Mapping Mechanism of Source “Taste” on Target “Life” in Vietnamese and English

Authors

Vũ Thị Sâm
Post and Telecommunications Institute of Technology. Email: vuthisam2002@gmail.com

Keywords:

Source domain, target domain, taste, life, life experiences.

Abstract

The concept of taste is used as a source domain to map onto more abstract target domains such as life, human qualities, thoughts, feelings, social relationships, and other social activities. By employing the grounding knowledge of the conceptual metaphor theory developed by Lakoff and Johnson, this article focuses on identifying the metaphor mechanisms, mappings, and cultural factors of the significant conceptual metaphor related to the source domain tastes and the target domain life experiences, specifically, life experiences are tastes in Vietnamese and English. The aim is to compare and find out if there are similarities and differences in the metaphorical mapping mechanisms of life experiences are tastes in these two languages. By analysis and comparison of 441 Vietnamese discourses and 452 English discourses, it seems that the conceptual metaphor life experiences are tastes reflects both a universal concept and the typical national thinking systems of the two nations. The findings are consistent with those of Lakoff and Johnson (1980), and Sweetser (1990), reflect the concept and thinking of Vietnamese culture, and Anglo-American culture, identifying the way Vietnamese and British people understand about life, highlight the similarities and differences in perceiving the world of the two peoples.

Classification number

Linguistics

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Published

2023-06-29

References

1. Đỗ Hữu Châu (1987), Cơ sở ngữ nghĩa học từ vựng, Nxb Đại học và Trung học chuyên nghiệp, Hà Nội. [Đỗ Hữu Châu (1987), Semantic Basis of Vocabulary Learning, University and Vocational Publishing House, Hanoi].

2. Đỗ Hữu Châu (1999), Từ vựng - Ngữ nghĩa tiếng Việt, Nxb Giáo dục, Hà Nội. [Đỗ Hữu Châu (1999), Vietnamese Vocabulary - Semantics, Vietnam Education Publishing House,
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Issue

Vietnam Social Sciences, No. 1 - 2023