Conceptual metaphors of cats in Vietnamese idioms

Abstract

The article applies the conceptual metaphor theory of Cognitive Linguistics to analyze Vienamese idioms related to cats. From 61 cat-related idioms, the article describes and analyzes the properties of cats including behavior, status, appearance, and relationship that are used to map onto several human concepts such as behavior, mood, and social relationships. These mappings forms conceptual metaphors such as HUMAN BEHAVIOR IS THE BEHAVIOR OF A CAT, HUMAN MOOD IS THE APPEARANCE OF A CAT, HUMAN RELATIONSHIP IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DOGS AND CATS. In particular, behavior emerges as the most prominent property associated with cats, and most associations with cats in Vietnamese idioms have negative meanings.