Masoumeh Zarei; Shahla Raghib Dust
Abstract
Color terms are radiation of the human conceptual system that represents a reflection of his cognitive and linguistic features. The human conceptual system is fundamentally metaphorical in nature. Metaphor is a cognitive mechanism and one of the linguistic strategies that can play a part in color term ...
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Color terms are radiation of the human conceptual system that represents a reflection of his cognitive and linguistic features. The human conceptual system is fundamentally metaphorical in nature. Metaphor is a cognitive mechanism and one of the linguistic strategies that can play a part in color term formation and categorical extension of colors. This study has taken metaphor in Persian color terms and the metaphorical structure of color categories in the Persian language into consideration. In this study, based on cognitive lexical semantics, 910 color terms in Persian have been analyzed. After describing semantic domains in the metaphorical formation of Persian color terms and analyzing the metaphorical structure of Persian color terms, the frequency of semantic domains’ application in Persian color terms and color categories’ tendency for participation in the metaphorical structure of Persian color terms have been investigated. Metaphor is one of the cognitive mechanisms that have a significant role in forming color categories and their conceptual extension in Persian. The domains whose phenomena have been observed in the metaphorical structure of Persian color terms are plant domain, animal domain, food domain, body domain, mineral domain, natural phenomenon domain, and object domain. The frequency of application and distribution of these semantic domains in Persian color categories is not equal. Besides, the rate of color categories’ participation in the metaphorical structure of Persian color terms and their tendency to the source semantic domains vary in metaphorical mapping.
Introduction
Color terms are radiation of the human conceptual system that represents a reflection of his cognitive and linguistic features. Metaphor is a cognitive mechanism and one of the linguistic strategies that can play a part in color term formation and categorical extension of colors. This study has considered metaphor in Persian color terms and the metaphorical structure of color categories in the Persian language. In this research, we attempted to provide answers to the following questions:
How is the metaphorical structure of color categories in the Persian language?
What are the source domains in the metaphorical mapping of concepts in Persian color terms?
What is the contribution of color categories to the metaphorical structure and the extent of their tendency to the semantic domains in Persian color terms?
Literature Review
Conklin (1955) studied color categories in the Hanunóo language. Berlin and Kay (1969) argued that all languages share a universal system of basic color categorization that has evolved in 7 stages. Rosch (1973) studied the color terms of the Dani language. Levinson (2000) categorizes color propositions in the Yélî language. Everett (2005) believes that there are considerable differences in the way colors are named among the speakers of the Pirahã language. Xing (2009) investigated color terms in Chinese. Gol-Mohammadzadeh (2009) studied the symbolic meaning of color terms among Persian speakers. Estaji (2007) investigated Persian color terms structurally. Afrashi and Samet (2012) studied the conceptual metaphors of color in the Persian language. Alizadeh Sahrai and Raskhmahand (2016) investigated the hierarchy of basic color words in Persian.
Methodology
This research was based on a fieldwork study and the data was collected from different social-cultural contexts in the Persian-speaking society. In this study, we examined 910 color terms descriptively and statistically, within the scope of cognitive lexical semantics and the theoretical beliefs of Lakoff and Johnson (1980). In this research, we investigated the metaphorical structure of color categories and the formation of Persian color terms through the cognitive mechanism of metaphorical mapping.
Results
The analysis of the research data shows that in the metaphorical structure of color categories, due to the similarity of an area of the color spectrum to a phenomenon in the surrounding world, the name of that phenomenon is used for the lexical encoding of that area in the color spectrum. There is a general metaphor in the formation of Persian color terms and their categorization: the radiating color phenomenon is color (see the figure below).
Figure 1
The general conceptual metaphor of color in the Persian language
source domain target domain
radiating color phenomenon
color
mapping
This general metaphor is made of a set of radiating color phenomena that create a cluster of “convergent cognitive models” together. This cluster radially causes the formation of a set of convergent subcategories in the color categories, which are: color is plant, color is animal, color is body, color is food, color is mineral, color is natural phenomenon, and color is object. The models of this cluster are shown in the figure below:
Figure 2
The cluster of metaphorical cognitive models
source domains target domains
color
color
color
color
color
color
color
plant
animal
body
comestible
mineral
natural phenomenon
object
mappings
These cognitive models are semantic source domains in the metaphorical mapping of 910 Persian color terms. Figure (3) illustrates the distribution of these domains in the metaphorical mapping of Persian color terms:
Figure 3
the distribution of semantic domains in the metaphorical mapping
Generally, the distribution of these semantic domains in Persian color categories is not the same as the following table shows:
Table 1
The distribution of the semantic domain in color categories
color categories
plant
animal
mineral
natural phenomenon
food
body
object
blue
2%
6%
6%
18%
3%
5%
0%
purple
8%
2%
1%
0%
0%
0%
0%
gray
0%
12%
15%
9%
1%
3%
12%
yellow
17%
10%
18%
8%
10%
23%
14%
green
21%
13%
10%
5%
1%
5%
5%
red
19%
12%
15%
15%
25%
28%
7%
white
3%
9%
10%
14%
17%
8%
26%
black
2%
8%
4%
12%
0%
5%
9%
pink
9%
1%
3%
3%
9%
10%
5%
brown
12%
15%
10%
6%
33%
15%
9%
orange
6%
2%
7%
5%
0%
0%
0%
polycolor
1%
9%
2%
5%
0%
0%
14%
In addition to the non-uniformity of the frequency of the use of semantic domains in color categories, the participation rate of each of these color categories in the metaphorical structure of Persian color terms:
Figure 5
The participation rate of color categories
The tendency of each of these color categories to the source semantic domains in the metaphorical mapping is also different. The following table shows the contribution of color categories in the metaphorical structure of Persian color terms and the tendency of each of them to the source semantic domains in the metaphorical mapping:
Table 2
The contribution and tendency of color categories
color categories
plant
animal
mineral
natural phenomenon
food
body
object
blue
10%
21%
16%
45%
4%
4%
0%
purple
85%
9%
6%
0%
0%
0%
0%
gray
1%
34%
34%
20%
1%
1%
9%
yellow
43%
14%
19%
8%
5%
7%
4%
green
58%
20%
11%
6%
1%
2%
2%
red
41%
14%
13%
12%
%11
7%
2%
white
12%
19%
16%
22%
14%
4%
13%
black
17%
28%
11%
32%
0%
4%
8%
pink
57%
4%
8%
8%
11%
8%
4%
brown
33%
21%
11%
7%
20%
5%
3%
orange
49%
10%
23%
18%
0%
0%
0%
polycolor
14%
55%
10%
21%
0%
0%
0%
Conclusion
Metaphor is one of the cognitive mechanisms that play a great role in the formation of color categories and their conceptual extension in the Persian language. In the metaphorical structure of color categories in Persian, the concept of the surrounding phenomena domain is exactly mapped to the domain of color. The similarity between phenomenon and color is lexically encoded by color-term-forming affixes and morphemes of the Persian language. In Persian color terms, metaphor functions paradigmatically and there is a one-to-one correspondence between the concept of phenomenon and the concept of color. The domains that have been observed in the metaphorical structure of Persian are, in order of maximum, as follows: plant domain, animal domain, food domain, body domain, mineral domain, natural phenomenon domain, and object domain.
There is a non-uniformity in the degree of distribution of these semantic domains in different categories; the presence of some of them is more prominent in some color categories and insignificant in others. Furthermore, the percentage of color categories’ participation in the metaphorical structure of Persian color terms and their tendency to the source domains in the metaphorical mapping are also different. Plant is the most prototypical semantic domain in the metaphorical structure of Persian color categories and green, red, and yellow categories are the prototypical categories in the semantic domain of plant.
elham sobati
Abstract
Given the importance of sight, which is one of the most important human senses regarding receiving environmental data, and its fundamental role in the recognition and processing of many behaviors, such as observing movements, events, and emotional states in individuals, as well as tracking and orientation, ...
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Given the importance of sight, which is one of the most important human senses regarding receiving environmental data, and its fundamental role in the recognition and processing of many behaviors, such as observing movements, events, and emotional states in individuals, as well as tracking and orientation, it should be expected that the performance of the blind in the process of language acquisition and learning cognitive skills was different in many aspects when compared to sighted individuals. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate and compare the metaphorical concepts of love in the daily speech of Kurdish-Persian bilingual sighted and blind adults. To this end, research data was gathered using interviews with 50 bilingual Kurdish-Persian informants aged 18-70 from the Ilam province.Data analysis was done using descriptive and inferential statistics methods in SPSS software version 22. The results showed that, regarding the frequency of metaphors, there were no significant differences between the performance of the blind and the sighted adults. However, the frequency of the utilized sensory sources for the source domains of love was different in the speech of the two groups, where the blind used the sense of hearing significantly more than the sighted people to express love (P<0.05). Moreover, the subjects used certain source domains to express love which seemed to reflect cultural influences. In addition, the results of this study can lead to more interaction of blind subjects with society through solving their language problems. IntroductionOne of the important topics in the study of the emotional metaphor is to investigate the issue of what source domains are used by the speakers of the language in expressing their feelings. Kövecses (2002: 16-24) by extracting the most common source and target domains in the process of metaphorization, introduces 13 source domains as follows: human body, health and illness, animals, plants, buildings and construction, machines and tools, games and sport, money and economic transactions (business), cooking and food, heat and cold, light and darkness, forces, movement and direction.In the study of metaphorical concept of love, Kövecses (1986: 62) defines a central metaphor for love and states that it is a model for theconceptualization of love based on the fact that love is "the unification of two complementary parts". The common conceptual metaphors that Kövecses defines for love are: love is drink: I am thirsty for your love; Love is travel: It was a winding road; Love is unity: We are two souls in one body; we are inseparable; love is intimacy: they are very friendly; Love is bound: there is a closed circle between them (Kövecses, 2002: 27-26). Considering the importance of the subject's senses, especially the sense of sight in gaining experiences and the effect of its deficiency on the different representations of skills acquired in these subjects compared to sighted ones, knowing these differences provides valuable information about how neural structures interact in language skills. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate and compare the metaphorical concepts of love in the daily speech of Kurdish-Persian bilingual sighted and blind adults. In order to achieve this goal, we are trying to answer the question, what is the difference between the performance of Kurdish-Persian bilingual sighted and blind adults in understanding the conceptual metaphors of love?Literature ReviewThe study of the researches carried out in the field of conceptual metaphors of love showed that this concept has been investigated mostly in literary concepts and the examination of such metaphors in daily language is one of the main differences of this research with the other researches. A few of these studies will be mentioned subsequently.Ibrahimi et al. (2017) investigated the cognitive metaphors of love in Persian, English, and Turkish Proverbs. The results of their study showed that the mappings of love, disaster, pain, suffering, and diseasewere the most frequent mappings in the Persian language, and "love is light" was the most frequent mapping in both English and Turkish languages. The results of the research of Samimifar et al. (2022) showed that the mapping "love is sorrow" with a frequency of 123 and the mapping "love is a deception" with a frequency of 16 had the highest and lowest frequency in Khosrow and Shirin, respectively.Phuong, N. D., & Anh (2016) examined the cultural variations in conceptual metaphors of love in English and Vietnamese. 872 idioms showing social relationships have been gathered from a variety of sources such as novels, newspapers, magazines, daily interviews on radio, television, etc. Rendić (2022) did a thesis titled “A contrastive analysis of love metaphors in English and Croatian”. The findings of his study showed that although the informants of these two languages had different cultures and environments, they both used the conceptual metaphors of "love is journey" and "love is war" in these two languages. But this cultural and environmental difference made them use different tools for the same conceptual metaphors.MethodologyTo measure how the conceptual metaphors of love are processed, a qualitative method was used, so that the research data in this section was collected using interviews and data was extracted through recording the speech of blind subjects and the sighted group as a control group. In this study, vision status was considered as an independent variable, and mapping as a dependent variable. The statistical population of this study included all blind Kurdish-Persian bilingual subjects and their sighted counterparts who live in Ilam City and its surrounding cities. Among these subjects, a total of 50 adults in the agerange of 18-70 years were considered for this study, out of which 25 congenitally blind subjects were selected as the experimental group and 25 sighted peers were selected as the control group. By studying the medical files of blind subjects, those who met the conditions (adults who are illiterate to bachelor's degree, Kurdish-Persian bilingual living in Ilam province, in the age range of 18-70 years, with normal vision in the case of sighted subjects, congenital blind subjects, having average IQ, right-handedness, belonging to the middle social class) were selected. Sighted adults, who were the counterparts of blind adults, were selected from normal subjects.In this study, two methods of descriptive and inferential statistics have been used to analyze the data. In descriptive statistics, information concerning the frequency and percentage of metaphorical expressions is provided. Also, a significant inferential analysis of the frequency comparison was performed using the chi-square test. All statistical analyses were performed in SPSS version 22 software.ConclusionThe data analysis of this test showed that the subjects metaphorized the feeling of love using 271 metaphorical expressions in the form of 53 mappings. In the meantime, in the metaphorization of this feeling in the speech of the sighted subjects, 112 metaphorical expressions were raised through 25 mappings. On the other hand, the blind subjects expressed the feeling of love using 159 metaphorical expressions in the form of 28 mappings. The general comparison of the subjects' performance in the test of understanding the conceptual metaphors of love indicated that although the number of mappings used in the speech of the two groups of sightedand blind adults was largely similar, the sensory sources used for the origin of love were different. To be more precise, the blind subjects used the sense of hearing statistically significant more than the sighted subjects to express love. Also, in some cases, subjects used specific source domains to express love, which seemed to be a reflection of cultural influences.
Ameneh Karimi; Gholam Hosain Karimi Dootan
Abstract
The aim of the study is to investigate Malekshahi Kurdish metaphorical idioms with body part “dam”. Malekshahi is one main part of the Southern Kurdish in Ilam province. The data is collected from native speakers of Malekshahi Kurdish. A common part of metaphorical idioms of Malekshahi is ...
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The aim of the study is to investigate Malekshahi Kurdish metaphorical idioms with body part “dam”. Malekshahi is one main part of the Southern Kurdish in Ilam province. The data is collected from native speakers of Malekshahi Kurdish. A common part of metaphorical idioms of Malekshahi is investigated in the present research with a focus on two body parts “mouth” and “face” conceptualization, in light of cognitive semantic. Based on the research findings, a significant part of the metaphors has a structural nature. “Chewing”, “war”, “fire eruption” and “captivity” are some source domains and “debate”, “freedom”, “disregard”, “secrecy” and “sorrow” are some target domains of these metaphors. “container”, “volcano”, “animate”, “cage”, “respect” and “claim” are some cited mappings for word “dam” in Malekshahi Kurdish metaphors. The findings also show that “war” is the most frequent source domain and “heed” is the most frequent target domain in these metaphorical idioms. Differences between the frequency occurrence of these two domains arises from various mapping in frequent domains.
Raheleh Gandomkar
Abstract
Conceptual Metaphor Theory was first proposed by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in 1980 as one of the earliest theoretical frameworks of the cognitive semantics. Although it is not a novel view of metaphor and its tradition goes back to the historical-philological semantics, Conceptual Metaphor Theory ...
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Conceptual Metaphor Theory was first proposed by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in 1980 as one of the earliest theoretical frameworks of the cognitive semantics. Although it is not a novel view of metaphor and its tradition goes back to the historical-philological semantics, Conceptual Metaphor Theory attempts to adduce different kinds of evidence for the conceptual nature of metaphors. According to this theory, metaphors are not just rhetorical, but human thought is metaphorical in nature and conceptual structures are organized according to cross-domain mappings or correspondences between these domains. However, conceptual metaphors are made based on embodied experiences and human interaction with the world. According to this view, conceptual metaphors are unidirectional and they cannot be bi-directional. The present study criticizes the methodology with which metaphor is studied emphasizing bi-directionality of mapping instead of unidirectionality based on examples of spoken Persian. Also, the study points to the fact that there is no constraint on forming the conceptual metaphors and that everybody can add new conceptual metaphors of special domains.
