Ẩn dụ ý niệm “Con người là cây” trong thành ngữ, tục ngữ tiếng Việt

20 KHOA HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ QUÂN SỰSố 2 - 3/2018
v LÝ LUẬN CHUYÊN NGÀNH
ẨN DỤ Ý NIỆM “CON NGƯỜI LÀ CÂY” 
TRONG THÀNH NGỮ, TỤC NGỮ TIẾNG VIỆT
TÓM TẮT
Từ lý thuyết của ngôn ngữ học tri nhận, bài viết nghiên cứu mô hình ẩn dụ ý niệm “con người 
là cây” trong thành ngữ, tục ngữ tiếng Việt. Tìm hiểu cách tri nhận của ông cha ta về con người 
và các chu kỳ vòng đời người dựa trên ý niệm về chu kỳ sinh trưởng của thực vật được hiện thân 
trong ngôn ngữ. Căn cứ vào những tương liên trong kinh nghiệm và những miền tri thức được 
chiếu xạ từ miền nguồn sang miền đích, bài viết chỉ ra cơ chế sao phỏng giữa hai miền không gian 
trong tư duy ngôn ngữ của người Việt. Dựa trên quan hệ logic trong việc tổ chức lược đồ ánh xạ 
của ẩn dụ ý niệm, bài viết chỉ ra kiểu tư duy đặc thù trong cấu trúc ý niệm mang đặc trưng tư duy, 
văn hóa của người Việt. 
Từ khóa: ánh xạ, ẩn dụ ý niệm, cây, con người, thành ngữ, tục ngữ 
1. METAPHOR AND CONCEPTUAL 
METAPHOR
In traditional viewpoint, metaphor is often 
considered a problem of language itself, including 
some symbols in a figurative sense, based on 
words in literal interpretation. Metaphor, which is 
studied by many rhetoricians, is often referred to 
as the way to convert names based on an implicit 
comparison between two things with similarities 
or of similar natures. The mechanism of metaphor 
creates the most common meaning conversion in 
all languages. This traditional view of metaphor 
dates back to the Aristotelian period, which was 
agreed upon and affirmed by many structural 
linguistics around the world. 
Since Lakoff & Johnson (1980) published the 
classic book Metaphor We live by, with the view 
that: “metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not 
just in language but in thought and action. Our 
ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we 
both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical 
in nature” (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, p.30), the 
concept of metaphor has undergone a breakthrough 
change as cognitive linguists claim that metaphor is 
also an effective cognitive tool for conceptualizing 
abstract ideas. Metaphor is not merely a form 
NGUYỄN THỊ BÍCH HẠNH *
*Học viện Khoa học xã hội, ✉ ntbichhanh78@gmail.com
Ngày nhận bài: 11/01/2018; ngày sửa chữa: 26/02/2018; ngày duyệt đăng: 28/02/2018
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LÝ LUẬN CHUYÊN NGÀNH v
of language but also a form of human thinking 
about the world. Metaphorical thinking is based 
on concepts. The theory of conceptual metaphor 
proposed by both of them has attracted particular 
attention in the field of cognitive linguistics. 
Accordingly, metaphor is a tool through which 
vague experiences of human are conceptualized 
on the basis of more specific experiences (Lakoff 
& Johnson, 1980, p.4). Lakoff assumes that many 
of our experiences are metaphorically created 
through a limited number of image schemas, made 
by metaphorical projection between the “source” 
and the “target” domains, with the general 
model of TARGET IS SOURCE. This special 
meaning conversion is accomplished through 
irradiation between two spatial domains, where 
the properties of the source domain are usually 
more firmly structured (e.g. PLANT, JOURNEY, 
CONTAINER) and partially mapped to the target 
domain - usually more abstract (e.g. PEOPLE, 
EMOTION, TIME)... (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, 
p.8). Through metaphor, people recognize that the 
world consists of material world, spiritual world 
and emotional world. Metaphor is attached to the 
cultural characteristics of native speaker. The article 
applies the theoretical frameworks of cognitive 
linguistics in idioms and proverbs in Vietnamese to 
figure out the metaphorical expression of PEOPLE 
ARE PLANTS and subordinate metaphors of this 
concept, to demonstrate the intimate relationship 
between language - culture - thinking expressed 
through conceptual expressions.
2. METHODS AND DATA USED FOR 
RESEARCH
The research materials are taken from Kho 
tàng tục ngữ người Việt (Vietnamese proverb 
treasure), Volumes 1, 2 by Nguyen Xuan Kinh, 
Nguyen Thuy Loan, Phan Lan Huong and Nguyen 
Luan (2002), with 16.098 proverbs; Từ điển 
thành ngữ và tục ngữ Việt Nam (Dictionary of 
Vietnamese idioms and proverbs) by Nguyen Lan, 
(2014); and Từ điển giải thích thành ngữ tiếng Việt 
(Explanation of Vietnamese idioms) by Nguyen 
Nhu Y (chief author, 1995). The total number of 
idioms surveyed is 2.500.
The article uses a number of research methods, 
such as analytical and descriptive method; concept 
analysis method; in combination with statistics 
and classification to address research objectives 
and prove the set hypotheses, according to the 
following procedure:
Step 1: Identify a set of characteristic features 
of the source domain PLANT and the target 
domain PEOPLE;
Step 2: Identify a set of corresponding features 
in cognitive framework PEOPLE ARE PLANTS;
Step 3: Perform statistics and classification 
from collected data sources to separate the 
metaphorical expressions of the concept PEOPLE 
ARE PLANTS; 
Step 4: Group the metaphorical expressions 
of the concept PEOPLE ARE PLANTS according 
to the criteria of “plant life cycle” defined in the 
Cognitive framework;
Step 5: Develop an irradiation map in the 
metaphor PEOPLE ARE PLANTS based on 
the mechanism of moving the properties from 
“plant life cycle” to “people life cycle” in 
idioms and proverbs in Vietnamese; show the 
path and the mechanism of replication between 
spatial domains of source and target, “plant” and 
“people” in conceptual thinking of the Vietnamese 
to demonstrate the intimate relationship between 
language - culture - thinking expressed through 
conceptual expressions.
 3. RESULTS
3.1. The correspondence between source 
domain and target domain
Conceptual metaphorical model PEOPLE ARE 
TREES is a universal concept in every culture. In 
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the treasure of Vietnamese idioms and proverbs, 
the concept PEOPLE ARE TREES reflects the 
cognitive mechanism about the human world 
and the cognitive way of our forefathers about 
people based on the concept of plants, trees and 
vegetables. Mechanism of this concept includes 
source domain “trees”, mapping onto target 
domain “people”. The attributes and knowledge of 
“trees” are mapped and projected onto “people”, 
and a few features of “trees” are attributed to 
“people”. These domains of knowledge in idioms 
and proverbs are purely conceptual and structured 
according to the center - periphery model. 
Metaphor PEOPLE ARE TREES is a universal 
concept in every single culture. In Vietnamese 
culture, there are many words that are made up 
of meaning transferences based on similarities 
between trees and people penetrating into the 
vocabulary system of the entire population and 
forming a stable meaning in the dictionary, such as: 
lá (leaf) – lá gan (liver), lá (leaf) – lá phổi (lung), 
buồng (bunch) – buồng trứng (ovary), cuống 
(stem) – cuống tim (heart stem), cuống (stem) 
– cuống phổi (onchi), cuống (stem) – cuống rốn 
(umbilical cord), quả (fruit) – quả thận (kidney), 
quả (fruit) – quả tim (heart), vỏ (shell/bark) – vỏ 
não (cerebral cortex), chùm (bundle) – chùm gân 
(sinew), thớ (fibre) - thớ thịt (meat), bắp (muscle) – 
bắp đùi (thigh), ống (pipe) – ống chân (shin), cẳng 
(arm) – cẳng tay (forearm), vân (veine) – vân tay 
(fingerprint), thùy (lobe) – thùy tai (ear lobe), gai 
(thorn) – gai đôi cột sống (spina bifida), gai (thorn) 
- nổi gai ốc (goose bumps), hạt (seed ) – viêm họng 
hạt (adenoids), nhân (kernel) – nhân xơ (fibroids), 
lép (flat) – ngực lép (flat breast), mẩy (plump) – 
mông mẩy (plump body), chua (sour) – giọng 
chua (sour-tongued), cành (branch) – anh em cành 
trên cành dưới (lower branches support the upper 
branches), chi (offshoot) – chi trên chi dưới (upper 
offshoot and lower offshoot) (family), nếp (sticky) 
– tẻ (rice) – nhà có nếp có tẻ (the family has a boy 
(sticky) and a girl (rice), héo (frail) – cha già mẹ 
héo (father and mother are frail elderly), cây (tree) 
– cây phả hệ (family tree), cấy (to transplant) – cấy 
phôi (to transplant embryo) (Hoang Phe, Editor, 
2010). In the people’s language, source concept 
“trees” is assigned regularly to the conceptual 
domain associated with “people” and the forms of 
the abstract system associated with “people” like 
social organization, social relation, economic and 
political system, ideology, etc. For example, ươm 
mầm cho tương lai (to grow the seed for future); 
gieo nghi ngờ (to sow the seeds of doubt); được 
mùa (to have a good crop) – kinh doanh được 
mùa (to have a good business), bội thu ý tưởng 
(surplus of ideas); gặt hái thành công (to reap/
harvesh achive success), phân nhánh quyền lực 
(to branch of power); công ty có nhiều chi nhánh 
(the company has many branches), sự nghiệp 
đơm hoa kết trái (the business is now bearing 
fruit); mang trong mình một mầm sống mới (to 
bring a new seed of life (pregnant); ý tưởng bị 
chín ép (the idead is prematurely ripened); suy 
nghĩ chín muồi (ripe think); gương mặt chín nẫu 
(overripe face (too old); tình yêu đơm trái ngọt 
(love is now giving blossoms and fruits); khai hoa 
nở nhụy (the flower is blossoming) (to give birth), 
etc. Thus, a naive picture of the plant’s world is 
cognized and reflected in a diverse way throught 
language by people, in which plants is considered 
as an important category of semantics, culture and 
consciousness, presenting the particularities of 
national cultural thought. 
The metaphorians (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003; 
Tyler & Evans, 2003; Tran Van Co, 2009; Ly 
Toan Thang, 2009) have indicated that cognitive 
metaphor is a part-mapping, with no everything 
from source domain mapped onto target domain. 
Projecting from source domain onto target domain 
is selective, in which the attributes that are selected 
in target domain must be parts of attributes defined 
in source domain; therefore, there is a transition 
of some attributes from source domain onto target 
domain. In common thinking of the Vietnamese 
people, because the growth attribute of plant’s life 
is divided into different stages of development, 
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there is a link to different stages of people’s life. 
Thence, the life cycle of plants is mapped to the 
people’s life cycle in certain aspects (see the 
cognitive framework PEOPLE ARE TREES).
From metaphor PEOPLE ARE TREES, it is 
able to understand that source concept “trees” 
may have attributes, including bud, flower, 
petal, blossom, green, fresh, withered, to sow, to 
transplant, to grow, falling, waning, brown, faded, 
old, stunted, odorous, bright, to burst, branch, to 
burn, to grow roots, twig, to bear, to bloom, to 
close, glossy, to break, sprout, fibre, vein, sinew, to 
spread, to rise up, pink, yellow, red, etc. assigned to 
target concept “people”. So “people” also features 
the attributes of such new “knowledge”.
When mapping the attributes of source domain 
(tree) onto target domain (people), target domain 
(people) only acceps a part of but not all the inherent 
attributes of the source concept. In metaphor 
PEOPLE ARE TREES, not all of attributes of 
a “tree” are assigned to “people”. Apart from 
these attributes, many other attributes of a “tree” 
are not involved in the structuration of concept 
“people”, including chlorophyll, photosynthesis, 
stem borer, root knot, tap-root, fibrous root, root 
hair, gear, lobed leaf, etc. These partial attributes 
make the source domain and targert domain to be 
not absolutely heterogeneous but partially. We 
will try to look at conceptual structure PEOPLE 
ARE TREES in Vietnamese proverbs and idioms 
to confirm the above statements. 
3.2. Conceptual metaphor PEOPLE ARE 
TREES in Vietnamese proverbs and idioms
For conceptual models, it is rarely cognized 
that they are metaphorical. However, researching 
their foundations in relation to people’s experience 
(physical experience, cultural experience, biological 
experience, spirituality, and religion etc.) will see 
their cognitive mechanisms (Kövecses, 2000; 
Tyler & Evans, 2003). Using concept PEOPLE 
ARE TREES in Vietnamese proverbs and idioms 
is completely unconscious and under a particular 
visual schema, in which there is a harmony 
betweent the global universal characteristics 
(nuclears) and the “peripheral” elements that 
are the special linguistic and cultural factors 
of the Vietnamese culture belonging to mental 
knowledge of national culture with special nature.
All creatures and things existing in the universe 
are in a multi-dimensional relation, always interact 
and transform each other. In fact, trees are very 
close to the human world. In the cultural mind of 
many nations in the world, trees play a particularly 
important and godly sacred role. In the world’s 
cultural symbol system, “tree” is one of the 
most abundant and popular symbol topics and is 
gathered around the concept of universe living in a 
continuous reproduction; therefore, trees become 
the object of worship. Because trees attache 
themselves to the life with a continuous evolution 
process, they also symbolize the periodicity and 
transformation, death and regeneration of the 
universe. Trees symbolize the fundamental unity 
of the life and developments. They are derived 
from seeds and sprouts which are nourished from 
undifferentiated matter – soil, associated with 
the periodic movement of time and crop. Plants 
symbolize the cyclicality of all forms of survival, 
including being born, to grow up, to mature, to die 
and be transformed into another material. Thus, 
trees are origin of any life. Therefore, folk has used 
the life of plants to refer to people’s (Chevalier & 
Gheerbrant, 2002).
In Vietnamese cultural mind, plants play 
a special role. Because our folk contained the 
“Animism”, the worship of forest god and tree 
god appears in many locals (Tran Ngoc Them, 
2000). According to our forefathers’ experience, a 
big tree has a big god, and small has small one. 
Our folk also handed down the sentence “The 
worst offense is the destruction of forests, the 
second worst is the destruction of rivers” (Nhất 
phá sơn lâm, nhì đâm hà bá) to remind people 
respecting nature resources, especially for plants. 
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Moreover, Vietnam has ancient rice civilizations, 
plus the influence of religion (Buddhism) deeply 
penetrating the lifestyle of the Vietnamese 
communities that creates a merciful, generous and 
charming culture with plants.
Because of love and devotion to nature, plants 
are closely associated with the indigenous culture 
of Vietnamese people. Unknowingly, the cognition 
of elements and parts associated with plants has 
long been permeated into the consciousness of 
everyday language of people but we may not be 
able to easily cognize. In language expressions 
used in the daily activi ... and mortally following 
virtue to accumulate virtue for the next life: “Có 
giồng cây đức mới bền” (virtuous activities that 
we have done which will help us in the next life). 
“Virtue” – a category of virtue - in the opinion 
of our forefathers, was also planted to grow and 
develop next generation: “Có nhân nhân nở, vô 
nhân nhân trẩm” (Talk of the devil and he is sure 
to appear – a good seed will grow into a tree, a 
bad will not). We have to live follow the virtue so 
the next generations of our life will be good and 
for long-term happiness: “Có tiền thì hậu mới hay/
Có trồng cây đức mới dày nên nhân” (One good 
turn deserves another, a good tree will generate 
good seeds). 
Also, parts of a tree with basic functions of 
carring out the continuous process of exchange 
and transformation remind the metaphor to people. 
Leaves contain chlorophyll, whose function is 
light photosynthesis and metabolism for the tree’s 
life. After being developed to a certain stage, 
during biochemistry, the chlorophyll in leaves will 
turn into other substance. In the dying process, the 
color of leaves will gradually change from blue to 
yellowish or dark red, and then brown and falling, 
closing a life cycle. Within its cycle, the tree 
sprouts, grows and then develops with new leaves 
that will fall and change over time in a continuous 
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regeneration cycle. Based on the typical attributes 
of biological process of a “leaf”, in relation to 
people’s life, our forefathers also imagined that 
people’s life is like a leaf’s. A leaf changes its color 
over time (green – speckled – yellowish – fallen). 
In people’s experience, the metabolism process 
in leaves is similar to the people’s aging process, 
so the folk have had a way of speaking: “Lá vàng 
còn ở trên cây/Lá xanh rụng xuống trời hay chăng 
trời” (Yellow leaves on the tree mourn the falling 
green leaves), or “Lá xanh rụng trước lá vàng” 
(green leaves fall before yellow leaves) to refer to 
the death of a young person; saying “Người già như 
lá rụng” (Old people are like the falling leaves) 
to see the similarity between people’s and tree’s 
life, which are transient and impermanent. Along 
with leaves, “thorns” also have metabolic function 
similar to leaves. Moreover, “thorns” also have 
the function of protecting the tree from external 
attacks. Based on the similarities in defense 
and protection, “thorns” are also transferred the 
features to personalities and characters of people. 
An one that was intelligent and smart as was a 
child is called “Cái gai nhọn, nhọn từ bé” (sharp 
thorn, sharp as was a child); Younger people that 
are more astute than older are considered “Gai 
ngọn nhọn hơn gai gốc” (the thorns on the top 
are sharper than the thorns on the trunk); Young 
people that are not as stable and consisten as the 
elderly are considered “Gai ở ngọn giòn hơn gai ở 
gốc” (the thorns on the top are more crunchy than 
the thorns on the trunk). In this case, our forefathers 
cognized that PEOPLE ARE TREES and the trunk 
is developed first and early grown; therefore, it is 
stronger and and has a better endurance than the 
top of a tree, in correspondence to the elders and 
predecessors who have many years of experience. 
The top of a tree is later developed, softer, easily 
to be broken and bent, but has a greater strength, 
in correspondence to to young people who have 
dreams, ambitions, and physical strength but less 
experience. Thorns are part of a tree and present 
the intellectual, health, and willing attributes of 
people. The thorns on the top are wisdom, health, 
willpower, and personality of young people. 
Trunk roots are what belong to the attributes of the 
elders. Therefore, the “thorns” here is cognized as 
the representative of “people”. 
In the world of plants, flower is considered 
a development model of the life, of the natural 
factors and symbolizes the life cycle of plants 
(mature trees bear flowers and fruits and after each 
season transferred, they continue to bear flowers, 
etc.). Flower is the most colorful and beautiful 
part of a tree. So, in relation to people, flower is 
a metaphor of beauty. In language, our forefathers 
transferred some of the attributes of a flower or 
flower bud to refer to the human beauty, especially 
based on the homologous and rounded shape of 
the flower bud to indicate the lips, including: 
Nụ – bud – kiss, smile, half-open smile, slightly-
open smile; Based on the similarity between the 
blooming petals and people’s smile: môi hé mở 
(parted lips), miệng hoa ngâu (the smile is like a 
tiny flower), đóa hoa hàm tiếu (the smile is like 
a flower beginning to bloom). In the treasure of 
proverbs and idioms, the flower has been used 
to present the smile: “Đàn ông cười hoa, đàn bà 
cười nụ” (Men’s smile is like a blooming flower, 
women’s smile is like a flower bud). Flowers and 
people, their conditions are homogeneous at the 
level of influence (perfume) and fragile existence, 
easy to die (blooming and dying): “Người như hoa 
ở đâu thơm đấy” (anywhere has beautiful flowers, 
this is beautiful place), “Người đời khác nữa là 
hoa/Sớm còn tối mất nở ra lại tàn” (people’life is 
just like a bunch of Cotton-rose hibiscus, blossom 
in the dawn and die in the nightfall). Flowers 
are people: “Người ta là hoa đất” (People are 
earth flowers). Everybody and every family have 
different colors: “Trăm hoa đua nở/Trăm nhà đua 
tiếng” (Hundreds of flowers race for blooming/
Hundreds of families race for fame); “Mỗi cây 
mỗi hoa/ mỗi nhà mỗi cảnh” (Different trees have 
different flowers, Different families have different 
emotions). Flower is a girl; flowers are blossoming 
by season and girls also have season: “Gái dậy thì 
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như hoa quỳ mới nở” (The teenage girl is like the 
newly blooming Mexican Sunflower). Followers 
bloom and then die, the beauty is quickly faded, 
too: “Đàn bà như cánh hoa tươi/Nở ra chỉ được 
một thời mà thôi” (Women are like the fresh petals, 
blossom for a while only). 
Trees live seasonally and their growth cycle 
consists of flowering, fruiting, ripening and falling 
stages. It is a closed cycle of plants. In viewpoint 
of PEOPLE ARE TREES, our forefathers still 
indicated that love and happiness are the fullesses of 
people’s life, like the flowering and fruiting stages 
of tree’s life. So, there have been expressions: “tình 
yêu đơm hoa kết trái” (love is now bearing flowers 
and fruits); “tình yêu chín muồi” (ripen love); 
“trái ngọt tình yêu” (love is sweet fruit); “hạnh 
phúc nở hoa” (happiness is flowering) etc. When a 
love has the unhappy ending, it is expressed by the 
concept green fruit, bitter fruit or bitterness. In the 
naive perception of the world of plants, from the 
concept of fruits, Vietnamese people also transfers 
some attributes of fruits to people’s, namely the 
fruit-shaped objects, such as: quả (fruit) – quả 
tim (heart), quả thận (kidney). Some attributes of 
a fruit, including berry, stretchy, pink, red, heart-
shaped, ripe, fragrant, delicious, sweet etc. are 
used to describe the lips, including: môi chín mọng 
(Ripe lips), môi trái tim (heart-shaped lips). In the 
treasure of idioms and proverbs, some attributes 
of a fruit are transferred to people’s, such as fruits 
(gourd, pumpkin, bean, mandarin, orange, peach, 
plum, areca); the nature of fruits (sweet and sour), 
fruits (used to refer to people. When talking about 
the tangerine affection of sisters, our forefathers 
used the image of “Chị em gái như trái cau non” 
(sisters are young areca); referring to those who 
compete but no one better than one, there has 
been a sentence “Bầu già thì mướp cũng xơ” (old 
gourd, mature luffa). When the one is not inferior 
to other, our forefathers used the image of “Bầu 
leo thì dây bí cũng leo” (The pumpkin imitates 
the gourd to climb the truss); saying that brothers 
harm each other with the image of “Cành đậu đun 
hạt đậu” (use the branches of bean tree to burn the 
beans); referring to people who have less child, 
we use the image of “Cây có một cành/Cành có 
một quả” ( the tree has a branch, the branhe has a 
fruit); presenting that children are effected by the 
education from the their family environment: “Coi 
trái biết cây” (just look at the fruits we may know 
how the tree like is). This means that seeing the 
children we may know their parents. Describing 
a downfall situation: “Cây độc sinh quả độc” 
(like father, like son – a poisonous tree develops 
poisonous fruits); describing a situation that many 
people bully a person: “Đa nhân hiếp quả” (many 
people eat one fruit); saying that each child in 
the same family has different personalities, our 
forefathers used the image of “Cây một cội: trái 
chua, trái ngọt/Nước một nguồn; dòng đục, dòng 
trong” (A tree has sweet and sour fruits, a river 
has dirty and clear water); those who makes 
someone else unfair, we say that “Quýt làm cam 
chịu” (an offender, another penance – the Orange 
will badly rise if it is planted in the sam gardern 
with Tangerine); talking about the law of cause 
and effect in life, our forefathers also borrowed 
the fruits to teach people: “Trồng cây chua ăn quả 
chua, trồng cây ngọt ăn quả ngọt” (as grow sour 
tree for sour fruits, grow sweet for sweet); when 
someone else falling in the situation of losing 
someone but have another one to replace, we say 
“Đào ngã, mận thay” (as one goes, other comes 
– as Peach dies, Plum replaces); referring to he 
who is the moon flower “Sớm đào tối mận” (In the 
morning eat Peach, at night eat Plum).
4. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 
Conceptual metaphor PEOPLE ARE TREES 
has been a universal metaphor in many languages, 
however with Vietnamese thinking – a kind of 
image-oriented thinking, plus a profound influence 
of wet rice civilization, Vietnamese people tend to 
unconsciously see human life to be refracted through 
the world of plants. Transferring the attributes of 
plants to people’s takes place naturally in language 
thinking, becomes an ordinary knowledge, and is 
fixed and increasingly widespread in metaphorical 
expressions, especially in Vietnamese idioms and 
proverbs or poems.
30 KHOA HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ QUÂN SỰSố 2 - 3/2018
v LÝ LUẬN CHUYÊN NGÀNH
Thus, like a tree that is a diverse category 
of plants and consists of typical characteristics 
of growth processes, life styles, and life cycles, 
when mapping the attributes of plants to people’s 
through idioms and proverbs, our forefathers 
showed a comprehensive view of projection 
from trees domain to people category: biological, 
social, spiritual to psychological, emotional, etc. 
From the above analytical bases of the structural 
metaphor PEOPLE ARE TREES in idioms 
and proverbs, this article developed the values 
this structural metaphor provides, expressed 
by the meaning of language expressions (is the 
expression of conceptual metaphors with the 
linguistic tools in each of the most typical target 
categories, including PEOPLE) to find out the 
cultural depth of conceptual expressions in 
conceptualizing the viewpoint of the world. From 
the cognitive viewpoint of the world reproduced 
in the picture of people’s language in general, 
in idioms and proverbs in general, the tree is 
cognized as an important category of semantics, 
culture and consciousness and clearly reflects the 
national cultural characteristics in the acquisition 
of language. In the process of conceptualization, 
our forefathers transferred the attributes of a tree to 
people to express the worldview and human view 
bringing the culture of a community with the ancient 
rice civilizations. Through the study of specific 
language blocks, it is able to find innumerable deep 
associations in our forefathers’ world of thought, 
experience and awareness of life shown through 
the colorful emotions of imagination. This creates 
unexpected and interesting relations between 
the tree’s and people’s world in the treasure of 
Vietnamese proverbs and idioms./.
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31KHOA HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ QUÂN SỰSố 12 - 3/2018
LÝ LUẬN CHUYÊN NGÀNH v
CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR “PEOPLE ARE TREES” IN VIETNAMESE IDIOMS 
AND PROVERBS
NGUYEN THI BICH HANH
Abstract: From the theory of cognitive linguistics, this paper arms to research the conceptual 
metaphor PEOPLE ARE TREES in Vietnamese idioms and proverbs; learn how the cognitive way 
of our forefathers about people and their life cycles based on the concept of plant’s growth cycle 
embodied in language. Based on interactions in experience and knowledge domains mapped 
from source domain onto target domain, this article shows the calque between two domains in 
language thinking of the Vietnamese people. Based on logical relation in organizing the mapping 
scheme of conceptual metaphor, this article shows the specific thinking style of conceptual 
structure characterized thinking and culture of the Vietnamese people. 
Keywords: mapping, conceptual metaphor, tree, people, idioms, proverbs
Received: 11/01/2018; Revised: 26/02/2018; Accepted for publication: 28/02/2018