Connotations of Animal Metaphors in the Jordanian Context

Abstract

Purpose. This paper examines the connotations of the most common ten animal metaphors in the Jordanian context as perceived by Jordanian Arabic speakers. Methods. The data were collected in three stages. First, the principal researcher shared a post on his Facebook account in which he asked his Jordanian-Arabic speaking virtual friends to report in a comment the most common animal metaphors they use. The researchers compiled 115 comments/responses with 1106 animal metaphor tokens. Second, the received tokens were used to identify the most common animal metaphors. Third, in order to identify the set of connotations of each animal metaphor, the researchers distributed a questionnaire to 137 (43 males and 94 females) students at The University of Jordan in which the respondents were asked to report when each of them tends to use each animal metaphor and for what connotations. Based on the received responses, a preliminary list of connotations was prepared. Finally, the proposed connotations were subjected to a validation process by two Jordanian-Arabic speaking linguists from the Department of English at the University of Jordan. Most of their judgments were compatible with those of the researchers and when there was an overlap, amendments were made to amalgamate the connotations together. Results. The findings show that the ten most common animal metaphors in the Jordanian context are (1) X IS A MONKEY, (2) X IS A DONKEY, (3) X IS A COW, (4) X IS A SNAKE, (5) X IS A DOG, (6) X IS A PIG, (7) X IS A BEAR, (8) X IS A DUCK, (9) X IS AN OWL, and (10) X IS A DEER. They have a total of 39 connotations. X IS A MONKEY is used to convey five connotations, the most common of which is hyperactivity. As for X IS A DONKEY, it has four connotations with stupidity being its most common connotation. X IS A COW has six connotations and it is mainly associated with obesity, especially when referring to females. X IS A SNAKE connotes being toxic and deceitful. With regard to X IS A DOG, it is associated mostly with ill-mannerisms. X IS A PIG has three connotations and it is mostly linked with being deceitful. As for X IS A BEAR, it has four connotations with its most frequent connotation being fat. X IS A DUCK has three connotations and it is associated mostly with being pretty with a beautiful body. X IS AN OWL has three connotations and it is linked mostly with being pessimistic. Finally, X IS A DEER has three connotations with being characterized by beauty as its most common connotation. Conclusions. The study concludes that animal metaphors are culturally loaded and that the environment we live in shapes the way we view animals and the way we use them metaphorically.