Ẩn dụ tri nhận về mùa xuân trong ca từ bài hát tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt

VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol. 37, No. 1 (2021) 139-152

139

CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS OF SPRING

IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE SONG LYRICS

Sy Thi Thom

Military University of Special Forces, Tan Tien, Chuong My, Hanoi, Vietnam

Received 11 August 2020

Revised 20 November 2020; Accepted 23 January 2021

Abstract: This paper summarily reports the results of a study which attempts to identify conceptual

metaphors of spring through their representations called metaphorical expressions in English and Vietnamese

song lyrics from cognitive perspective based on the theory of conceptual metaphors initiated by Lakoff and

Johnson, with the work Metaphors We Live by (1980a). The data collected from 205 English and Vietnamese

songs (98 and 107 songs respectively) from the 20^thcentury to the present consist of 736 metaphorical

expressions. By employing description as the main method with the assistance of comparative method, and

utilizing the procedure of conceptual metaphor identification (Steen, 1999, p. 73), the study unveils the

similarities and differences of conceptual metaphors of spring in English and Vietnamese songs. The results

reveal that English and Vietnamese share 12 conceptual metaphors of spring (out of 20 ones in total). Moreover,

the explanations are given to elaborate on these results in terms of culture, including people’s living experiences

and environment.

Key words: metaphorical expression, conceptual metaphor, target domain, source domain, mapping

1. Introduction^*

conducted to identify conceptual metaphors of

spring in English and Vietnamese. In other

words, the source domains which are mapped

onto spring in English and Vietnamese

metaphorical expressions are found out.

Accordingly, this paper can give some

suggestions for research options in the area of

English teaching to Vietnamese learners.

Cognitive linguistics in general, cognitive

semantics in particular, have made great strides

in the past decades, which sets the foundation

for conceptual metaphors to flourish recently.

Therefore, a great number of studies have been

conducted to examine conceptual metaphors

focusing on both abstract and concrete concepts

around our human worldwide and in Vietnam in

particular. Especially, significant attention has

been paid to abstract concepts as target domains

in investigating conceptual metaphors, which

can be easily understood because metaphorical

2. Theoretical background

2.1. Definition of Conceptual Metaphors

In Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT),

metaphor in essence is the “understanding and

experiencing one kind of thing in terms of

another” (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980a, p. 5). The

‘thing’ that is to be understood is often an

abstract concept which is referred to in CMT as

the target domain (TD); the other concrete

‘thing’ which is used to understand the abstract

concept is referred to as the source domain

(SD); and according to Kövecses (2010) this

phenomenon of conceptualizing one domain in

terms of another is called conceptual metaphor.

For example, the metaphor TIME IS A

MOVING OBJECT (Lakoff, 1994, pp. 56-58),

illustrates that conceptual metaphor is defined

“as understanding one conceptual domain in

terms of another conceptual domain”

(Kövecses, 2010, p. 21), as well as gives

explanation for the fact that the metaphorical

conceptualization

is

a

process

of

conceptualizing a more abstract domain in

terms of more concrete domains (Lakoff &

Johnson, 1980a).

Up to now, the abstract concepts which

have been examined vary, e.g. life, emotion,

sadness and so forth. Likewise, time, an

abstract concept, also is widely investigated by

both foreign and Vietnamese authors (Lakoff &

Johnson, 1980a; Kövecses, 2010; Shinohara &

Pardeshi, 2011, to name just a few). Being a

time concept, however, seasons, including

spring, have been limitedly examined so far. As

a consequence, to enrich the body of literature

of conceptual metaphors, this research is

_______

^*Tel.: 0979126833

Email: [email protected]

S. T. Thom / VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol. 37, No. 1 (2021) 139-152

140

process generally goes “from the more concrete

to the more abstract but not the other way

around” (ibid., p. 6). Here, the concept of time

is conceptualized by concepts of space. More

specifically, particular times are considered

objects and the passing of time is considered

the motion of these objects. This consideration

becomes apparent in expressions like the time

has come, the time has arrived, or the coming

week (Lakoff, 1994, pp. 56-58). Actually, a

week is not coming and a time does not arrive,

at least not in a physical sense. But there are

correspondences between the concepts of space

and time that enable an understanding of the

concepts of one domain by the concepts of the

other domain. Here, the person experiencing

time corresponds to the observer with a fixed

location and time corresponds to the object that

moves towards the observer. This similarity

between a moving object and time is essential

in allowing a conceptualization of time by the

concept of space.

mappings, between the two domains.

Conceptual metaphors can be given by means

of the formula A is B or A as B, i.e., A denotes

the TD and B the SD as in the metaphor time

passing as a moving object mentioned above,

where the concept of moving object is mapped to

the concept of time passing (Lakoff & Johnson,

1980a; Lakoff, 1993; Kövecses, 2010).

2.2. Components of Conceptual Metaphor

As mentioned above, metaphor is identified

as a process of mapping between two different

conceptual domains: the target domain (the

concept to be described by the metaphor), and

the source domain (the concept drawn upon, or

used to create the metaphorical construction).

The original definition of domain is given by

Lakoff and Johnson (1980a, p. 266) as follows:

In a metaphor, there are two main domains:

the target domain, which is constituted by

the immediate subject matter, and the

source domain, in which important

metaphorical reasoning takes place and that

provides the source concepts used in that

reasoning. Metaphorical language has literal

meaning in the source domain.

In short, the term metaphor is used in this

study in the sense of the term conceptual

metaphor (in which one conceptual domain is

understood in terms of another conceptual

domain). This understanding is achieved by

seeing a set of systematic correspondences, or

The cognitive mechanism of a conceptual

metaphor is depicted via the relation between

source and target domains as the following figure.

Figure 1

Metaphorical Mapping

Mapping

Target domain

Source

domain

Time

is

Money

A

mapping is

a

systematic set of

exist between

a domain between two mental spaces. These

correspondences

which

correspondences

are

technically

called

constituent elements of the SD and TD

(Charteris-Black, 2004). It means that the

systematic identification of the SD and TD is

termed as a metaphorical mapping. Discussing

metaphorical mappings, Lakoff argues that they

preserve the cognitive topology of the source

domain in a way consistent with the inherent

structure of the target domain (1993, p. 215).

Additionally, Kövecses (2010, p. 371) shares

that conceptual metaphors are characterized by

a set of conceptual correspondences between

elements of the source and target domains.

Such correspondences can also be found within

mappings. The mapping links the two domains

in the sense that aspects of the source are made

to correspond with the target (Lakoff &

Johnson, 1980a; Lakoff & Turner, 1989;

Lakoff, 1993). For brevity, to create a

metaphor, we try to code the mapping between

the source and the target domains under the

mechanism of conceptualization.

2.3. Types of conceptual metaphors

In actuality, metaphors can be classified in

many ways. The types of conceptual metaphors

are mentioned much by Lakoff and Johnson in

VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol. 37, No. 1 (2021) 139-152

141

a number of works (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980a,

unconventional metaphors). The classification

considered in the degree of conventionality is

deeply clarified with the assistance of the types

briefly mentioned above. To be specific, the

term “conventional” is used here in the sense of

well established and well entrenched. Kövecses

(2010, p. 34) concludes that “a metaphor is

highly conventional or conventionalized (i.e.,

well established and deeply entrenched) in the

usage of a linguistic community.” According to

Lakoff and Johnson (1980a), conventional

metaphors are metaphors that make up the

ordinary conceptual system manifested in our

everyday language. In other words, the

metaphors which are highly conventionalized

are mostly used unconsciously, automatically,

and effortlessly for the normal, daily purposes

of the speaker. Similarly, each conventional

conceptual metaphor involves in several

conventional metaphorical expressions, the

manifestation of conceptual correspondences

across conceptual domains. In other words, the

conventional metaphorical expressions are

comprehended thanks to the knowledge of

conventional conceptual metaphors based on

our experiences (ibid., p. 151). Like the term

“conventional”, the term “novel” refers not just

to conceptual metaphors but to metaphorical

expressions. Novel metaphors (or called

unconventional metaphors), which go beyond

our conventional conceptual system, provide us

with the new understanding of our experience

(Lakoff & Johnson, 1980a). Hence, they are

imaginative and creative.

1980b;

Lakoff,

1992).

Notably,

the

classification is viewed in detail, significantly

profoundly and adequately by Kövecses basing

mainly on his predecessor’s theories (Lakoff &

Johnson, 1980a). He focuses on four different

ways that play an especially important role in

the cognitive linguistic view. Specifically, they

rely on the conventionality, function, nature,

and level of generality of metaphors (2010, p. 33).

Firstly, based on their cognitive functions,

conceptual metaphors can be classified into 3

types, namely (1) structural metaphor (that

maps the structure of the source domain onto

the structure of the target and in this way allows

speakers to understand one domain in terms of

another); (2) ontological metaphor (that

provides extremely fundamental but very crude

understanding for target concepts); and (3)

orientational metaphor (that has primarily an

evaluative function).

Secondly, according to their nature,

conceptual metaphors can be called image-

schema metaphor. That is, conceptual

metaphors may use both propositional

knowledge and images of various kinds

(including not only visual images). Images

having extremely general schematic structure

are called “image-schemas” that may structure

many abstract concepts metaphorically. Images

that are not based on recurrent experience with

a generic structure but capture a specific

experience are called “one-shot images.” These

can

also

participate

in

metaphorical

understanding.

Thirdly, relying upon their level of

generality, they are categorized into two types:

specific-level and generic-level metaphors.

Most conceptual metaphors employ concepts

that are at a specific level of generality. For

3. Research methodology

3.1. Data Collection

The data collected comes from English and

Vietnamese song lyrics from the 20^thcentury to

present. As an investigation of conceptual

metaphors of spring, the samples selected come

from song lyrics where spring conceptual

metaphors are expected to be rich. There are

several sources, namely, Internet-based records,

example, the metaphors: LIFE IS

A

JOURNEY, AN ARGUMENT IS WAR,

IDEAS ARE FOOD, etc., are specific-level

ones when life, journey, argument, war, ideas,

and food are specific-level concepts. On the

contrary, some conceptual metaphors are

generic-level, e.g., EVENTS ARE ACTION,

GENERIC IS SPECIFIC. Generic-level

metaphors have special jobs designed for them

in the working of our metaphorical conceptual

system.

CD/DVD-based

publications.

records,

and

printed

Actually, a great number of season song

lyrics have been written in English from the 20^th

century to present. However, to make sure that

the data is in native language, the song lyrics

selected have to be composed by the authors

who were born and grew up in the countries

involved in the Inner Circle, including the USA,

Finally, based on their conventionality,

conceptual metaphors are classified into two

kinds: conventional and novel metaphors (or

S. T. Thom / VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol. 37, No. 1 (2021) 139-152

142

the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand in

terms of the three-circle model of world

Englishes (Kachru, 1985). The Vietnamese

corpus is built from the song lyrics by famous

composers, namely, Trịnh Công Sơn, Văn Cao,

Phú Quang, Ngô Thụy Miên, Nguyễn Văn Tý,

and so forth. In short, as an English-Vietnamese

comparative and contrastive study, the two

corpora in the two languages are quite equal

with 98 songs, and 107 songs collected,

equivalent to 288 and 448 expressions in

English and Vietnamese.

3.3. Analytical Framework

It has been assumed that the world where

human beings live can be categorized into

concrete and abstract entities. This study will

find concrete domains which are used to map

onto target domain spring in English and

Vietnamese. Concrete domain here is

understood as entities that human beings can

perceive via five senses: vision, hearing,

touching, smelling and tasting by their visual,

auditory, tactile, olfactory and gustatory organs.

Actually, these SDs are divided into two

categories: animate and inanimate.

3.2. Analytical Method

Descriptive and comparative methods are

deployed to analyze the data both qualitatively

and quantitatively. In this study, the data

collected is described to set up a foundation for

analysis, interpretation, and explanation. Thus,

after metaphorical expressions (linguistic

metaphors), and conceptual metaphors related to

season are identified, semantic and cognitive

factors were described and the mechanism of

using, interpreting, and explaining metaphorical

expressions and conceptual metaphors of spring

in English song lyrics were explained. In

addition, the comparative method is primarily

exploited in this study so as to compare the

conceptual metaphors of spring to find out the

similarities, and the differences between them in

the two languages.

In terms of CMT, spring, one of four

seasons in a year, is TD which is manifested by

virtue of another (called source domain)

through conceptual mapping. Here words

spring and springtime in English, and xuân,

mùa xuân in Vietnamese refer to this season.

This study will find out the SDs used to map on

spring entities in terms of concrete domains,

namely, inanimate objects (for example,

physical entities, natural substances, etc.), and

animate objects, including human beings and

plants. In other words, within the scope of

study, animate objects are understood as living

entities. In short, the analytical framework of

this study can be visualized in the following

figure.

Figure 2

Analytical Framework of Conceptual Metaphors of Spring

Conceptual metaphors of Spring

Mapping

Target domain

Source domain

spring

Springtime

 inanimate object

 animate object

respectively. In this case, spring is an abstract

concept, and it is mapped through the image of

a concrete object that human beings can easily

perceive by virtue of physical experiences.

Take the following expressions as typical

examples:

(1) Let me see what spring's like (Bart, Fly

Me to the Moon)

(2) Mùa xuân trên vành môi tươi thắm

(Nguyễn Ngọc Thiện, Ta đã thấy mùa xuân)

‘Spring is on the ruddy lip rim’

4. Findings and discussion

4.1. Inanimate domain

4.1.1. Physical entities

That spring is conceptualized as a physical

entity is found to be common in both languages

with fairly high quantities; however, the

number of metaphorical expressions in

Vietnamese nearly doubles that in English,

namely 165 and 95 metaphorical expressions

VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol. 37, No. 1 (2021) 139-152

143

(3) Em đứng lên mùa xuân vừa mở (Trịnh

Công Sơn, Gọi tên bốn mùa)

(6) Giấu em vào mùa xuân, vùi trong bao

kẽ lá (Quốc Nam, Chơi vơi)

‘By the time I stood up, spring had been

‘Hide me in spring, bury me in leaves’

(7) Lạc về đâu tôi như lá thu trong mùa

xuân (Trần Minh Phi, Gửi mùa xuân)

open’

According to Cambridge Advanced

Learner’s Dictionary (2005), the verb see in (1)

means “to be conscious of what is around you

by using your eyes”. It can be understood that

the thing which is seen must be concrete.

Similarly, in Vietnamese, the prepositional

phrase trên vành môi, consisting of the

preposition trên “on” combining with the noun

phrase vành môi “lip”, which create an adverb

phrase of place, in (2) reveals that mùa xuân

“spring” here can be seen via human’s eyes

(called visual organ). It is apparent that things

people are able to perceive by at least one of

their five sensory organs are concrete.

Likewise, the expression mùa xuân vừa mở

“spring had been open” in (3) leads to this

manifestation of spring. According to the

Vietnamese Dictionary (Vietnam Institute of

Linguistics, 2003), the adjective mở “open” is

used to describe bounded objects. Thus, with

the analysis of these cases, it can be concluded

that spring is considered a concrete object.

Noticeably, with regard to physical entities,

spring is manifested as a container with a big

number of metaphorical expressions in English.

However, that is much smaller in Vietnamese.

In other words, the number of metaphorical

expressions of spring leading to metaphor

SPRING IS A CONTAINER in English

predominates that in Vietnamese. Precisely, the

metaphorical expressions account for 29 in

English and 8 in Vietnamese respectively. The

preposition in (in English), trong (in

Vietnamese), which are utilized with a big

frequency in the corpus, indicates that spring is

conceptualized as a bounded region. Actually, it

has ever been claimed that the container image

schema is a vital reflection in the conception of

limited time as a container (Johnson, 1987;

Lakoff & Kövecses, 1987; Lakoff & Johnson,

1999). Therefore, that metaphor SPRING IS A

CONTAINER is ubiquitous in English, and also

applicable in Vietnamese as in the examples

below:

‘Lost in nowhere, I am like an autumn

leaf in spring’

The prepositions in and vào, trong here

indicates that spring is portrayed as a bounded

region. The expressions (4, 6) show that spring

contains we and me (contained things); or in (5,

7) the Southland and autumn leaf are

portrayed as an object contained in the spring

entity, leading to the metaphor SPRING IS A

CONTAINER, which is

metaphor.

a

conventional

Besides being viewed as a container, spring

is considered a thing contained. However, this

mapping occupies a smaller number with 12,

compared to CONTAINER case with 29

expressions in English. Interestingly, the

number of expressions for the two cases is the

same, namely, 8 expressions. It can be clarified

in some examples as follows:

(8) It's spring in person that makes it

bright (Hart, Yours Sincerely)

(9) For their hearts were full of spring

(Troup Jr., Their Hearts Were Full of Spring)

(10) Xuân trong tôi đã khơi trong một đêm

vui (Phạm Duy, Xuân ca)

‘Spring in me awoken on a happy

night’

The entities person and me here are

containers which contain the entity spring.

With the sense of the adjective phrase full of,

the expression (9) also points that spring is in

the entity’s heart. It means that spring in (8),

(9) and (10) is portrayed as a corporeal entity

contained in a container.

Especially, the MOTION metaphor

occupies the biggest number in the two

languages, with 39 expressions, equivalent to

55 frequencies in English, and 120 expressions,

equivalent to 127 frequencies in Vietnamese.

Like time, an abstract domain that is

conceptualized as motion (Lakoff & Johnson,

1980a; Kövecses, 2010; Evans & Green, 2006),

the mapping of spring is also taken from the

domain of MOTION. As a matter of fact,

according to Lakoff and Johnson (1999), there

are two subtypes of the conceptualization,

namely, moving time metaphor, and moving

observer metaphor. Accordingly, metaphor

(4) We gathered in spring (Gibb, We

Gathered Here in Spring)

(5) And there's something about the

Southland in the springtime (Saliers, Southland

in the Springtime)

S. T. Thom / VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol. 37, No. 1 (2021) 139-152

144

SPRING IS MOTION is classified into two

cases above.

Vietnamese has expressions nearly four times

as many as those in English, with 11 and 3

cases respectively. This manifestation of spring

can be clarified with the following expressions.

(17)Waiting for the color of spring (Baez,

April 5^th)

In terms of moving objects, spring is talked

about as a passage in some forms. In this

conceptualization, spring is viewed as

something moving. Thus, this yields the

metaphor SPRING IS A MOVING OBJECT

with the following mapping:

(18)Xuân còn thắm tươi; Anh còn mong

chờ (Phạm Duy, Xuân ca)

Objects → spring

The motion of objects past the observer →

the passage of spring

‘Spring is still ruddy, I still look

forward to seeing you’

(19)Xuân xanh lơ, hắt hiu trong trời nắng

mưa (Nguyễn Bá Khiêm, Chiều hạ vàng)

‘Spring is blue, and gloomy in the sun

and rain’

The motion here is expressed by senses of

verbs: arrive, come, go, return, pass, fall, and

adverbs: over, through in English or sang, đến,

tới, về, qua, đi qua, ra đi in Vietnamese via the

following expressions:

(11) Spring arrived on time (Landesman,

Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most)

(12) How like the spring

To return in a day (Kirkland, Dienda)

(13) Spring has come, the good fountain

flows (Lewis, Hebridean Sun)

(14) Ta hẹn mùa xuân sang mình sẽ cưới

nhau (Nhật Ngân, Một lần dang dở)

‘We promise that when spring comes,

we will get married’

Obviously, the expression (17), with the

phrase the color of spring, proves that spring is

a concrete object having colors. In addition, the

adjectives thắm tươi “ruddy”, and xanh lơ

“blue” in (18, 19) denote colors which are

recognized via the sight (vision) of the living

entity, namely human beings. It is obvious that

spring, an abstract object from the perspective

of physical season, however, here is depicted

with numerous colors, which evokes the image

of colored objects mapped onto spring.

Surprisingly, the data reveal that two

metaphors: SPRING IS A SCENTED OBJECT,

and SPRING IS TASTED OBJECT are

applicable in Vietnamese, yet totally absent in

English corpus. Consider the following

Vietnamese expressions:

(15) Xuân về cho cây xanh lá (Lữ Liên, Lạc

mất mùa xuân)

Spring returns, plants become greener.

On the contrary, moving observer metaphor

(or the Moving Ego Metaphor) means that the

observer/ego moves to spring, meanwhile

spring is stationary. This conceptual metaphor

is only found in Vietnamese. It can be

illustrated by the following example:

(16)Cánh én bước tới chào xuân mới

(Nguyễn Nam, Mùa xuân sang)

‘Swallow wings approached nearer,

and greeted the new spring’

In this expression, basing on the verb bước

tới “approach”, spring here which does not

move, is approached by the agent of moving

(20)Trong hương xuân ta vẫy chào

(Nguyễn Ngọc Thiện, Mùa xuân ơi)

‘We greet each other with spring scent’

(21)Hương mùa xuân lan tỏa, gọi hồn ong

bướm qua (Quốc Nam, Chơi vơi)

‘The scent of spring spreads and calls

for the soul of bees and butterflies’

The sense of the noun phrases hương xuân

in (20) or hương mùa xuân in (21) “scent”

gives rise to the metaphor SPRING IS A

SCENTED OBJECT. It can be understandable

because Vietnam belongs to the tropical

weather pattern. It means that it becomes

warmer with a great deal of drizzle, which

makes every living creature grow and develop

properly, and human life also becomes lively.

For example, hương mùa xuân lan tỏa “the

scent of spring spreads” in (21) implies that

plants and trees flush, which appeals to insects,

including bees and butterflies.

action

-

swallow wings. However, the

Vietnamese corpus shows that the number of

expressions for moving observer metaphor is

much smaller than the former. There are only 3

expressions compared with 120 ones of moving

spring.

In terms of physical entity, the source

domain mapping onto this season is also found

as the manifestations of colored objects in both

corpora. However, the conceptual metaphor

SPRING IS A COLORED OBJECT in

Spring is depicted as a tasted object with 2

expressions as follows:

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145

(22)Em là cánh én mỏng

‘You are a thin swallow’

‘Remember every moment of the tasty

spring’

Chao xuống giữa đời anh

‘Hover down in the middle of my life’

Cho lòng anh xao động

The above expressions describe spring as

food with its tastes such as ngọt ngào “sweet”

in (22), đậm đà “tasty” in (23). In other words,

the food attributes are used for spring ones

when people regard the sound quality of spring

as sweet and flavor of food. In brief, spring is

conceived as a physical entity, as the following

table shows:

‘Making my heart flutter’

Thành mùa xuân ngọt ngào (Hoàng

Hiệp & Diệp Minh Tuyền, Mùa chim én bay)

‘Making a sweet spring’

(23)Ghi từng phút mùa xuân đậm đà (Hoài

An, Ngày xuân thăm nhau)

Table 1

Domains of Physical Entities Used for SPRING in English and Vietnamese

Number of expressions

No Domains of physical entity

English Vietnamese

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

CONCRETE OBJECT

CONTAINER

THINGS CONTAINED

MOTION

COLORED OBJECT

SCENTED OBJECT

TASTED OBJECT

Total

95

29

12

39

3

0

139

165

8

120

11

5

2

319

the same number of expressions in both

languages. It can be seen in the expressions

below:

(24)Spring has showered frae a drip

Splash and trickle running (Leitch, The

Lullaby of Spring)

(25)Someday in the flush of the spring

(Clark, Some Day)

(26)Xuân tuôn rơi, trên đôi vai, trên đôi

tay, trên đôi chân

4.1.2. Natural substance

In view of natural substance, the statistical

evidence from the corpora reveals that this

study discovers 6 main source domains used to

express spring in English and Vietnamese as in

the table below:

Table 2

Domains of Natural Substance Used for

SPRING in English and Vietnamese

Spring is falling on the shoulders, on

the hands, on the feet

Cho trôi đi bao đa đoan, bao ưu phiền

(Minh Châu, Vũ điệu mùa xuân)

Washing away much tangle, much

sorrow

Domains of

natural substance

AIR

Number of expressions

English Vietnamese

No

1

2

3

4

5

6

1

3

0

3

LIQUID

SUNLIGHT

HEAT

SOUND

FIRE

12

9

7

4

The expressions (24, 25, 26) give rise to the

metaphor SPRING IS LIQUID when the

description for liquid is employed to portray

this season. It is apparent that in (24, 25), the

concept of spring associated with rain, a kind

of natural substance. The conceptualization is

manifested by virtue of the senses of the verbs

shower in (24), tuôn rơi, and trôi đi in the

word-by-word translation, ‘wash’ for the

equivalent in English in (26). According to

Vietnamese Dictionary (Vietnam Institute of

Linguistics, 2003), and Cambridge Advanced

Learner’s Dictionary (2005), the verbs tuôn

rơi, trôi, and shower are used to describe

0

4

3

0

Total

28

18

Regarding NATURAL SUBSTANCE, as

seen in Table 2, there are 8 subcases with 8

domains i.e., heat, air, liquid, sunlight, sound,

and fire mapped onto spring. English and

Vietnamese share the metaphors: SPRING IS

LIQUID, SPRING IS SUNLIGHT, and

SPRING IS HEAT. First of all, spring is

manifested as liquid. However, the conceptual

metaphor SPRING IS LIQUID is supported by

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146

raining. Accordingly, spring here can be

understood as rain, a subtype of liquid.

In addition, the corpora show that spring is

understood as sunlight. The number of

expressions for this spring conceptualization in

English nearly doubles that in Vietnamese, with

13 in English, and 7 cases in Vietnamese. It can

be illustrated by the examples as follows:

(27)It's spring in person that makes it

bright (Hart, Yours Sincerely)

(28)Xuân ơi hãy sáng trên đời tôi (Minh

Châu, Vũ điệu mùa xuân)

‘Spring, be bright in my life!’

(29)Ánh xuân đem vui với đời (Phạm Đình

Chương, Đón xuân)

activities, they reveal their strong emotion for

the comfort of warmness that spring brings.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese people conceive the

warmness of this season by employing the

adjective ấm áp for 4 cases like in (32). They

share their feeling about it more softly since in

nature, they are more introverted than

Westerners are. In short, the metaphor SPRING

IS HEAT is coherent with Kövecses’s

statement ‘Given a certain kind of habitat,

speakers living there will be attuned (mostly

subconsciously) to things and phenomena that

are characteristic of that habitat; and they will

make use of these things and phenomena for the

metaphorical comprehension and creation of

their conceptual universe’ (2010, p. 79).

In the same way, the metaphor SPRING IS

FIRE is available; however, it is applicable only

in English with only 3 expressions as follows:

(33)And she's caught in the fires of spring

(Rea, Fires of Spring)

‘Spring light brings joy to life’

The senses of bright in English (27), sáng

in (28) shows that spring is depicted as sunlight

because it can make the light. In the expression

(29), ánh xuân denotes spring is the object also

having light, which gives rise to the metaphor

SPRING IS SUNLIGHT. This conceptua-

lization can be explained that there is more

sunshine in spring than that in winter when

every living entity, including people,

experiences a duration of cold with little sun.

That is the reason why people pay much

attention to the sunlight creating warmth they

look forward to. Accordingly, spring is

conceived as sunlight, which is conventional

mapping.

Likewise, if it is cold without much

sunshine in winter, it seems to be sunny

frequently in spring. As a result, it becomes

warmer in this period of a year. Hence, it comes

as no surprise that SPRING is associated with

warmth, a degree of heat, which gives rise to

the conceptual metaphor SPRING IS HEAT in

both English and Vietnamese, with 9 and 4

expressions respectively.

(34)In the soft flames of spring

Spring has swept the scarlet side streets

(Schmid, A Summer's End)

It can be seen that the senses of fire and

flame in (33, 34) evoke the image of fire which

is used to transfer to the entity spring. As

discussed above, Westerners feel and enjoy the

warmness as if it were fire when they are thirsty

for it, which entails that spring is viewed as fire

in English like the prior finding: SPRING IS

HEAT.

Similarly, from Table 2, the conceptual

metaphor SPRING IS AIR is found in English

with a minority, namely 1 expression, yet

totally absent in the Vietnamese data. It can be

seen in the expression: (35) Let me breathe the

color of spring (Baez, April 5^th).

In contrast to the two cases above, the

metaphor SPRING IS SOUND is only existent

in Vietnamese with 4 expressions. The corpus

data reveal the way Vietnamese people cognize

spring is similar to the way they perceive

sound. It is obvious that spring is an abstract

entity people are not able to recognize by one of

their five senses, including hearing one;

however, here it can be perceived via human’

hearing organ like in the expressions below:

(36)Mùa xuân là tiếng hát em bên anh

(Hoài An, Bên em mùa xuân)

(30)Spring fever, it's Spring fever time

(Baum, Spring Fever)

(31)The industrious beaver puts it down to

Spring fever (Paul, Spring Spring Spring)

(32)Mùa xuân ấm áp mai nở muôn nơi

(Huy Phương, Gửi Huế)

‘Spring is warm, apricot blossoms

bloom everywhere’

From the data statistics, in English the noun

fever is used densely with 7 frequencies out of

15 ones from all lexemes denoting the heat like

in (30, 31). Perhaps, it is because Westerners

are extroverts, and enjoy engaging in outdoor

Spring is the singing when I am with

you.

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147

(37)Phút giây lặng lẽ mong chờ, lắng nghe

mùa xuân về (Dương Thụ, Lắng nghe mùa xuân

về)

This is the expected moment, listening

to spring arriving.

(40) can be hung up due to the effect of spring.

In addition, sweep in (39) implies that spring

impacts physically on the object scarlet side by

sweeping. In Vietnamese expressions, with the

meaning of the verb trao ‘give’ in (42), spring

is understood as the provider that em (I in

English) received a glance from his/her eyes.

Similarly, in (43) that spring comes makes buds

sprout on the trees, which can draw on that

spring is considered the changer creating

physical change of things. Hence, the evidence

gives rise to the conceptual metaphor SPRING

IS A FORCE, which is coherent with TIME IS

A CHANGER/FORCE (Kövecses, 2010), when

considering it as a notion of time.

Next, space is also used to map onto spring.

Among the conceptual metaphors in terms of

inanimate objects, the SPRING IS SPACE

conceptual metaphor predominates in English,

making up 37 expressions, that is a lower

number of expressions in Vietnamese, with 10

ones. They are depicted by virtue of typical

examples as follows:

In (37), the verb lắng nghe “listen to” is

used for the object spring, the predicate in this

expression. It evokes that sound is employed to

denote spring. Similarly, mùa xuân là tiếng hát

‘spring is singing’ in (36) clearly exposes that

SPRING IS SOUND.

In brief, the available evidence in the

corpora suggests that spring is conceptualized

as natural substance or phenomenon, which is

in tune with Kövecses’ viewpoint that the

natural and physical environment shapes

metaphors because it shapes a language,

primarily its vocabulary, in an obvious way

(2010, p. 79).

4.1.3. Other domains

First, spring is conceptualized as a force

(sometimes called agent of action or changer),

with the same number of expressions in the two

languages, namely 15 ones when the image of

spring is portrayed as an agent or changer of an

action. It can be illustrated by virtue of the

typical examples in both languages as follows:

(38)How will I stand the summer when the

spring just made me dumber? (Gano, 4

Seasons)

(44)Spring ahead or fall behind (Brennan,

You Can Never Hold Back Spring)

(45)Keep me alive through the spring

(Watkins, Through the Spring)

(46)Vì mình xa nhau nên xuân vẫn mãi xa

vời chốn nao (Quốc Dũng, Em đã thấy mùa

xuân chưa)

‘Because we are apart, spring is still

(39)Spring has swept the scarlet side

(Nyro, Upstairs by a Chinese Lamp)

(40)Spring can really hang you up the most

(Landesman, Spring Can Really Hang You Up

The Most)

far away’

(47)Dặm đường xa ta đi giữa mùa xuân

(Tạ Minh Tâm, Đường chúng ta đi)

‘Miles away, we go in the middle of

spring’

(41)Ánh mắt mơ trông nơi xa vời

As a matter of fact, as mentioned above,

spring is an abstract concept; nevertheless, the

corpus data show that it can be recognized as a

concrete entity which is ahead, behind, far or

near observers in space. Moreover, some

linguistic devices are employed to express the

relation between entities and space via senses of

the words ahead, behind, through, near, far in

English; trước, sau, đầu, cuối, giữa, etc. in

Vietnamese. Thus, these expressions above are

linguistic manifestations of SPRING IS SPACE

metaphor which evokes the image of spring in a

certain space.

‘Far-away eyes’

Chờ mùa xuân đến đem nguồn vui

(Quốc Dũng, Điệp khúc mùa xuân)

Look forward to spring bringing

excitements’

(42)Và mùa xuân đã trao cho em ánh mắt

anh (Ngọc Châu, Thì thầm mùa xuân)

‘And spring has given me your eyes’

(43)Mùa xuân đang đến

‘Spring is coming’

Cho nhánh cây đâm chồi (Nguyễn

Ngọc Thiện, Lời chúc xuân)

‘Making buds sprout’

In addition, the source domain found from

the two corpora to conceptualize the spring

entity is landscape or place. The distribution of

these expressions in both languages is similar,

with nearly the same quantity, namely, 4 and 5

It is apparent that the senses of the verbs

make, sweep, hang up, đem đến, and trao in

(38, 39, 40, 41, 42) indicate that spring is the

agent of actions. Specifically, the author of the

lyric in (38) became dumber, and the one in

S. T. Thom / VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol. 37, No. 1 (2021) 139-152

148

in English and Vietnamese respectively. It is

elaborated by the following examples:

(48)Khi trước thềm xuân chỉ mình tôi (Trần

Hữu Bích, Thềm xuân)

Similarly, English corpus data reveals this

conceptualization:

(53)Then we spend all spring (Olliges Jr.,

Spring (Among the Living))

‘There is only me in front of the perron

of spring’

(54)But in the spring she took off her

disguise

The (48) show that spring has a perron,

which implies that this season is portrayed as a

place, maybe like a house although there are not

any perrons belonging to spring in reality.

Likewise, spring is also described as a river as

it has been scrutinized in detail in the

discussion below:

Well I'll never forget you looking my way

And the time that we spent in the

absence of games (Watkins, Through the

Spring)

In fact, the sense of verb spend is used to

express valuable commodities including money.

Nevertheless, in (53, 54) it is used to describe

spring in English. On the contrary, the findings

show that this metaphor is not available in

Vietnamese. That is consistent with the

explanations of Lakoff and Johnson when they

share that people use their everyday experiences

with money to conceptualize time when they

explain their work in association with the time

it takes. In particular, the payment is normally

based on “serving time” (1980, p. 8). They also

add:

(49)And spring grows

Out of winter it flows (Robbins, Spring)

(50)Đã mấy lần xuân trôi chảy mãi

‘Spring has flowed several times’

Mấy lần cô lái mỏi mòn trông (Nguyễn

Đình Phúc & Nguyễn Bính, Cô lái đò)

‘The ferry/boatwoman has languished

for news from her boyfriend’

As can be seen in Cambridge Advanced

Learner’s Dictionary (2005) as well as in the

Vietnamese Dictionary (Vietnam Institute of

Linguistics, 2003), flow, trôi chảy are

employed to indicate one of the activities of a

river. However, in (49, 50) it is deployed to

depict a season which is spring. Namely, the

passage of time (including spring) is compared

to the flowing of a river.

Finally, some domains deployed to map

onto spring are existent in English only, yet not

applicable in the other language. In fact, the

English linguistic material of this paper reveals

that conceptualization existence, money can

also be applied to SPRING metaphors like in

following the expressions:

(51)Spring is here (Chaplin, Spring Song)

(52)Get up, get out spring is everywhere

(Kaye, Spring Fever)

The metaphor SPRING IS EXISTENCE

has a significant number of expressions: 11

cases. Adverb of place here like in (51) is used

highly frequently, i.e., 15 times. It can be

inferred that Western people believe that spring

really is existent in a certain place as a concrete

entity.

Another domain that spring is treated as is

money, which is coherent with the metaphor

TIME IS MONEY that has been popular in

many studies so far (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980a;

Kövecses, 2005; Kövecses, 2010; Evan, 2005, etc.).

These practices are relatively new in the

history of the human race, and by no means

do they exist in all cultures. They have

arisen in modern industrialized societies

and structure our basic everyday activities

in a very profound way. Corresponding to

the fact that we act as if time is a valuable

commodity – a limited resource, even

money – we conceive of time that way.

Thus, we understand and experience time as

the kind of thing that can be spent, wasted,

budgeted, invested wisely or poorly, saved,

or squandered. (ibid., p. 8)

In short, regarding inanimate objects, some

other source domains are found from the two

corpora as in the table below:

Table 3

Other Domains Used for SPRING in English

and Vietnamese

Number of

No

Other Domains

expressions

English Vietnamese

1

2

3

4

5

FORCE

SPACE

PLACE/LANDSCAPE

EXISTENCE

MONEY

15

37

4

11

4

15

10

5

0

Total

71

30

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149

‘Spring’s heart is absent-minded,

4.2. Animate object and living entity

In terms of animate objects, that spring is

conceptualized as a living entity is dominant in

both English and Vietnamese corpora, 50, and

81 expressions respectively. This type is

coherent with the type of ontological metaphor

(Kövecses, 2010, p. 38) which are those where

the physical object is further specified as being

a person (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980a, p. 33), for

example, (55) Then spring can never die. When

it comes to being considered living entities,

spring, in particular, is manifested by virtue of a

person and plant.

spring’s cheek is rosy’

As a matter of fact, (56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61)

prove that spring is mapped through

characteristics of human beings. As can be

seen, in (55), spring is considered a charming

girl, and a dancer in (57). Moreover, it is clear

that the verbs whisper, nói, mơ, and ở lại are

those whose actions are only done by human.

Especially, lòng ‘intestine’ in the word-by-

word translation or ‘heart’ in English

translation equivalent in (62) refers to one of

the organs belonging to the human’s viscera.

Here spring’s heart is understood as the girl’s

one whom the songwriter of this lyric falls in

love with. Hence, lòng xuân lơ đãng ‘spring is

absent-minded’ means the girl is absent-

minded; má xuân hồng ‘spring’s cheek is rosy’

means the girl’s cheek is rosy. In other words,

spring in (56, 61, 62) is personified into a lover

in English and Vietnamese. It is understandable

4.2.1. Person

As mentioned above, cognitive mechanism

of ontological metaphor allows people to

comprehend a wide variety of experiences with

nonhuman entities in terms of human

motivation, characteristics, and activities

(Lakoff & Johnson, 1980a, p. 33). Accordingly,

spring, time domain, is viewed as human

beings, which occupies the biggest number with

45 expressions in English, and 66 in

Vietnamese. The statistics from the data expose

that the verbs of saying such as hát, nói, thì

thầm, bảo, ngỏ lời, etc. in Vietnamese, and tell,

say, whisper and so forth in English are used

for the actor/agent spring. Besides, the subject

complements for the entity spring (as a subject)

are nouns related to persons like girl, boy,

singer, dancer, lover, etc. It can be scrutinized

via the examples below:

(56)I never knew the charm of spring

(Vernon, April in Paris)

(57)Spring is the dancer the lover of men

(Bartholdy, Spring song)

(58)Spring whispered in her ear (Nyro,

Upstairs by a Chinese Lamp)

(59)Mùa xuân nói với em điều gì? (Trần

Tiến, Mùa xuân gọi)

because

Kövecses

ever

states

that

personification which is a metaphorical device

used commonly in literature permits people to

use

knowledge

about

themselves

to

comprehend other aspects of the world, such as

time, death, natural forces, inanimate objects,

etc. (2010, p. 56).

4.2.2. Plant

Regarding living entity, another domain

employed to conceptualize the target domain

spring is plant that is manifested in terms of its

parts: mầm, nụ ‘buds’, hoa ‘flower’, lá ‘leaf’

in Vietnamese. The verbs live, die, or grow are

deployed to describe this season in English.

Surprisingly, the number of Vietnamese

metaphorical expressions triples that of English,

namely, 15 and 5 cases respectively. It can be

illustrated through the following expressions:

(63)And spring grows (Robbins, Spring)

(64)Vừa tàn mùa xuân rồi tàn mùa hạ

(Trịnh Công Sơn, Một cõi đi về)

‘What did spring tell you?’

(60)Xuân đã về, xuân vẫn mơ màng (Văn

Phụng, Xuân họp mặt)

‘Spring withered, then summer did too’

‘Spring has come, spring is still

dreaming’

(61)Em về én lại xa

‘You are back, yet swallows are far

away’

Mùa xuân không ở lại (Hoàng Hiệp &

Diệp Minh Tuyền, Mùa chim én bay)

‘Spring does not stay’

(62)Lòng xuân lơ đãng, má xuân hồng (Từ

Vũ & Nguyễn Bính, Gái xuân)

The available evidence in Vietnamese

shows that spring is conceptualized as a flower

that becomes faded in the last period of its life

cycle as in (64) when the verb tàn ‘wither’ is

used to portray the end of this season. The

sense of grow in (63) gives rise to the spring

manifestation, as a plant.

(65)Phải chăng mầm non mùa xuân đang

hé nở (Dương Thụ, Lắng nghe mùa xuân về)

‘Are spring buds sprouting?’

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150

Obviously, it is not so difficult to reason at

environment also takes part in shaping

metaphor (Kövecses, 2010, p. 79).

this conceptualization for spring as a bud in

(65). As discussed earlier, spring has ideal

climate conditions for plants to grow in

Vietnam. After a severe winter with coldness

when most living entities, including plants, try

their best to keep alive nearly without any

development, even without their leaves, their

buds sprout dramatically in spring, which gives

rise to the metaphor SPRING IS A BUD.

Hence, these metaphors from (64, 65), entailing

metaphor SPRING IS A PLANT, is available in

Vietnamese when the natural and physical

5. Conclusion

From the CMT perspective, 736 expressions

of metaphor of spring have been identified and

collected from 205 English and Vietnamese

songs. They are distributed into 20 conceptual

metaphors in the two languages as in the

following table.

Table 4

Conceptual Metaphors of SPRING in English and Vietnamese

Conceptual Metaphors

SRPING IS A CONCRETE OBJECT

SRPING IS A CONTAINER

SRPING IS AN CONTAINED OBJECT

SRPING IS MOTION

SPRING IS A COLORED OBJECT

SPRING IS A SCENTED OBJECT

SPRING IS A TASTED OBJECT

SRPING IS HEAT

English Vietnamese

+

-

+

-

+

-

+

-

+

-

+

SRPING IS AIR

SRPING IS LIQUID

SRPING IS SUNLIGHT

SRPING IS SOUND

SRPING IS FIRE

SRPING IS FORCE/CHANGER

SRPING IS SPACE

SRPING IS A PLACE/LANDSCAPE

SRPING IS EXISTENCE

SRPING IS MONEY

+

-

+

SRPING IS A PERSON

SRPING IS A PLANT

Table 4 shows the commonality in the use

of conceptual metaphors to express SPRING in

English and Vietnamese clearly in terms of

concrete domains of both animate and inanimate

entities. However, the domains related to

inanimate entities are much more than those of

animate ones in the two languages. Accordingly,

the number of metaphorical expressions related to

inanimate objects is much higher than that about

animate ones, with 605 cases compared to 131

ones. Besides, it can be seen that both languages

share 12 source domains used to map onto this

season, namely, CONCRETE OBJECT,

SUNLIGHT, FORCE/CHANGER, SPACE,

PLACE/LANDSCAPE, PERSON, and PLANT.

Yet, the metaphors: SPRING IS AIR, SPRING

IS FIRE, SPRING IS EXISTENCE, SPRING

IS MONEY are applicable in English, and

totally absent in the Vietnamese data.

Conversely, the source domains: LIQUID,

SOUND, SCENTED OBJECT and TASTED

OBJECT are found only in the Vietnamese

corpus. Obviously, both Westerners and

Vietnamese share the same way to

conceptualize the spring entity with many

common spring metaphors, which is maybe

because their living environment and

experiences they have for this season are

CONTAINER,

CONTAINED

OBJECT,

MOTION, COLORED OBJECT, HEAT,

VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol. 37, No. 1 (2021) 139-152

151

English

similar. On the other hand, they show certain

differences between their feelings about the

period of time in a year. While the Vietnamese

conceive spring with its scent and sound, the

Westerners expose their yearning for the

warmth of spring when they become lively, and

they consider it a commodity. In conclusion,

the findings uncover the similarities as well as

differences for the conceptual metaphors of

spring between English and Vietnamese, based

on the culture-bound nature of these metaphors,

whose cross-cultural variations include different

experiences, physical environments having

enormous impact on the choice of metaphors.

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152

ẨN DỤ TRI NHẬN VỀ MÙA XUÂN

TRONG CA TỪ BÀI HÁT TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT

Sỹ Thị Thơm

Khoa Khoa học Cơ bản, Trường Sỹ quan Đặc công, Binh chủng Đặc công

Xã Tân Tiến, Huyện Chương Mỹ, Hà Nội, Việt Nam

Tóm tắt: Nghiên cứu này phát hiện ẩn dụ tri nhận về mùa xuân qua các ca từ bài hát tiếng Anh và tiếng

Việt. Nghiên cứu dựa trên cơ sở lý thuyết về ẩn dụ tri nhận do Lakoff và Johnson khởi xướng vào năm 1980 với

tác phẩm kinh điển Ấn dụ từ cuộc sống quanh ta (Metaphors We Live by). Nghiên cứu tiến hành dựa trên số liệu

được thu thập từ 205 bài hát, trong đó 98 bài tiếng Anh và 107 bài tiếng Việt từ thế kỷ 20 đến nay, bao gồm 736

biểu đạt ẩn dụ và tuân thủ theo phương pháp nhận biết ẩn dụ của Steen (1999). Phương pháp mô tả và so sánh

được sử dụng chính trong bài. Kết quả nghiên cứu cho thấy có 20 ẩn dụ tri nhận được tìm ra thông qua việc tìm

các miền nguồn mang tính cụ thể đã ánh xạ lên miền đích - mùa xuân, trong đó có 12 ẩn dụ giống nhau trong hai

ngôn ngữ. Nghiên cứu cũng đã chỉ ra được sự giống và khác nhau của ẩn dụ về mùa xuân giữa hai ngôn ngữ này,

đồng thời đưa ra những giải thích cho sự tương đồng và khác biệt này dưới góc nhìn văn hóa, gồm kinh nghiệm

và môi trường sống của con người.

Từ khóa: biểu đạt ẩn dụ, ẩn dụ tri nhận, miền đích, miền nguồn, ánh xạ