Abstract

Fillmore stated that frame semantics offers a particular way of looking at word meanings, as well as a way of characterizing principles for creating new words and phrases, for adding new meanings to words, and for assembling the meanings of elements in a text into the total meaning of the text. [9, p.111] Besides, the semantics of Vietnamese perception verbs is very diverse, subtle, and complicated. Therefore, this article researches the cognitive metaphor semantics (meanings) of Vietnamese perception verbs and their semantic cognition transferred from Vietnamese into English. The researcher inspected and collected 3,946 sentences with perception verbs as research data from two sets of English-Vietnamese, Vietnamese-English bilingual novels: The adventures of Sherlock Holmes , Arthur Conan Doyle (English version and Vietnamese version), and Love after war , Wayne Karlin, Ho Anh Thai (edited) (Vietnamese version and English version). Then, cases of specific semantic cognition transferred from Vietnamese into English were tracked down by using statistical analysis method. Simultaneously, the linguistic methods, such as descriptive, analysis, and contrastive methods have been used to analyze and investigate in order to find out the basic ways these verbs can convey cognitive metaphor meanings. There are totally 6 modes of the cognitive metaphors of the perception verbs. Those cognitive metaphors are formed due to the dominance of the cognitive object, the dominance of the cognitive perceiver, being in the same cognition phase, cognitive spaces switching, cognitive results conversion and perception organs conversion. This research results can help learners, language users, translators and interpreters of Vietnamese and English work effectively and comprehensively in their bilingual interactions.

Highlights

  • Metaphor is a cognitive phenomenon. [8, p.14] Metaphor helps humans to try to understand new problems in terms of existing cognitive resources. [13, p.325] 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. [10, p.186] The widespread use of metaphorical language in our everyday lives has given rise to the idea that we do talk metaphorically much of the time, but that we may think metaphorically much of the time. [5, p.68] And metaphors provide rich evidence about the ways in which some aspects of our lived experience are associated with others, for reasons that reflect basic aspects of perception, thought, and possibly neurological organization. [11, p.188]

  • After having carefully processed, analyzed, and researched, the research data revealed that 6 reasons for the existence of cognitive metaphor meanings for those perception verbs

  • Being a part of a linguistic system of a particular language the verb conveys national peculiarities of the conceptual system of its native speakers as well as the way a speaker visually perceives the environment. [3, p. 3] Based on meaning features, similarities, or similar elements in the same meaning category as well as the meaning proximity within each period of cognition or within the meaning group, these perception verbs can convey cognitive metaphors, which are distinctive, special, and diverse. These cognitive metaphor meanings enrich the semantic elements for the perception verbs

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Summary

Introduction

Metaphor is a cognitive phenomenon. [8, p.14] Metaphor helps humans to try to understand new problems in terms of existing cognitive resources. [13, p.325] 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. [10, p.186] The widespread use of metaphorical language in our everyday lives has given rise to the idea that we do talk metaphorically much of the time, but that we may think metaphorically much of the time. [5, p.68] And metaphors provide rich evidence about the ways in which some aspects of our lived experience are associated with others, for reasons that reflect basic aspects of perception, thought, and possibly neurological organization. [11, p.188]. [5, p.68] And metaphors provide rich evidence about the ways in which some aspects of our lived experience are associated with others, for reasons that reflect basic aspects of perception, thought, and possibly neurological organization. [12, p.10] In Vietnamese language, the semantics of the perception verbs is very interesting and deserves deep study and investigation. From the survey of the two sets of English-Vietnamese, Vietnamese-English bilingual novels: The adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Love after war, the researcher collected 1950 units with Vietnamese perception verbs (nhìn, nghe, ngửi, nếm, sờ and thấy) and 1996 units with English perception verbs (look, see, listen, hear, smell, taste, touch, feel). After having carefully processed, analyzed, and researched, the research data revealed that 6 reasons for the existence of cognitive metaphor meanings for those perception verbs. The research has tracked down all the possible semantic cognition transfers between Vietnamese and English

The Cognitive Metaphor Mechanism
The Cognitive Metaphor Mechanism of the Perception Verbs
Cognitive Metaphors of the Verb Nhìn
Cognitive Metaphors of the Verb Thấy
Cognitive Metaphors of the Verb Nghe
Cognitive Metaphors of the Verb Nghe Thấy
Cognitive Metaphors of the Verb Ngửi
Cognitive Metaphors of the Verb Ngửi Thấy
Cognitive Metaphors of the Verb Nếm
Cognitive Metaphors of the Verb Sờ
Due to the Dominance of the Cognitive Object
Due to the Dominance of the Cognitive Perceiver
Due to Being in the Same Cognition Phase
Due to Cognitive Spaces Switching
Due to Perception Organs Conversion
Conclusion

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