Metaphorical Construction and Interpretation of Kiswahili Compound and Complex Clauses

Abstract

This paper investigates Kiswahili metaphorical constructions at the clause level. It argues that whereas Kiswahili metaphor has been studied for a considerable length of time grammatical features of Kiswhili metaphor are poorly understood. Further the conceptual aspects of the Kiswahili metaphors have not been conclusively studied to date. This paper therefore seeks to determine how these metaphorical expressions are constructed and how they express the conceptual metaphor. Concepual Metaphor Theory as proposed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) and Langacker’s theory of Cognitive Grammar (CG) (1987, 1991) are used in informing this study. The paper therefore examines the form-meaning components in a Kiswahili clause in order to identify how they are syntactically and semantically structured in the construction of metaphor.