as particular contexts express psychological states of time experiencer To sum up, in English, expressions denoting psychological time include various aspects of psychological states of an experiencer, including: slowness, quickness, positiveness, negativeness, flashback, foreshadow, which are normally expressed through tenses of main verbs together with temporal nouns and pre-determiners denoting subjective states, such as adverbs, prepositions, and adjectives in the mental space By investigating the materials as mentioned in the chapter 3, we can summarize expressions denoting psychological time in the following table 16 Table 4.2 A Summary of Cognitive Semantics of Expressions Denoting Psychological Time in English Expressions of psychological Classifications Equivalent Meanings Meanings in in English Vietnamese time - foreshadow how - khoảng -in long more thời gian - flashback - in the - thời past+ Xtime - quickness - in quick - khoảng khoắc/ + Xtime In+ Xtime gian ấy/nọ/kia vòng ngày/giờ/phút/tuầ n… - slowness - during - that time suốt/những passing ngày/tháng…ấy/ slowly - positiveness/ - in the - negativeness state of khoảng the time/ khắc hạnh phúc/ tràn 17 ngập moment nước mắt….như thế/ấy/đó -flashback in - suốt - consecutiv ngày/tháng/năm e periods … liền of time in the past - slowness - in a - khoảng period of time ngày/tháng… passing qua slowly For + Xtime - quickness - in a - năm period of ngày/năm/ time tháng/ passing kỉ… quickly - positiveness - in a - lúc hạnh positive phúc/hớn hở…ấy period of time 18 - negativeness - in a - hàng/ suốt/nhiều negative period of tháng/tuần/năm trời time - slowness - only in a short time ba ngày/tuần… after+ Xtime - quickness - a period - quá/ gần/ time of bốn passing ngày/năm… quickly in a - ngàn -slowness+ - negativeness negative năm/tháng… period of - time ngày/tuần/tháng suốt ….trời All/through/du - flashback - in “that” - suốt năm/ period of tháng/ngày…ấy/ ring + Xtime time - positiveness - in positive a - một/ ngày vui/hạnh period of phúc ấy/đó time Xtime + Xtime or Xtime + V - slowness+ - negativeness Xtime Ngày/tháng… passed trôi qua/kéo dài 19 slowly in lê thê/ negative ngày/tháng trôi feelings qua, hết ngày/tháng… đến ngày/tháng khác 4.1.2 Cognitive Syntactic and Semantic Features of Expressions Denoting Psychological Time in Vietnamese In Vietnamese language, there are not any categories of tenses to decide on particular contexts and subjective states like English language Grammatical features of Vietnamese language include combinations Grammatical features of words or expressions mean word- word combinations to make meaningful sentences Psychological time in Vietnamese is made through the existence of form words, such as: rồi, mới, liền, nữa, trời, thâu, trường, and so on, together with temporal nouns Vietnamese is a kind of isolated language and there are not any changes about morphology In Vietnamese, there are lexical items only They are presented as in the figure 4.17 (Form words) + Temporal Nouns + Form words= Psychological Time Expressions Figure 4.17 Formation of Psychological Time Expressions in Vietnamese 20 By investigating the samples extracted from the materials as described in the chapter 3, the table 4.3 below indicates typical expressions denoting psychological time in Vietnamese Table 4.3 A Summary of Cognitive Semantics of Expressions Denoting Psychological Time in Vietnamese Classifications Markers Denoting Psychological Time in Vietnamese Mới mà đã/ mà đã/ có+ Quickness Xtime + form word Slowness cả/mấy/chuỗi/từng/ hàng/suốt+ Xtime+ trường/trời/thâu/sâu; full reduplication ( ngày ngày, đêm đêm, ) or Xtime + adj (dài)+ form words Positiveness Xtime + adj positive Negativeness cả/mấy/chuỗi/từng/ hàng/suốt+ Xtime+ trường/trời/thâu/sâu; Xtime + adjnegative+ form words or full reduplication ( ngày ngày, đêm đêm, ) Flashback Temporal nouns + ấy/nọ/đó/kia/xưa/trước Foreshadow Xtime+ mai/nào/này/kia 4.2 SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE EXPRESSIONS DENOTING PSYCHOLOGICAL TIME IN THE LIGHT OF COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS 4.2.1 Similarities 21 Semantically, English and Vietnamese expressions denoting psychological time have the following semantic features: - First, expressions denoting psychological time express different psychological states of time experiencer in particular contexts - Second, mostly, adjectives are frequently used together with temporal phrases to express different classifications of psychological time, especially positiveness and negativeness of experiencer 4.2.2 Differences In terms of cognitive syntactic features, in English, tenses are used to put situations according to the time and representation of situations is in mental space Tenses are ways to locate time in viewpoints of speakers (past, present and future) Main verbs in various tenses are time-oriented and temporal nouns are combined with prepositions, adjectives or adverbs, like “in/almost/for/during/through + (adj)+ Xtime” to denote various psychological states of time experiencer Meanwhile, in Vietnamese, as mentioned above, there are not any categories of tenses to orient time Expressions denoting psychological time are in combinations of lexical items in a certain order: “(form words) +Xtime+ form words or adjectives” While in English, speakers use the combination of grammatical devices and lexical items to express psychological time, in Vietnamese, speakers tend to use the combination of lexical devices together as the only means of expressing psychological time 22 4.3 RELATIVE FREQUENCY OF OCCURRENCE OF EXPRESSIONS DENOTING PSYCHOLOGICAL TIME IN THE LIGHT OF COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS 4.3.1 Frequency of Occurrence of Expressions Denoting Psychological Time in English Based on the analysis of the examples investigated from the materials, I can summarize the relative frequency of expressions denoting psychological time in English as in the table 4.4 Table 4.4 Relative Frequency of Expressions Denoting Psychological Time in English Expressions Occurrencies % In + Xtime 21 14,90% For + Xtime 21 14,90% Only + Xtime 6,40% (Xtime) after+ Xtime 6,40% All/through/during+ Xtime 21 14,90% Adj/adv/demon + Xtime or Xtime + V 60 42,50% 4.3.2 Frequency of Occurrence of Expressions Denoting Psychological Time in Vietnamese By analysing the samples from the materials as mentioned in the chapter 3, I can summarize the relative frequency of expressions denoting psychological time in Vietnamese as in the table 4.5 Table 4.5 Relative Frequency of Expressions Denoting Psychological Time in Vietnamese 23 Expressions Occurrencies % cả/mấy/chuỗi/từng/ hàng/suốt+ Xtime+ 40 33,6% Xtime + mai/nào/này/kia 3,36% Xtime + ấy/nọ/đó/kia/xưa/trước 34 28,6% Mới mà đã/ mà đã/ 5,03% Xtime + adjectives + form words 31 26,05% Xtime+ Xtime (full reduplication) 3,36% trường/trời/thâu/sâu có+Xtime + form word (rồi) 4.4 SUMMARY English and Vietnamese expressions denoting psychological time were introduced, discussed and analyzed to find out the similarities and differences in terms of cognitive linguistics A lot of data from English and Vietnamese sources were quoted in support of the comprehensive observation of using these expressions CHAPTER CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 5.1 CONCLUSIONS Psychological time is a special kind of time experienced by each individual in particular situations depending on human psychological states and certain social and cultures features Expressions denoting psychological time are formed by the collocation of pre-determiners, adjectives, adverbs denoting subjective states in English and Vietnamese In English, along with the usage of tenses, most temporal nouns can be combined with other 24 parts of speech such as prepositions, demonstrative pronouns, adverbs, or adjectives in different ways In contrast, in Vietnamese, tenses are not used clearly as a grammatical tool Most psychological time expressions are formed by combinations of temporal nouns, adjectives and form words 5.2 IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING EXPRESSIONS DENOTING PSYCHOLOGICAL TIME Generally, spoken and written English about expressions denoting pscyhological time is not the same as its Vietnamese equivalents, so learners should be aware of structures and know how to use these expressions for different purposes 5.3 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY Firstly, the thesis investigates some, not all, expressions denoting psychological time in English and Vietnamese, that is, there are still other expressions needing studying Secondly, the thesis focused on written language, so the language from other genres such as dramas and films has not been studied sufficiently in this research 5.4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES The following aspects should be taken into consideration for further studies: - An investigation into cross- cultural features of expressions denoting psychological time in English and Vietnamese - A study of influential devices like adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, or form words in psychological time 25 ... same language have variants on ways of interpretation and encoding of a particular situation” In cognitive linguistics, the “frame” definition covers all intensional aspects of a thing, including:... psychological time in Vietnamese Table 4.3 A Summary of Cognitive Semantics of Expressions Denoting Psychological Time in Vietnamese Classifications Markers Denoting Psychological Time in Vietnamese. .. cognitive linguistics, analyzing the samples carefully and then putting them into categories of psychological time - Comparing expressions of psychological time in English and its Vietnamese equivalents