NAMES OF HUMAN BODY PARTS AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON NAMES OF COMMON OBJECTS IN VIETNAMESE VERSUS ENGLISH: A COGNITIVE SEMANTICS PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Differences in the use of words denoting human body parts do not always arise from the language determinacy on how people see the world around, but from the cultural needs and the context in which such words are used. Therefore, the transferred meanings of the words for parts of the human body in English and Vietnamese depends on the language user's ability to decide (through his cultural and social background knowledge and experience), especially through the process of cognition of the world to decide what is in the language and what is in the world. Based on the theories of metaphor, this study makes an investigation into the metaphoric meanings of words denoting names common objects derived from names of human body parts in English and Vietnamese. In order to provide a systematic view of words in terms of semantics in English and Vietnamese, this research is carried out. Using data from published and electronic newspapers and magazines, the researcher attempted to point out some similarities, differences and frequency of metaphoric meanings of fourteen words denoting human body parts: “Head, Face, Hand, Foot, Eye, Nose, Mouth” in English and seven words: “Đầu, Mặt, Tay, Chân, Mắt, Mũi, Miệng” in Vietnamese. Then I will also state the similarities as well as differences of words denoting these parts of human body that are used in English and Vietnamese