









































Communication, Society and Media 
ISSN 2576-5388 (Print) ISSN 2576-5396 (Online) 

Vol. 2, No. 3, 2019 
www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm 

106 
 

Original Paper 

A Cultural Study on Linguistic Metaphors of Love in Poetry 
Ho Trinh Quynh Thu1* & Phan Van Hoa2 

1 Department of Foreign Languages, Quang Nam University, Quang Nam Province, Vietnam 
2 English Department, University of Foreign Language Studies, Da Nang City, Vietnam 
* Ho Trinh Quynh Thu, Department of Foreign Languages, Quang Nam University, Quang Nam 

Province, Vietnam 

 

Received: June 10, 2019          Accepted: June 24, 2019          Online Published: July 9, 2019 

doi:10.22158/csm.v2n3p106                     URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/csm.v2n3p106 

 

Abstract 

Language is one of the cultural factors. Love, an abstract concept is mainly interpreted by metaphors 

which are considered as part of culture. It is consequently inevitable that the linguistic metaphors of 

love are under the influence of culture. In this research, we centre on investigating cultural factors in 

linguistic metaphors of romantic love in Vietnamese modern poetry, and then compare them to those in 

English. It is shown in our findings that linguistic metaphors of romantic love are considerably 

influenced by lifestyles, habits and customs and geographical conditions. Therefore, there are many 

variations in the ways of expressing romantic love between Vietnamese and English although the 

conceptualization is chiefly similar. 

Keywords 

metaphor, culture, romantic love, conceptual metaphor of love, metaphorical expressions of love 

 

1. Introduction 

As one of the most basic human emotions, love is considered the basis of everyday life. Among various 

kinds of love, romantic love (hereafter in the paper referred to as “love”), which will be culturally and 

metaphorically treated in this paper, is a complex of erotic, cognitive, emotional and behavioural 

components that are unable to be separated (Bartels & Zeki, 2004). People find it difficult to show or 

manifest the concept of love fully since it is abstract. However, this concept is rather diversified in 

words. Most of them are metaphoric, which, according to Kovecses (2000), results from lack of the 

adequate vocabulary to express the ideas of this abstract concept. 

In terms of metaphor, cognitive linguistics supposes that metaphor is universal; that is, metaphor is 

similar between different languages and cultures all over the world. The question is that all the 

metaphors or just some kind of them is shared by various cultures globally, which used to be discussed 



www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm               Communication, Society and Media                Vol. 2, No. 3, 2019 

 

 
107 

Published by SCHOLINK INC. 

 

by Kovecses (2010). He demonstrated the pervasiveness of many conceptual metaphors in different 

languages and reached the conclusion that love, among popular concepts such as happiness, anger and 

time, is universally embodied and conceptualized. As a result, different languages and cultures share 

conceptual metaphors of love. However, it should be noticed that human embodied experiences are not 

homogeneous and monolithic across the world because our daily life activities are deeply impinged on 

by cultural manifestations (Inglis, 2005). Also, metaphorical conceptualization is stimulated not only 

by embodiment but also by context which is determined by culture (Kovecses, 2010). In addition, 

metaphor is a matter of cognition. It happens in mind and depends on the ways of our thinking in which 

culture is reflected. The metaphors of love are consequently thought to be under the influences of 

culture and comprise cultural characteristics. In order to partly consolidate this belief, the paper 

investigates the interference of cultural factors in love linguistic metaphors that are collected from 

Vietnamese modern poetry. A comparison between these linguistic metaphors and English ones will 

concurrently be made in order to learn more about cultural similarities and differences in love 

description between the two languages, which has not been paid much intention so far. 

Our paper is carried out based on the conceptual metaphor theory raised by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), 

where the distinction between conceptual and linguistic metaphors is suggested. This matter is 

mentioned in the next part—theoretical background, where the concept of romantic love and the 

relationship between metaphor and culture are also shed light on clearly. 

 

2. Method 

The paper is carried out based on qualitative and quantitative research methods that are responsible for 

analysing and processing the data collected from 250 Vietnamese love poems and the same number of 

English ones. As an investigation into metaphors, the identification of metaphorical expressions in a 

discourse is an important step; thereby we may know the existence of conceptual metaphors under 

them. Also, it helps ensure the reliability and validity of the study results. In this paper, we adopt the 

approaches to metaphor identification raised by Pragglejaz Group (2007) including four steps: (1) Read 

the entire text-discourse to establish a general understanding of the meaning. Next, (2) determine the 

lexical units in the text-discourse. Then (3) take into account what comes before and after the lexical 

unit, determine if it has a more basic contemporary meaning in other contexts than the one in the given 

context. If yes, decide whether the contextual meaning contrasts with the basic meaning but can be 

understood in comparison with it. If yes, (4) mark the lexical unit as metaphorical. 

 

 

 

 



www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm               Communication, Society and Media                Vol. 2, No. 3, 2019 

 

 
108 

Published by SCHOLINK INC. 

 

3. Results 

Examining 250 Vietnamese love poems and the same number in English, we have discovered over 

2000 metaphorical expressions of love. 199 out of 1098 Vietnamese expressions bear cultural features 

(accounting for 18.1%), which is compared to 124/1129 English ones. The numbers show a certain 

influence of culture on metaphorical expressions in language. Making a comparison, we find that most 

of these expressions are different between these two languages. 

Firstly, the image of tim, lòng or dạ in Vietnamese is used to talk about love while it is only heart in 

English. Following is our statistical report. 

 

Table 1. The Quantity of the Metaphorical Expressions of Love Containing the Images of Tim, 

Lòng, Dạ in Vietnamese and Heart in English 

Images Vietnamese English 

Tim—heart 63 111 

Lòng—abdomen 62 0 

Dạ—abdomen 2 0 

 

Secondly, in the light of the differences of culture the terms of natural world and social events 

employed to express love are found to be different between Vietnamese and English, which is 

quantitatively presented in the following Table. 

 

Table 2. Cultural Differences in Vietnamese Terms of Natural World and Social Events Used to 

Express Love When They Are Compared to English 

Terms Vietnamese English 

flavourlessness/saltiness 5 0 

five tones 1 0 

sonata 0 2 

symphony 0 2 

mountains/mountain passes 6 0 

rivers 9 0 

wharf-boat/ferryboat 24 0 

flower-butterfly 3 0 

(red) thread 18 1 

Paradise/Garden of Eden 3 8 

harvest season 2 0 

betel-areca nut 1 0 



www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm               Communication, Society and Media                Vol. 2, No. 3, 2019 

 

 
109 

Published by SCHOLINK INC. 

 

Shortly from what have been manifested above, it can be seen that the cultural factors have a 

significant role in love description. They contribute not only to structuring love but also helping this 

concept become unique and typical in each certain language. 

 

4. Discussion 

4.1 Romantic Love 

“What is love?” It is regarded as a seemingly unanswerable question that has been attractive to many 

researchers in biology, neuroscience, psychology, anthropology and linguistics. In each research area, 

love is defined in an own way. One of the definitions of our interest is developed by Gottschall and 

Nordlund (2006) and expressed as follows. 

Romantic love is a “feeling expressed in a romantic context between two people” with partly sexual 

attraction. This feeling is “typically reserved for only one person” and expected to last forever. It also 

“involves intense attraction to the beloved’s whole person and is not just about attraction to the body”. 

Therefore, to love someone romantically is to “experience a strong desire for union with someone who 

is deemed entirely unique”. It is to “idealize this person”, to think constantly about him or her, and to 

“discover that one’s own life priorities have changed dramatically”. It is to “care deeply for that 

person’s well-being and to feel pain or emptiness when he or she is absent”. 

4.2 Conceptual Metaphor versus Linguistic Metaphor 

In the light of the conceptual metaphor theory, metaphor is considered a “property of concepts” 

(Kovecses, 2010), and the “locus of metaphor is thought” (Lakoff, 1993). Metaphors operate thanks to 

cross-domain mappings that transfer the characteristics or properties of a more concrete domain (called 

source domain) to another more abstract domain (called target domain). These mappings are tightly 

structured, asymmetric, unidirectional, partial based on daily experience and have a definite structure: 

TARGET-DOMAIN IS/AS SOURCE-DOMAIN (Kovecses, 2010). 

In the mapping, linguistic metaphors (or metaphorical expressions) are what expressed by language; 

and conceptual metaphor (or metaphorical concept) refers to a mental representation describing how 

two words or expressions from apparently different domains may be associated at an underlying 

cognitive level. In the metaphor LOVE IS/AS A JOURNEY, for example, “LOVE IS A JOURNEY” is 

the name of the mapping or conceptual metaphor; LOVE is the target domain, JOURNEY is the source 

domain; such sentences as We can’t turn back now (Lakoff, 1993) and Đôi ta lên thác xuống ghềnh (We 

are up hill and down dale; Phan Văn Hòa & Hồ Trịnh Quỳnh Thư, 2011) are individual linguistic 

metaphors. 

The distinction between conceptual and linguistic metaphors is really significant, especially in our 

research, which focuses on investigating linguistic metaphors. 

 



www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm               Communication, Society and Media                Vol. 2, No. 3, 2019 

 

 
110 

Published by SCHOLINK INC. 

 

4.3 Metaphor—Culture Relationship 

Culture is defined as “a fuzzy set of basic assumptions and values, orientations to life, beliefs, policies, 

procedures and behavioural conventions that are shared by a group of people, and that influence (but do 

not determine) each member’s behaviour and his/her interpretations of the ‘meaning’ of other people’s 

behaviour” (Spencer-Oatey, 2012, p. 2). Culture develops in the close relation to and the mutual impact 

of language that is considered the leading cultural factor to contain national nuances (Nguyễn Đức Tồn, 

2008).  

In respect of the relationship between metaphor and culture, the conceptual metaphor theory argues that 

metaphor is part of culture. A metaphor should be interpreted based on two basic factors, meaning and 

social context which are, in turn, understood as the conceptualization of personal experiences and the 

cultural nature of language. Lakoff and Johnson (1980) also confirm that metaphor is rooted in cultural 

and embodied experiences. Likewise, Kovecses (2010) mentions two simultaneous impacts on 

metaphorical production, i.e., embodiment and context that is determined by culture. Accordingly, it 

may be stated that metaphor should not be separated from culture. Culture creates the consistence and 

the diversity of metaphors in each language and different ones. 

4.4 Cultural Impacts on Linguistic Metaphors of Love 

Metaphor functionates via the understanding of one more abstract concept in terms of another more 

concrete. In this paper, the abstract concept that needs to be interpreted is love; and the linguistic 

expressions employed to describe love can be under three basic categories: human beings, natural 

world and social events. The expressions chosen must include cultural factors or bring cultural values 

that are typical in each language or each region. 

4.4.1 Human Beings 

It was traditionally believed that the heart was the center of emotions in human body. Although science 

has proved it is brain that is responsible for feelings and emotions, the heart is still popularly 

considered as seat of emotions, especially love. As a result, human heart (equivalent to tim in 

Vietnamese) is defined as the emotional nature (distinguished from intellectual nature) such as love or 

affection (Mariam-webster dictionary). It is also regarded as the symbol of emotion and love in 

Vietnamese mind (Vietnamese dictionary, 2003); for instance, 

(1) Ta đã gửi cho anh/Một con tim dào dạt (I sent him an overflowing heart) (Đoàn Thị Lam Luyến, 

Gửi tình yêu). 

In this case, the heart can be treated to represent love which is interpreted by combining two metaphors: 

LOVE IS AN OBJECT and LOVE IS A FLUID IN A CONTAINER. As an object, love is described to 

be sent (gửi) to the beloved. On the other hand, it is conceptualized as a fluid that is contained in the 

heart, thus “dào dạt” (overflowing). 

 



www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm               Communication, Society and Media                Vol. 2, No. 3, 2019 

 

 
111 

Published by SCHOLINK INC. 

 

Besides “heart”, there are some other words referring to human organs employed to express love in 

Vietnamese. They are lòng, dạ (abdomen).  

(2) Mang em trong dạ như mầm,/Ngày đi suy nghĩ, đêm nằm mến thương (Carrying you like a seed in 

my abdomen, I always think of you and love you) (Xuân Diệu, Quả trứng và lòng đỏ). 

(3) Em trao lòng xuân nặng/Trên bốn mùa lang thang (I gave you my heavy spring heart during four 

seasons) (Nguyễn Thị Khánh Minh, Trách). 

In (2), love is understood in a combination of three metaphors via the linguistic metaphor “mang em 

trong dạ” (carry you in my abdomen). Firstly, the verb “mang” (carry) tells us about an entity that may 

be his beloved and also his love. The expression is the linguistic surface of the conceptual metaphor 

LOVE IS AN OBJECT. Secondly is the metaphor LOVE IS A UNITY under the expression “mang em 

trong dạ”, where the beloved is described to be inside the lover. Two are in one to become a unity that 

is not separated. Lastly, the expression “trong dạ” arouses the image of a container. “Dạ” (abdomen) 

here is interpreted to be capable of containing the lover’s beloved, his love. Besides, for the Vietnamese, 

“dạ” or “lòng” is symbolic of emotion in general and of love in particular (Trần Ngọc Thêm, 1996); 

thus, it refers to love, the love of a man in which his beloved is contained. Similarly, the image of 

“lòng” in (3) also indicates the love which is conceptualized as an object expressed by the terms “trao” 

(offer) and “nặng” (heavy). 

In relation to the symbol of love, Trần Ngọc Thêm (1996) shows the Vietnamese image of “lòng” and 

that of “heart” for the Westerners. It may be the reason why the linguistic metaphors with “lòng” 

(abdomen) are rather popular in Vietnamese poetry but they cannot be found in English. Instead, the 

image of heart is applied in the English language with a similar conceptualization. 

(4) I give you my heart, […]/so, give me your heart (Bobette Bryan, True love). 

(5) I carry your heart with me (I carry it in/my heart) (e.e.cummings, I carry your heart with me). 

Heart and abdomen are among the most important organs in the human body. People cannot live 

without them. With such significance, love described in terms of heart and abdomen is understood to be 

necessary for life, or it is just human life. It can hence be interpreted from (1), (3) and (4) that the 

lovers have given/sent their love or their life to their beloved.  

In brief, cultural factors in linguistic metaphors of love can be illustrated by terms of parts of human 

beings, namely heart in English and tim, lòng, dạ in Vietnamese. The word lòng in Vietnamese is 

defined as abdomen—a symbol of human psychology, mind, emotion and will (Vietnamese dictionary, 

2003). In consequences, in many cases of translation from Vietnamese into English, the word heart is 

used for both tim and lòng. 

In our world, human beings cannot exist independently but live in a harmonious relationship with 

natural world and social environment. As a result, the expressions of natural world and social events are 

also used to talk about love, which is discussed right in the following section. 



www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm               Communication, Society and Media                Vol. 2, No. 3, 2019 

 

 
112 

Published by SCHOLINK INC. 

 

4.4.2 Natural World and Social Events 

The natural world, according to Merriam-webster dictionary, is defined as all of the animals, plants, 

and other things existing in nature while social event refers to something that happens at a given place 

or time. Their appearance and existence are perceived by human senses. Because love is an 

interpersonal relationship occurring in society, it can also be perceived and described in the terms of 

sensory perceptions; for example, (6) Tôi vẫn đi bên cạnh cuộc đời/Ái ân lạt lẽo của chồng tôi (I’m still 

beside my husband with his flavourless love) (TTKH, Hai sắc hoa ti gôn). 

Love in this case is described in terms of a nutrient, hence “lạt lẽo” (flavourless), and identified thanks 

to human gustation. This taste is not found in English linguistic metaphors of love, which may be shed 

light on by the views of love relationship in Western and Eastern cultures. 

Love, for Eastern people including the Vietnamese, is often interpreted in relationships between 

persons and their environment, so it tends not to depend on subjective feeling of the persons in this 

relationship (Valsiner, 2012). Furthermore, Eastern people do not like changes (Bagozzi et al., 1999). In 

an unsatisfactory relationship, they tend to resign themselves to live with it instead of changing it 

despite its “flavourlessness”. By contrast, love in Western culture is the result of a person’s private 

wishes and desires (Valsiner, 2012). It will be destroyed if it does not meet the personal benefits of the 

couple in the relationship. Thus, when they are in love, the Westerners usually find more satisfaction 

than disappointment, and “flavourlessness” seems to be out of their love taste. 

Opposite of flavourlessness is saltiness, the taste that is known as one of the traditional basic tastes in 

Eastern culture but it is not in the Western one (Polansky, 2007). It may be the reason for the absence of 

saltiness in English love linguistic metaphors whilst this taste is often used to talk about love and 

faithfulness in Vietnamese. 

(7) Cuộc đời chồng thêm tuổi/Tình yêu càng mặn nồng (When we are older, our love becomes hotter 

and saltier - more passionate) (Diệp Minh Tuyền, Tình yêu thì thầm). 

Love in (7) is conceptualized as food that can be taste via the linguistic metaphor “tình yêu mặn nồng” 

(hot and salty love). In Vietnamese, when being depicted as “mặn nồng”, the love here is 

comprehended to be charming, passionate and hard to fade (Vietnamese dictionary, 2003).  

In addition to gustation, audition also exposes some cultural differences between Vietnamese and 

English when it is used to express love. Let look at the following lines, (8) Tình so chưa đủ ngũ âm 

(Love hasn’t had enough five tones yet) (Thanh Nguyên, Lỗi hẹn cùng ca dao). 

(9) Love’s sonata/[…] Our love, tonight, feels like a symphony (Chad Joseph Thieman, Love’s sonata). 

Love in these lines is structured in terms of music that people can perceive through ears. The cultural 

factors appear to be clearly displayed in the extract. In (8), the musical term is absolutely Vietnamese 

with the expression “ngũ âm” (five tones) because Vietnamese traditional music is pentatonic in scale, 

including Hò, Xự, Xang, Xê, Cống (McLeod & Nguyen, 2001). Meanwhile, love in (9) is defined as 



www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm               Communication, Society and Media                Vol. 2, No. 3, 2019 

 

 
113 

Published by SCHOLINK INC. 

 

“sonata” and “symphony”, genres of music that were generated in the Western culture. 

Referring to culture, the Vietnamese cannot help dealing with the village culture in which there are 

banyan-tree, well and public court. These images closely attach to Vietnamese traditional village 

activities and reappear in poetry. 

(10) Lòng ta hãy ôm trong như giếng tạnh/Nước vẫn sâu khơi mà bờ vắng lạnh;/Tình! Chính ngươi đến 

soi mặt, êm sao!/Thả gàu múc nước, rúng trăng sao (My abdomen is like a well deserted but with fresh 

water; Love! you come with it to look your face, which makes me pleasant; but your scooping water 

makes a disturbance here) (Xuân Diệu, Con sáo sang sông). 

Love here is personified via the actions of “đến soi mặt” (coming to look at one’s face in a well) and 

“thả gàu múc nước” (scooping water out of a well). As mentioned above, the well along with the 

banyan-tree and public court is very important and characteristic in Vietnamese traditional villages; it is 

also the beginning place of love (Nguyễn Oanh, 2012). As a result, the verse is a description of the 

man’s mood at the beginning of love, of a dramatic psycho-emotional change when his love comes.  

Besides the well, wharves and rivers also have a strong attachment to the Vietnamese village life; 

therefore, it is not surprised when these images are used to describe love in Vietnamese. Following is 

an instance. (11) Em đi theo đuổi mãi tơ duyên/Dò mãi lòng sông, sắm mãi thuyền (I always run after 

the silk thread of love, fathom the depth of the river, buy boats) (Nguyễn Bính, Khăn hồng). 

The stanza tells us about a hard journey to pursue and look for love on which the man is very patient of 

changing boats (the means of the journey) to fathom the depth of the river (or just learn about his 

beloved’s feelings). Such a description cannot be found in English. Similarly, the obstacles in the love 

journey manifested in the extracts below are also typical and unique to geographical and cultural 

features in Vietnam, where agriculture-based culture is dominant; where people’s lives are closely 

attached to rivers (sông), mountains (núi) and villages enclosed by trees and bamboos (thus, sharp 

thorns—gai nhọn).  

(12) Đường êm quá, ai đi mà nhớ ngó!/Đến khi hay, gai nhọn đã vào xương (The road is so smooth that 

nobody pays attention until sharp thorns stick their feet) (Xuân Diệu, Dại khờ). 

(13) Đã thương mấy núi cũng trèo/Mấy sông cũng lội, mấy đèo cũng qua (When people are in love, 

they can climb over mountains, cross rivers and go over mountain passes to get to their beloved) (Xuân 

Quỳnh, Tình ca trong lòng vịnh). 

The images of wandering up hill and down dale, wading across rivers and treading on thorns describe 

difficult journeys in Vietnamese rural life. They are mapped onto the difficulties on the love journey 

that the lovers have to overcome in order to get to their destination. 

(14) Bến ấy neo thuyền tình mong manh/ (The faint love boat may be anchored in the wharf) (Từ 

Nguyễn, Chuyện ngày qua). 

 



www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm               Communication, Society and Media                Vol. 2, No. 3, 2019 

 

 
114 

Published by SCHOLINK INC. 

 

The journey is finally finished when the boat is brought to anchor in the wharf. However, the result is 

not always as good as what is expected. There are the journeys on which the travellers don’t know 

when and where they reach their goals (as in 15). There is even the journey that has even not carried 

out yet; it is just a plan with a bright future (see 16). 

(15) Bao giờ bến mới gặp đò?/ Hoa khuê các bướm giang hồ gặp nhau? (When will the ferry-boat go 

into the wharf, gentle flowers and errant butterflies meet each other?) (Nguyễn Bính, Tương tư) 

(16) Anh có đi cùng em/ […] Đến những mùa hái quả (Are you going with me to the harvest seasons?) 

(Xuân Quỳnh, Mùa hoa doi) 

The pairs of images such as bến-thuyền (wharf-boat) in (15), bến-đò (wharf-ferry-boat), hoa-bướm 

(flower-butterfly) in (16) are metaphorically used to talk about the persons in the loving relationship. 

Mùa hái quả (harvest seasons) in (17) describes a perfect destination for the couple at the end of their 

love journey. All these images are the embodiment of agricultural lives. They are consequently rather 

popular in Vietnamese while the ideal destination of love journey is Paradise or the Garden of Eden in 

English. 

(17) Nor would we sail for paradise/Would it its shoals conceal (Nicholas Gordon, Dreams do come 

true). 

(18) I finally found my/Garden of Eden/when I met you (Bobette Bryan, Eden in you). 

Returning to “tơ duyên” (red thread of love) in (11), love is conceptualized as a unity of two persons in 

the loving relationship who are tied together by a red thread. The image comes from a legend telling of 

love and marriage that is believed to be destined by God. According to this legend, matchmaker Gods 

called Ông Tơ Bà Nguyệt bind a man and a woman together with a red thread so that they will become 

a couple of wife and husband. 

(19) Chắc đây là kiếp nợ duyên/Ông Tơ Bà Nguyệt gắn nguyên tơ hồng/Cho ta thành đôi vợ chồng 

(Perhaps for predestined love, matchmaker Gods tie the red thread for us to become wife and husband) 

(Huỳnh Lâm Phong, Kiếp nợ duyên). 

Unlike the red thread of love in (11) which is being sought, the red thread in (19) has fastened the 

couple together. It is noteworthy that the image of the red thread can only be found in Vietnamese but 

not in English although it is not without the term of thread employed to express love in English as 

illustrated in the example below. 

(20) Time found our seaming,/Rotted away the silly thread,/Laid bare two essences, unjoined (Alan 

Harris, Bidentity). 

It would be really regrettable if the image of trầu-cau (betel-areca) was not mentioned when the custom 

of Vietnamese love and marriage is discussed. Trầu-cau is a unique feature in Vietnamese culture, 

referring to the faithfulness in love. A quid of betel and areca-nut (paan) is a start-up of a conversation, 

an emotional uncover. The give and take of paan means the give and take of feelings or love; therefore, 



www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm               Communication, Society and Media                Vol. 2, No. 3, 2019 

 

 
115 

Published by SCHOLINK INC. 

 

the girl in the following lines is attempting to seek for such a tray of paan. 

(21) Lỡ làng mười tám đôi mươi./Tôi đi chợ muộn kiếm cơi trầu già (I go to the market at its closing to 

look for a tray of old paan in my early twenties, the age of being tardy for marriage) (Nguyễn Thị Đạo 

Tịnh, Bùa lá). 

Obviously, the image of “cơi trầu” (the tray of paan) is used to imply a partner, a love and a possible 

marital relationship. Love in (21), which is attached to marriage, is conceptualized as a unity of betel 

and areca nut. The image may show the desire of not only a marriage but a steadfast and lasting loving 

relationship. 

As trầu-cau (betel—areca nut) is a typical image of a close relationship in Vietnamese culture, it cannot 

be caught in English. So far, it can be said that culture has a big impact on linguistic expressions in 

general and on linguistic metaphors in particular. All the evidence presented above once again shows 

the fact that linguistic metaphors of love are divergent in different languages and cultures, particularly 

between Vietnamese and English. In addition, according to Kovecses (2010), cultural factors influence 

metaphorical expressions, and these metaphors may help to define culture. Let us look at the following 

example, (22) Tình già/như là thịt trâu sấy/Tình trẻ/như là thịt bò non/Vừa ngon, vừa lạ (Old love is 

like carabeef; young love is like veal, delicious and strange (Lò Ngân Sủn, Tình già, tình trẻ). 

Love in this verse is conceptualized as a nutrient that is tasty and strange via the expressions “tình…là 

thịt trâu sấy/là thịt bò non” (love…is carabeef/veal). These images may immediately lead people to 

Northwest Vietnam, where carabeef is one of the best-known specialities. It is made from meat of 

buffalo raised in this region combined with some kinds of spices made by the ethnic people here. It is 

not just moreish and delicious but contains in it the cultural feature of the Northwest mountainous 

region of Vietnam—homeland of the poet. As a result, carabeef and veal go into his poem naturally, 

originally and imaginatively. The linguistic expressions describing love as in (22) cannot be found in 

English and anywhere else in Vietnamese although the concept of nutrient used to metaphorize love is 

rather popular in both languages. It can consequently be said that metaphor is localized. Linguistic 

metaphors are distinguished not just between different cultures but also between various areas within a 

culture. 

In short, there are many images of natural world and social events with cultural features used to 

metaphorize love. They can be manifestations of regional or national culture. Though they belong to 

any of above-mentioned cultural features, the metaphoric expressions of love such as well, red thread, 

boat-wharf, ferryboat-wharf, flower-butterfly, betel-areca nut, carabeef, veal, wandering up hill and 

down dale, wading across rivers, trading on thorns, and harvest seasons are rather popular in 

Vietnamese but hardly found in English- a language under the influences of Western cultures. 

 

 



www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm               Communication, Society and Media                Vol. 2, No. 3, 2019 

 

 
116 

Published by SCHOLINK INC. 

 

5. Conclusion 

We have just presented the results of our investigation of metaphorical expressions of love under the 

influences of culture. The research has been carried out in light of the conceptual metaphor theory with 

the data collected from modern poetry in order to find out cultural differences resulting in the varieties 

of love linguistic metaphors between Vietnamese and English. These expressions are examined and 

analyzed under three main categories: human beings, natural world and social events. For the former 

category, the images including tim, lòng, dạ (heart and abdomen) are employed to talk about love in 

Vietnamese while only heart is used in English. This phenomenon is explained clearly by Trần Ngọc 

Thêm (1996), who concluded that lòng, for the Vietnamese, is considered as pivot and becomes 

symbolic of emotion in general and of love in particular while it is heart for the Westerner. 

The terms of natural world and social events applied to express love are also under the influences of 

culture. Because Vietnam is a nation of agriculture-based culture, the images of love and everything 

related to this relationship are pervaded with Vietnamese rural villages such as the well, rivers, 

mountains, thorns, boat-wharf, flower-butterfly, betel-areca, carabeef, veal, and harvest seasons. In 

addition, the Vietnamese believe in God and fate, everything in their life (love included) is controlled 

by Gods. As a result, the red thread (the means that matchmaker Gods use to bind two strange persons 

into a couple) appears much in Vietnamese love poems while it is just a very vague thread in English. 

Besides, the perception of love is described in different ways between Vietnamese and English. 

Vietnamese love sometimes tastes salty while this taste is not found in English. Furthermore, it can be 

differently audible in Vietnamese and Western forms of traditional music. 

In conclusion, love becomes diversified in terms of human beings, natural world and social events. 

However, it is described in own ways in different languages, namely Vietnamese and English in this 

investigation, under the impacts of culture. As Vietnam is a country of cultural diversity, the linguistic 

metaphors of love are even regionalized and vary within Vietnamese, which reflects the subcultural 

dimension of metaphor in language. 

 

References 

Bagozzi, R. P., Wong, N., & Yi, Y. (1999). The role of culture and gender in the relationship between 

positive and negative affect. Cognition and Emotion, 13(6), 641-672. 

https://doi.org/10.1080/026999399379023 

Bartels, A., & Zeki, S. (2004). The neural correlates of maternal and romantic love. Neuro Image, 21, 

1155-1166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2003.11.003 

Gottschall, J., & Nordlund, M. (2006). Romantic Love: A Literary Universal? Philosophy and 

Literature, 30, 432-452. https://doi.org/10.1353/phl.2006.0030 

Inglis, D. (2005). Culture and everyday life. Routledge, London and New York. 



www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm               Communication, Society and Media                Vol. 2, No. 3, 2019 

 

 
117 

Published by SCHOLINK INC. 

 

https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203005200 

Kovecses, Z. (2000). Metaphor and Emotion: Language, Culture, and body in human feeling. 

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Kövecses, Z. (2010). Metaphor: A Practical Introduction (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

Lakoff, G. (1993). The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and Thought 

(2nd Ed., pp. 202-251). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139173865.013 

Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980/2003). Metaphors We Live By (1st/2nd Ed.). The University of 

Chicago Press, Chicago and London. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226470993.001.0001 

McLeod, M. W., & Nguyen, T. D. (2001). Culture and Custom of Vietnam. Greenwood Press, London. 

Nguyễn Đức Tồn. (2008). Đặc trưng văn hóa—dân tộc của ngôn ngữ và tư duy. NXB Khoa học xã hội. 

Nguyễn Oanh. (2012) (ghi). Thú vị giếng làng- nét đẹp văn hóa làng quê Việt Nam. Retrieved March 20, 

2017, from http://vanhoagiaoduc.vn/bao-van-hoa-giao-duc-thu-vi-gieng-lang-13265.html 

Phan Văn Hòa, & Hồ Trịnh Quỳnh Thư. (2011). Conceptual metaphor “LOVE IS A JOURNEY” in 

English and Vietnamese. Language and Life, 9(191), 15-19. 

Polansky, R. (2007). Aristotle’s De anima. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511551017 

Pragglejaz Group. (2007). MIP: A Method for Identifying Metaphorically used Words in Discourse. 

Metaphor and Symbol, 22(1), 1-39. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926480709336752 

Spencer-Oatey, H. (2012). What is culture?—A compilation of quotations, GlobalPAD Core Concepts. 

Retrieved May 19, 2019, from 

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/globalpad/openhouse/interculturalskills/global_pad_-what_is_cult

ure.pdf 

Trần Ngọc Thêm. (1996). Tìm về bản sắc văn hóa Việt Nam. NXB Tổng hợp Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh. 

Valsiner, J. (2012). The Oxford Handbook of Culture and Psychology. Oxford University Press, New 

York. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195396430.001.0001 

Viện ngôn ngữ học. (2003). Từ điển Tiếng Việt, Hoàng Phê chủ biên (in lần thứ 9). Nhà xuất bản Đà 

Nẵng-Trung tâm từ điển học, Hà Nội- Đà Nẵng. 


