The representation of Hands in Jordanian Spoken Arabic: A Cognitive Study

Abstract

This study explores the figurative meanings of the idiomatic expressions related to human hand as used in Jordanian spoken Arabic. It adopts the conceptual metaphor theory by Lakoff and Johnson (1980). Conceptual metaphor consists of a large number of mappings between a ‘source’ and a ‘target’ domain. The meaning of a particular linguistic expression is absolutely based on such mappings. The study is based on Lakoff and Johnson’s view of metaphor as part of everyday language. The sample of the study consists of twenty-four participants, twelve males and twelve females, who were asked to participate in the study. The participants interpret the target expressions (30 expressions) according to their underlying meanings rather lexical ones. The study shows that Jordanian Spoken Arabic is rich in metaphorical expressions on the body part ‘hand’. The results reveal that the metaphorical mappings are at work in linking the figurative meanings with the literal meanings of the idiomatic expressions of human hand in Jordanian spoken Arabic. Moreover, the results also reveal that some of these expressions have positively figurative meanings, others have negatively figurative meanings and some others have both positively and negatively figurative meanings, according to the context they occur in.