A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS ON PROPER NAME METAPHORS BETWEEN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

Dinh Minh Thu

Khoa Ngogi ngu

Email: thudm@dhhp.edu.vn

Ngdy nhdn bdi: 04/01/2018

Ngay PB ddnh gid: 26/01/2018

Ngdy duyet ddng: 30/01/2018

ABSTRACT

Proper names are a rich source of metaphor with a very fascinatmg underlying cultural

interpretation. The article presents a contrastive analysis in some common proper name metaphors

in English and in Vietnamese to answer two research questions: 1. How can English and

Vietnamese proper name metaphors be interpreted from the semantic perspective? 2. How can

English and Vietnamese proper name metaphors be interpreted from the grammatical perspective?

An exploitation of mixed methods enables the researcher to reveal the similarities and differences

in Enghsh and Vietnamese proper names metaphors from both semantic and syntactic perspective.

Among 30 studied English cases, there are 18 Vietnamese equivalents m translation. The result

can be used for English users in both communication and profession.

Key words: metaphor, proper names, grammar, semantics

NGHIEN c i r u DOI CHIEU AN DU TEN RIENG TRONG TIENG ANH VA TIENG VIET

TOM TAT

Ten rieng la mot ngu6n sir dung phep m du voi each hieu dua tren cac yeu to van hoa ngam

3n day thu vL Bai bao nay hinh bay k8t qua cua mgt nghien ciiu d6i chieu ve an du trong mot so

danh t i rieng ph6 biSn ttong tiSng Anh va tiSng Vi$t. Hai cau hoi duoc dat ra la: 1. An du ttong danh

tit rieng titog Anh va tiSng Viet c6 th6 dupe phan tich tir khia canh ngii nghia thi nao? 2. An du

ttong danh tir neng ti6ng Anh va tieng Viet co th6 dugc phan tich tu khia canh ngix phap the nao?

Phuong phap nghien cuu tdng hop dupe su dimg, va phan tich d6i chieu lly tiSng Anh lam doi

tirpng chinh. Trong 30 vi du tiSng Anh, co su tuong hpp voi 18 danh tir neng ph6 biSn trong tietig

Viet. K a qua nghien cira co the phuc vu hOu ich cho ngudi sii dung tiing Anh ttong giao tiep

thuang ngay hoac ttong cong viec cu th8 nhu giang day va bien-pliien dich.

Key words: an du, ten rieng, ngii phap, ngii nghia

1. INTRODUCTION of speech in poetic and literary language, or

When it comes to metaphor for an " *» "ti'i^^d ^y so-called literate language

amiy of ordinary people, it appears that the users: nevertheless, metaphor ,s pervasive

phenomenon seems to be a matter of figures every world comer and on everyone's lips.

TAP CHi KHOA HQC, So 27, th ing 3/2018 | 93

For netizens, they chat in the chat room on

the intemet. For employees, they expect to

have a high salary. Likewise, a university has

launched its latest vision to the public. Such

authors as Lakoff and Johnson (1980),

Turner and Fauconnier (1988), Panther and

Radden (1999), Dirven and Porings (2002)

have made an impressive contribution to

understanding metaphor from diverse

perspectives. Vietnamese scholars like Dd

Huu Chdu (1981), Vo Dai Quang (2003),

Nguyin Hoa (2001, 2004) have also

expressed their great eoneem about

metaphor. Among various fields where

metaphor functions in, its imagery in proper

names is really » very fascinating story,

illustrated by Pierini (2008) and Ld Minh

(2010). Those studies have inspired me to put

myself in a contrastive investigation of

metaphorical aspects in proper names in

English and Vietnamese to find out the

similarities and differences between their use

and the reasons for such common and

different features, from which, the language

users, especially the Vietnamese users can

exploit the metaphors more effectively in

both daily communication and professional

tasks of translation and interpretation.

Therefore, the research questions raised are:

1. How can English and Vietnamese

proper name metaphors be interpreted from

the semantic perspective?

2. How can English and Vietnamese

proper name metaphors be interpreted from

the grammatical perspective?

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. An overview of metaphor

Extracted from etymonline dictionary,

the terra metaphor came into being from the

late fifteenth, from Middle French metaphore

(Old French metafore, I3e.), and directly

from Latin melaphora, from Greek

meiaphora "a transfer," especially of the

sense of one word to a different word,

literally "a carrying over," from metapherein

"transfer, carry over; change, alter; to use a

word in a strange sense," from meta- "over,

across" (see meta-) + pherein "to carry, bear"

(see infer). An illustration is in the word

breadwinner which is comprised by bread

and winner where both of them carry the

meaning of livelihood and earner

respectively. Concise Oxford Dictionary

supplies the definition of metaphor as

"application of name or descriptive term to

an object to which it is not literally

applicable." Briefly speaking, a metaphor is

a hidden comparison between two

unrelated entities by transferring some

quality from one to another, creating a

powerful figurative effect.

Metaphor can be classified in terms of

similarities. Do Huu Chau (1981) supphes five

types with some overlapped points Nguyen

Hoa (2004), discusses seven types of

similarities, whereas. They can be presented as

follows: (1) similarity of shape (the neck ofthe

bottle), (2) sunilarity of position (the peak of

the mountam, (3) similarity of movement (She

wormed her shirt), (4) similarity of function

(The key to success is preparation), (5)

similarity of color (an orange light), (6)

similarity of size (The giant is coming), (7)

similarity of status (He is the top dog in the

company), (8) similarity of manner (drill ihe

lesson), (9) similarity of effect (Honey, I love

you). Although there have been roughly 10

types of metaphor mentioned above, life still

reflects more than that number.

94 TRUOfNG DAI HOC HAl PHONG

Regarding the source of metaphor, research (Newman, 1997; Nguyen Hoa, 2004) shows that it comes from human parts, animal names, proper names and food and drinks which are respectively illustrated m the following examples:

You broke my heart. Sue, you wrecked my life.

He is the lop dog of the company.

They urged all citizens to boycott the elections.

Don't be a couch potato.

2.2. Studies on proper names

Proper names have generally been studied

grammatically and semantieally. Studies have

pointed out some main features of proper nouns

(Pierim, 2008). Fustly, they are linguistic items

in the system of nouns, havmg a referential

function of pointmg out to existents m the world.

The proper noun Thatcher emerges in the

listener/reader the image (or/ and the character)

ofthe First Lady in Britain. To be more detailed,

from the grammatical perspective, an apparent

feature of proper nouns is then initial

capitalization in written forms. They can be

preceded by a title hke Mrs. Margaret, Lady

Margaret or Aunt Margaret. Also mterestingly,

they can be seen ending in plural foims or

following an article.

There are two Sara Carters in my class.

A James called you this afternoon.

They can be modified by adjectives,

restrictive relative clauses or prepositional

He's the famous Tom Hanks.

International tourists expect to see the Hanoi which they know in advertised

products.

The Vietnam in my eyes is where my

family is living.

Together with those syntactic features,

proper nouns carry their fascinating

semantic contents (Mill, 1867). They are

diachronically motivated, and a meaningful

etymon is found in most eases. For example,

Richardson comes from Richard as

Richard's son. Rose comes from a flower,

and Carter comes from a job. But they are

synchronieally opaque; as stated by Lyons

(1977): "it is widely, though not universally,

accepted that proper names do not have

sense". However, they certainly have a

specific referent in the real world with a

complex properties and culture-specific

features. Le Minh (2010) presents a study on

metaphor in proper names in Vietnamese

and equivalents m English with a series of

names and then a separate part of discussion

with some interesting result but a systematic

presentation of the phenomenon would be

better. Consequently, my research will

provide an overall look at proper name

metaphors from two sides of semantics and

syntax.

3. THE STUDY

3.1. Methodology

The study is a combination of both secondary research and primary one. Firstly, it bases on a large amount of relevant research on metaphor in proper names conducted by other researchers. In addition, an empirical or primary research project must be carried out on the ground ofthe author's database. Thanks to Thomas (1989), a bank of common proper name metaphors is listed serving the research. The data is then arranged, analysed and contrasted according

TAP CHI KHOA HQC, So 27, thang 3/2018 95

to the aim set for the research. From another aspect, a mixed-method of both quantitative and qualitative one is exploited in which the former allows using numbers and categorization, while the latter makes use of the natural setting ofthe studied phenomenon as well as interpretive analysis. Furthermore, as the name of the research suggests, a contrastive analysis method is also exploited to compare and conti-ast the phenomena of metaphor hidden under proper names between English and Vietnamese, in which English is opted as the common ground.

3.2. Findings

3.2.1. Proper name metaphors seen from the semantic perspective

As mentioned above, metaphor can be

rooted from similarities between two entities;

therefore, proper names can be read from

such relationships as resemblance in

appearance, characteristics, and talents.

(1) Similarity in appearance

Admittedly, a number of proper names

carry the similarity in look, such as Billy

Bunter, Peter Pan, and Fauntleroy

The English use Billy Bunter to refer to

a fat person, who is a character in the story

the "Fat Owl of the Remove" by Frank

Richards. Billy is a schoolboy who is fat and

always eats somethmg.

If you don't go on a diet now, you will end up a Billy Bunter.

There exists such a person in Vietnamese

getting his name from Vu Trpng Phung' novel

Luck, em cha/ em Cha who is pampered eating

all the day and doing nothing, becoming obese.

It will be disgusting of a Vietnamese child to be.

The phrase em Cha is a variant of em cha (I

don't/1 refuse) always shps out of his lips when

he refuses.

Cho con dn it thoi Chd rdi ddy. (L^^s

food for him. He is becoming Cha.)

In order to describe a never-grow-old

person, the name Peter Pan occurs in English.

He is a character created by Scottish

novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie.

He has a Peter Pan 'sface.

Beside the forever - young boy is the

very elegantly-dressed little boy Little Lorde

Fauntleroy in F H Burnett's novel. The

Fauntleroy suit, so well-described by Burnett

and reabsed in Reginald Birch's detailed pen-

and-ink drawings, created a fad for formal

dress for American middle-class children as a

velvet cut-away jacket and matching knee

pants worn with a fancy blouse with a large

lace or ruffled collar.

The hoy appeared to me in the

Fauntleroy suit.

If both Peter Pan and Fauntleroy have

positive meanings, the metaphor of plain

Jane implying an unattractive woman.

She was Just a plain Jane, which made

her upset many times.

In comparison to Vietnamese, Thi Nd

is a nick name for an ugly woman, bom by

Nam Cao in "Chi Pheo". In eonfrast to this

image, Kidu is used to exemplify a beautiful

woman, in the masterpiece Truyen Kidu by

Nguydn Du.

Trong nguai ta thi Kieu. eon mdy thi Na thi kia, ai nd them nhin.

(The others are Kiiu. you are (Thi) N&. Who wants you?)

(2) Similarity in characteristics

Apart from the resemblance in appearance, many proper names hide their metaphorical meanings in the resemblance in

96 TRircfNG DAI HOC HAI PHONG

tt^its. Common illustrations which are to be

presented hereby are Alec, Big Brother, Don

Juan, Jekyll and Hyde, Othello, Scrooge,

Thomas, Tom.

Let's start our analysis with the name

Aiex in English. Interestingly, this name is

clearly modified by "smart" to make the

phrase "smart Alex". The phrase can be

written in small letter as smart alec and as its

informal form as smart arse or clever Dick. Gerald Leonard Cohen, m bis book, Studies

in Slang Part 1 (1985) suggested that the

phrase arose from a smart and confident

thief. Alec Hoag, who succeeded in robbing

many victims and became the target of the

poUce. The phrase is now used with the

meaning a person who is arrogant and

overconfident.

Don V be such as smart Alex.

Possibly, in Vietnamese culture, there

is such a name existing to describing

someone who knows all or can predict

something before it happens. The character

Trang in many folktales reflect such a smart

character.

Ndi nhu Trgng vdy.

The second name in our list is Big Brother bom by George Orwell in his novel

Nhieteen Eighty-Four being the actual

enigmatic dictator of Oceania,

a totalitarian state wherein the ruling Party

wields total power "for its own sake" over the

inhabitants. Therefore, Big Brother refers to

either a leader of an authoritarian state or

movement or a powerfial government or

organization monitoring and directing

people's action.

Her ex-husband is a Big Brother.

Another character in British culture is

Don Juan who has a bad behavior and always

flirts beautiful girls. This eponymous

metaphor is used to describe a lady-killer. The

Vietnamese equivalent for it is Sd Khanh.

Unluckily, she met a Don Juan.

That khdng may, cd ta gap phdi mgt ga

s& khanh/S& Khanh.

Coming next is Jekyll and Hyde served

as an instance of anyone with two sharply

contrasting personalities, one gentle and one

murderous. The idiom came into life from R

L Stevenson' novel when he described two

characters Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde staying in

one person with the good and the evil

respectively.

/ don't understand him at all He's got

to be Jekyll and Hyde.

The fifth eponymous noun is Othello, a character in Shakespeare's play Othello. He

is lured into believing that Desdemona, his

wife is an adultress. With jealousy, Othello

kills her before committing suicide, hi

English culture, Othello is used for someone

who is jealous. In Vietnamese, a similar

image is reflected by Hoan Thu in Truyen

Kieu by Nguyen Du. The difference between

two languages in expressing a jealous image

is the gender.

Her husband is an Othello.

Va anh ta la Hogn Thu. (His wife is

Hogn Thu)

One more character to be mentioned is

Scrooge, the principal character in Charles

Dickens's novel A Christmas Carol. Scrooge

is a mean and cold hearted person who

despises Christinas and whatever makes

others happy. Therefore, Scrooge is used to

refer to a misery person.

TAP CHI KHOA HQC, S6 27, thang 3/2018 | 97

You Scrooge!

Such kind of person can be called "Lao hd tien" in Vietnamese.

Next IS Thomas m the phrase "doubting Thomas", a disciple of Jesus, refused to believe in Jesus' resurrection and demanded to feel Jesus' wounds before being convinced. This phrase usually refers to a skeptical person who always doubts things around him.

/ can't stand explaining everything to that doubting Thomas.

The Vietnamese people have such a name "Tao Thao (da nghi)" (doubting Tao Thdo). It has to be said that this figure does not originate from the Vietnamese culture but it now becomes part of Vietnamese language by the borrowing from the well-known series of novels by the Chinese writer La Quan Trung.

Anh dung Id Tao Thdo (da nghi).

(You Tao Thdo!)

The last metaphor to be discussed in this part is "peeping Tom", a man named Tom watches a woman naked ride to gain a remission ofthe oppressive taxation imposed by her husband on his tenants and is struck blind and dead. Since then peeping Tom is used to talk about those who committed voyeurism.

They are some peeping Tom.

Some other metaphors provides the a hidden character in it like an Achilles' heel, a Judas kiss or the Midas touch. Regarding an Achilles' heel, it is a weakness in spite of overall strength, which can actually or potentially lead to downfall. While the mythological origin refers to a physical vulnerability, idiomatic references to other

attributes or qualities that can lead to downfall are common. By comparison, a Judas kiss arisen from the Bible as an act appearing to be an act of fiiendship, which is m fact harmful to the recipient. His kiss is a signal for the police force to arrest Jesus. One more interesting case is the Midas touch from Greek mythology for his ability to tum everything he touched mto gold. The two first case of an Achilles' heel and a Judas kiss are ti^nsferred to Vietoamese culture (got chdn Asm and nu hon Juda respectively), and Midas can be somewhat shares the hidden message of the Vietnamese name Thdn Tdi.

So far, that eleven names have been

stated in English and seven in Vietnamese

have revealed that both cultures overlap in

some situations.

(3) Similarities in talent

John Maxwell said that "Talent is a

gift, but character is a choice", which is a

reason why I separate number (2) from

number (3). We have uncovered the

underlying meanings of a number of words

and phrases related to proper names.

Followings will be well-known eponyms,

including James Bond, Sherlock Holmes, and

Superman. All of them are from novels to

booming films.

James Bond a fictional British Secret

Service agent created m 1953 by writer Ian

Fleming, with Bond's cars, guns, and the

gadgets. Bond is in the relationships with

various women, who are sometimes referred

to as "Bond giris". The metaphorical

meaning of James Bond refers to a talented

and manly agent.

He is a James Bond with Bond's girls around.

98 TRirCfNGD^I HQC HAI PHONG

Then, in order to mention a person who

are brilliant and shrewd m logical reasoning

to uncover the disguise, Sherlock Holmes can be a popular name.

He is a Sherlock Homes who can help

you with the case.

The British author and physician Sir

Arthur Conan Doyle is Sherlock Holmes' father, who depicts him a gifted agent.

Another fictional hero appearing

in American culture is Superman. The

former was created by writer Jerry Siegel and

artist Joe Shuster in 1933; and subsequently

coming into various radio serials, newspaper

strips, television programs, films, and video

games. With this success. Superman helps to

create the superhero genre who can performs

all the tasks, even impossible.

Only a Superman can solve the

situation.

Such kinds of character with supernatural ability are widespread in America and Britain as Spiderman, Ironman, Sandman, etc. With the globalization, these characters have become well-known to even a Vietnamese child when he says: "I'm a Superman. "

(4) Similarity in situation

It would be insufficient if the

resemblance in cricumstance in prper names

was not discuss in the domain of the

research. Therefore, Adam, John, Jack, Robinson Crusoe and the like will be

presented as follows.

In the fust place, the idiom I don't know him from Adam means not to know

someone at all or not be able to distinguish a

person from another person.

In the Bible, the first man Adam has no

knowledge or acquaintance with someone.

Besides, when a man fells into robbing Peter to pay Paul, it refers to the case

of incurring a debt in order to pay off another

debt. The expression is explained by coming

back to the times before

the Reformation when Church taxes had to

be paid from St. Paul's church in London and

to St. Peter's church in Rome. Then, if

something happens very fast, it is compared

to before you could say Jack Robinson with Jack Robinson being a very volentite

gentleman of that appellation, who would

call on his neighbours, and be gone before

his name cound be announced.

In addition, a man Uving alone in an

isolated dwelling can be called a Robin Crusoe who finds himself alone on a remote desert

island in novel by Daniel Defoe. In the same

novel, Man Friday, an all-puipose servant of

Rohm Cmsoe plays an important role. Robmson

Cmsoe names the man, with whom he cannot at

first communicate, Friday because they first

meet on that day. The character is the source of

the expression "Man Friday", used to describe a

male personal assistant or servant, especially one

who is particularly competent or loyal. Current

usage also includes "Girl Friday".

His parents make him a Man Friday.

A quite strange situation is seen with

Walter Mitty, a man who constantly escaped

from reality into heroic day-dreams in James

Thurber's The Secret Life of Water Mitty. If

a person is said to be Walter Mitty, it means

he is a day-dreamer.

Another metaphor is expressed in the

phrase any Tom, Dick or Harry, which is said

to come mto existence in the 17th century

when the theologian John Owen told a

TAP CHI KHOA HQC, S^ 27, thang 3/2018 99

govemmg body at Oxford University tiiat "our

critical situation and our common interests

were discussed out of journals and newspapers

by every Tom, Dick and Harry". Smee then,

the phrase has been used to refer to an

unspecified person.

He won't talk to any Tom, Dick or Harry.

Last but not least, die phrase keep up with the Joneses illusfrates the action of the neighbours who always want to possess the same expensive objects and do the same things as their fiiends or neighbours, because of worrying about seeming less important socially than they are. The expression was popularized when a comic strip of the same name was created by cartoonist Arthur R. "Pop" Momand in 1913.

They always keep up with the Joneses.

It is noted that these sitiiations exist m

the Viettiamese language without specific

names like in the English language.

Among 30 English cases have been

semantieally studied, regarding the

counterparts in Vietnamese, just 18 eases can

have their similar proper names although not

all of them are derived from the Vietnamese

culhue. Em Cha, Sd Khanh, Hoan Thu, Thi

Nd, Trang are these rare corpus. The rest are

borrowed from the Chinese culture or the

American and English culture but they have

been prevalent to even a Vietnamese child.

To sum up, a table can be drawn with 4

types of similarity.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

Similarity

Similarity in

appearance

SimUarity in

characteristics

English

Billy Bunter

Bond's girl

Peter Pan

Plain Jane

the Fauntleroy suit

a Judas kiss

an Achilles' heel

Big Brother

Don Juan

doubting Thomas

Jekyll and Hyde

Othello

peeping Tom

Scrooge

smart Alex

Vietnamese

em Chd

ThiNo

Nu hdn Juda

Got chan Asin

Tdo Thao

Sd Khanh

Hoan Thu

Trang/ Thanh

Lao ha ti^n

100 TRircUNG DAI HQC HAI PHONG

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

Similarity in talent

SimUarity in

situation

the Midas Touch

James Bond

fronman

Sandman

Sherlock Holmes

Spiderman

Superman

any Tom, Dick or Harry

before you could say Jack Robinson

I don't know him from Adam

keep up with the Joneses

Man Friday

Robin Cmsoe

robbing Peter to pay Paul

Walter Mitty

Than Tdi

James Bond

Ngudi sdt

Nguoi cat

Sherlock Holmes

Ngudi nhen

Sieu nhdn

Thti Sau

Robinson

Table 1: Semantic reading of proper name metaphors in English and Vietnamese

3.2.2. Proper name metaphors seen

from the grammatical perspective

So far we have revealed the

fascinating underlying stories of the

from the grammatical point of view, these

metaphors are distributed either

individually or in phrases/ sentences.

Moreover, a shift of word class can be

observed in different contexts. meta

I

2

3

4

5

6

Dhors based on prop ;r names. Seen

Metaphors standing alone

English

Billy Bunter

Don Juan

James Bond

Ironman

Othello

Peter Pan

Vietnamese

em Cha

Sd Khanh.

James Bond

ngudi sat

Hoan Thu

Metaphor

standing in phrases/ sentences

English

a Judas kiss

an Achilles' heel

any Tom, Dick or

Harry

Big Brother

before you could say

Jack Robinson

Bond's girl

Vietnamese

Nu bdn Juda

ThiNd

Got chdn Asin

T^P CHi KHOA HQC, So 27, th ing 3/2018 | 101

7

8

9

10

II

12

13

14

15

16

17

Rohm Crusoe

Sandman

Scrooge

Sherlock Holmes

Spiderman

Superman

Walter Mitty

Robinson

ngudi cat

Lao ha tidn

Sherlock Holmes

ngudi nhen

sieu nhdn

doubting Thomas

I don't know him from

Adam

Jekyll and Hyde

keep up with the

Joneses

Man Friday

peeping Tom

plain Jane

robbing Peter to pay

Paul

smart Alex

the Midas touch

the Fauntleroy suit

Tao T h d o _ _ _ _

Thir Sau

ThiNd

Trang/ Thanh

Than Tai

Table 2: Grammatical distribution of proper name metaphors in English and Vietnamese

As can be seen from the table above, English is taken as the basement of contrastive analysis and there is not always equivalence of grammatical units of the discussed metaphors m two languages. Among 30 English cases have been semantieally studied, merely 13 occur mdividually while 17 function in phrases or sentences.

(1) Proper names standing alone

13 eponymous metaphors are in the mdividual form in English. Nevertheless, theu equivalents m Vietnamese can be different. Number 1, 8, 9,10,11 should be named phrases in Vietnamese with the tide em (Baby) for the first and the stmcture of one noun modified by one adjective or another noun for the others.

(2) Proper nouns standing in combination

A more colourful picture is seen in the

second occurrence of proper nouns, which

can be divided into three subgroups.

Group 1: plain Jane (Thi Nfr), smart

Alex (Trang), Big Brother, doubting

Thomas (Tao Thao), peeping Tom

In this group, syntactically speaking,

all English proper nouns are pre-modified by

an adjective or a gerund functioning as an

adjective, whereas their equivalents in

Vietnamese can be just a single word or also

a phrase. Let's look at the pair plain Jane and Thi Nd̂ . In Vietnamese, the premodifier

Thi is a marker ofthe female sex.

Group 2: the Fauntleroy suit. Bond's girl, an Achilles' heel (got chan Asin), a

Judas kiss (nu hon Juda), the Midas touch (Th^n Tdi), Man Friday (Thn Sau)

The second group includes the noun

phrases with the proper nouns themselves

playing the role of pre-raodifier. Also

interestingly here, most of the English

phrases can be either preceded by a definite

102 TRl/dNG DAI Hpc HAI PHONG

or indefinite article, except the phrase Man

Friday using appositive.

Group 3: Jekyll and Hyde, I don't know him from Adam, robbing Peter to pay Paul, before you could say Jack Robinson, any Tom, Dick or Harry, keep up with the Joneses

The last group in our consideration conssits of either a noun phrase or a clause. For the former, Jekyll and Hyde or any Tom, Dick or Harry is a composite expression of two or three names, while for the latter, a verb can be seen with even an independent finite clause of I don't know him from Adam, or I don't know him from Adam. A non-finite clause of ing infinitive or bare infinitive occurs in robbing Peter to pay Paul or keep up with the Joneses.

It is noteworthy that when there is a shift of word class from noun to adjective when these proper names are used in sentences, especially in Vietnamese.

Of 30 illustrations, just I English proper noun functions as adjective to qualify the head, ie. the Fauntleroy suit. By comparison, more Vietnamese nouns can be freated hke adjectives in the followmg examples:

Thdng dy sif khanh ldm. (He is very so" khanh.)

Cd ta rdt hoan thir. (She is very hoan thir.)

Thanh that. (Really Thanh.)

An vua thdi. Cha qua rdi ddy. (Eat

less. Too Chd.)

Thang be cha qua. (He is too cha.)

From the sentences above, we can see that in Vietnamese, these nouns look like common nouns m such a way that no capital letters are applicable.

4. CONCLUSION

The researcher has managed to provide a deep look at the semantic and grammatical reading of English and Vietnamese proper name metaphors. It has long been believed that metaphor is universal; however, from the analysis, the important point shown is that how to understand each of them will heavily depend on the culture that language belongs to. It is necessary to reaffirm that the English corpora are taken as the ground for the contrastive analysis.

A metaphor can stand alone or function in a phrase or even in a sentence and they all need an understanding of the underlying story to uncover their implication. Technically speaking, the metaphor and their hidden compared counterpart belongs to two different domains. Despite the fact that there are many eases of metaphors, four of them have been discussed, based on 30 illusfrations of EngUsh, with 18 Vietnamese expressions.

The research is mainly limited to an insight into these phenomena rather than mentioning its pedagogical implications to language study and language practice except for five practical exercises. There is no denial that a deep acquisition of the field will serve the readers/listeners of a foreign text/speech a better understanding of the aforementioned metaphors. In addition, their use of language will become more vivid when they apply these metaphors to communication. Beside their good effect on perception and production, they are especially important for

translation/interpretation. Therefore, further studies can be carried out in terms of their practical impact on the language learners and users.

TAP CHI KHOA HQC, So 27, thang 3/2018 | 103

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