A Linguistic Analysis Of Ewe Metaphorical Expressions

Abstract

Until recently, the concept that governed our view about metaphor was that, it is a figure of speech in which there is comparison between two unlike entities characterised by the schematic form A is B. For this reason, we thought we can get along perfectly well without using it. Today, a new approach to the study of metaphors by the cognitive scientists and linguistists has produced new and important results. Metaphor is now defined as understanding one conceptual domain in terms of another conceptual domain, where a “concept domain is any coherent organization of experience” (Kӧvecses 2002:4). It has come to light that metaphor, which is a property of concept and not just mere words, helps to better understand certain concepts. This new concept about metaphor was first developed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980). To them, our concepts structure what we perceive; as such, metaphor is pervasive in everyday life rather than being a matter of extraordinary language. The purpose of this thesis is to use this framework to examine the conceptual metaphor of TIME, DEATH AND SENSATION in the Ghanaian language, Ewe. The study reveals from the examples of the linguistic expressions about these domains that they are metaphorically structured in everyday speech. Inevitability, experiential explanations and everyday usage, are some of the motivations for choosing these domains for study. The study presents the evidence to show that metaphors are very pervasive in everyday speech.