| dc.contributor.author | Gachugi, Florence G. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Sikuku, Justine | |
| dc.contributor.author | Kiliku, Patrick | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-01-12T14:14:10Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-01-12T14:14:10Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2018 | |
| dc.identifier.issn | 2376-760X | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://repository.mut.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/6937 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Animal metaphors are prevalent in many languages. Animals are closely related to the human
beings and they provide a rich basis for the conceptualization of human beings and their
activities. Using the cognitive linguistics approach, this paper analyses the Gĩkũyũ animal
metaphors through the in-depth examination of the terms that refer to the domestic and wild
animals namely Ng’ombe ‘cow’, Mbũri ‘goat’, Ngũrwe ‘pig’, Kamũngũrio ‘squirrel’. The paper
discusses how these animals are conceptualized in the Gĩkũyũ world view and the metaphoric
mappings involved in the interpretation of the animals related metaphors. From the analysis
of the data the following mappings emerged: Mappings from the source domain of animals to
the target domains of human beings, concrete objects like mobile phones and abstract objects
like wealth. The mappings are based on the appearance, behavior and characteristics of the
animals. There is also semantic derogation where the negative behavior or characteristics of
the animals are mapped to the characteristics or behavior of human beings. | en_US |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research | en_US |
| dc.subject | Animal metaphors, metaphoric mappings, cognitive linguistics, semantic derogation | en_US |
| dc.title | Animal Metaphor in Gĩkũyũ | en_US |
| dc.type | Article | en_US |
