The Conceptual Metaphor “Traditional Handicrafts Are Fire” In Vietnamese Newspaper Discourse

Traditional handicrafts constitute a traditional sphere of production deeply embedded in Vietnamese cultural identity and folk knowledge. The HANDICRAFT domain is a body of knowledge and experience encompassing the activities, products, and production processes associated with the making of handcrafted goods. Drawing on the theoretical framework of cognitive linguistics, this article examines the conceptual metaphor TRADITIONAL HANDICRAFTS ARE FIRE. The data were collected from 30 Vietnamese-language newspaper articles on traditional handicrafts published between 2020 and 2026. The analysis identified 12 metaphorical lexical realizations, occurring 25 times in 21 metaphorical expressions, in which FIRE functions as the source domain. Four stages—KINDLING THE FIRE, THE FIRE BLAZING UP, KEEPING THE FIRE ALIVE, and PASSING ON THE FIRE—are mapped respectively onto four stages in the target domain of TRADITIONAL HANDICRAFTS: INITIATING THE CRAFT, DEVELOPING THE CRAFT, PRESERVING THE CRAFT, and PROMOTING THE CRAFT. The model shows that only the positive properties of FIRE are activated, whereas its negative properties remain inactive. This selective activation derives from Vietnamese cultural cognition, shaped by wet-rice civilization, in which fire is regarded as a source of life for human beings and all living things.

Keywords: traditional handicrafts, conceptual metaphor, fire, mapping, cultural cognition.