Death Metaphor in Religious Texts: A Cognitive Semantics Approach

It seems that a great number of abstract religious concepts in Islamic texts are realized, both conceptually and linguistically, through cognitive strategies like metaphor and metonymy. This article tries to study the concept of death in the Holy Qurۥān, and Nahjul-Balāgha, the main Islamic Texts, to see how this (relatively) abstract concept is conceptualized in mind? Moreover, what component (s) of the recognized source concepts is (are) mapped onto the concept of death? The analysis of linguistic expressions about death shows that death is realized both metonymically and metaphorically in these two texts. There are structural, orientational and ontological metaphors in which death is the target domain of conceptualization, of which personification is more influential and specific than others. In all recognized metaphors, the death target is understood through different, but homogeneous, source concepts. The common component of nearly all these sources which is mapped on and highlighted is death power. Death has control over human and nobody can run away from it.

کلیدواژه ها:

Religious Language ، the Holy Qurۥān ، Nahjul-Balāgha ، Conceptual Metaphor ، Personification ، Mapping ، Highlighting ، زبان مذهبی ، قرآن کریم ، نهج البلاغه ، اسستعاره مفهومی ، شخصیت بخشی ، الگوبرداری ، برجسته سازی