Metaphors in Shona: A Cognitive Approach

Abstract

This article discuses the pervasiveness of metaphors in everyday Shona language. It argues that metaphorical expressions are not mere words, but they are part of a much bigger way of conceptualising things. Examples are given to show how everyday metaphorical expressions are based on a much larger set of conceptual metaphors. The article takes a cognitive view which sees metaphors as one of the basic human strategies for dealing with our environment in that we use existing physical concepts in our evironment to conceptualise more abstract concepts. This kind of metaphorical extension from one domain to another plays a very important role in the extension of the lexicon