COMPARING VIETNAMESE AND ENGLISH IDIOMS EXPRESSING HAPPINESS FROM THE THEORY OF METONYMY OF COGNITIVE SEMANTICS

  • The Ph Tran
Keywords: Conceptual metonymy, cognitive semantics, generic metonymy, idioms expressing happiness

Abstract

Cognitive semantics has contributed the Theory of Metonymy whose effects are enormous towards the ways people observe and recognize their living world. The article analyzes and compares the two groups of Vietnamese idioms (77 units) and English idioms (91 units) expressing happiness, based on the principle of generic metonymy: THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF AN EMOTION STAND FOR THE EMOTION with three specific metonymies: PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES, BEHAVIOURAL RESPONSES, FACIAL EXPRESSION RESPONSES. The survey results show the Vietnamese idiom group that uses these three sub-metonymies outnumbers the English idioms. As emotional metonymies are mainly based on body experience, the universality can be found in the Vietnamese and English idiom groups; however, it is also significantly different due to the specific experientalism of the two peoples.

điểm /   đánh giá
Published
2021-03-24