Metaphorical Expressions Related to God Found in COCA : A Semantic Analysis (an article from an Undergraduate Thesis)
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| a preview of Corpus of Contemporary America English (COCA) https://corpus.byu.edu/coca/ |
METAPHORICAL EXPRESSIONS
RELATED TO GOD
FOUND IN COCA : A SEMANTIC
ANALYSIS
I Kadek Sanjaya
I Made Rajeg
Ni Ketut Sri Rahayuni
Faculty of Arts, Udayana
University, Denpasar - Bali
ABSTRACT
The
past thirty six years has been seen as increasingly rapid advances in the field
of metaphor. It was experienced firstly by Lakoff and Johnsen (1980), that
metaphor is a property not merely in language but as well in thought and
actions effortlessly in everyday life. It enlightens the way to build an idea
in order to conduct a study on metaphor aimed at finding out the concepts
underlying the metaphorical expressions in the corpus by the given title Metaphorical Expressions Related to God
Found in COCA : A Semantic Analysis.
The
data source was taken from COCA (Corpus of Contemporary America) which is
currently having more than 520 million words of text. The data were collected
using one keyword in context God to
generate concordances. The metaphors in the concordances were identified
practically using Pragglejaz’s MIP
(Metaphor Identification Procedure) (2007) and supported by the Steen’s five
steeps for identifying metaphor (1999, 2009). The data were analysed primarily based on the
influential framework of conceptual metaphor proposed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980);
Lakoff (1987, 1993).
The results show that the study
covers all types of the conceptual metaphor, Structural, Orientational,
and Ontological Metaphors, as well as
their related figure, i.e. personification. In terms of conceptual metaphor
underlying the linguistic expression related to God, it was found that God is
more frequently physicalized as a human. For example GOD IS A HUMAN.
Keywords: God, conceptual metaphor, target domain,
source domain, metaphorical expressions, mappings
Tiga puluh enam tahun terakhir ini dapat dilihat
perkembangan pesat dalam bidang metafora. Hal ini dikemukakan pertama kali oleh
Lakoff dan Johnson (1980) bahwa metafora adalah kiasan yang tidak hanya ada
dalam ranah bahasa, tetapi juga dalam pikiran dan tindakan manusia sehari-hari.
Konsep inilah yang memperkaya pemikiran dan ide – ide dalam mempelajari
metafora untuk menemukan konsep – konsep yang mendasari ekspresi – ekspresi
metaforis di dalam sebuah korpus dengan judul Metaphorical Expressions Related
to God Found in COCA : A Semantic Analysis.
Sumber
data diambil dari COCA (Corpus of Contemporary America) yang sampai saat ini
memiliki lebih dari 520 juta kata dalam teks. Data diperoleh dengan menggunakan
satu kata kunci dalam konteks, yaitu “God” untuk memunculkan konkordansi.
Metafora – metafora dalam konkordansi ini diidentifikasi menggunakan “Pragglejaz’s MIP” (Metaphor
Identification Procedure/Prosedur Identifikasi Metafora) (2007) dan juga
“Steen’s five steeps” untuk mengidentifikasi metafora (1999, 2009). Data
tersebut dianalisis dengan dasar teori metafora konseptual oleh Lakoff dan
Johnson (1980); Lakoff (1987, 1993).
Hasil yang diperolah
menunjukkan bahwa semua jenis metafora konseptual, yaitu metafora struktural,
orientasional, dan ontologis dapat ditemukan di dalam data dengan jumlah yang
beragam. Lebih lanjut lagi, metafora konseptual yang mendasari ekspresi linguistik
yang berhubungan dengan Tuhan (God), dan paling banyak muncul adalah konsep
Tuhan sebagai manusia, yaitu konsep TUHAN ADALAH MANUSIA (GOD IS
HUMAN).
Kata kunci: Tuhan, Metafora Konseptual, Pemetaan
1. Background of the Study
Metaphor is a major area of interest within the
field of semantics. As how metaphor is an integral part in poetry in order to
beautify words and sentences of poetry. In addition, metaphors are essential
parts in poetry writing that makes it distinct from other texts. Consequently,
readers need to have sufficient knowledge in metaphor in order to understand
the poetry easier. Similarly, metaphorical expressions are used in daily
language or conversations, as well. Whether it is written or spoken. Basically,
in daily spoken language, there are two different concepts which are used in
order to produce a metaphorical expression. Moreover, in classical theories of
language, metaphors are related to literary works only. Ordinary people who had
no education in literary works and were not writer of literary works, could not
use metaphors and metaphors could not be used in daily conversation. Lakoff
(1993:202) states that “Metaphorical expressions were assumed to be mutually
exclusive with the realm of ordinary everyday language: everyday language had
no metaphor”. Furthermore, metaphor is seen as a conscious and deliberate use
of words, and requires special talent to be able to do it.
However, a modern theory of metaphor that was
introduced by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) who have considered the traditional
view of metaphor itself and emphasized that metaphor is used in everyday
language and daily activities of people. In addition, they found that metaphors
are not merely found in language, but also used in thought and action. Lakoff
and Johnson (1980:3) further state that “Our ordinary conceptual system, in
terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature”.
Moreover, metaphor is used effortlessly and unconsciously by ordinary people,
not merely by special talented people (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980 in Kövecses,
2002: viii). Finally, Lakoff and Johnson state that Conceptual Metaphor theory
is a fundamental property of doing research in metaphorical expression.
Working on the topic of metaphors, theoretically
two division areas of metaphors would be touched. They are living and dead
metaphors. Basically, living metaphors and dead metaphors are based on the
existence of their metaphorical values or characters. Additionally, a living
metaphor is a figure of speech which is understood with a consciousness of
their nature as a substitution for their literal equivalent. Its original
imagery is still felt as a metaphorical expression that has an implicit
meaning. On the other hand, a dead metaphor is a figure of speech which has lost its original imagery of its meaning due to extensive, repetitive, and
popular usage. Because dead metaphors have a
conventional meaning that differs from the original, they can be understood
without knowing their earlier connotation.
Concerning the knowledge of metaphor,
practically there is a huge number of people speak using metaphors consciously
or unconsciously. As mentioned previously, the contributions of metaphors in
communication are in order to beautify words and sentences used, as a
decorative part, and understand abstract concepts easier, since metaphor allows
speakers understand abstract concepts in terms of entities and substances.
Another reason is in order to gain some variations in communication by
utilising lexical choice metaphorically. Furthermore, metaphor takes an important
role in daily language nowadays.
In this study, investigating the word ‘God’ is a
continuing concern within metaphorical expression in its use. God is related to
a belief of human beings in a group or community which concerns with the
culture of the group or community. In addition, among cultures in the world
concern the God in some different ways. As Rajeg and Primahadi Wijaya R. (2015:
6) stated that “God is Human”. This result in metaphorical expression of God
could be different in the western culture, where it could be found in COCA (The
Corpus of Contemporary American English). Recently, researchers have shown an
increased interest in corpus based-study.
A corpus is a collection of machine-readable,
authentic text, samples, and representative of a particular language or
language variety. The word corpus was formed from a Greek word, corpora, meant
as body. Corpus linguistics uses language naturally, whether it is spoken,
academic, newspaper, magazine, fiction, etc. There are some advantages by using
corpus in doing a research, they are generate and verify new linguistics
hypotheses, provide textual evidence in text-based humanities and social
science subject, and testing existing linguistics theory and hypotheses.
Additionally, a corpus can be more comprehensive and balance. A corpus, as
well, is showing what is typical and common. Moreover, it can store and recall
all the information that has been stored in a short time, providing a real
communication context as examples. Furthermore, it is giving more objective
evidence and frequency of words.
Hence, the desire and relevancy to view metaphor
as a part of linguistics semantically and grounded on those new perspectives by
Lakoff and Johnson. Since the enthusiasm to learn and get a good understanding
and comparison of metaphor successively were built up. Furthermore,
communication is an important part in a culture which consists of interaction
among individuals, individual and group, or among groups that must be there the
same conceptual system of human kind use in thinking and action. Also, language
is one of many evidences that showing the existence of a culture itself.
Herein, the data would be picked from COCA, in
this respect, the metaphorical expression related to God. Furthermore research,
further investigation of the conceptual metaphor types was strengthened by
seeking out and analyzing as well the meaning brought inside the metaphorical
expression. Finally, refers to what would be searched and analyzed in this
research, was the types of metaphorical expression based on the conceptual
metaphors related to God found in COCA.
The aims of this study are, generally, in order
to describe what metaphor is all about and in order to realize the knowledge.
Especially, the aims are in order to find out and analyze as well the
metaphorical concepts of metaphorical expression related to God, based on the
conceptual metaphor by Lakoff and Johnson, found in COCA, and to disclose the
meaning of the metaphorical expression covered within the text.
2. Problems
Based on what was described in the preceding part, the
problems of the study are formulated as follows:
1.
What metaphorical expressions related to God are found in COCA?
2.
What conceptual metaphors underlay the metaphorical expressions?
3. Aims of the Study
Every
purposeful action has its own destination in a particular purpose. This study
is as well having some purposes in order to comprehend the subject matter being
discussed. Moreover, based on the problems of the study above, the aims of the
study are proposed generally in order to describe
what metaphor is all about and to realize the knowledge. Specifically, in
regard to the problems mentioned above, the aims of this study are:
1.
To identify the
metaphorical expressions related to God found in COCA.
2.
To analyze and
disclose the conceptual metaphor underlying the metaphorical expressions
related to God found in COCA.
4. Method of Analysis
Theoretically, all the data used in the study can be
considered primary data, since all the data were taken directly from a primary
source, that is, COCA (Corpus of Contemporary America). The data for this study
were collected using the corpus based-study.
A corpus is a collection of machine-readable,
authentic text, samples, and representative of a particular language or
language variety. Additionally, the word corpus
is derived from a Greek word, corpora, meaning the body. Corpus linguistics
uses language naturally, whether it is spoken, academic, newspaper, magazine,
fiction, etc. The characteristics of corpus make this study exploratory and interpretative
in nature.
Considering the technique used in collecting the data,
this study adopted the observation
method proposed by Sudaryanto (1993: 133-135), since metaphorical expressions
have something to do with a language use. Therefore, the observation method and
note-taking technique were applied in the study. Additionally, as mentioned
previously that the expressions were quoted from the COCA expressions that have
the target domain “God” metaphorically.
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| Picture 1 – the concordance of the word “God” as the KWIC in COCA |
This study used the qualitative approach to
investigate whether or not there were metaphorical expressions related to God
in COCA from 1000 data taken from it. In addition, the inductive approach was
also applied in the study (Bungin, 2008: 28).
In analyzing the data, the method used was the Content Analysis (Bungin, 2008:
155-159). This Content Analysis has
something to do with the content of communication; in this case, the
metaphorical expressions related to God found in COCA. Moreover, the Content Analysis covers the efforts of:
classifying symbols used in the communication, using criteria in classifying,
and employing particular analysis technique in analyzing.
As the characteristics of the data analyzed as the non-numerical data or
qualitative data, the data were
analyzed using the descriptive qualitative method.
Moreover, in this present study, the method and
technique of analyzing data was done using the Pragglejaz’s MIP (Metaphor
Identification Procedure) (2007) and the
Steen’s five steeps (1999, 2009) and to map the expression mentioned
metaphorically the Steen’s formulas was used. Furthermore, Longman and
Macmillan Dictionary gave so much help in the study.
5. Result and Discussion
The essence of the study is the metaphorical
expressions related to God found in COCA. It is the time to give a birth to the
end. The conceptual metaphor was described using small bold capital letters;
the italics represent the metaphorical linguistic expressions being analyzed,
and the focuses of the analysis in the expressions are shown with bold letters.
Briefly, in this study, it was found that there were some
conceptual metaphors that describe God in daily life, thoughts, and actions.
Additionally, the concepts as well cover three types of conceptual metaphor,
i.e. structural metaphor, orientational metaphor, ontological metaphor, and personification (as the extension of
ontological metaphor). However, in this part, the most frequent concept would
be the only concept being mentioned and explained. The rests would appear in
concluding section.
GOD IS A HUMAN
Expression: … when you say "yes" to God’s
possibilities, God says "yes” back to you.
Step 1:
God
Step 2:
P1 (God say)
P2 (back P1)
Step 3:
SIM {ƷF, Ʒa
[F (God)]t
[say (a)]}s
Step 4:
SIM
{[expressing things by words
(God)]t
[say (human)]}s
Step 5:
GOD > HUMAN
Inferences:
GOD IS A HUMAN
The concept GOD IS A HUMAN is
manifested through these linguistic expressions as mentioned below.
1.
God says.
2.
God comes.
3.
God answers.
Considering the metaphorical concept GOD IS A HUMAN is not arguable result anymore. All of the beliefs or
religions over the world mention God can act or do something merely like human
beings. Additionally, the concept GOD IS A HUMAN
is one of the real examples of the personification perspective. God is
considered a human being that can do human activities, such as; acting, saying
words, protecting, holding, creating something, loving, judging, giving birth, or
even having children like parents. Moreover, it is one of the people’s ways of depicting
God that has abstract concepts and understanding Him easier as the concepts
come from human beings themselves (activities and/or body parts) which are
close to them. Surprisingly, there are a lot of entailments of it as found in
the analysis, i.e. COMPANION, HEALER, CREATOR, FORTUNE TELLER, JUDGE, KING, LAW MAKER, LEADER, LIAR, LOVER, PARENT, PEACE MAKER, PERSON WHO EXPERIENCES BIRTH, PLANNER, PLAYER, POOR CREATURE/HOMELESS
MAN, RIVAL, SAVIOR, and SENTRY. Furthermore,
in order to have an accurate and trusted analysis, the Macmillan Dictionary
supports this current analysis by giving the basic meaning of “say” (expression
1); it is to express something using words. On the other hand, the Longman
Dictionary helps it from another side by mentioning the basic meaning of “act”
(expression 2); it is to do something in a particular way or for a particular
reason. This focuses in the analysis that has something to do with human
activities, or merely human beings can do such things, for instance, expressing
something using words. Finally, the analysis can amazingly reveal the point of
view of the personification of the eye by stating the metaphorical concept GOD IS A HUMAN.
6. Conclusion
The present study comes finally to the concluding part
of the stages. The conclusion of the result is shown in the following points:
1. All types of the
conceptual metaphors that are structural, orientational, and ontological
metaphors, as well as their related figures and personifications were found
from the study. The most frequent metaphorical concept appearing in the
analysis is GOD IS A HUMAN. God is often physicalized as a human by showing that
He does human actions represented by verbs or verb phrases, such as act,
allow, chose, command, could do, enter, forbid, find, lead, hear, help, make, and so forth or an adjective dead. Apart from this concept, God is depicted by some other lexical items,
among others: nouns a present, war, squad,
armor, rule, glory, kingdom, majesty, servant, throne, service, praise, reign, kingship, judgement seat,
judgement, image, cull, healing, and medicine, verbs or
verb phrases allow, chose, judge, forgive, punish, follow, disobey, have, return to, comes from,
and sent from, adjectives dim, punitive,
fair, prepositions above, under, on, up, in,
into, from, and to, and an
adverbial phrase a little bit.
2. Regarding to the
conceptual metaphors underlying the metaphorical expressions, the frequencies
are as follows: GOD IS A GIFT (1 expression), GOD IS A
WARRIOR (4 expressions), GOD IS A WAY (1 expression), GOD IS A RULE (2
expressions), GOD IS A LORD (2 expressions), GOD IS
LIGHT (1 expression), GOD IS A KING (16
expressions), GOD IS A JUDGE (1 expression), GOD IS A
HEALER (1 expression), GOD IS A DESTROYER (1
expression), GOD IS UP/ABOVE (7 expressions), GOD IS AN
ENTITY (72 expressions), GOD IS A CONTAINER (19
expressions), GOD IS A SOURCE (10 expressions), and GOD IS A
HUMAN (453 expressions).
Furthermore, the rest 409 expressions taken from COCA are known having literal
meaning instead of metaphorically used.
7. Bibliography
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