METAPHORS IN STRUCTURING REALITIES IN SELECTED GERMAN SONGS

Abstract

Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) establishes metaphor as a pervasive conceptual tool for structuring and restructuring everyday reality through the process of cross-domain mapping in the conceptual system (Lakoff & Johnson 2003: 245). This article studies how metaphors structure realities in selected German songs adopting the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) of Lakoff & Johnson (1980) in cognitive linguistics. Accordingly, the study primarily identifies conceptual metaphors in the selected German song texts, categorizes them based on their cognitive functions, analyses them with regards to their underlying cognitive process of meaning constructions and finally evaluates the presence of conceptual metaphors in song titles with the primary objectives of revealing how single word metaphors expressed by verbs, nouns, adjectives and phraseologies structure realities. The results of the study show that conceptual metaphors are prevalent in German songs and that structural metaphors as against other categorisations of conceptual metaphor were the most predominant in the song texts. Furthermore, the results show that there exist more noun metaphors which amount to 60% of the data while verb metaphors constitute 32%. Finally, the study shows that song titles are helpful in giving a hint of the conceptual metaphors and concepts that are prevalent in the selected German songs.