Analysis of Conceptual Metaphors in Gichuka Social Discourse: An Ontological Perspective

International Journal of Humanities and Social Science

© 2022 by SSRG - IJHSS Journal

Volume 9 Issue 3

Year of Publication : 2022

Authors : Emise Kageni Miriti, Nancy W. Mbaka

10.14445/23942703/IJHSS-V9I3P111

How to Cite?

Emise Kageni Miriti, Nancy W. Mbaka, "Analysis of Conceptual Metaphors in Gichuka Social Discourse: An Ontological Perspective," SSRG International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, vol. 9,  no. 3, pp. 74-83, 2022. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.14445/23942703/IJHSS-V9I3P111

Abstract:

This paper analyses the conceptual metaphors used in Gichuka social discourse, focusing on ontological metaphors. Its purpose is to investigate how language is manipulated by Gichuka speakers through metaphor to achieve varied social goals and shape social reality. Metaphor determines how people think and how they understand their reality. Therefore, people use metaphors both as a rhetorical tool and as a tool to enhance comprehension. The study is guided by the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) by Lakoff and Johnson. It employs purposive sampling of five main Gichuka speech events: a birthday party, a burial ceremony, a religious meeting, menial work activity, and a dowry negotiation. It also employs pile sort tasks to group the data for analysis. Metaphor is identified using Metaphor Identification Procedure Vrije Universiteit (MIPVU). The results reveal that Gichuka's social discourse is highly motivated by metaphor. Entities, activities, states, and emotions are conceptualized as CONTAINERS, SUBSTANCES, and OBJECTS. The CONTAINER metaphor is found to be the most predominantly used ontological metaphor. Ontological metaphors are also found to perform other functions such as referring, identifying aspects, setting goals and motivating actions, and quantifying and identifying causes within the social discourse. The most prevalent function of ontological metaphor in Gichuka social discourse is referring. This study conventionalizes and invigorates the use of Gichuka social discourse metaphors. It puts the Gichuka language in the limelight, and the results of this study can be used for cross-culture studies. This study also contributes to the linguistic theory by demonstrating that Gichuka conforms to the Conceptual Metaphor Theory(CMT).

Keywords:

Conceptualize, Discourse, Ontological metaphors, Source Domain, Target Domain.

References:

[1] Rebekah Beyer, “A Figure of thought: Conceptual Metapor in Children's Preschool Narrative Picture Books,” Honours Senior Thesis/ Projects 25, 2011.
[2] Brugman, C., “The story of over,” Unpublished Masters Thesis, 1981.
[3] Brugman, C., “What is the invariance hypothesis,” Cognitive Linguistics, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 257-266, 1990.
[4] Casad, Eugene H, “Coral locationals and structured imagery,” Unpublished PhD Thesis, 1982.
[5] Casad, Eugene H, “Locations, paths and the cora verb. In R. G.-O. (eds),” Conceptualizations and Mental Processing in Language, pp. 593-645, 1983.
[6] Lynne Cameron, “Metaphors in the Learnimg of Science:A Discourse Focus,” British Educational Research Journal, vol. 28, no. 5, pp. 673-688, 2002.
[7] Alan Cienki, “Researching Conceptual Metaphors that (may) Underlie Political Discourse,” ECPR Workshop on Metaphor in Political Science, 2005.
[8] Vyvyan Evans, and Melanie Green, Cognitive linguistics: An introduction, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2006.
[9] Gilles Fauconnier, and Mark Turner, The way we think: Conceptual blending and the mind's hidden complexities, Basic Books, 2002. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.40-1223
[10] Gilles Fauconnier, and Mark Turner, “Conceptual Integration networks,” Cognitive Science, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 133-187.1998. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0364-0213(99)80038-X
[11] Gibbs Jr., Raymond W. (Ed), Cambridge handbook of metaphor and thought, Cambridge University Press, pp. 53-66, 2008. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511816802
[12] Malcolm Guthrie, Comparative Bantu: An Introduction to the Comparative Linguistics and Prehistory of the Bantu languages, Gregg, Farnborough, 1967-1971.
[13] Mark Johnson, The body in the Mind. The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Reason, and Imagination, Chicago University Press, 1987.
[14] Mark Johnson, “Philosophical Implications of Cognitive Semantics,” Cognitive Linguistics, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 345-366, 1992.
[15] Ikenna Kamalu, “Metaphorical Naming of Selected Dreaded Diseases and Medical Conditions in Igbo Language and Thought,” Topics in Linguistics, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 28-40, 2020. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.2478/topling-2020-0008
[16] Fridah Erastus Kanana, “Meru Dialects: the Linguistic Evidence,” Nordic Journal of African Studies, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 300-327, 2011. 
[17] Karnedi, P., “Challenges to Metaphorical Coherence Across the Languages and Cultures,” Arab World English Journal (AWEJ), no. 4, pp. 68-87, 2015.
[18] Zoltan kovecses, Metaphor: A practical introduction, Oxford University Press, 2002.
[19] Zoltan kovecses, Metaphor: A practical introduction, Oxford University Press, 2010.
[20] George Lakoff, and Mark Johnson , Metaphors we live by, The University of Chicago Press , 1980.
[21] George Lakoff, and Mark Johnson, Philosophy in the Flesh. The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought. New York: Basic Books, 1999.
[22] George Lakoff, and Mark Johnson, Metaphors we live by. London: Chicago Press, 2003.
[23] Ronald W. Langacker, Foundations of cognitive Grammar Vol 1: Theoretical preliquisites. Stanford University Press, 1987.
[24] Ronald W. Langacker, Foundations of cognitive grammar: Theoretical preliquisites. Stanford University Press, 1991.
[25] Jeannette Littlemore, and John R. Taylor, The Bloomsbury Companion to Cognitive Linguistics. Bloomsbury, 2014.
[26] Nordiquist, R., 2020. [Online]. Available: http://www.thoughtco.com/ontological-term-1091453
[27] Pragglejaz Group, “MIP: A Method of Identifying Metaphorically used Words in Discourse,” Metaphor and Symbol, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 1-39, 2007.
[28] Gerard Steen et al., A method for Linguistic Metaphor Identification; from MIP to MIPVU, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2010.
[29] Mark Tuner, The literal mind: The Origins of Language and Thought, Oxford University Press, 1996.
[30] David Herman, Narrative Theory and the Cognitive Sciences, Center for the Study of Language and Information Publications, pp. 117- 142, 2003.
[31] Graham Bradshaw, T. G. Bishop, and Mark Turner, The Shakespearean International Yearbook 4: Shakespear Studies Today, Ashgate Aldershot, pp. 72-97, 2005.