Global Journal of Human Social Science, C: Sociology and Culture, Volume 22 Issue 1

Exploring Connotative Meanings and Metaphors of Saudi Animal Proverbs: A Semantic and Pragmatic Analysis Animal Proverbs in Hijazi Culture Meead Ghafoori α & Tariq Elyas σ Abstract - Proverbs tend to reflect a nation’s social values, attitudes, and beliefs. The connotative meanings underlying animal proverbial sayings can either be affectionate or abusive based on the cultural aspects of the language under investigation. Although the semantic connotations of animal proverbs have been extensively studied, little scholarly attention has been paid to the proverbial expressions pertaining to animals in Saudi Arabia. The main aim of this study is to semantically and pragmatically investigate the connotations of animal proverbs in Hijazi Arabic in Saudi Arabia. The paper also seeks to deduce the representation of human-animal relation and explore the cultural values of the Hijazi society as depicted in the proverbs. The data is collected from different sources, mainly from a book of Hijazi proverbs by Atique (2018). About 11 animal proverbs were selected, classified and translated, both literally and figuratively, into English. The analysis of data is based on Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) Conceptual Metaphor Theory , the approaches involving Semantic Molecules proposed by Goddard (1998), and the theories of Cultural Linguistics introduced by Palmer (1996) . The findings showed that human-animal interface is depicted through the conceptual mappings where animals function as a vehicle to express human characteristics, traits and behaviors. Moreover, the results revealed that all of the selected animal proverbs are evaluated negatively, except for one animal. Additionally, certain pragmatic functions were achieved using the proverbial expressions. There was also a variety of social and cultural underpinnings underlying these proverbs, which seem to have been transmitted from one generation to another. Keywords: animals, conceptual metaphor theory, cultural linguistics, hijazi, pragmatic, proverbs, semantic molecules, social values. I. I ntroduction roverbs are regarded as perceived truths based on people’s common sense or experience. Proverbial expressions are generally viewed as an important constituent of any language, since they are believed to be scrupulously integrated with the society and the cultural ideologies and perceptions of the folk of a particular civilization. It is essentially believed that language and culture of a particular social group are intertwined and seem to reciprocally influence each other. Besides, proverbs chiefly tend to mirror the encapsulation of the social and cultural growth of various nations. Proverbs in the Hijazi society have, had, and presumably will have, immense impact on the transmission of ideas, beliefs, attitudes, knowledge and social morals from one generation to another. This can be attributed to the fact that proverbs are considered to be a primary vehicle for transmitting cultural norms and people’s social beliefs in a given speech community. Therefore, examining this particular genre of folklore is significant in order to understand both the language and the general sociocultural tendencies of the people of a designated nation. It goes without saying that examining this specific area of animal proverbs will eventually reflect certain ideologies and beliefs that are related to the Hijazi culture. It seems that the people who use such proverbs in everyday speech attempt to convey certain messages to the interlocutor in an interesting and intriguing way. Instead of being direct, the Hijazi people seem to utilize particular stylistic devices manifested in the form of proverbial expressions to get to their point in a conversation. Therefore, it can be argued that there are certain prototypical connotations attached to each and every Hijazi animal proverb, which will be explored in the current paper. Moreover, by conducting such research, a better understanding of the Hijazi culture and the people will be arrived at. Due to the limited number of research studies that investigate Hijazi proverbs, the present study helps to fill in the gap found in the literature by tackling an interesting, and probably somewhat ignored, part of the proverbial treasures of the Hijazi culture in the Western region of Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the current research paper aims at semantically and pragmatically investigating the prototypical connotations of animal proverbs in Hijazi Arabic. Additionally, it seeks to highlight human-animal relation and explore the cultural values of the Hijazi society as reflected in these proverbial sayings. P © 2022 Global Journals Volume XXII Issue I Version I 55 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 C Author α σ : King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia. e-mails: meeadghafoori@hotmail.com , telyas@kau.edu.sa