Conceptual Metaphor Research in Literature

Abstract

This article represents an effort to address significant research gaps in conceptual metaphor research in the Vietnamese literary context. It argues that the study of conceptual metaphors in literature remains underdefined, with its aims, research tasks, and methodological approaches either undefined or inappropriately defined. The key point is that conceptual metaphors in literature should not be studied in the same manner as those in everyday language, that is, by treating literary data as mere ordinary linguistic data to locate and analyze mappings between metaphorical source and target domains. Instead,  research on literary conceptual metaphors must demonstrate how, grounded in ordinary conceptual metaphors, writers/poets engage in deliberate artistry and creativity through processes of extension, elaboration, questioning, and composing/combining.