Tài liệu Conceptual metaphors of love in lyrics by ed sheeran's songs

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY M.A. THESIS CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS OF LOVE IN LYRICS BY ED SHEERAN’S SONGS (Ẩn dụ ý niệm về tình yêu trong những bài hát của Ed Sheeran) LE THI HONG Field: English Language Code: 8.22.02.01 Hanoi – 2021 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY M.A. THESIS CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS OF LOVE IN LYRICS BY ED SHEERAN’S SONGS (Ẩn dụ ý niệm về tình yêu trong những bài hát của Ed Sheeran) LE THI HONG Field: English Language Code: 8.22.02.01 Supervisor: Dr. Tran Thi Le Dung Hanoi – 2021 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled “Conceptual metaphors of love in lyrics of Ed Sheeran’s songs ” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language. Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‟s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis. Hanoi, 2021 Le Thi Hong Approved by SUPERVISOR Date: …………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It has been a long journey for me to finish my thesis. There are also many people who walked along with me to support and motivate me during the time of doing the research. First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Ms. Tran Thi Le Dung, Ph. D., my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher. My thanks also go to all my lecturers at Hanoi Open University for their precious knowledge which lay the foundation for this study, my colleagues and many others whose support and encouragement help me to have this thesis accomplished. Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family and friends for their patience, endless love, and devotion. Whatever choices I have made, they have always stood by me and believed in me. I am immensely thankful for all the assistance they have given to me. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate of originality i Acknowledgements ii Table of contents iii Abstract vi List of abbreviations vii List of tables and figures viii Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 1 3 1.3. Research questions 3 1.4. Methods of the study 3 1.5. Scope of the study 4 1.6. Significance of the study 5 1.7. Structure of the study 5 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 7 2.1. Previous studies 7 2.2. Figurative language 10 2.2.1. Definition of figurative language 10 2.2.2. Kinds of figurative language 2.3. Metaphor 11 13 2.3.1. Definition of metaphor 13 2.3.2. Metaphor in cognitive semantics 15 2.4. Conceptual metaphors 17 2.4.1. Classifications of conceptual metaphors 19 2.4.1.1. Structural metaphors 19 2.4.1.2. Ontological metaphors 20 2.4.1.3. Orientational Metaphors 22 2.4.2. Conceptual metaphor domain 23 2.4.2.1. Source domain 24 2.4.2.2. Target domain 2.5. Music and love 24 24 iii 2.5.1. Music 24 2.5.2. Love 27 2.5.2.1. Conceptual metaphor of love 27 2.6. Biography of Ed Sheeran and his songs 27 2.7. Summary 29 Chapter 3: CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS OF LOVE IN ED 31 SHEERAN’S SONGS 3.1. Song presentation 31 3.1.1. U.N.I song 31 3.1.2. Thinking Out Loud song 31 3.1.3. Photograph song 3.1.4. Shape of you song 31 32 3.2. Structural metaphors of love in the selected song lyrics by Ed Sheeran 32 3.2.1. LOVE IS A DESIRE 32 3.2.2. LOVE IS HAPPINESS 33 3.2.3. LOVE IS A PAIN 33 3.2.4. LOVE IS A JOURNEY 34 3.2.5. LOVE IS POSSESSION 36 3.2.6. LOVE IS A UNITY 36 3.3. Ontological metaphors of love in the selected song lyrics by Ed Sheeran 39 3.3.1. LOVE IS A CONTAINER 39 3.3.2. LOVE IS FOOD/ NUTRIENT 3.3.3. LOVE IS AN OBJECT 40 40 3.4. Orientational metaphors of love in the selected song lyrics by Ed Sheeran 43 3.4.1. LOVE IS CLOSENESS 43 3.4.2. LOVE IS MADNESS/ INSANITY 44 3.4.3. LOVE IS A NATURAL FORCE 45 3.4.4. LOVE IS A PHYSICAL FORCE 45 3.5. Summary 47 Chapter 4: CONCLUSION 49 4.1. Recapitulation 49 4.2. Concluding remarks 49 4.3. Limitation of the research 4.4. The implications 50 51 iv 4.5. Recommendations and suggestion for further studies 51 REFERENCES 53 APPRENDIX 57 v ABSTRACT This study is an account of an investigation of conceptual metaphors of love in lyrics by Ed Sheeran‟s songs in the framework theory of Lakoff and Johnson (1980/2003), Kovecses (2002). In the thesis, the structural metaphors, orientational metaphors and ontological metaphors will be analyzed to reflect the opinions of theirs about love in the lyrics of the composers. The study is mainly carried out through the documentary analysis and descriptive study with the support of qualitative and quantitative approach. In other words, the lyrics of the songs are used as the data source of this research. The results of this research show that there are twenty-two source domains of conceptual metaphors used to express love. They are journey, hidden objects, fire, captive animal, food, closeness, game, beauty, unity, rapture/high, economic exchange, lesson, madness/ insanity, nutrient, desire, music, physical force, natural force, container, pain/torture and opponent. These twenty-two source domains of conceptual metaphors have their own unique interpretation of what love actually is. The source domains prove that the abstraction concept of love can be described in more concrete domains of conceptual metaphors. Finally, the reseach showed that conceptual metaphor is being in our everyday life. Thus, studying conceptual metaphor and using it in life is important and useful. It not only brings students benefits in the process of learning English but also helps them widen knowledge about a variety of language as well as access to the world around easily. vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CM: Conceptual Metaphor SM: Structural Metaphor OM: Ontological Metaphor OrM: Orientational Metaphor vii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1. Ed Sheeran‟s four selected songs 5 Table 2. Structural metaphor of love in lyrics by Ed Sheeran‟s songs 37 Table 3. Ontological metaphor of love in lyrics by Ed Sheeran‟s songs 42 Table 4. Orientational metaphor of love in lyrics by Ed Sheeran‟s songs 46 Fingure 1. Types and frequencies of conceptual metaphors in Ed Sheeran‟s 52 song lyrics viii Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale Figurative language is a language to describe the comparison, equation and imagery (Tonner and Whittestome, 2003). What is more, it is simply a way to add color and depth to what is otherwise a blank statement on reflect of thinking about event that serves their own interest. The types of figurative language are simile, metaphor, personification, allegory, metonymy and so on. Metaphor plays an important part in language. Particularly, applying metaphors in music is one of the most interesting and creative jobs of the people. They use metaphors as one of the way to show their feelings, emotions and inspiration of the song writer. What is more, metaphors not only make our words more beautiful and attractive, but it also clarifies our understanding of literature, art and life. As a result, employing metaphors of love in lyrics is an essential and indispensable factor for musicians to compose their songs in the world. It has been described as an emotion, a way of life, and even as it is considered as the most important thing in one‟s life. Zbikowski (2008, p.519), “It is not surprising that language about music is often metaphorical, nor that the topic of metaphor.” Ullmann (1972) said that metaphor is slow closely intertwined with the very texture of human speech that we have already encountered it in various guises: as a major factor in motivation as a short of synonym and polysemy, as a meaning of filling gap in vocabulary and several other roles. He believed that metaphor is an implied simile, metaphor also compares two different things but it does not like simile, state one thing is like another or acts another for granted and procedures as if the two things were one. Metaphors are figures of speech used to compare two things indirectly without showing the words that indicate the similarity. They are short and solid figures of speech, which consist of two ideas. The first idea is the reality which is assumed to be an object and the other one is the comparison of the reality. In fact, how people think and act every day is basically a matter of metaphors. (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). It is said in a study about love metaphors, whethere conciously or not people often express their feeling metaphorically (Pasaribu, 2013). In literary work, using metaphor is an interesting way to deliver a meaning. It is considered as the art of language due to its variety of diction and the unique style. 1 Conceptual metaphors are organised in a system of thoughts and not particularly in language. Metaphorical expressions reflect how we regularly think about things and how we usually use one kind of experience in a certain context in order to understand another kind of experience during a different circumstance (Ungerer and Schmid, 2006). The cognitive metaphors are exploited and decoded due to the background knowledge, cultural patterns, psychological characteristics, ethnic thinking, etc. about the human spirit. Thus, approaching language towards cognitive linguistics is a new direction in which more current linguists and supporters are interested. Song lyrics as a form of poetry are one of the oldest forms of literature. According to Tomlinson and Short (2014), poetry is the expression and ideas and feelings through a rhymical composition of imaginative and beautiful words selected for sonorous effects. Poetry can be studied from its structure and elements, given that the poem is structured composed of various elements and means of allegory. Thus, song lyrics as poetry is a branch of poetry that uses language as a mean of communication for delivery to produce the illusion and imagination; it is a combination of words in an attractive of form which can contain implicit meaning both in an ugly and beautiful ways needing to be revealed. Music plays an important part in human beings‟ spiritual life. Music is a rich and complex product of culture which touches on a huge range of human emotion (Zbikowski, 2008). It is like music in the sense that language is a mean of communication between members of the public and language is used to negotiate feelings. Although the cultural practice of music is not largely linguistic, language can play a role in musical practice. According to Zbikowski (2008, p.519), “It is not surprising that language about music is often metaphorical, nor that the topic of metaphor.” Lakoff and Johnson (1980) thought that metaphors can shape human thoughts. It is then language and music reply on image-schematic structures that are common to the two domains. It‟s undeniable that metaphor is one of those figures of speech in language that should be interpreted figuratively. It is a way of saying something by comparing things or making an analysis statement. Most people choose metaphor to convey their ideas because it is an effective way to dispute something new to express certain feeling, even to entertain others. There are a lot of love songs composed by famous songwriters. One of the famous songwriters is Ed Sheeran. 2 He was born in 17 February 1991, and he was one of the genius songwriters who used metaphor in his works. Ed Sheeran used figurative language in his songs. Ed Sheeran is a success in English music. As other songwriters, love is the indispensable subject, being endless inspiration to bring succeeding for his songs. To wind out the motion into the songs, Ed Sheeran makes listeners feel his emotion following the way that: each audience has different feelings when they listen to the same songs by using a lot of metaphors in his works. This is interested the researcher in how love is described and what kind of conceptual metaphors of love shown in his songs. From the research background above, the researcher chooses Ed Sheeran‟s songs as the subject of the research. Therefore, the researcher has decided to choose the topic “Conceptual Metaphors of Love in lyrics by Ed Sheeran’s Songs”. 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 1.2.1. Aims of the study The study aims at researching the conceptual metaphors utilized by Ed Sheeran‟s in his song lyrics in order to gain more insights into the domains of conceptual metaphors and to suggest the teaching and learning conceptual metaphors in song lyrics to Vietnamese learners and teachers. 1.2.2. Objectives of the study - To investigate the kinds of conceptual metaphors used in Ed Sheeran‟s - songs. To investigate the meanings of conceptual metaphors used in Ed Sheeran‟s songs 1.3. Research questions Based on the background study of the thesis, the researcher has formulated two research questions: 1. What types of metaphors are found in Ed Sheeran‟s songs? 2. What are the meanings of conceptual metaphors used in Ed Sheeran‟s songs? 1.4. Methods of the study The methods used in this study include: Research approach: In order to achieve the aim, this study makes use of both qualitative and 3 quantitative research design employing descriptive and contrastive analysis method. Qualitative methods include contrastive analysis and description. Descriptive method is used in the study to provide description of meanings of conceptual metaphors of love in Ed Sheeran‟s song lyrics. Data collection: In this study, the researcher uses documentary technique in collecting data. The data sources of the study are in four songs U.N.I, Photograph, Thinking out loud, and Shape of you taken from three famous albums Plus (+), Multiple (x) and Divide (:) by Ed Sheeran. Therefore, to ease the researcher collecting the data, 4 songs mentioned above with the lyrics of love by Ed Sheeran are taken from the website Rateyourmusic. Data analysis: Having chosen Lakoff and Johnson‟s conceptual metaphor theory as a model of linguistic expression of metaphor. In analyzing the data, the writer applies distributional method with substitutional technique. Distributional method is the method to analyze data which sees the language itself. Substitutional technique is a technique that used to replace certain elements with other elements. In this study, the data are analysed following four steps. Firstly, the researcher read all of the conceptual metaphors of love found in the lyrics of Ed Sheeran‟s songs. After preparing the data, the researcher read the data to get sense of the information. The researcher tried to understand each meaning of the conceptual metaphors. This step made the researcher understood what emotions were expressed by the metaphors. Secondly, the data which were found from the lyrics were categorized into the list of three types of conceptual metaphors suggected by Lakoff and Johnson (1980). They are structural metaphor, ontological metaphor and orientational metaphor. Thirdly, the researcher described the data in qualitative research and the researcher also uses analysis approach to provide expected research results. It gave a clear explanation about the literal meaning of each conceptual metaphor especially the source domain of the concept. Finally, the interpretation process is carried out from cognitive semantic perspectives. 1.5. Scope of the study 4 The scope of the research is mainly viewed on three kinds of conceptual metaphors of love in Ed Sheeran‟s song lyrics which is classified by Lakoff and Johnson (1980/ 2003) and Kövecses (2002). These kinds of conceptual metaphors are: structural metaphor, orientational metaphor and ontological metaphor. Ed Sheeran has numerous songs until now, and love is the main theme of his works. But in this research, we only studied four selected songs of which 33 conceptual metaphors in total: 14 structural metaphors, 11 ontological metaphors and 8 orientational metaphors which belong to three famous albums of Ed Sheeran: Plus (+), Multiple (x) and Divise (:) as shown in the table below: Table 1: Ed Sheeran’s four selected songs No. Song Title Album Year 1 U.N.I Plus (+) 2011 2 Thinking Out Loud Multiply (x) 2014 3 Photograph Multiply (x) 2014 4 Shape Of You Divide (:) 2017 1.6. Significance of the study It can be said that this is the first thesis in Vietnam researching about three kinds of conceptual metaphors of love in lyrics by Ed Sheeran. The finding of this study helps the society to understand more about metaphors as they are common figures of speech that often be used in our daily life. Therefore, this res earch is expected to be beneficial for the solution of English teaching and learning. The researcher hopes that this research can give contribution and additional data for teaching linguistics. Specifically, this research is hoped to be an outline to teach about metaphors especially conceptual metaphors. It can be used as an alternative example in teaching and learning process in linguistics course related to metaphors. This research is expected to be useful for English learners. The learners are expected to have more understanding about metaphors especially conceptual metaphors since this topic is still not familiar to them. This research may become an inspiration for them to study deeper about conceptual metaphors in the future. Hopefully, it can enlighten them about how they can get a meaning of emotions expressed metaphorically. 1.7. Structure of the study 5 The thesis begins with Certificate of originality, Acknowledgements, Table of Contents and Abstracts. The content of the study is divided into four chapters: Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter shows the reasons why the topic is chosen, what the research aims at as well as the objectives, the research questions, the scope, the significance, the methods and the structural organization of the study. Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter will give the brief review of related literature and theoretical background of every matter mentioned in the study. Chapter 3: CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS OF LOVE IN ED SHEERAN’S SONGS It presents and analyzes the collected data. Chapter 4: CONCLUSION This chapter presents the recapitulation of the study, the limitations of the study and some suggestions for further study. 6 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1. Previous studies Today, a lot of English and Vietnamese researchers have investigated metaphors. For a long time, the term of trope had been together with metaphor until Locke (1690) found the term ideal in language which is evoked by tropes and figures. The appearance of Lakoff and Johnson‟s “Metaphor We Live by” in 1980 also marked an important development of metaphor. In this work, they found that metaphor is in everyday life, not only in language but also in thought and action. It is used in poetry, art, teaching and so on, together with the developing of social life. Metaphor changed litle by litle. It was not only language but also concerned with ideal and then the thought, act. Littlemore and Graham (2006) also demonstrated how metaphor is used in the rest of Bachman‟s competencies. In doing so, they provided convincing evidence for the pervasiveness of metaphor in English and the important of metaphoric competence. They explained illocutionary competence as the understanding of the message conveyed with words, including the use of ideational, manipulative, heuristic and imaginative functions. For example, metaphors can be used persuasively in descriptions or arguments. The ability for learners to identify and objectively or critically assess these constructions is important, particularly, in academic study. They explained textual competence as the ability to understand and produce well organised and cohesive text in both written and spoken contexts (Littlemore and Graham, 2006). Finally, Littlemore and Graham (2006) demonstrated the role of metaphoric thinking in strategic competence for both the conpensation strategies and interactional strategies used by interlocutor to make up for gaps in second language knowledge. Metaphor and especially conceptual metaphor (CM) have been investigated with regard to various semiotic resources. CM has been applied to images like cartoons (Bounegru & Forceville, 2011). In their research, Bounegru & Forceville (2011) found that CMs play a crucial role in systematically structuring concepts in cartoons. In addition, several researchers have investigated CM in new fields such as political texts (MsEntee – Atalianis, 2011; Zinken, 2003). For instance, MsEntee – Atalianis, (2011) conducted a study to investigate on how CM shapes the speeches of the United Nations delivered by Secretary – General. She found that the 7 organization was considered as “family” and that “It is a desire to combat the forces of menace or evil which are argued to motivate and determine the organizational agenda as well as to drive the organization to work towards the common good” (MsEntee – Atalianis, 2011, p.339) In music, some researchers explored conceptual metaphors in song lyrics from different domains. Cardoso and Vieira (2006) investigated conceptual metaphor in Dido‟s songs White flag lyrics. The focus of their thesis was the process of co-construction of meaning of metaphorical expression in the lyrics. They found that students could identify conceptual metaphors underlying metaphorical expression when they discussed the lyrics in a group. Pasaribu (2013) conducted “A Cognitive Linguistic Analysis of Indonesian Metaphor”. In her research, she analysed the love emotion expressed metaphorically and investigated the source domain projected upon the target domain of love. The differences between Pasaribu‟s research and the researcher‟s research are the subject of the research. The subject of this research focuses on song lyrics whereas Pasaribu‟s research focuses on people‟s perception in expressing love. Gavelin (2015) investigated the conceptual metaphor of love in Mariah Carey‟s pop songs in comparison with different stages of Carey‟s career and she found out that although the songs were separated by approximately twenty years, the love metaphors mainly reflected in her songs were the same. Gavelin (2015) also showed that the source concept, which was most typically used, was also reflected to describe the target concept. However, the variation of love metaphors was greater in the later stage of Carey‟s career. From Finland, Harpela (2015) investigated conceptual metaphor of love in pop songs by Kylie Minogue. The data consisted of 33 song lyrics analysed using the framework of orientaional, structural and ontological metaphors proposed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980). The finding showed that the most frequent conceptual metaphor was LOVE IS A JOURNEY and the domain types of metaphors were structural. She conducted that ontological metaphor are also abundant in the data and these comceptual metaphors are enciting, seductive and witty suggestions. Most of the orientaional metaphors were found in the data to be either pair up – down or here – there and some cases of overlapping in between types of metaphors. More recently, Septiyana (2019) conducted an analysis of conceptual metaphors in Owl City songs in the context of Indonesia. From the thirty conceptual 8 metaphors proposed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), the researcher investigated fourty metaphors found in the Owl City songs. The author concluded that these metaphorical expressions have their own meaning according to the context drew up by the songwriter of Owl City. Septivana (2019) also concluded that the most dominant types of metaphorical pattern in the Owl City song lyrics are “ANIMAL ARE OBJECT” and “PEOPLE ARE OBJECT”. In other study, Febriansya (2020) investigated the conceptual metaphor of ANGER in Grunge Musician‟s song lyrics. The qualitative method was used and the study found out that the conceptual metaphor of ANGER mostly used by Grunge Musicians are ANGER IS FIRE, ANGER IS AN OPPONENT IN A STRUGGLE, ANGER IS A NATURAL FORCE, and ANGER IS A HOT FLUID IN CONTAINER. The image schema that found in conceptual metaphor of ANGER was FORCE SCHEMA and CONTAINMENT SCHEMA. In Vietnam, At Hanoi Open University, Ms Hà (2016) investigated conceptual metaphors used in Carpenter‟s love songs. She argued that cognitive linguistics present diferent views of conceptual metaphor (CM) in different situations of daily life. The study found out that conceptual metaphors used in Carpenter‟s love songs are deverse. Tran Thi Thanh Thao (2011) conducted a study in the semantics of metaphors of love in English and Vietnamese songs. The findings of this study were that we can use our senses to percieve love. Moreover, there are eight typical metaphorical images of love used in English and Vietnamese love songs namely: love is a concrete object, a living creature, a natural phenomenon, a journey, a three-dimensional scenario, a game, a war and heaven. Tran Thi Thanh Thao (2011) dealed with the metaphors of love used in English and Vietnamese songs while the current study examines love metaphors used in Dholuo popular music. The current study‟s intension is to find out whether the audiences of the Dholuo popular music also use other senses to percieve love. Overall, the review shows that CM in song lyrics is carried out from different domains, from the classroom to politics, or from daily understanding. These studies only focused on pop music. In the local context, there were two studies into CM in music. These studies were about pop music and focused on CM of love. Thus, there is still a neglect to study CM of love following structural, ontological and orientanional metaphors and source domains used to convey love. Therefore, I strongly desire to investigate the research: “Conceptual metaphor of love in lyrics 9 by Ed Sheeran’s songs”. The study hopes to be some helps for learning and teaching English of Vietnamese teachers and learners and to enrich the local literature. 2.2. Figurative language 2.2.1. Definition of figurative language Figuratives language is not deviant – not a form of communication that requires special or additional cognitive process to understand and that only occurs in special circumstances. Figuratives language was used more often to express intense emotional states than to express milder ones (Ortony, 1978). Figuratives language is the language in which figures of speech such as metaphors freely occur. Figures of speech are a rhetorical device using words in distinctive ways to achieve a special effect. Kennedy and Gioia (2007) stated that figures of speech may be said to occur whener a speaker or writer, for the sake of freshness or emphasis, departs from the usual denotation of words. For example, “I will speak daggers to her, but use none”, said Hamlet on preparing to confront his mother. According to Kennedy and Gioia (2007), this statement makes sense only because we realize that daggers are to be taken two ways: literally (denoting sharp, pointed weapons) and nonliterally (referring to something that can be used like weapons – namely, words). McArthur (1992) classified figures of speech into four main groups: 1. Phonological figures which include alliteration, assonance and onomatopoeia; 2. Orthographic features, they are visual forms created for effects; 3. Syntactic figures, they may bring the non – standard into standard language; 4. Lexical figures, they extend the conventional so as to surprise or entertain. Even though some linguistics had different classifications of figures of speech, the concept and principle are almost the same. McArthur (1992) defined figures of speech as a way of saying one thing and meaning another. He argued that figures of speech should not be taken literally only and that they serve function of giving extended meanings to words, phrases or sentences from their literal expressions. He also claimed that figures of speech can be more effective means of saying what we mean rather than direct statements. He also stated that figures of speech are any way of saying something other the ordinary ways. Further, they proposed seven classifications of figures of speech, namely, metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy, paradox, overstatement, understatement, irony and allusion. Figure of 10