Exploring Metaphorical Representations of Home and Social Relationships in English and Vietnamese: A Cultural Perspective

Abstract

The current study explores the metaphorical conceptualization of home and social relationships in the English and Vietnamese languages building on the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) as a conceptual background. Using a mixed-methods approach, this research has a mixture of qualitative interpretation of metaphorical language of corpora and dictionaries, and quantitative data of a survey based on 70 research participants (both native and bilingual). The results indicate culturally specific metaphoric patterns: Vietnamese metaphors tend to be architecture and nature-based (e.g., A FAMILY IS A HOUSE), and hence reflect the values of collectivism that require set predetermined hierarchy, security, and interdependence; contrastingly, English metaphors are journey, and emotional-based (e.g., LOVE IS A JOURNEY), and thus lead to individualism and development. Such metaphors are not only shaping means of expression in linguistics, they indicate more to the sociocultural cognition. The research has a certain value to cross-cultural cognitive linguistics as it can contribute insight regarding the mediation of cultural conceptions of belonging, identity, and interpersonal relationships through metaphor.