Ẩn dụ ý niệm “Con người là cây” trong thành ngữ, tục ngữ Tiếng Việt

LÝ LUẬN CHUYÊN NGÀNH

v

ẨN DỤ Ý NIỆM “CON NGƯỜI LÀ CÂY”

TRONG THÀNH NGỮ, TỤC NGỮ TIẾNG VIỆT

NGUYỄN THỊ BÍCH HẠNH^*

^*Học viện Khoa học xã hội, ✉ ntbichhanh78@gmail.com

Ngày nhận bài: 11/01/2018; ngày sửa chữa: 26/02/2018; ngày duyệt đăng: 28/02/2018

TÓM TẮT

Từ lý thuyết của ngôn ngữ học tri nhận, bài viết nghiên cứu mô hình ẩn dụ ý niệm “con người

là cây” trong thành ngữ, tục ngữ tiếng Việt. Tìm hiểu cách tri nhận của ông cha ta về con người

và các chu kỳ vòng đời người dựa trên ý niệm về chu kỳ sinh trưởng của thực vật được hiện thân

trong ngôn ngữ. Căn cứ vào những tương liên trong kinh nghiệm và những miền tri thức được

chiếu xạ từ miền nguồn sang miền đích, bài viết chỉ ra cơ chế sao phỏng giữa hai miền không gian

trong tư duy ngôn ngữ của người Việt. Dựa trên quan hệ logic trong việc tổ chức lược đồ ánh xạ

của ẩn dụ ý niệm, bài viết chỉ ra kiểu tư duy đặc thù trong cấu trúc ý niệm mang đặc trưng tư duy,

văn hóa của người Việt.

Từ khóa: ánh xạ, ẩn dụ ý niệm, cây, con người, thành ngữ, tục ngữ

1. METAPHOR AND CONCEPTUAL

METAPHOR

agreed upon and afﬁrmed by many structural

linguistics around the world.

In traditional viewpoint, metaphor is often

considered a problem of language itself, including

some symbols in a ﬁgurative sense, based on

words in literal interpretation. Metaphor, which is

studied by many rhetoricians, is often referred to

as the way to convert names based on an implicit

comparison between two things with similarities

or of similar natures. The mechanism of metaphor

creates the most common meaning conversion in

all languages. This traditional view of metaphor

dates back to the Aristotelian period, which was

Since Lakoff & Johnson (1980) published the

classic book Metaphor We live by, with the view

that: “metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not

just in language but in thought and action. Our

ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we

both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical

in nature” (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, p.30), the

concept of metaphor has undergone a breakthrough

change as cognitive linguists claim that metaphor is

also an effective cognitive tool for conceptualizing

abstract ideas. Metaphor is not merely a form

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of language but also a form of human thinking

about the world. Metaphorical thinking is based

on concepts. The theory of conceptual metaphor

proposed by both of them has attracted particular

attention in the ﬁeld of cognitive linguistics.

Accordingly, metaphor is a tool through which

vague experiences of human are conceptualized

on the basis of more speciﬁc experiences (Lakoff

& Johnson, 1980, p.4). Lakoff assumes that many

of our experiences are metaphorically created

through a limited number of image schemas, made

by metaphorical projection between the “source”

and the “target” domains, with the general

model of TARGET IS SOURCE. This special

meaning conversion is accomplished through

irradiation between two spatial domains, where

the properties of the source domain are usually

more ﬁrmly structured (e.g. PLANT, JOURNEY,

CONTAINER) and partially mapped to the target

domain - usually more abstract (e.g. PEOPLE,

EMOTION, TIME)... (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980,

p.8). Through metaphor, people recognize that the

world consists of material world, spiritual world

and emotional world. Metaphor is attached to the

culturalcharacteristicsofnativespeaker.Thearticle

applies the theoretical frameworks of cognitive

linguistics in idioms and proverbs in Vietnamese to

ﬁgure out the metaphorical expression of PEOPLE

ARE PLANTS and subordinate metaphors of this

concept, to demonstrate the intimate relationship

between language - culture - thinking expressed

through conceptual expressions.

Nhu Y (chief author, 1995). The total number of

idioms surveyed is 2.500.

The article uses a number of research methods,

such as analytical and descriptive method; concept

analysis method; in combination with statistics

and classiﬁcation to address research objectives

and prove the set hypotheses, according to the

following procedure:

Step 1: Identify a set of characteristic features

of the source domain PLANT and the target

domain PEOPLE;

Step 2: Identify a set of corresponding features

in cognitive framework PEOPLE ARE PLANTS;

Step 3: Perform statistics and classiﬁcation

from collected data sources to separate the

metaphorical expressions of the concept PEOPLE

ARE PLANTS;

Step 4: Group the metaphorical expressions

of the concept PEOPLE ARE PLANTS according

to the criteria of “plant life cycle” deﬁned in the

Cognitive framework;

Step 5: Develop an irradiation map in the

metaphor PEOPLE ARE PLANTS based on

the mechanism of moving the properties from

“plant life cycle” to “people life cycle” in

idioms and proverbs in Vietnamese; show the

path and the mechanism of replication between

spatial domains of source and target, “plant” and

“people” in conceptual thinking of the Vietnamese

to demonstrate the intimate relationship between

language - culture - thinking expressed through

conceptual expressions.

2. METHODS AND DATA USED FOR

RESEARCH

The research materials are taken from Kho

tàng tục ngữ người Việt (Vietnamese proverb

treasure), Volumes 1, 2 by Nguyen Xuan Kinh,

Nguyen Thuy Loan, Phan Lan Huong and Nguyen

Luan (2002), with 16.098 proverbs; Từ điển

thành ngữ và tục ngữ Việt Nam (Dictionary of

Vietnamese idioms and proverbs) by Nguyen Lan,

(2014); and Từ điển giải thích thành ngữ tiếng Việt

(Explanation of Vietnamese idioms) by Nguyen

3. RESULTS

3.1. The correspondence between source

domain and target domain

Conceptual metaphorical model PEOPLEARE

TREES is a universal concept in every culture. In

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the treasure of Vietnamese idioms and proverbs,

the concept PEOPLE ARE TREES reﬂects the

cognitive mechanism about the human world

and the cognitive way of our forefathers about

people based on the concept of plants, trees and

vegetables. Mechanism of this concept includes

source domain “trees”, mapping onto target

domain “people”. The attributes and knowledge of

“trees” are mapped and projected onto “people”,

and a few features of “trees” are attributed to

“people”. These domains of knowledge in idioms

and proverbs are purely conceptual and structured

according to the center - periphery model.

– cây phꢅ hꢆ (family tree), cấy (to transplant) – cấy

phôi (to transplant embryo) (Hoang Phe, Editor,

2010). In the people’s language, source concept

“trees” is assigned regularly to the conceptual

domain associated with “people” and the forms of

the abstract system associated with “people” like

social organization, social relation, economic and

political system, ideology, etc. For example, ươm

mầm cho tương lai (to grow the seed for future);

gieo nghi ngờ (to sow the seeds of doubt); được

mùa (to have a good crop) – kinh doanh được

mùa (to have a good business), bꢀi thu ý tưởng

(surplus of ideas); gặt hái thꢃnh công (to reap/

harvesh achive success), phân nhánh quyền lꢂc

(to branch of power); công ty có nhiều chi nhánh

(the company has many branches), sꢂ nghiꢆp

đơm hoa kết trái (the business is now bearing

fruit); mang trong mình mꢀt mầm sống mới (to

bring a new seed of life (pregnant); ý tưởng bị

chín ép (the idead is prematurely ripened); suy

nghĩ chín muồi (ripe think); gương mặt chín nẫu

(overripe face (too old); tình yêu đơm trái ngꢁt

(love is now giving blossoms and fruits); khai hoa

nở nhụy (the ﬂower is blossoming) (to give birth),

etc. Thus, a naive picture of the plant’s world is

cognized and reﬂected in a diverse way throught

language by people, in which plants is considered

as an important category of semantics, culture and

consciousness, presenting the particularities of

national cultural thought.

Metaphor PEOPLE ARE TREES is a universal

concept in every single culture. In Vietnamese

culture, there are many words that are made up

of meaning transferences based on similarities

between trees and people penetrating into the

vocabulary system of the entire population and

forming a stable meaning in the dictionary, such as:

lá (leaf) – lá gan (liver), lá (leaf) – lá phổi (lung),

buồng (bunch) – buồng trứng (ovary), cuống

(stem) – cuống tim (heart stem), cuống (stem)

– cuống phổi (onchi), cuống (stem) – cuống rốn

(umbilical cord), quả (fruit) – quả thận (kidney),

quả (fruit) – quả tim (heart), vỏ (shell/bark) – vỏ

não (cerebral cortex), chùm (bundle) – chùm gân

(sinew), thớ (ﬁbre) - thớ thịt (meat), bắp (muscle) –

bắp đùi (thigh), ống (pipe) – ống chân (shin), cẳng

(arm) – cẳng tay (forearm), vân (veine) – vân tay

(ﬁngerprint), thùy (lobe) – thùy tai (ear lobe), gai

(thorn) – gai đôi cꢀt sống (spina biﬁda), gai (thorn)

- nổi gai ốc (goose bumps), hạt (seed ) – viêm hꢁng

hạt (adenoids), nhân (kernel) – nhân xơ (ﬁbroids),

lép (ﬂat) – ngꢂc lép (ﬂat breast), mẩy (plump) –

mông mẩy (plump body), chua (sour) – giꢁng

chua (sour-tongued), cành (branch) – anh em cành

trên cành dưới (lower branches support the upper

branches), chi (offshoot) – chi trên chi dưới (upper

offshoot and lower offshoot) (family), nếp (sticky)

– tẻ (rice) – nha cc nếp cc tẻ (the family has a boy

(sticky) and a girl (rice), héo (frail) – cha giꢃ mꢄ

héo (father and mother are frail elderly), cây (tree)

The metaphorians (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003;

Tyler & Evans, 2003; Tran Van Co, 2009; Ly

Toan Thang, 2009) have indicated that cognitive

metaphor is a part-mapping, with no everything

from source domain mapped onto target domain.

Projecting from source domain onto target domain

is selective, in which the attributes that are selected

in target domain must be parts of attributes deﬁned

in source domain; therefore, there is a transition

of some attributes from source domain onto target

domain. In common thinking of the Vietnamese

people, because the growth attribute of plant’s life

is divided into different stages of development,

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there is a link to different stages of people’s life.

Thence, the life cycle of plants is mapped to the

people’s life cycle in certain aspects (see the

cognitive framework PEOPLE ARE TREES).

is completely unconscious and under a particular

visual schema, in which there is a harmony

betweent the global universal characteristics

(nuclears) and the “peripheral” elements that

are the special linguistic and cultural factors

of the Vietnamese culture belonging to mental

knowledge of national culture with special nature.

From metaphor PEOPLE ARE TREES, it is

able to understand that source concept “trees”

may have attributes, including bud, ﬂower,

petal, blossom, green, fresh, withered, to sow, to

transplant, to grow, falling, waning, brown, faded,

old, stunted, odorous, bright, to burst, branch, to

burn, to grow roots, twig, to bear, to bloom, to

close, glossy, to break, sprout, ﬁbre, vein, sinew, to

spread, to rise up, pink, yellow, red, etc. assigned to

target concept “people”. So “people” also features

the attributes of such new “knowledge”.

All creatures and things existing in the universe

are in a multi-dimensional relation, always interact

and transform each other. In fact, trees are very

close to the human world. In the cultural mind of

many nations in the world, trees play a particularly

important and godly sacred role. In the world’s

cultural symbol system, “tree” is one of the

most abundant and popular symbol topics and is

gathered around the concept of universe living in a

continuous reproduction; therefore, trees become

the object of worship. Because trees attache

themselves to the life with a continuous evolution

process, they also symbolize the periodicity and

transformation, death and regeneration of the

universe. Trees symbolize the fundamental unity

of the life and developments. They are derived

from seeds and sprouts which are nourished from

undifferentiated matter – soil, associated with

the periodic movement of time and crop. Plants

symbolize the cyclicality of all forms of survival,

including being born, to grow up, to mature, to die

and be transformed into another material. Thus,

trees are origin of any life. Therefore, folk has used

the life of plants to refer to people’s (Chevalier &

Gheerbrant, 2002).

When mapping the attributes of source domain

(tree) onto target domain (people), target domain

(people)onlyaccepsapartofbutnotalltheinherent

attributes of the source concept. In metaphor

PEOPLE ARE TREES, not all of attributes of

a “tree” are assigned to “people”. Apart from

these attributes, many other attributes of a “tree”

are not involved in the structuration of concept

“people”, including chlorophyll, photosynthesis,

stem borer, root knot, tap-root, ﬁbrous root, root

hair, gear, lobed leaf, etc. These partial attributes

make the source domain and targert domain to be

not absolutely heterogeneous but partially. We

will try to look at conceptual structure PEOPLE

ARE TREES in Vietnamese proverbs and idioms

to conﬁrm the above statements.

In Vietnamese cultural mind, plants play

a special role. Because our folk contained the

“Animism”, the worship of forest god and tree

god appears in many locals (Tran Ngoc Them,

2000). According to our forefathers’ experience, a

big tree has a big god, and small has small one.

Our folk also handed down the sentence “The

worst offense is the destruction of forests, the

second worst is the destruction of rivers” (Nhất

phá sơn lâm, nhì đâm hà bá) to remind people

respecting nature resources, especially for plants.

3.2. Conceptual metaphor PEOPLE ARE

TREES in Vietnamese proverbs and idioms

For conceptual models, it is rarely cognized

that they are metaphorical. However, researching

their foundations in relation to people’s experience

(physicalexperience,culturalexperience,biological

experience, spirituality, and religion etc.) will see

their cognitive mechanisms (Kövecses, 2000;

Tyler & Evans, 2003). Using concept PEOPLE

ARE TREES in Vietnamese proverbs and idioms

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Moreover, Vietnam has ancient rice civilizations,

plus the inﬂuence of religion (Buddhism) deeply

penetrating the lifestyle of the Vietnamese

communities that creates a merciful, generous and

charming culture with plants.

structurally metaphorical model PEOPLE ARE

TREES with source domain and target domain is

very popular.

In terms of the nature of animals, human

and plants, there are similarities of multicellular

organization between them. Each cell carries a

genetic programming for the whole body. The

biological processes of sprouts, seeds, embryos in

human and plants have markable similarities. In

the naive perception of the world, the Vietnamese

people imagine their life as a tree that is a closed

process from embryo formation, sprout, growth,

absorption to metabolism for development. It

Because of love and devotion to nature, plants

are closely associated with the indigenous culture

of Vietnamese people. Unknowingly, the cognition

of elements and parts associated with plants has

long been permeated into the consciousness of

everyday language of people but we may not be

able to easily cognize. In language expressions

used in the daily activities or art literatures, the

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is easy to ﬁnd that there are certain similarities

between trees and people in their life cycle. Trees

and people follow the law of nature, creation and

destruction. The life cycle of a tree starts since

the seed has been sown, sprouted, and raised on

the ground, and then it has roots and goes through

stages of growth, maturation, ﬂowering, fruiting,

fading, and dying. The life cycle of a tree is also

commonly estimated at four seasons: Spring – to

be born; Summer – to grow; Autumn – to harvest;

Winter – to store. Therefore, Vietnamese peole

have a conceptual transference from a tree to

people to evoke the process of a life. The growth

attributes of a tree evoke the developmental

processes in people’s life cycle: sprout (be escaped

from the womb); growth (children – teenage);

mature (puberty, youth); aging (old age); drying,

falling, fading (dying).

should be shapped and put into framework as they

were young, “Tre non dễ uốn, Tre già khó uốn”

(the young bamboo is ﬂexibly bent and the old is

more difﬁcult). The growth stages of a tree are also

the people’s, we need to know the principles of

“Non chẳng uốn, già nổ đốt” (if we do not bend a

bamboo while it was young, it will be more difﬁcult

to do so when it is old); “Khi măng không uốn thì

tre trổ vồng” (Just as the twig is bent, the tree’s

inclined). Traditionally, Vietnamese offsprings

should follow the education way of their family,

extended family, and family lineage. No matter

how intelligent children are, they must obey the

rules of respecting the older and not being impolite

to the older (in stead of “Măng mọc quá tre” (young

shoots pass over bamboos). Our forefather’s

conception in maintaining their race was that the

next generation of succession will come after his

life “Tre già măng mọc” (as bamboos grow old,

young shoots spring up). All want to have mom

at the beginning time from the birth as happiness:

“Con có mẹ như măng ấp bẹ” (A fatherless child

is like a bee without hive – A child has mother

like a shoot has coverage). The philosophy of our

forefathers was that how many children I have how

many properties I will get. Children are presents

of God, so a family which has many children is

considered to be blessed: “Con đàn như tre ấm bụi”

(Who has many children he has many brothers and

sisters – A family with many children is like a thick

bamboo bush). Although life has multiforms and

multi-changes, rise and fall, but no one wants to be

“Tre già khóc măng” (the old bamboo mourns the

young shoot), referring to children die before their

parents, because it is a guilty of unfaithfulness to

their parents and ancestors.

In the Vietnamese idioms and proverbs, when

mapping the attributes of a tree onto people’s,

our forefathers choose the attributes from source

domain to map onto target domain, by which the

life cycle of a tree was mapped onto people’s;

the growth stages of a tree were mapped onto

people’s; parts of a tree (hạt (seed), canh (branch),

lá (leaf ), hoa (ﬂower), quꢅ (fruit), and gai (thorn)

etc.) were projected onto individual person of a

family and social relation, etc. It is easy to ﬁnd

metaphorical expressions PEOPLE ARE TREES

in the Vietnamese idioms and proverbs.

During the biological cycle of a tree’s life,

the seed and sprout stages are the ﬁrst stages. At

this time, the tree is soft. Its stem and branches

are pliable. Like people, the ﬁrst stage of their

life is like a blank sheet of paper, is the stage

of personality formation and consciousness

development. If it is not early shaped, it will be

difﬁcult to put into the framework at the growth

stage. Proverb said: “Uốn cây từ thủa còn non/Dạy

con từ thuở con còn thơ ngây”, “Bé chẳng vin cả

gãy cành” (Learn young, learn fair – bending the

tree as it was young, teaching the children as they

were naive). Because PEOPLE ARE TREES, they

In the plant life, seeds are the starting materials

of the life. When the tree sprouts and grows, and

graspsitrootsintothesoilandthendevelops, origin

(stump) and roots will keep the tree standing ﬁrmly

to stand with storms and pests. From that initial

attributes, “origin” is a basis of referring to a place

people were born from is the origin, native home,

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and family lineage. In national language, we still

see the way saying people have roots and origins,

anyone who is far from home also remembers their

origins to express the concept of a “place where

they came from”. The folk used idioms to express

the concept of roots, including “Lá rụng về cội”

(falling leaves will return to the roots) presenting

that people have origin like trees have roots.

Roots are the fulcrum and source of a tree. The

old tree will be cut branches but they still leave

roots for developing new sprouts, new branches

and new leaves. So when one wants to remove a

tree, only choose to pull and spit out the root to

dry under sunlight. In this case, the tree may not

longer able to take nutrients from soil for survival.

From that cognitive way, at any time if one wants

to eradicate any one, it is necessary to eradicate all

the nuclears. Our forefathers borrowed image of a

tree which has been destroyed all the roots: “Đánh

dây thì phải trừ gốc”; “Nhổ cỏ nhổ tận gốc” (The

best way to solve a problem is to attack its cause/

root; Cut the weeds and dig up the root).

Shoot and bud of a tree are starting points of the

life, are the signal of creation, continuation and

development of the tree’s life, like people “shoot”

is the beginning stage (Pre-school is divided into

shoot, leaf, and sprout classes to refer to the age of

children by year). From those starting points, shoot

and bud of a tree are reminiscent of the birth and

growth in one’s life. Proverbs said “Cây khô cây

không lộc, người độc người không con” (the dry

trees have no bud, the devil people have no child)

to admonish people to be benevolent, friendly to

all things, not cruel to prevent the retributions of

God. Therefore, our forefathers advised people

that despite of conﬂicts and hate to anyone in

life, they should not destroy the whole lineage or

destroy the new generation: “Dứt dây ai nỡ dứt

chồi” (No one who wants to cut the shoot means

to destroy the tree), or “Đốn cây ai nỡ dứt chồi/

Đạo chồng đạo vợ giận rồi lại thương” (Cutting

the tree is not meant to destroy the shoot, she hates

him then she loves him). It is able to harm a few

people, but not a whole family: “Phá cây thì dễ,

phá chồi chẳng dễ đâu” (it is easy to destroy a tree

but its shoot).

In addition to stump, root is an important part

in helping the tree to absorb water and synthesize

nutrients from soil for growth and development.

A multi-rooted tree is strong and grows well.

Vietnamese people cognizes that a tree is pillar

and the roots around the pillar are parts of the tree.

Because people are cognized as trees, Vietnamese

people think that each person lives in a family

with a headman and many relatives who make

an extended family. One has many of whom are

called “Lắm rễ nhiều cành” (many roots, many

branches). Brothers and sisters of a famlity have

a relation as “Dây mơ rễ má, con bá con dì” (the

more roots a tree has, the more relations it has,

the more brothers and sisters you have, the more

offsprings you have). Each individual is as a root

in the family tree. If a tree wants to live, it cannot

be striked at roots like the family relations can not

be taken apart.

By the cognition of PEOPLE ARE TREES,

our forefathers realized that during the life, the

people’s turning points are marked as the growth

stages of a tree (branching, sprouting). The birth

(to be born) or death of people is also observed

as a “tree”. Because PEOPLE ARE TREES,

“branches” of a tree are mapped to parts of human

body, such as arms, legs, or broadly, a person in

relation to the family tree (lineage relatives).

Siblings coming from the same family and lineage

are like the upper and lower branches of a tree.

The stronger supports the weaker. The ﬁrst shelters

for the second: “Cành dưới đỡ cành trên”, “Anh

em như thể tay chân/Như chim liền cánh như cây

liền cành” (the lower branches support the upper

branches; brothers are like arms and legs of a

human body, wings of a bird, branches of a tree).

Brothers are born from the same mother, but their

personality and fate are different: “Một cây có cành

During the growth of a trees “shoot”, “sprout”,

and “bud” are ﬁrst steps beginning to rise the life.

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bổng, cành la/Một nhà có anh giàu, anh khó” (A

tree has diferent-size branches/a family has poor

and rich members). The father-son relation is also

same as the organic relation between the trunk and

branches. A tree losing its branches is like losing

the live sources, the father lossing his child is like

having no spiritual security: “Con mất cha như

cây mất cành” (A child losing his father is like a

tree without branches).

straight line can not pass through a curved wood).

Sometimes the negative words will provoke

grave repercussions: “Dứt dây động rừng” (pull

a vine and shake the woods); however, intelligent

person is never afraid of the detest: “Cây cao

chẳng quản gió rung”, “Cây ngay không sợ chết

đứng” (a good anvil does not fear the hammer/a

clean hand wants no washing – a tall tree is not

afraid of winds). Sometimes people want to live

peacefully but the situation does not give it for us:

“Cây muốn lặng mà gió chẳng dừng” (The tree

wants to remain quiet, but the wind won’t stop).

With the conceptual thinking of PEOPLE ARE

TREES, forefathers have advised us to know how

to preserve the good national traditions, to live

benevolently, generally and mortally following

virtue to accumulate virtue for the next life: “Có

giồng cây đức mới bền” (virtuous activities that

we have done which will help us in the next life).

“Virtue” – a category of virtue - in the opinion

of our forefathers, was also planted to grow and

develop next generation: “Có nhân nhân nở, vô

nhân nhân trẩm” (Talk of the devil and he is sure

to appear – a good seed will grow into a tree, a

bad will not). We have to live follow the virtue so

the next generations of our life will be good and

for long-term happiness: “Có tiền thì hậu mới hay/

Có trồng cây đức mới dày nên nhân” (One good

turn deserves another, a good tree will generate

good seeds).

With conceptual thinking of PEOPLE ARE

TREES, Vietnamese people understand that

trees are not conﬁned within the family tree in

particular, but also are people in general as social

relations. In society, there are rich and poor,

wealth and hard people and a tree has low, middle

and high branches; people’s social behaviors must

always be ﬂexible and clever. The rigid are not

attractive enough, such as “Cành thẳng thì chim

không đậu” (Straight branches are not stopped

by birds). People’s capacity is only demonstrated

by challenges: Qua cơn gió cả mới biết cây cứng,

mềm” (Through the strong wind we know soft

and hard trees). The higher reputation people

do, the greater inﬂuence they are: “Cây cả ngả

bóng rợp”(the biger tree has larger shadow).

Because a fair-dealing man has a good reputation:

“Cây ngay thì bóng mới ngay” (The straight

tree has a straight shadow). However, in society,

many people have great fame but they have less

inﬂuence or protection for their beloved: “Cây

cả bóng thưa” (the tree is big but its shadow is

small). However, in life, things always exist in

binary duality. The higher reputation a man does,

the more many conﬂicts he faces: the higher the

tree is, the more the wind shakes; a man with low

class of society often has a peaceful life: “Cây

cao thì gió lọc lừa/Chi bằng cây thấp gió đưa dịu

dàng” (the tall tree is strongly attacked by winds,

the short is got gentle breeze). Normally, people

are jealous. Talented people are often victims:

“Cây tốt bị đốn trước” (A good tree can be cut

down before); honest words often offend the bad

guys: “Dây thẳng mất lòng cây gỗ cong” (the

Also, parts of a tree with basic functions of

carring out the continuous process of exchange

and transformation remind the metaphor to people.

Leaves contain chlorophyll, whose function is

light photosynthesis and metabolism for the tree’s

life. After being developed to a certain stage,

during biochemistry, the chlorophyll in leaves will

turn into other substance. In the dying process, the

color of leaves will gradually change from blue to

yellowish or dark red, and then brown and falling,

closing a life cycle. Within its cycle, the tree

sprouts, grows and then develops with new leaves

that will fall and change over time in a continuous

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regeneration cycle. Based on the typical attributes

of biological process of a “leaf”, in relation to

people’s life, our forefathers also imagined that

people’s life is like a leaf’s. Aleaf changes its color

over time (green – speckled – yellowish – fallen).

In people’s experience, the metabolism process

in leaves is similar to the people’s aging process,

so the folk have had a way of speaking: “Lá vàng

còn ở trên cây/Lá xanh rụng xuống trời hay chăng

trời” (Yellow leaves on the tree mourn the falling

green leaves), or “Lá xanh rụng trước lá vàng”

(green leaves fall before yellow leaves) to refer to

the death of a young person; saying “Người già như

lá rụng” (Old people are like the falling leaves)

to see the similarity between people’s and tree’s

life, which are transient and impermanent. Along

with leaves, “thorns” also have metabolic function

similar to leaves. Moreover, “thorns” also have

the function of protecting the tree from external

attacks. Based on the similarities in defense

and protection, “thorns” are also transferred the

features to personalities and characters of people.

An one that was intelligent and smart as was a

child is called “Cái gai nhọn, nhọn từ bé” (sharp

thorn, sharp as was a child); Younger people that

are more astute than older are considered “Gai

ngọn nhọn hơn gai gốc” (the thorns on the top

are sharper than the thorns on the trunk); Young

people that are not as stable and consisten as the

elderly are considered “Gai ở ngọn giòn hơn gai ở

gốc” (the thorns on the top are more crunchy than

the thorns on the trunk). In this case, our forefathers

cognized that PEOPLE ARE TREES and the trunk

is developed ﬁrst and early grown; therefore, it is

stronger and and has a better endurance than the

top of a tree, in correspondence to the elders and

predecessors who have many years of experience.

The top of a tree is later developed, softer, easily

to be broken and bent, but has a greater strength,

in correspondence to to young people who have

dreams, ambitions, and physical strength but less

experience. Thorns are part of a tree and present

the intellectual, health, and willing attributes of

people. The thorns on the top are wisdom, health,

willpower, and personality of young people.

Trunk roots are what belong to the attributes of the

elders. Therefore, the “thorns” here is cognized as

the representative of “people”.

In the world of plants, ﬂower is considered

a development model of the life, of the natural

factors and symbolizes the life cycle of plants

(mature trees bear ﬂowers and fruits and after each

season transferred, they continue to bear ﬂowers,

etc.). Flower is the most colorful and beautiful

part of a tree. So, in relation to people, ﬂower is

a metaphor of beauty. In language, our forefathers

transferred some of the attributes of a ﬂower or

ﬂower bud to refer to the human beauty, especially

based on the homologous and rounded shape of

the ﬂower bud to indicate the lips, including:

Nụ – bud – kiss, smile, half-open smile, slightly-

open smile; Based on the similarity between the

blooming petals and people’s smile: môi hé mở

(parted lips), miệng hoa ngâu (the smile is like a

tiny ﬂower), đóa hoa hàm tiếu (the smile is like

a ﬂower beginning to bloom). In the treasure of

proverbs and idioms, the ﬂower has been used

to present the smile: “Đàn ông cười hoa, đàn bà

cười nụ” (Men’s smile is like a blooming ﬂower,

women’s smile is like a ﬂower bud). Flowers and

people, their conditions are homogeneous at the

level of inﬂuence (perfume) and fragile existence,

easy to die (blooming and dying): “Người như hoa

ở đâu thơm đấy” (anywhere has beautiful ﬂowers,

this is beautiful place), “Người đời khác nữa là

hoa/Sớm còn tối mất nở ra lại tàn” (people’life is

just like a bunch of Cotton-rose hibiscus, blossom

in the dawn and die in the nightfall). Flowers

are people: “Người ta là hoa đất” (People are

earth ﬂowers). Everybody and every family have

different colors: “Trăm hoa đua nở/Trăm nhà đua

tiếng” (Hundreds of ﬂowers race for blooming/

Hundreds of families race for fame); “Mỗi cây

mỗi hoa/ mỗi nhà mỗi cảnh” (Different trees have

different ﬂowers, Different families have different

emotions). Flower is a girl; ﬂowers are blossoming

by season and girls also have season: “Gái dậy thì

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như hoa quỳ mới nở” (The teenage girl is like the

newly blooming Mexican Sunﬂower). Followers

bloom and then die, the beauty is quickly faded,

too: “Đàn bà như cánh hoa tươi/Nở ra chỉ được

một thời mà thôi” (Women are like the fresh petals,

blossom for a while only).

we use the image of “Cây có một cành/Cành có

một quả” ( the tree has a branch, the branhe has a

fruit); presenting that children are effected by the

education from the their family environment: “Coi

trái biết cây” (just look at the fruits we may know

how the tree like is). This means that seeing the

children we may know their parents. Describing

a downfall situation: “Cây độc sinh quả độc”

(like father, like son – a poisonous tree develops

poisonous fruits); describing a situation that many

people bully a person: “Đa nhân hiếp quả” (many

people eat one fruit); saying that each child in

the same family has different personalities, our

forefathers used the image of “Cây một cội: trái

chua, trái ngọt/Nước một nguồn; dòng đục, dòng

trong” (A tree has sweet and sour fruits, a river

has dirty and clear water); those who makes

someone else unfair, we say that “Quýt làm cam

chịu” (an offender, another penance – the Orange

will badly rise if it is planted in the sam gardern

with Tangerine); talking about the law of cause

and effect in life, our forefathers also borrowed

the fruits to teach people: “Trồng cây chua ăn quả

chua, trồng cây ngọt ăn quả ngọt” (as grow sour

tree for sour fruits, grow sweet for sweet); when

someone else falling in the situation of losing

someone but have another one to replace, we say

“Đào ngã, mận thay” (as one goes, other comes

– as Peach dies, Plum replaces); referring to he

who is the moon ﬂower “Sớm đào tối mận” (In the

morning eat Peach, at night eat Plum).

Trees live seasonally and their growth cycle

consists of ﬂowering, fruiting, ripening and falling

stages. It is a closed cycle of plants. In viewpoint

of PEOPLE ARE TREES, our forefathers still

indicatedthatloveandhappinessarethefullessesof

people’s life, like the ﬂowering and fruiting stages

of tree’s life. So, there have been expressions: “tình

yêu đơm hoa kết trái” (love is now bearing ﬂowers

and fruits); “tình yêu chín muồi” (ripen love);

“trái ngọt tình yêu” (love is sweet fruit); “hạnh

phúc nở hoa” (happiness is ﬂowering) etc. When a

love has the unhappy ending, it is expressed by the

concept green fruit, bitter fruit or bitterness. In the

naive perception of the world of plants, from the

concept of fruits, Vietnamese people also transfers

some attributes of fruits to people’s, namely the

fruit-shaped objects, such as: quả (fruit) – quả

tim (heart), quả thận (kidney). Some attributes of

a fruit, including berry, stretchy, pink, red, heart-

shaped, ripe, fragrant, delicious, sweet etc. are

used to describe the lips, including: môi chín mọng

(Ripe lips), môi trái tim (heart-shaped lips). In the

treasure of idioms and proverbs, some attributes

of a fruit are transferred to people’s, such as fruits

(gourd, pumpkin, bean, mandarin, orange, peach,

plum, areca); the nature of fruits (sweet and sour),

fruits (used to refer to people. When talking about

the tangerine affection of sisters, our forefathers

used the image of “Chị em gái như trái cau non”

(sisters are young areca); referring to those who

compete but no one better than one, there has

been a sentence “Bầu già thì mướp cũng xơ” (old

gourd, mature luffa). When the one is not inferior

to other, our forefathers used the image of “Bầu

leo thì dây bí cũng leo” (The pumpkin imitates

the gourd to climb the truss); saying that brothers

harm each other with the image of “Cành đậu đun

hạt đậu” (use the branches of bean tree to burn the

beans); referring to people who have less child,

4. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Conceptual metaphor PEOPLE ARE TREES

has been a universal metaphor in many languages,

however with Vietnamese thinking – a kind of

image-oriented thinking, plus a profound inﬂuence

of wet rice civilization, Vietnamese people tend to

unconsciouslyseehumanlifetoberefractedthrough

the world of plants. Transferring the attributes of

plants to people’s takes place naturally in language

thinking, becomes an ordinary knowledge, and is

ﬁxed and increasingly widespread in metaphorical

expressions, especially in Vietnamese idioms and

proverbs or poems.

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Thus, like a tree that is a diverse category

3. Nguyễn Thị Bích Hạnh (2015), Ẩn dụ tri

nhận trong ca từ Trịnh Công Sơn, NXB Khoa hꢁc

xã hꢀi, Hꢃ Nꢀi.

of plants and consists of typical characteristics

of growth processes, life styles, and life cycles,

when mapping the attributes of plants to people’s

through idioms and proverbs, our forefathers

showed a comprehensive view of projection

from trees domain to people category: biological,

social, spiritual to psychological, emotional, etc.

From the above analytical bases of the structural

metaphor PEOPLE ARE TREES in idioms

and proverbs, this article developed the values

this structural metaphor provides, expressed

by the meaning of language expressions (is the

expression of conceptual metaphors with the

linguistic tools in each of the most typical target

categories, including PEOPLE) to ﬁnd out the

cultural depth of conceptual expressions in

conceptualizing the viewpoint of the world. From

the cognitive viewpoint of the world reproduced

in the picture of people’s language in general,

in idioms and proverbs in general, the tree is

cognized as an important category of semantics,

culture and consciousness and clearly reﬂects the

national cultural characteristics in the acquisition

of language. In the process of conceptualization,

our forefathers transferred the attributes of a tree to

people to express the worldview and human view

bringingthecultureofacommunitywiththeancient

rice civilizations. Through the study of speciﬁc

language blocks, it is able to ﬁnd innumerable deep

associations in our forefathers’ world of thought,

experience and awareness of life shown through

the colorful emotions of imagination. This creates

unexpected and interesting relations between

the tree’s and people’s world in the treasure of

Vietnamese proverbs and idioms./.

4. Nguyễn Thị Bích Hạnh (2011), “Ẩn dụ

ý niꢆm “Con người lꢃ cây cỏ” trong ca từ Trịnh

Công Sơn”, Tạp chí Từ điển học và Bách khoa thư,

số 6, tr.118-126.

5. Nguyễn Xuân Kính, Nguyễn Thúy Loan,

Phan Lan Hương, Nguyễn Luân (2002), Kho tàng

tục ngữ người Việt (Tập 1, 2), NXB Văn hoá Thông

tin, Hꢃ Nꢀi.

6. Nguyễn Lân (2014), Từ điển thành ngữ và

tục ngữ Việt Nam, NXB Văn hꢁc, Hꢃ Nꢀi.

7. Hoꢃng Phê (chủ biên) (2010) Từ điển tiếng

Việt, NXB Từ điển Bách khoa, Hꢃ Nꢀi.

8. Jean Chevalier, Alain Gheerbrant (2002), Từ

điển Biểu tượng văn hóa thế giới, NXB Đꢃ Nẵng,

Đꢃ Nẵng.

9. Lý Toꢃn Thắng (2009), Ngôn ngữ học tri

nhận: Từ lí thuyết đại cương đến thực tiễn tiếng

Việt, (tái bꢅn, có sửa chữa, bổ sung), Nhꢃ xuất bꢅn

Phương Đông, Hꢃ Nꢀi.

10. Trần Ngꢁc Thêm (2000), Cơ sở văn hóa

Việt Nam, Nhꢃ xuất bꢅn Giáo dục, Hꢃ Nꢀi.

11. Nguyễn Đức Tồn (2008), Đặc trưng Văn

hoá - Dân tộc của ngôn ngữ và tư duy, NXB Khoa

hꢁc xã hꢀi, Hꢃ Nꢀi.

12. Nguyễn Như Ý (1995), Từ điển giải thích

thànhngữtiếngViệt,NhꢃxuấtbꢅnGiáodục,HꢃNꢀi.

13. Tyler, A & Evans, V (2003), The Semantics

of English Prepositions Spatial scenes, embodied

meaning and cognition, Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

References:

1. Trần Văn Cơ (2009), Khảo luận ẩn dụ tri

nhận, NXB Lao đꢀng xã hꢀi, Hꢃ Nꢀi.

14. Lakoff, G & Johnson, M (1980), Metaphors

weliveby,London:TheUniversityofChicagoPress.

2. Trần Thị Phương Lý (2012), Ẩn dụ ý niệm

của phạm trù thực vật trong tiếng Việt (có liên hệ

với tiếng Anh), Luận án tiến sĩ Ngữ văn, Hꢁc viꢆn

Khoa hꢁc xã hꢀi.

15. Kövecses, Z., (2000). Metaphors and

Emotion: Language, Culture, and Body in Human

Feeling. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR “PEOPLE ARE TREES” IN VIETNAMESE IDIOMS

AND PROVERBS

NGUYEN THI BICH HANH

Abstract: From the theory of cognitive linguistics, this paper arms to research the conceptual

metaphor PEOPLE ARE TREES in Vietnamese idioms and proverbs; learn how the cognitive way

of our forefathers about people and their life cycles based on the concept of plant’s growth cycle

embodied in language. Based on interactions in experience and knowledge domains mapped

from source domain onto target domain, this article shows the calque between two domains in

language thinking of the Vietnamese people. Based on logical relation in organizing the mapping

scheme of conceptual metaphor, this article shows the speciﬁc thinking style of conceptual

structure characterized thinking and culture of the Vietnamese people.

Keywords: mapping, conceptual metaphor, tree, people, idioms, proverbs

Received: 11/01/2018; Revised: 26/02/2018; Accepted for publication: 28/02/2018

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