Metaphorical Conceptualization of Love in Anywaa

Abstract

Traditional approach views metaphor as pleasant use of language by a talented person like a poet, singer or novelist. However, hereafter Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) disproved this assumption with the discovery that metaphor is pervasive and mainly cognitive with the language being its surface manifestation (Kövecses, 2010). So far,  emotional metaphors used among the  Anywaa have not been described based on CMT. The present study aims to describe  love metaphors of Anywaa based on Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) . To collect the data, this study used native intuition, elicitation, recording and listening to daily conversations in Ilea village. The approaches employed to discover love  metaphors of Anywaa were Steen's five steps and Source-Domain Oriented Approach ( Steen, 2002a and Steen, 2002b). In Anywaa, metaphors like bùùl ābáájì 'You missed the best drum dance'and wàànà āpʌ́t tʃɔ́ɔ́jɔ̀ 'We are spoons of fatty stew of giraffe' are some of the linguistic metaphors used to express love in terms of DRUM (DANCE) and BONDED SPOONS. In Anywaa, emotion degree is marked by using tonal variations, the use of diminutive ɲɪ̄ 'child of ', breathy and plain vowels,vowel extension and degree adverbs. Because  the study discusses only love metaphors in Anywaa, further study on other emotional and non-emotional metaphors of Anywaa is needed to capture the cognitive aspects of Anywaa in detail.

Keywords:  [Anywaa, domain,conceptual metaphor, emotion, love]