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Metaphors and cultural models

Thu Thi Kieu Nguyen 1, *
Hien Thi Thu Bach 1
  1. University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU-HCM
Correspondence to: Thu Thi Kieu Nguyen, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU-HCM. Email: pvphuc@vnuhcm.edu.vn.
Volume & Issue: Vol. 17 No. 3 (2014) | Page No.: 88-101 | DOI: 10.32508/stdj.v17i3.1445
Published: 2014-09-30

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Copyright The Author(s) 2023. This article is published with open access by Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0) which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited. 

Abstract

Conceptual metaphors have long been believed to be formed in human minds and yet grounded in physical and cultural experience. The article aims at elaborating on the cultural aspect of the issue by clarifying the role of cultural models. The culturally specific aspect of metaphors have shed light on the incongruence between sets of metaphorical expressions of different languages, hence different cultural models despite the common physical experience of human body. One illustration from Ning Yu’s study about the differences between Chinese ‘xin’ and its English counterparts ‘heart/ mind’ confirms the claim that ‘metaphors are grounded in bodily experience but shaped by cultural understanding’. Another illustration is an analysis of Vietnamese versus English metaphors of heart, which also leads to confirmation of cultural factors in the forming of conceptual metaphors.

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