Abstract
From the perspective of cognitive linguistics, this thesis looks into metaphoric expressions in Takibakha Bunun with an aim to figure out the cultural contents hidden behind the Bunun language. Starting from the metaphors of utterance, we investigate the cross-domain conceptual metaphorical mappings, proposed by Lakoff and John (1980), including ontological metaphors, orientational metaphors and personification. A metaphorical mapping from source domain FOOD to target domain UTTERANCE is found as well in the Bunun language. Two examples are given for it. When a speaker arouses a sense of despise, his addressee may say “the speaker’s speaking is tasteless” (matamal bazbaz), which connotes a speaker’s despise. The source domain is food. Besides, the connotation of the metaphor “(his) words cannot hatch eggs” (mincuhai ka qalinga) is that someone’s words or promises have failed. The orientational metaphors show that in the Bunun people’s view words have orientation and paths. With respect to the personification, a conceptual mapping from hunting to utterance is attested. For instance, when a speaker incurs grief, his addressee may say “his words shoot” (manaq a qalinga), the connotation of which is that the speaker’s words are offensive or hurting. The source domain is hunting. Chapter 4 examines the embodiment of metaphors. It is found that body parts may serve as the possible members of the source domain on the base of similarity and contiguity. For example, a head may refer to the front, smartness, a leader and even to the glans penis. Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 take animal, plant and agricultural metaphors as examples to investigate the Bunun people’s observation and construal of the environments. When it comes to animal metaphors, a simile mapping from animal behavior to personality in most cases is observed, such as the mappings from the habits of insects, birds, wild animals and livestock to negative personality traits. Interestingly, metonymy is found in the Bunun people’s naming of animals. A simile mapping from plants to human physical features and psychological state is attested. In addition, fruits are found to refer to human organs motivated by taboo avoidance. Therefore, Chapter 7 further investigates the relations between metaphors and taboos. It is found that from the perspective of the Bunun people animals have souls and understand human speech and that is why metaphors are used to refer to prey and hunting tools during hunting. What is more, when it comes to the topics on sexual intercourse and death, metaphorical euphemisms are used to express the forbidden domains, specifically regarding sexual function, genitalia, intimacy, death.
Keywords: cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor, culture, taboo, Bunun