ISSN: 2302-920X

Jurnal Humanis, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya Unud

Vol 16.3 September 2016: 252 - 259

Conceptual Metaphor In Novel Life Of Pi

Putu Aldi Krisna Arsana1*, I Wayan Suardhana2, Putu Lirishati Soetama3 123English Department Faculty Of Arts, Udayana University 1[[email protected]] 2[[email protected]] 3[[email protected]]

*Corresponding Author

Abstrak

Metaphor sangat mudah ditemukan di percakapan sehari hari. Banyak orang menggunakan metaphor untuk memberikan kata kata yang indah dalam karya tulisnya. Selain daripada itu, metaphor digunakan untuk menjelaskan atau mengartikan suatu yang abstrak dan susah untuk dijelaskan dengan membandingkan ke suatu hal yang berbeda. Ini disebut juga conceptual metaphor. penelitian ini menggunakan theori yang dikemukakan oleh Lakoff dan Johnson (1980) dan metode untuk mengidentifikasi metaphor yang dikemukakan oleh Steen (2007) hasil daripada penelitian ini berupa tipe tipe conceptual metaphor dalam bentuk phrasa dan penyusunan daripada metaphor dalam bentuk phrasa.

  • 1.    Background of the Study

Figurative language is a language feature that is commonly used by poet, novelist, or in drama. This stylistic feature is commonly used to describe an abstract object like love, hate, happiness, or sorrow. There are many forms of figurative language in linguistic and literature such as personification, hyperbole, metaphor, alliteration, onomatopoeia, idioms and simile. Metaphor qualifies as style, in particular, style characterized by a type of analogy. Metaphor is a figure of speech that describes a subject by asserting that it is, on some points of comparison, the same as another otherwise unrelated object. It is a figure of speech comparing two unlike things without using either “like “or “as”. Metaphor is a type of analogy and is closely related to other rhetorical figure of speech that achieves their effect via association, comparison, or resemblance. (I.A Richards, 1936). Metaphor in a novel which genre is fiction has a wide variety of metaphors. Some of them are comparing something that does not have physical form (e.g. experience, feeling, idea, mind) into entity that is bound by surface (e.g. human, room, mountain). The reason why this topic is used in this undergraduate thesis is because this novel is popular and it has a wide variety of figurative languages

therefore the data are diverse and easy to be found. The reason why this theory is used as the main theory in this undergraduate thesis is because the type of metaphor in this theory is often used in conversations, novel, poem, etc, in order to understand something. Conceptual metaphors are often overlooked as a metaphor because these metaphors are prevalent in communication.

  • 2.    Problems of the Study

The problems that the writer would like to discuss in this study are:

  • a)    What types of conceptual metaphors are used in the novel?

  • b)    What are the constructions of conceptual metaphors used in the novel?

  • 3.    Aims of the Study

The aims of this study are:

  • a)    To identify the types of metaphor used in the novel

  • b)    To explain the construction of metaphors used in the novel.

  • 4.    Research Method

This research used Yann Martel’s novel entitled “Life of Pi” as the source to find the data. “Life of Pi” is a novel written by Yann Martel and it was published in 2001 by Knopf Canada in Canada. The genre of this novel is fiction. . This novel is consists of 401 Pages. This novel is used because it contains many metaphors and metaphorical expressions. Therefore, the data found is diverse.

The data were collected through library research with documentation method. This method was supported by note taking technique. There are several steps that are used to collect the data which are reading and skewing the source novel with the focus on metaphor and metaphorical expression. . Then, The metaphorical expressions or the text of metaphors found were highlighted or underlined. After that, the metaphors or metaphorical expressions are listed based on their types.

The collected data were analyzed descriptively and qualitatively. The collected data were classified and identified based on Lakoff and Johnson (1980) 253

conceptual metaphor theory. Pragglejaz method used to identify the construction of metaphorical expression written by Gerard Steen written in 2007. Pragglejaz method is used to identify the metaphor in the text with five steps of identification (Steen 2007).

  • 5.    Result and Discussion

    • 5.1    Type of Conceptual Metaphor

Conceptual Metaphor conceptualize someone mind to see or understand some aspect of a concept that is complex or abstract by comparing it with another concept (Lakoff, Johnson 1980). There are two types of metaphor that are identified in this paper. The types are ontological metaphor and structural metaphor.

  • 5.1.1    Ontological Metaphor

Ontological metaphor is a metaphor that gives a status as an entity or substance for something that does not have status inherently. The ontological metaphors found in this novel are various. To analyze it, the data is divided into each sub type of ontological metaphor which are:

  • 5.1.1.1    Quantifying

This sub type of ontological metaphor is giving a status as an entity to something that has no physical form indicated by the quantifier. Therefore it can be seen as something that has physical form. In the novel, there are metaphorical expression that represent ontological metaphors for example great luck, rich experience, much about politics. The given status is indicated by the quantifier great, rich, much

  • 5.1.1.2    Referring

This sub type of ontological metaphor is giving a status as an entity to something that has no physical form indicated by referring. Therefore it can be seen as something that has physical form. In the novel, there are metaphorical expressions that represent ontological metaphors for example my luck, his dull mind, legs of reason. The given status as an entity or substance is indicated by the referrer my, his, legs of

  • 5.1.1.3    Container Metaphor

This sub type of ontological metaphor is giving a status as an entity in form of container to something that has no physical form. this sub type of ontological metaphor makes something that has no physical form (experience, feeling, etc) can be seen as an entity that resemble a room or house which can be entered. In the novel, there are metaphorical expressions that represent this sub type of ontological metaphor for example in their spatial relation, came into my dark head. The given status as an entity in form of container is indicated by preposition in, into and verb came

  • 5.1.1.4    Personification

This sub type of ontological metaphor is giving a status as a human to something that is not human by giving human qualities to it. In the novel, there are metaphorical expressions that represent this sub type of ontological metaphor for example, a ladder is making a shadow and religion faces the same problem. Ladder and religion is given a quality as a human indicated by activity making and faces which are human activities

  • 5.1.2    Structural Metaphor

Structural metaphor is metaphor that allows the reader to comprehend one aspect of a concept in term one another. This type of metaphor is complex one. In this type of conceptual metaphor, one concept is understood and expressed in terms of another structured, sharply defined concept. It changes one concept into another concept systematically. In this novel, the structural metaphor found are, I spent my last year, bathed in sunshine, running a zoo. All of these metaphorical expression are using other term when explaining or talking about something, for example last year or time is understood in term of money indicated by verb spent which is term of money. Sunshine is understood in term of water indicated by verb bathed. Zoo or business is understood in term of horse indicated by verb running

  • 5.2    Pragglezas Method of identifying metaphor

The Pragglejaz Group is an international collective of metaphor researchers who joined forces to examine whether it was possible to devise an explicit and precise method for canonical metaphor identification in discourse. a five-step framework for

addressing the issues involved (Steen, 1999, in press; cf. Semino, et al., 2004). Finding metaphor in discourse is not just a matter of identifying metaphorically used words but also of identifying their related conceptual structures. This method for analyzing the metaphor makes either the type or the construction of the metaphor in a discourse easier to be found. Therefore, this method is used to identify the metaphor found in this novel

  • 5.2.1    Ontological Metaphor

Example: I love him and I hope his time at Oxford was a rich experience (LoP 2001: Page 7)

Step No

Process of Metaphor Analysis

Result of Metaphor Construction

1

Identification of metaphor-related words

Rich

2

Identification of proposition

P1 (Rich - source, Experience - target)

P2 (MOD experience, a)

3

Identification of open comparison

SIM {ΣF Σα

[F (experience)]

[rich (α)]}

4

Identification of analogical structure

SIM

{[insightful(experience)]

[rich (substance)]}

5

Identification of cross-domain mapping

Rich > be expert

Experience > Substance

In Step 1, Rich is the adjective for the word experience, it indicate the metaphor in this phrase because it has indirect meaning. In step 2 the proposition are that rich is the source and experience is the target in this metaphorical expression, it is shown in P1 or proposition 1. P1 is modified by article a. The article gives status for experience as a

noun. It can be seen in P2 or proposition 2 The adjective rich is the source domain because it makes the noun experience can be measured and it can be seen as a substance and the noun experience is the target domain because its concept is changed by the source domain. In step 3 a formula to make analogy is made. Σ represents the source and the target domain and symbol F and α represent the close comparison of the source and target domain. In step 4, analogical structure is constructed. The most obvious candidate for experience is insightful because someone that had experienced many things is considered as someone insightful and the most obvious candidate for rich is substance because the word rich is often used to determine the high amount of substance. In step 5, the metaphor is shown in this step. In this metaphorical expression, the metaphor found is experience is substance and rich is insightful, the word experience in this metaphorical expression is seen as something that can be measured because of the quantifier rich

  • 5.2.2    Structural Metaphor

Example: You must imagine a hot and humid place, bathed in sunshine and

bright colours. (LoP 2001: Page 15)

Step No

Process of Metaphor Analysis

Result of Metaphor Construction

1

Identification of metaphor-related words

Bathed

2

Identification of proposition

P1 (Bathed- source, Sunshine – target)

P2 (MOD Sunshine, in)

3

Identification of open comparison

SIM {ΣF Σα [F (Sunshine)] [Bathed (α)]}

4

Identification of analogical structure

SIM

{[exposed (Sunshine)]

[Bathed ( Water)]}

5

Identification of cross-domain mapping

Bathed > exposed Sunshine > water

In step 1, the focus or the source domain is bathed because it has implicit meaning. In step 2, The target domain in this metaphorical expression is noun sunshine because its concept is changed with verb bathed which is the source domain. Furthermore, the target and source domain is indicated in P1 or Proposition 1. The modifier in the metaphorical expression is indicated in P2, it is preposition in. In step 3, a formula to make analogy is made. Σ represents the source and the target domain and symbol F and α represent the close comparison of the source and target domain. In step 4, the most obvious candidate for sunshine is exposed, because sunshine can expose something in wide area and the exposed things can be seen like it is immersed with sunshine. In the source domain, the most obvious candidate for verb bathed is water. It is common that someone take a bath with water. In step 5, Source domain bathed is compared with close comparison exposed because bathed have similar meaning with exposed in this context. Target domain sunshine is compared with close comparison water because the concept of sunshine is conceptualized with the concept of water. Furthermore, the metaphor in this metaphorical expression is sunshine is water.

  • 6.    Conclusion

It can be concluded that the types of conceptual metaphor which are ontological and structural are found in this novel. The metaphors found consist of twenty ontological metaphors and four structural metaphors. ontological metaphor found in this novel consist of four sub types which are three quantifying, eight referring, five container metaphors, four personifications. After finding the type of metaphor, the data were constructed through five steps of identification in method, the changes of the concepts were found in each data and the differences between the types of metaphor through finding the metaphorical focus, finding the metaphorical proposition, finding the metaphorical comparison, finding the metaphorical analogy, and finding the metaphorical mapping.

  • 7.     Bibliography

Lakoff, G and Johnson, M. (2003). Metaphors we live by. London, The university of Chicago press.

Lakoff, G. (1992). The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Romero, E and Soria, B. (2003). Cognitive Metaphor Theory Revisited. Spain University of Granada

Steen. G. (2007). Finding Metaphor in Discourse: Pragglejaz and Beyond. Vol 5.

Issn 1697-7750, pp 9-25. UK. University of Amsterdam.

Thibodeau, PH and Boroditsky, L. (2011). Metaphors We Think With: The       Role

of Metaphor in Reasoning.USA. Stanford University.

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