Ẩn dụ ý niệm CUỘC ĐỜI CON NGƯỜI LÀ NƯỚC trong thành ngữ, tục ngữ tiếng Việt

Abstract

To study conceptual metaphors means to study the way people think in a particular cultural and linguistic context. In fact, conceptual metaphors exist in everyday speech, in idioms and proverbs passed down through generations. This article focuses on studying the conceptual metaphor HUMAN LIFE IS WATER, in which the source domain WATER maps its properties and characteristics onto the target domain HUMAN. The article highlights six characteristics of conceptual metaphors: systematic, hierarchical, unidirectional, prominent, universal and culturally variable. The article surveys Vietnamese idioms and proverbs and obtains seven radiation rays representing the ways in which Vietnamese people perceive the finite nature of human life: human hardship, human quality, human experience, human relationships, human living conditions, human personality. In fact, conceptual metaphors are always universal and have a basis from human embodied experience.