A Cognitive Semantics Analysis of Wolio Proverbs Related to the Human Body
Firman Alamsyah Mansyur (a*), Ratna Said (b)
a) Indonesian Language and Literature Education Program Study, Universitas Muhammadiyah Buton, Baubau, Indonesia
*firman.alamsyah[at]umbuton.ac.id
b) Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Universitas Muhammadiyah Buton, Baubau, Indonesia
*ratnasaidppsunj[at]gmail.com
Abstract
Proverbs are expressions of language that show a close relationship between language, culture, and human cognition. Therefore, this paper aims to explain the cognitive mechanisms that cause humans to form proverbs that use their body from a cognitive linguistic point of view. The method used is a qualitative method. The data were taken from a collection of Wolio proverbs and then identified and mapped the source and target domains based on metaphorical and metonym concepts. The results showed that the mapping of human body in Wolio proverbs contained images of positive, negative, and neutral meanings. The meaning of the human body not only had a specific meaning which indicated the charateristic and cultural experience of an ethnic but also showed the generality that indicated the spread of proverbs from one culture to another. The mechanism of metonym was the role of moving specific parts of the human body to the nature or behavior of humans in general. In short, this finding confirms the differences and similarities of metaphorical propositions and schemes in the semantic of the human body proverb.
Keywords: cognitive semantics, Wolio proverbs, metaphor, metonymy
Topic: Education