Abstract:
The paper explores the human being metaphors in Ekegusii pop songs (EPS).
Composers of EPS use human being metaphors to convey their message in different
perspectives. It is possible for the meaning of the human being metaphors to elude
the audience of EPS because language is both embodied and situated in a specific
environment. Therefore, the meaning of the metaphors need to be objectively
interpreted to reveal the message of the composers. The study purposively sampled
Christopher Mosioma’s (Embarambamba) EPS amasomo (education) and the late
Ontiri Bikundo’s obwanchani (love) based on the songs’ richness in metaphors. The
Metaphor Identification Procedure Vrije Universiteit was used to identify 54
metaphors in the EPS by four coders (including the researchers). The concept of
conceptual mapping, which is a fundamental tenet of the Conceptual Metaphor
Theory, was employed to understand the source domains in terms of the target
domains. The identified metaphors were classified into four conceptual domains of
human being, animal, plant and object using the principle of the Great Chain of
Being Metaphor. The paper then identified eight human being metaphors for the
present study. The research found that human being metaphors are important ways
of conceptualizing other human beings in society. In addition, metaphors are
important tools of communication and should be explained using a cognitive
semantics framework. The findings of the study will benefit the audience of the EPS,
ethnographers and metaphor theorists to conceptualise EPS and culture.
