Running head: FOOD METAPHOR

Food Metaphor in English and Vietnamese: A Contrastive Analysis

Do Thi Phuong Tam

HCMC University of Pedagogy

Instructor: Mr Nguyen Ngoc Vu December 30, 2009

Running head: FOOD METAPHOR Abstract

Adopting Lakoff and Johnsons famous Conceptual Metaphor Theory, the present paper looks into the set of correspondences of the two mappings: IDEA-AS-FOOD mapping and SEX-IS-EATING mapping. Having the significant role in human survival and wellbeings, food is predicted to be an important source domain, based on which human beings comprehend and talk about the world. The universal importance of food is another reason for me to choose food metaphor as the ground to compare some features of English and Vietnamese linguistic expressions, and hence, some cultural features of the two nations as well. However, because of the limited scope, the content of the present paper covers only two mappings mentioned above. Keywords: Conceptual Metaphor Theory, mapping, domain, linguistics expressions

Running head: FOOD METAPHOR Introduction For centuries, it has been taken for granted that metaphor is a mere figure of speech which is used solely to embellish what can be otherwise conveyed in a plain, literal way. However, recent studies on cognitive linguistics have revealed another aspect of metaphor: metaphor as the illustration of the relationship between language and human cognition (Grady, 2007). It is to say metaphor is not just a matter of language; it fact, it is a matter of thought. Based on that theory, we can rely on metaphor to explore the way we human beings in general perceive the world and human stance in it. Also the comparison between common metaphors in one culture with those in another can possibly reveal the way in which our neurobiology and embodied experience determine our worldview; and hence, our use of language. In many cultures, food has been associated with many other essential human experiences, such as ideas, virtue, conduct, sexual desire, disposition, etc., due to its prominent importance in human survival and pleasure (Berrada, 2007). Therefore, looking at food metaphor in the two distinct languages English and Vietnamese, I hope to trace the similarity and differences in language back to distinctive features in worldview and culture. Background on Conceptual Metaphor Theory

Running head: FOOD METAPHOR Cognitive linguists emphasize that metaphors should not be considered as a mere matter of language. It is actually a matter of thought. This view contradicts the

traditional belief which separate literal and gurative language, with metaphor as a kind of gurative language (Lakoff, 1993). The view is said to be inspired by Reddys essay, which by rigorous linguistic analysis and voluminous examples has pointed out metaphor is a major and indispensable part of our ordinary, conventional way of conceptualizing the world, and that our everyday behavior reflects our metaphorical understanding of experience (Lakoff, 1993). Lakoff and Johnsons Metaphors We Live By is also an important contribution to the contemporary understanding of metaphor. According to Johnson, this conceptual view is also proved by the increasing number of researches on metaphor in everyday language interaction, religion, science, philosophy, law, among other domains of human thought (Berrada, 2007). The most fundamental notion in conceptual metaphor theory (henceforth CMT) is mapping (Grady, 2007). Metaphor can be, in fact, defined as a cross-domain mapping in the conceptual system, which involves a tightly structured set of correspondences (Lakoff, 1993). In his article, Lakoff has given a clear example of such mapping: the LOVE-AS-A-JOURNEY mapping, in which there are ontological correspondences, according to which entities in the domain of love (e.g., the lovers, their common goals, their difficulties, the love relationship, etc.) correspond systematically to entities in the domain of a journey (the travelers, the vehicle, destinations, etc.).

Running head: FOOD METAPHOR There are also some principles to bear in mind concerning CMT. One of them is the Invariance Principles, which maintains that the mapping should not violate the basic topological structure of the target domain (Grady, 2007). It guarantees that, for

container schemas, interiors will be mapped onto interiors, exteriors onto exteriors, and boundaries onto boundaries; for path-schemas, sources will be mapped onto sources, goals onto goals, trajectories onto trajectories, and so on (Lakoff, 1993). Besides the Invariance Principle, which represents the systematicity of conceptual metaphor, the asymmetrical directionality is also an important feature, strongly emphasized by Lakoff and Johnson and many cognitive linguists (Grady, 2007). It is to say that while a particular conceptual metaphor is meaningful, its reverse, in most cases, is not possible. We can easily understand what is meant by I struggled to digest the news but referring to the act of digesting a pizza, for example, as an intellectual activity is obviously unthinkable. The directionality of conceptual metaphor is not only a characteristic feature but also evidence against the conventional view of metaphor as an implicit simile. If metaphor has it most fundamental base as similarity, metaphorical substitution should be possible in either way. However, it is not. The ground of metaphor is not significantly on the similarity, but rather on the shared experience, which is also an important principle of CMT. For example, it is hardly possible to identify the similarity that account for the MORE-IS-UP metaphor; meanwhile it can be reasonably accounted for by referring to everyday experience. Lakoff and Johnson explain that when we see a pile of objects or liquid in a contained space, we easily relate the number of objects (or amount of liquid) to the height of the pile (or of the liquid column). That is how the MORE-IS-UP mapping is motivated. This experiential analysis does not merely explain

Running head: FOOD METAPHOR linguistic expressions but more significantly reveal the way human mind reflects the world. (Grady, 2007) Food Metaphor in English IDEA-AS-FOOD Mapping The name of a mapping, according to Lakoff, is just a mnemonic for a set of

ontological correspondences that characterize a mapping. Therefore, the proper way to exploit the IDEA-AS-FOOD mapping is to look at it under other more specific mappings, such as THE NEED FOR INFORMATION-IS-HUNGER, THINKING IS EATING, THINKING IS COOKING, UNDERSTANDING-IS-EATING, PROCESSING INFORMATION-IS-DIGESTING, PROVIDING INFORMATION-IS-FEEDING IDEAS ARE FOOD (1) Anne has always read voraciously. (2)That is food for thought. THE NEED FOR INFORMATION-IS-HUNGER (3) her hunger for knowledge (4) the thirst for knowledge in Renaissance Italy (5) She has an amazing appetite for knowledge. (6) People seem to have an insatiable appetite for news of any kind. THINKING IS EATING (7) Let me chew it over for a few days. (8) Amelia was chewing it over, undecided. THINKING IS COOKING (9) He's always coming out with these half-baked ideas which will never work.

Running head: FOOD METAPHOR (10) What we've got here is a half-baked proposal that still needs a great deal of work. UNDERSTANDING-IS-EATING (11) I just can't swallow that claim. (12) Let me stew over that for a while. PROCESSING INFORMATION-IS-DIGESTING (13) I struggled to digest the news. (14) By the end of the day, I had a lot of new information to digest. (15) It took a while to digest the theory. PROVIDING INFORMATION-IS-FEEDING (16) She feeds the media with stories, which is a way of getting free advertising. (17) US intelligence had been feeding false information to a KGB agent. (18) The film put America's moviegoers into a feeding frenzy. These mappings together with specific examples above prove that IDEA-AS-

FOOD is a popular and conventional metaphor in English. It evidences English peoples conceptualization of ideas in terms of food, both of which are essential to human survival and well-beings. Different as they may be, ideas and food are both involved the process of being taken in either by the mind or by the body, which is possibly the experiential motivation of this metaphor (Grady, 2007). SEX-IS-EATING Mapping The following narrative by Braine can be a good example of the mapping of sex and eating:

Running head: FOOD METAPHOR

I hadnt fallen in love with her. And I wasnt sex-obsessed.... It was simply that I was an unmarried man with normal appetites. If youre hungry and someones preparing you a good meal, youll naturally angle for an invitation. The meal was on the table, so to speak, and it was a long time since I had eaten (Fernadez, 2008). Based on this narrative, it can be postulated that within the SEX-IS-EATING Mapping, sexual desire corresponds to appetite; sexual intercourse corresponds to meal and sex partners correspond to food. Food Metaphor in Vietnamese IDEA-AS-FOOD Mapping Some English linguistic manifestations of this mapping can be translated into Vietnamese without losing it cognitive content, for example: (1)Anne has always read voraciously. Anne vn lun c ngu c nghin. (11)I just can't swallow that claim. Ti tht khng th nut ni cu ni . (15) It took a while to digest the theory. (Ti) phi mt mt lc mi tiu ha c l thuyt y. (16) She feeds the media with stories, which is a way of getting free advertising. C ta mm chuyn cho gii truyn thng, nh l mt cch c qung co min ph.

Running head: FOOD METAPHOR This suggests the possibility of the existence of the mapping in Vietnamese language. Besides, a few Vietnamese idioms and expressions also bear the IDEA-ASFOOD metaphor. One of those is the sayings, n c nhai, ni c ngh (literally, chew when you eat; think when you talk) which implicitly conveys the association between thinking and chewing. The expression chm tiu (literally, slowly digesting), used to refer to dim-witted people, clearly reflects the UNDERSTANDING-IS-DIGESTING mapping. Meanwhile, the THE NEED FOR INFORMATION-IS-HUNGER mapping is manifested in the expression i ch (literally, hungry for literacy). Also, the idioms si kinh nu s (literally, boil the moral lessons, cook the history lessons) indicates the correspondence between cooking and learning process; however, this idiom is now outdated, and hence, hardly ever used in normal everyday speech. Based on these evidences, it can be said that the IDEA-AS-FOOD metaphor does exist in Vietnamese language system. However, more evidence should be found in order to support the systematicity of the mapping in Vietnamese language as well as Vietnamese peoples cognition. SEX-IS-EATING Mappings Many Vietnamese idioms reflect the SEX-IS-EATING mapping: (19) ng n ch, b n nem. (literally, he has ch, she has nem1) (20) n ph b cm (literally, once you have ph, you will be too full to have rice) (21) No xi thi cm (literally, once you have sticky rice, you will be too full to have rice) (22) n bnh tr tin (literally, you eat the cake, you pay the money)
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Ch and nem are both delicious Vietnamese dishes.

Running head: FOOD METAPHOR

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(23) n vng khng bit chi mp (eating on the sly without cleaning your mouth) Most of the expressions above use language in food domain to talk about issues in sex domain, especially about extramarital affair. Like that in English, the SEX-ISEATING metaphor in Vietnamese idioms consists of a set of correspondences, i.e. having sex corresponds to eating; extramarital affairs correspond to delicious dishes; and sex within marriage corresponds to ordinary dish rice. The idiom ng n ch, b n nem describes the situation when both the man and his wife commit adultery. In most cases, the two expressions n ph b cm and no xi thi cm are understood as the neglect of your spouse due to an extramarital affair. The expression n bnh tr tin again refers to eating (n bnh) as sexual intercourse, which is also reflected in the last expression, n vng khng bit chi mp.

Running head: FOOD METAPHOR Juxtaposition of Food Metaphors in English with Those in Vietnamese and Suggestion The IDEA-AS-FOOD mapping is linguistically manifested in many languages, including English, French, German, Chinese and Vietnam. It is quietly clear that the English language has a systematic set of correspondences of this mapping. On the contrary, the examples of the mapping in Vietnamese language system have not provided strong evidence of the system of correspondences characterizing this mapping. Further studies should be conducted focusing on the evidence of IDEA-AS-

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FOOD mapping in Vietnamese in order to state certainly whether there is a conventional system of correspondences of this mapping in Vietnamese. The SEX-IS-EATING mapping is found to be manifested in both English and Vietnamese. This probably suggests a common embodied experience conceptualized in similar ways by the two nations. However, it is worth noting that while Vietnamese idioms tend to distinguish between marital affair and adultery, English idioms do not bother with this. Further studies on this issue can possibly shed more light into the problem and hence identify the differences between the two cultures. Besides IDEA-AS-FOOD mapping and SEX-IS-EATING mapping, the mapping of human temperament and food is also worth consideration. Also, it can be interesting to investigate the correspondences between eating and leading a particular lifestyle in Vietnamese language system as eating is an integral part of Vietnamese culture.

Running head: FOOD METAPHOR References Ahrens, K., Chung, S. F. & Huang, C. (n.d.) Conceptual Metaphors: Ontology-based

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Representation and Corpora Driven Mapping Principles. Retrieved December 28, 2009, from ACL Anthology website: http://acl.ldc.upenn.edu/W/W03/W031405.pdf Berrada, K. (2007). Food Metaphors: A Contrastive Approach. Retrieved December 28, 2009, from the Metaphorik.de website: http://www.metaphorik.de/13/berrada.pdf Fernndez, E. C. (2008, Dec). Sex-Related Euphemism and Dysphemism: An Analysis in Terms of Conceptual Metaphor Theory. ATLANTIS. Journal of the Spanish Association of Anglo-American Studies, pp. 95110. Retrieved December 28, 2009, from the Alanticjournal website: http://acl.ldc.upenn.edu/W/W03/W031405.pdf Grady, J. E. (2007). Metaphor. In D. Geeraerts & H. Cuyckens (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics (pp.188-213). New York: Oxford University Press. Lakoff, G. (1993). Conceptual Metaphor: The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor. In D. Geeraerts (Ed.), Cognitive Linguistics: Basic Readings (pp.188-213). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (3th ed.). (2004). Harlow, England: Longman.