Conceptualisation of Hand Idioms and Proverbs in Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (ECA) into English: A Cognitive Approach

Taghian, Muhammad

doi:10.21608/jssa.2023.172731.1447

Conceptualisation of Hand Idioms and Proverbs in Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (ECA) into English: A Cognitive Approach

نوع المستند : المقالة الأصلية

المؤلف

Muhammad Taghian

قسم اللغة الإنجليزية، كلية الآداب، جامعة حلوان، القاهرة، مصر.

10.21608/jssa.2023.172731.1447

المستخلص

The study tackles the cognitive mechanisms found in hand idioms in Egyptian dialect and some issues in rendering them into English. Hand idioms in Arabic, in general, and particularly in the Egyptian dialect refer to different conventional meanings in the conceptual domains. The study adopts Johnson and Lakoff’s Conceptual Theory of Metaphor (Lakoff and Johnson, 2008). It examines 10 figurative expressions of hand idioms in Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (ECA). Most of the samples selected have similar equivalents or near-equivalents in the English language which support the universality of basic metaphors of hand idioms. Traditionally, it is argued that metaphorical idiomatic expressions have arbitrary senses. However, in cognitive linguistics, according to Lakoff, they are motivated rather than arbitrary and pronounced automatically in the conceptual system. The selected hand idioms are proposed to be derived from a set of conceptual mappings that is realised from a source and a target domain based on the Cognitive Theory of Metaphor developed by (Lakoff and Johnson 1980). The study shows that the figurative meanings of the selected data are cognitively achieved by conceptual metonymy, conventional knowledge, and conceptual metaphor respectively. It also finds that conceptual metonymy and conventional knowledge constitute the main tool in motivating and understanding the hand idioms in ECA. Additionally, the literal translation of hand idioms would not be a good option due to the culture-specific references embedded.

الكلمات الرئيسية

المراجع

Abd al-Baqi, M. F. (1364 H.). al-Mu'jam al-Mufahras li-Alfaz al-Qur'an al-Karim. Cairo: Egyptian House of Books Press.

Al-Amoudi, K. (2013). The Conceptual Structure of ‘Hand’ Idioms in Arabic. The International Journal of Language, Culture and Society, 37, 30-41.

Akhorsheda, I. M. (2021). Using the Words HEAD, HEART and HAND in Arabic Idioms and How to Render their Meanings into English. Journal of Social Sciences (COES&RJ-JSS), 10(1), 139-149.

Benczes, R. (2002). The semantics of idioms: a cognitive linguistic approach. The Even Yearbook, 5, 17-30.

Collins Cobuild English Dictionary. (1995). London: Harper Collins Publishers.

Dhafer, N. (2020). Conceptualization of Metonymy Denoting Human Body Parts: (eye and hand) Idioms in English and Yemeni. International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation (IJLLT), 3(11), 68-78.

Deignan, A. (2005). Metaphor and Corpus Linguistics. Philadelphia and Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Dobrovol’skij, D. & E. Piirainen (2005). "Cognitive theory of metaphor and idiom analysis". Jezikoslovlje, 6(1): 7-35

El’atum, R. (2020, Nov. 29) Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. E3arabi. https://e3arabi.com.

El-Batal, M. (2000). A Dictionary of Idioms: Egyptian Arabic-English. Cairo: Egyptian International Publishing Company-Longman.

Gibbs, R. & O’Brien, J. (1990). Idioms and mental imagery: The metaphorical motivation for idiomatic meaning. Cognition, 36, 35-68.

Goddard, C. (1996). Cross-linguistic Research on Metaphor. Language & Communication, 16(2), 145-51.

Kovecses, Z. (2002). Metaphor: A Practical Introduction. Cary, NC, USA: Oxford University Press.

Kovecses, Z. (2010). Metaphor: A practical introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Kovecses, Z. (2010). Metaphor and culture. Acta universitatis Sapientiae, Philogica, 2 (2)197-220.

Kovecses, Z., & Szabco, P. (1996). Idioms: A view from cognitive semantics. Applied linguistics, 17(3), 326-355.

Lakoff, G. & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Lakoff, G. (1987). Women, Fire and Dangerous Things. What Categories Reveal about the Mind. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.

Lakoff, G. & M. Johnson (2008). Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press.

Langlotz, A. (2006). Idiomatic Creativity: A cognitive-linguistic model of idiom-representation and idiom-variation in English. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing.

Mazid, B. E. M. (2007). Metaphors of Desire in Arab Culture: Building bridges between linguistics, culture and translation. In: A. Jendli, S. Troudi and C. Coombe (eds.), The Power of Language: Perspectives from Arabia, 59-70. UAE, Dubai: TESOL Arabia.

Musolff, A. (2004). Metaphors and Political Discourse: Analogical Reasoning in Debates about Europe: Palgrave.

Okoye, A. N., & Mmadike, B. I. (2016). Meaning and Interpretation of Igbo Body-Parts based Idioms. AFRREV IJAH: An International Journal of Arts and Humanities, 5(3), 104-119.

Panther, K. U., & Thornburg, L. L. (2007). Metonymy. In D. Geeraerts and H. Cuyckens (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics. Oxford University Press.

Skenderi, L. & Ejupi S. (2018). A Comprehensive Study of Idioms with the Word “Hand” in English, Spanish and Alnanian. KNOWLEDGE- International Journal, 28(7), 2217-2221.