Analysis of image schema and its role in the reflection of culture (Case study: proverbs of the book of "Faraid al-Adab")

Authors
H. taktabar 1
A. hajikhani 2
G. boloori 3
1 Assistant Professor of Arabic Language and Literature -Qom University –Iran.
2 Associate Professor of Quranic Science – Tarbiat Modares Universit – Tehran- Iran.
3 Graduated Student of Arabic Language.
Abstract
Since proverbs are deeply rooted in people's culture and thought, the study of the image schema of Arabic proverbs will lead to a deeper understanding of Arabic life and culture. Investigating the image schemas of the Arabic proverbs based on cognitive semantics introduces us to the thought, culture, and morals of the Arab. According to the cognitive view that "the human beings develop what have been experienced into the domain of abstract concepts", The present study seeks to investigate the variety of existing schemas in the thousand proverbs of the book of Faraid al-Adab based on the image schema model of Evans & Green in the framework of cognitive linguistics. This article also examines the effectiveness and frequency of image schema as well as the reasons for the multiplicity of them.

It also tries to provide answers to two other questions which image schemas are more abundant in the collection of Faraid al-Adab, and what is the significance of analyzing Arabic proverbs in the framework of cognitive semantics. The present study is based on this descriptive-analytic approach. So one thousand proverbs of Faraid al-Adab are randomly selected and the various schemas in it are extracted and analyzed in order to examine how these visual perceptions are transferred to the field of abstract concepts. The analysis is based on the hypothesis that the container schema and quantities schema have a high frequency in Arabic proverbs.

It also gives a more accurate understanding of the objective and metaphorical meanings of the Arabic proverbs are achieved in the empirical and abstract application of the context of cognitive semantics and conceptual schemas. This is because the human mind is basically empirical and language cannot be studied independently from human imagination.

The results of the research showed that the types of image schemas provided by Evans and Green are observable in Faraid al-Adab, and the balance schemas have the highest frequency and non-material schemas have the lowest frequency in the proverbs that we studied. According to their role and their presence in the life of the Arabs, animals and other elements of nature, appear with a high stance in the proverbs. Also, human activities and their organs have a significant role in establishing the source domains of the proverbs. More often, Arabic speakers convey concrete entities to abstract matters. However, they occasionally have the opposite tendency. Compared to the Persian proverbs, the Arabic proverbs tend to show more of the plurality of image schema. This is due to the fact that the simple life and experiences of the Bedouin lifestyle has its effect in this matter.Image Schemas are usually taken from different aspects of experience, but this feature is less distinctive in the Arabic proverbs. The life and experiences of the Bedouin people has had its influence in this regard. As a result, in comparison with Persian proverbs, there are fewer cases of both cluster schemas and network schemas in Arabic proverbs.


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Language Related Research
Volume 9, Issue 4 - Serial Number 46
September and October 2018
Pages 201-226