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

and powerful. Therefore, it has been depicted as a strong, fierce, deceitful and dangerous animal in many Hijazi proverbs. People with deceitful attitude are rightly likened to a wolf as conceptualized through the sixth proverb included in Table 4, which in turn evaluate wolves negatively. Its bad trait is mapped onto a fierce or two- faced person who acts in a particular way in certain situations and then in a contrary manner in others. Due to this person’s craftiness and deceitful traits, his/her conscience is corrupted and is depicted quite the opposite to a clear one, which is represented by ‘ freshly washed clothes ’ (refer to Table 4). Such a cruel person is represented as a wolf in the sense that he can easily lie and deceive others. Similarly, the seventh proverb depicts someone with the tendency or disposition to deceive as a wolf. Put more clearly, an individual who displays such negative attitude is regarded as a ‘backstabber’ who attacks another person deceitfully behind his/her back. Thus, in front of people, he would act in a certain manner. However, he might simply betray them and act in another way behind their backs (see Table 4). The proverbs certainly reprimand people with such negative behavior, and encourage them not to attack, whether actually or figuratively, when someone's back is turned. On the whole, it seems that a wolf is unfavorably evaluated, due to the negative association of the wolf with deceptive habits in the selected Hijazi proverbial expressions. Hence, a wolf is systematically thought of as cruel, tricky, and untrustworthy, just as indicated in a number of other studies as well (Krikmann, 2001; Barasa & Opande, 2017; Alghamdi, 2019; Saragih & Mulyadi, 2020). d) Dogs Table 5: Dog proverbs associated with the identification of the source domain and the target domain. Proverbs Source Target 8. دنع ةزاع كدنع اذا هلق بلكلا : يديس اي ( iza 9indak 9aza: 9ind ‘lkalb qullu: ya si:di: ) Lit. Tr. If you need something from the dog, say to it: my master. Fig. M. Some people act in a ‘sycophantic’ way to get what they want. Dog A bad-tempered person 9. تيب بلكلل راص ،ةيشامو ةوزعو ةيشاحو ( Sar lil-kalb beyt wo ma:šiyah wo 9uzwa: wo Hašiyah ) Lit. Tr. The dog came to have an abode and cattle, and a manor and bodyguards. Fig. M. Sometimes trivial people get undeserved attention from others. A trivial person who suddenly gained fame and became important A dog is one of the most common four-legged domesticated animals, usually used by people to hunt and guard livestock, or to be merely kept as a pet. In proverb 8, the concept of a person’s bad temper is conceptualized using dogs, which in turn evaluate them negatively. If such a proverb is performed in a particular Hijazi social interaction, it urges one to ‘lick someone else’s boot’, especially if he/she is in a powerful position. By doing so, one can obtain what he/she needs or wants, even if the other person has a terribly bad character. Depicting the situation in this particular way in which a person attempts to put up with an arrogant person who deserves to be called a dog (a negatively- perceived animal in the Arab culture), and instead one calls him يديس ‘ my master ’ emphasizes such an idea. The proverb applies the metaphor of PEOPLE ARE ANIMALS, where a powerful person is understood in terms of a foul-tempered dog. The fact that a person acts in a ‘sycophantic’ way, i.e. to use flattery to get what he/she desires, in this specific situation seems to be the right action to be done and is, in fact, recommended. Since the other party has a bad personality and is unwilling to help, the proverb encourages a person to think and act in his/her best interest (see Table 5). By inspecting proverb 9 in the above table, a dog is conceptualized as a trivial person who suddenly gained fame and people’s interest from the society around him/her. The proverb ironically characterizes such a person as living a life of hypocrisy and belittles him/her as he/she clearly does not deserve people’s attention. The individual is depicted as a degraded dog which, being an animal itself, suffers from being looked down upon by almost all the speakers who belong to the Hijazi community. The current proverb seems to severely mock people who can easily put a ‘façade’ on by pretending to be something that they are clearly not. Indeed, dogs carry negative connotative nuances generally in Arabic cultures, unlike Western societies which appear to appreciate and value dogs more (Estaji & Fakhteh, 2011; Liu, 2019). In the Western culture, the dog is commonly considered as a loyal creature, a favorite pet, and also referred to as a man's best friend (Fu, 2008). In sum, dogs are conventionally viewed in the Hijazi culture as being impure, scruffy, humble, and © 2022 Global Journals Volume XXII Issue I Version I 61 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 C Exploring Connotative Meanings and Metaphors of Saudi Animal Proverbs: A Semantic and Pragmatic Analysis