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

Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) Conceptual Metaphor Theory centres around the metaphorical ‘mapping’ across conceptual domains, namely the source domain and the target domain. According to Kövecses (2016), a conceptual metaphor refers to “ understanding one domain of experience (that is typically abstract) in terms of another (that is typically concrete) [emphasis added]” (p. 13). In other words, the animals included in the selected proverbs of this study represent the source domain through which other human experiences are conceptualised as target domain. Therefore, the current study will seek to explore the mental connection between animal behaviours and human characteristics as portrayed in Hijazi proverbs. Animal proverbs can be studied in light of the approaches involving Semantic Molecules proposed by Goddard (1998). Drawing upon Wierzbicka’s (2007) Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) theory, Goddard (2012) defines Semantic Molecules as “complex meanings which are decomposable into combinations of semantic primes but which function as units in the structure of other, more complex concepts” (p. 6). As a result, the explications for animals like parrot, sparrow , and eagle, for example, have to include the semantic molecule of ‘bird’. Goddard (1998) further argues that various semantically complex words may be contained within several animal explications that are derived from “describing their habitat, referring to their sizes and appearance, revealing their characteristic behaviour and specifying their relation with human” (p. 247). Therefore, he asserts that the semantic molecules of animal explications are “composed directly of primitive semantic features” which can be supported by linguistic evidence (p. 255). The present study will reveal the semantic molecules encapsulated in the Hijazi proverbs in order to reach a better understanding of animals’ characteristics, behavior, and their relation to humans. The theories of Cultural Linguistics introduced by Palmer (1996) refer to the interface between language, culture, and conceptualization. He affirms that Cultural Linguistics is “primarily concerned not with how people talk about some objective reality, but with how they talk about the world that they themselves imagine” (p. 36). Consequently, Cultural Linguistics is aimed at exploring “the conceptualizations that have a cultural basis and are encoded in and communicated through features of human languages” (Sharifian, 2017, p. 34). Thus, this study will attempt to highlight several social norms and values of the Hijazi culture as reflected in the Hijazi animal proverbs. V. M ethodology The data is collected from several sources: online websites, interviews with some old Hijazi speakers, and the researchers’ own repertoire of proverbs, being themselves native speakers of Hijazi Arabic. Nonetheless, the researchers relied mainly on a book of Hijazi proverbs titled ‘ Amthal Hijaziah Ma9a Jaddu Qaddori ’ by Atique (2018). The researchers selected about 11 Hijazi animal proverbs and verified their figurative meanings with Hijazi speakers. The present study makes use of the three aforementioned theories of Conceptual Metaphor Theory , Cultural Linguistics, and Semantic Molecules, through which the meaning of proverbs will be manifested and clarified. VI. D ata A nalysis The animals included in the proverbial data are classified into five classes: donkeys, monkeys, wolves, dogs, and camels. Each class of animals contains 2 animal proverbial expressions (except for ‘donkey’ proverbs; n = 3), and will be qualitatively examined below. Drawing upon the conceptual metaphor PEOPLE ARE ANIMALS (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980), the various animal characteristics embedded in the Hijazi proverbs will be mapped onto human behaviors and traits. Therefore, the identification of the source domain and the target domain for each expression on the basis of the semantics for each animal is provided (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). Moreover, the semantic molecules for each animal are extracted based on the explications of each animal’s size, appearance, habitat, characteristics, behaviors, and its relationship with people (Goddard, 1998), as exemplified in the following table. Table 1: The semantic molecules of different animals as reflected in Hijazi proverbs. Animal Semantic Molecules Donkey animal, head, mouth, dull, stupid, dumb, dopey, worthless, slow, impatient, wasted efforts, lazy, moody, annoying, scruffy, unfriendly, flimsy, mischievous, bite, careless. Monkey animal, head, mouth, ugly, noisy, worthless, scruffy, foul, disturbing, vexing, insignificant, ill-tempered, shrill, intolerable, pugnacious, irritating, hideous, unlucky. Wolf animal, head, mouth, teeth, strong, fierce, jumping, courageous, deceitful, vitality, powerful, greedy, hungry, dangerous, violent, cruel, untrustworthy, sneaky. Dog animal, head, weak, scruffy, humble, worthless, slow, impatient, gluttonous, moody, impure. Camel animal, head, strong, brave, noble, thoroughbred, worthy, clean, ignorant, arrogant. Volume XXII Issue I Version I 58 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 © 2022 Global Journals C Exploring Connotative Meanings and Metaphors of Saudi Animal Proverbs: A Semantic and Pragmatic Analysis