Conceptual metaphors in " The call of the wild" by Jack London and its Vietnamese translation by Hoàng Hà Vũ

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

LÊ THỊ SÂM

CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS

IN “THE CALL OF THE WILD” BY JACK LONDON

AND THEIR VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION

BY HOÀNG HÀ VŨ

FIELD: English Linguistics

CODE: 8 22 02 01

Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. NGUYỄN TẤT THẮNG

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN

LÊ THỊ SÂM

ẨN DỤ Ý NIỆM TRONG TÁC PHẨM

“THE CALL OF THE WILD” CỦA JACK LONDON

VÀ BẢN DỊCH TIẾNG VIỆT CỦA HOÀNG HÀ VŨ

Chuyên ngành: Ngôn Ngữ Anh

Mã số: 8 22 02 01

Ngƣời hƣớng dẫn: PGS.TS. NGUYỄN TẤT THẮNG

i

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this study

contains no material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from

a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or

diploma.

I certify that all the material in this study that is not my own work has

been identified and acknowledged. No material is included for which a degree

has already been conferred upon me.

This paper has not been submitted for the award of any degree or

diploma in any university.

Binh Dinh, 2021

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Upon completing the thesis, I am gratefully indebted to my supervisor

Nguyễn Tất Thắng for his valuable suggestions, advices and corrections

during my writing. The M.A thesis is one of the most challenging and

significant academic challenges to me. This thesis would not be done without

support from the teacher.

I also wish to express my sincere thanks to my lecturers at Quy Nhon

University for their insightful comments and suggestions.

I also take this opportunity to all of my friends for their support and

encouragement during the thesis preparation.

I must acknowledge my debt to the authors whose work I use for my

reference.

Finally, I would like to show my deep gratitude to my family members

for their great support, encouragement, love and unshakeable trust, without

which my thesis would not have been accomplished.

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ABSTRACT

This thesis investigates Conceptual Metaphors in the story ―The Call of

The Wild‖ by Jack London and their Vietnamese version by Hoàng Hà Vũ to

find out the frequencies of three different types and the common mapping

patterns used in the story.

Quantitative and qualitative methods were the two mains used to

analyze the story to get the results and findings of this study based on Lakoff

and Johnson's theory of Cognitive Metaphors. The findings show various

frequencies of three different types of metaphors. All three kinds appear to

help the reader understand the life of wild animals, specifically Buck.

However, the analysis reveals that each type of conceptual metaphor accounts

for a different proportion. The ontological metaphor continues the most

significant ratio in comparison with Structural and Orientational metaphors.

In the meantime, the Orientational metaphor is used with a minor frequency.

And thanks to these theory metaphors, we can find out 39 conceptual

metaphors with 231 expressions. Besides, the preferred source domains used

to map ―Dogs, Nature, Time, Anger, Love‖ or ―Life, Death‖ with familiar and

straightforward images like ―Human, Animal, Water, Food, Light‖. After that,

based on the adapted analytical framework on the translation procedures of

conceptual metaphors, the loss by Dickins, Hervey & Higgins (2002) and the

gain by Basnett (2002), we found out the loss and gain of the conceptual

metaphors in ―The Call of the Wild‖ by Jack London when they were

translated into Vietnamese by Hoang Ha Vu. The study found various

translation procedures, including keeping the same conceptual metaphor,

using another conceptual metaphor, deleting the conceptual metaphor and

converting the conceptual metaphors. Finally, the results helped us suggest

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some implications for teaching and learning English.

Keywords: conceptual metaphors, translation conceptual metaphor,

translation procedures

v

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ................................................................... i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ................................................................................ii

ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................................................................. v

CONVENTIONS ...........................................................................................viii

LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................... ix

LIST OF FIGURES........................................................................................... x

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................... 1

1.1. Rationale .............................................................................................. 1

1.2. Aims and objectives............................................................................. 2

1.2.1. Aims of the study.......................................................................... 2

1.2.2. Objectives of the study ................................................................. 3

1.3. Research questions............................................................................... 3

1.4. Scope of the study................................................................................ 3

1.5. Significance of the study...................................................................... 4

1.6. Organization of the study..................................................................... 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.......................................................... 6

2.1. Theoretical framework......................................................................... 6

2.2. Definition ............................................................................................. 7

2.2.1. Traditional metaphors................................................................... 9

2.2.2. Cognitive Linguistics.................................................................. 11

2.2.3 Conceptual metaphors.................................................................. 12

2.2.4 Classification of Conceptual Metaphor....................................... 16

2.3. Previous studies.................................................................................. 21

2.4. An overview of the story The Call of The Wild................................ 31

vi

2.4.1. Biography of Jack London.......................................................... 31

2.4.2. A brief review of ―The Call of The Wild‖.................................. 32

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .................................................................. 35

3.1. Research design.................................................................................. 35

3.2. Data collection ................................................................................... 36

3. 3. Data analysis..................................................................................... 37

3.4. Research procedures .......................................................................... 38

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ............................................ 39

4.1. Quantitative Analysis of Metaphors in ―The Call of The Wild‖ by

Jack London .............................................................................................. 39

4.2. Qualitative Analysis of Metaphors in ―The Call of The Wild‖ ......... 41

4.2.1. Ontological metaphors................................................................ 41

4.2.2. Structural metaphors................................................................... 53

4.2.3. Orientational metaphors.............................................................. 57

4.3. Loss and gain in conceptual metaphors in ―The Call of The Wild‖

by Jack London and ―Tiếng gọi nơi hoang dã‖ by Hoàng Vũ Hà. ........... 58

4.3.1. The same metaphor in ―The Call of The Wild‖ by Jack London

and in Hoàng Hà Vũ‘s Vetnamese version........................................... 58

4.3.2. Using a different metaphor......................................................... 61

4.3.3. Converting the conceptual metaphor.......................................... 62

4.3.4. The loss of metaphor in ―The Call of The Wild‖ by Jack

London and in Hoàng Hà Vũ‘s Vetnamese version ............................. 63

4.3.5 Summary...................................................................................... 66

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS .............................. 68

5.1. Recapitulation .................................................................................... 68

5.2. Implications for language teaching and learning............................... 69

5.3. Limitations......................................................................................... 70

vii

5.4. Suggestions for further research ........................................................ 71

REFERENCES................................................................................................ 72

APPENDIX

viii

CONVENTIONS

 (1) – (101): Data numbered from 1 to 101

 [ E-1] – [E-101]: Data samples coded from E-1 to E-101

For example:

(13) His madness knew no caution. [E3].

 This is the thirteenth example extracted from the English data which

coded E-3.

ix

LIST OF TABLES

Table

number

Title Page

4.1

Types of conceptual metaphors and their occurrence

frequency used in ―The Call of The Wild.‖

39

4.2

Subtypes of ontological metaphor and their occurrence

frequency used in ―The Call of The Wild.‖

40

4.3

The frequency of structural metaphors in ―The Call of

The Wild‖ by Jack London

54

4.4

The same metaphor in ―The Call of The Wild‖ and its

Vietnamese version

59

4.5

Using a different metaphor in ―The Call of The Wild‖

and its Vietnamese version

62

4.6

Converting the conceptual metaphor in ―The Call of The

Wild‖ and its Vietnamese version

63

4.7

The loss of metaphor metaphors in ―The Call of The

Wild‖ and in Hoàng Hà Vũ‘s Vietnamese version

64