what is meant by the metaphor "wall/door" as it pertains to the concept of death and the after life?

Open Journal of Modern Linguistics
Vol.10 No.04(2020), Article ID:102567,18 pages
10.4236/ojml.2020.104024

Metaphors and Euphemisms of Death in Akan and Hebrew

Charles Owiredu

Daniel Constitute, Central University, Accra, Ghana

Copyright © 2020 by writer(south) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY iv.0).

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Received: July 2, 2020; Accepted: August 25, 2020; Published: August 28, 2020

ABSTRACT

In this newspaper, we clarify, contrastively, Akan and Hebrew euphemistic expressions for death using the theoretical framework of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory espoused by Lakoff and Johnson (1980). This cognitive approach enables to demonstrate the mitigating power of metaphors used as a dynamic source for euphemistic reference with the power to muffle offensive and taboo aspects of the target domain. Nosotros have put various Akan and Hebrew euphemisms into v categories of death metaphors with the aim to contrastively found similarities and differences in the conceptualization of death in the 2 languages. Our intention is to demonstrate how metaphors are employed as euphemistic device for speaking indirectly, unprovocatively and respectfully virtually decease. This study specifically reveals how the Akan and Hebrew cultures, divers by their respective languages, share the aforementioned mental attitude to expiry.

Keywords:

Akan, Hebrew, Cognitive Linguistics, Conceptual Metaphor, Euphemism, Death, Old Testament

1. Introduction

The term "cognitive linguistics" has been employed to refer to an inter-disciplinary branch of linguistics that combines knowledge and research from linguistics and psychology. Ungerer & Schmid (1996: p. F36) ascertain cerebral linguistics as "an approach to language that is based on our experience of the world and the way we perceive and conceptualize it." Conceptual metaphor, in cognitive linguistics, refers to agreement one idea in terms of some other, for case, understanding time in terms of money (e.g. "I spent several hours on my studies yesterday"). The idea of conceptual metaphor was outset extensively explored by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) in their volume, Metaphors We Live Past. In the last iv decades, the field of metaphor research within the broader discipline of cognitive linguistics has developed extensively.

Co-ordinate to Lakoff and Johnson (1980: p. three), "metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action." Their assertion contradicts the view which generally held that metaphor is simply a decorative device that is confined to literature, rhetoric and art. Generally, many of our everyday thought and speeches are interlaced with metaphorical expressions. Evans and Green (2007: p. 286) confirm this by stating that "the bones premise of Conceptual Metaphor Theory is that, metaphor is not simply a stylistic feature of language, but that thought itself is fundamentally metaphorical in nature." In both Akan and Hebrew, many speeches are metaphorically structured.

The core principle of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory is that metaphor is view every bit a cross-domain mapping of our conceptual system. Their theory allows united states of america to comprehend one attribute of a concept in terms of another (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980: p. 10). Kövecses (2002: p. 79) adds that "[w]hen a source domain is applied to a target, only some aspects of the target are brought into focus."

In every lodge, in that location are taboo expressions, doped with concepts that are considered too offensive, crude or frightening. Metaphors may muffle, deny or even mitigate aspects of those concepts that may cause fright, and social embarrassment. Thus, metaphor-based euphemisms may help in highlighting less disturbing, less vulgar, less frightening, or less blunt aspects of such concepts. It is in this context that conceptual metaphors help in systematically mapping the construction of the source domain (the realm of physical reality) onto the construction of the target domain (the taboo of death, in this example). This is better clarified past Fan (2006: p. 72) in observing that linguistic expressions in the source domain, by which he means euphemistic expressions, are used to replace taboo expressions in the target domain.

It is evident that death taboos can be analyzed in terms of conceptual metaphors. Granted that a death-related target concept can be expressed past dissimilar source domains (Kövecses, 2003: p. 79), the connotations of source domain are used to refer to target concept influences, to a not bad extent, the euphemistic strength of the metaphorical substitute. An example is the taboo of death, which is subject to different conceptualizations through the metaphorical equations Expiry IS LOSS, Expiry IS A JOURNEY, DEATH IS SLEEP, DEATH IS THE Stop and DEATH IS A PERSON, which are all the subjects for discussion in this newspaper.

Lakoff and Johnson (1980: p. iii) define metaphor equally understanding and experiencing i kind of thing in terms of some other or equally a tightly structured mapping or set of correspondences between ii conceptual domains, which they refer to every bit the source and target domains. Source domain refers to the conceptual domain from which metaphorical expressions are drawn (east.g. death is a journey). Target domain refers to the conceptual domain we endeavour to understand (eastward.k. decease is a journeying). Mapping, in relation to conceptual metaphor, is the fashion in which a source domain tracks unto the target domain. Thus, conceptual metaphors employ a more abstruse concept equally target and a more concrete concept every bit their source. For instance, the Akan metaphor, "owuo kura ade ɛ mu a nkwa ntumi ngye", "when death lays concur on a thing, life cannot take it back", relies on a more concrete concept, thus expressing the human being as a SUBSTANCE/OBJECT that decease, equally a PERSON, has snatched from life as a PERSON. Here, as the original owner of the "person" is LIFE, Expiry dispossess LIFE. Death becomes a DISPOSSESSOR. Therefore, in the metaphor DEATH IS A DISPOSSESSOR, the target domain is death wand the source domain in dispossessor.

The Akan people form more than fifty% of the population of Ghana. The Akan language is the nigh predominant language in Ghana, spoken by about 70% of Ghanaians, including Akan and not-Akan tribes. There are more readers of the Bible translations in the Akan dialects (Twi and Fante) than whatsoever other language in Ghana. This makes relevant, whatever written report that looks at the diverse expressions in both the Akan language vis a vis similar expression in the original languages of the Bible. In this report, using for the theoretical framework, the Conceptual Metaphor theory, initiated by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), we clarify euphemistic expressions for death in Akan everyday language and the Hebrew Bible.

Whilst researchers such every bit Gibbs and Steen (1999), Lakoff (1987); Pfaff, Gibbs and Johnson (1997); Murphy (2001), Agyekum (2010), Nyakoe et al. (2012), Otoo (2017) among others, have done extensive work on the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, non much research has been done on metaphors as a euphemistic device in relation to death. To the all-time of my cognition, relatively, not much attention has been paid to conceptual metaphor in relation to similarities and differences betwixt euphemistic expressions for decease in the Akan Language of Ghana and in the Bible. This paper aims at establishing whether Decease metaphors derived from Akan euphemistic expressions may hold in the Biblical Hebrew language. We will besides brand an attempt to institute whether Akan uses whatever other metaphors for euphemistic reference to death that cannot be found in Hebrew.

Akan speakers use this death every bit sleep metaphor to console themselves that their departed loved one will wake up in the side by side life stronger and in a ameliorate position to support the living. This is confirmed in some of their dirges heard at Akan funerals where the mourners ask the only departed soul to carry a message of the long departed in the world of the dead, that they the living are in need and then the dead should send relief to them.

Akan euphemisms for decease can be put in ii categories. The first ane) those which directly refer the survivor's condition. One example is ade at ɔ grand'ani,, "something has fallen into my eye". This euphemism is an expression of the pain and grief death brings to the bereaved, which is made axiomatic in the redness of the eyes. Thus, DEATH IS AN OBJECT in the eye of the mourner. Some other expression is ɔ homo nsa nifa apan, "the right mitt of the state is dislocated". The right is conceived every bit being superior to the left. It symbolizes the position of power. The king as the correct manus of the sate indicates his ability as ruler. In his death, therefore, the state becomes "HANDLESS", in other words, his subjects get powerless, unstable and vulnerable.

The second category 2) is that which refers to the condition or conceptualized experience of the deceased. These are the euphemistic expressions that portray the deceased as resting, embarking on a journey or even working. The aim of this paper is to explore Akan and Hebrew euphemisms that have to do with the land of the deceased and its feel.

Having introduced the bailiwick of this paper, the next section discusses the methodology and theoretical framework for the study, so proceeds to explore euphemism and the taboo of death. After which section, it looks at a contrastive arroyo to agreement Akan and Hebrew metaphors for death and ends with a last summary.

two. Methodology and Theoretical Background

This study was conducted in Accra amidst Akan speaking people. Data was gathered by sampling ten Akan speakers. Each respondent was required to mention at least four euphemistic expression used in everyday life when referring to death. At the end of the interviews twenty-ane (21) different Akan euphemistic substitutes were realized. The number of Hebrew euphemistic substitutes selected from the Former Testament Hebrew Bible was sixteen (16).

This newspaper is based on theoretical assumptions derived from the Conceptual Metaphor Theory of Lakoff and John (1980). The cerebral approach adopted by this paper claims that metaphor is [southward] a device which has the capacity to structure our conceptual system. Metaphor provides a particular understanding of the world and the manner to brand sense of the experiences we accept. Thus, Lakoff (1994: p. 203) defines metaphor equally "a cross-domain mapping in the conceptual organization." In other words, a set of conceptual correspondences is from a source domain to a target domain. A good example is the metaphor Expiry IS A JOURNEY in which mapping projects attributes of the source domain (departure, arrival, climbing, descending, etc.) onto the taboo target domain of death. Thus, the source domain is employed to sympathize besides as structure and even in some cases mitigate the target domain. According to Jäkel (2002), nearly metaphorical expressions must exist treated equally linguistic realization of conceptual metaphors rather that treating them in isolation. Conceptualization fulfils its euphemistic function, precisely, in this correspondence between the source and the target domains (Fernández, 2008: p. 88).

In the current report of metaphor-based euphemisms, euphemistic expressions in the source domain are employed to replace the culturally taboo and unpleasant expressions in the target domain. A cognitive approach to the analysis of euphemistic expressions helps in explaining the mechanism of euphemizing.

3. Euphemism and the Taboo of Death

Allan & Burridge (1991: p. 11) accept done some extensive work on euphemism. According to them, euphemism refers to those expressions "used every bit an alternative to a dispreferred expression, in order to avert possible loss of face: either ane's own face up, or, through giving offence, that of the offence, that of the audition, or of some third party". They opine that using euphemistic expression is "[t]o use language like a shield confronting the feared, the disliked, the unpleasant" Allan & Burridge (1991: p. 222). Fernández (2006) later confirms this, observing that euphemistic substitution is employed "[t]o mitigate the potential dangers of certain taboo words or phrases considered as well blunt or offensive for a given social situation." In the stance of Leech (1974: p. 53), euphemism has to do with "replacing a discussion which has offensive connotation with another expression, which makes no overt reference to the unpleasant side of the subject." The social benefits of euphemism are evident in the observation of Linfoot-Ham (2005: p. 228), that it allows discussion of taboo subjects without enraging or upsetting other people.

The anticipation, discomfort and fear that the subject of decease brings to the living has been pervasive, since time immemorial, in different cultures. Thus, through superstition or respect many cultures refrain from using evidently language in dealing with the subject, in order to soften the negative touch of what they actually wish to communicate. This is where euphemism is employed to strip taboo expressions of their offensive, vulgar and fear-inspiring overtones. Allan and Burridge (1991) observe that death is a "fright-based taboo", arguing that in the taboo of expiry different fears coexist, namely, fear of the loss of loved ones, fright of the abuse of the trunk, fear of evils [is it evil] spirits, and fearfulness of what comes after death. In many cultures of the world, euphemism has been a common style of speaking about death taboos.

The Akan word for euphemism if kasambrani¹, meaning "linguistic communication used in roofing up". Explaining euphemisms from the Akan perspective, Agyekum (2002: p. 372) observes that they are a sort of "shield confronting the offensive nature of taboo expressions." According to him, the Akan people excogitate euphemisms as verbal art forms they utilize to embellish speech to show communicative competence and linguistic politeness. Akans, expressing the same fears, express nifty discomfort with the subject of death. Therefore, they refuse to speak near it and when they exercise, they use euphemisms in speaking near information technology. They believe the mention of the discussion owuo "death" is to invite information technology to the living. Therefore, when a person dies, they rather choose to depict his or her state with euphemisms in order to reduce the discomfort and fear it invokes in the living. Akan decease euphemistic expression is swathed in the consoling shroud of metaphoricity, to provide condolement for the loved ones of the deceased.

Finding information technology difficult to come up to terms with death, the Akan language and the linguistic communication of the Hebrew Bible express reluctance in dealing with the subject of death using straightforward terms. Therefore, both languages resort to euphemism to somehow soften or conceal the fear and crime associated with expiry taboo. For them, information technology is a culturally polite way of speaking about expiry, an inevitable feel of humanity. So, what are the Akan and Hebrew decease expressions that serve as a denial device against expiry? This study attempts to explore the death metaphors in both languages that serve every bit a powerful device for euphemistic reference.

4. Expiry Metaphors in Akan and Hebrew—A Contrastive Arroyo

Allan and Burridge (1991: p. 161) put euphemisms for expiry into 4 categories, namely 1) death as a journey, 2) expiry as beginning of a new life, iii) death as a loss and 4) worries virtually the soul. However, these authors practice not explicitly apply the theoretical framework of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT). Nether this theory, Lakoff and Turner (1989) identified the following metaphors for death: DEATH IS A PERSON, DEATH IS LOSS, DEATH IS DEPARTURE, DEATH IS A FINAL DESTINATION, Expiry IS SILENCE, Decease IS Winter, DEATH IS NIGHT, Expiry IS DELIVERANCE, etc. The examples of linguistic expressions they requite for this purpose include the expressions, "he passed away", "he'south passed on", "he'due south left u.s.a.", "he's gone", "he's no longer with us", "he's been taken away from us", "he'south among the honey departed", "he'due south gone to the dandy beyond", etc. There is no doubt the same conceptual metaphors tin be plant in Akan. In this report, we deal with five major metaphors for death identified in Akan and Hebrew (Expiry IS LOSS, Death IS A Journeying, Death IS THE END, DEATH IS SLEEP/REST, and DEATH IS A PERSON. In the final section we will explore the personification of decease. Since we are not interested in the frequency of certain death metaphors in discourse, our assay of the selected DEATH metaphors in Akan and Hebrew is qualitative and not quantitative. Our aim is to plant whether the same euphemistic strategies by means of metaphors are employed in both languages.

The analysis in this study leans on Decease metaphors in Akan gathered through personal noesis of various Akan euphemistic expressions for death, personal interviews among boyfriend Akan people and everyday speech. The Hebrew data for this report are gathered for [from] the Hebrew Bible. The Hebrew data were and then assorted with the metaphorical mappings explained in Akan, to establish the possible similarities and differences in the euphemistic conceptualization of the target domain Death, between the Hebrew and Akan languages.

4.ane. Death as a Loss

Survivors (relatives and loved ones) perceive decease as a loss of life or a loss of a dearest one. This conceptualization of expiry leans on the conceptual metaphor, LIFE IS A PRECIOUS POSSESSION. In this metaphor, life is conceptualized every bit a priceless object that may be lost, wasted or stolen. The DEATH IS A LOSS metaphor may be instantiated by the post-obit metaphorical expressions in Akan:

[1] y ɛ n ayera ade ɛ, "nosotros take lost a thing".

[ii] wahwere ne nkwa, "he has lost his life".

[3] waka nkyene agu, "he has kicked common salt away".

The Hebrew equivalent is as stated below:

[four] , "as her life was leaving her" (Gen. 35: xviii).

In [ane], information technology is the living that loses a loved one to expiry. In [2] and [iii] it is the dead that loses something, that is the souls (nephesh) and taste respectively. This loss on the part of the dead is expressed in the Akan euphemism waka nkyene agu, "he has kicked salt away". For the Akan, the human cannot live without tasting salt. The explanation for pushing salt onto the ground is that the dead has no sense of taste. Therefore, to the deceased table salt which brings sweetness is waste, hence the coining of a euphemism with gustatory connotations to explain the separation between the dead and the living. The expression [4] is the clarification of the decease of Rachel (Gen. 35: 18). The euphemism here indicates LOSS of life. Thus, LIFE IS A POSSESSION that can exist lost.

Both languages characterize such a loss as unredeemable equally shown past the post-obit metaphorical expression; south ɛ owuo kura ade ɛ mu a nkwa rentumi ngye, "Life cannot snatch away what death holds". The Hebrew has… This conceptual metaphor is realized by like metaphorical expressions both in Akan and Hebrew, therefore being shared in both languages at the cognitive and linguistic levels.

iv.two. Expiry as a Journey and Decease as a Departure

Conceptualization of DEATH IS A JOURNEY metaphor arises from the understanding of the domain of death in terms of the domain of journeys. The conventional structural metaphor LIFE IS A Journey gives coherence to the conceptual metaphor Decease IS DEPARTURE. Bultnick (1998) observes that human bloodshed is conceptualized as a difference from this world. He notes that a basic domain of experience like death is understood in terms of a dissimilar and more concrete domain, equally a journey. At that place are 3 articulate stages in the life span of a person: nativity, life and death. Equally Ozcaliskan (2003: p. 284) vividly put it, "nativity is conceptualised as inflow, life as a journeying initiated by this arrival and expiry as a divergence that ends the journey." Death is conceptualised equally the cease and destination of life's journey (Kövecses, 2002: p. 44). The departure is uni-directional, with no return (Lakoff & Turner, 1989). All the same, in Akan, death is conceptualised as a JOURNEY, the final 1². The metaphorical mapping transfers different attributes from the source domain of a journey to the target domain of death.

ane) We shall illustrate this with several euphemisms in Akan:

The Akan language uses various euphemisms to express the death of an ordinary person.

[5] waka baabi, "South/he is stranded somewhere".

This implies a person traveled somewhere and could not return or incapable of leaving his/her destination.

[6] wafiri mu, "S/he has moved out".

[7] Watwe (ne ho), "he has withdrawn".

[8] watwa n'ani ahw ɛ ban, "he has turned the face towards the wall".

The expression in [five] waka baabi, means the departed soul is locked upwards somewhere upon embarking on his/her journeying and cannot return. The expressions [six] wafiri mu and [seven] Watwe (ne ho), literally connote a divergence from the midst of the relatives of the deceased. In Akan therefore the conceptual metaphor DEATH IS Divergence, marked by the verb firi, "exit/depart", is manifested at the linguistic level. The expression [8] instantiates the metaphor DEATH IS A DEPARTURE. When people embark on a journey, they bid us good day, turn their backs to us and leave us. A similar expression to [8] is wadane ne ho, literally, significant "he has turned himself", which indicates an nearly-turn.

In the Akan tradition, the decease of the male monarch is expressed differently from that of any ordinary citizen or fellow member of society. One extremely offensive death taboo expression is ohene awu, "the king/chief is dead" (Agyekum, 2010). Therefore, euphemisms are employed to depict his death. At that place are various expressions instantiating the Death IS A JOURNEY metaphor in reference to euphemisms employed for the death of a king or chief. Examples are:

[9] ɔ hene grand ɔ akuraa, "the chief has gone to the village".

[ten] ɔ k ɔ ne kraakyi, "he has gone to his soul's origin".

[eleven] Nana atoa ne mpanimfo ɔ, "Nana has followed the elders".

[12] Nana aforosoro, "Nanaⁱⁱⁱ has climbed the vault of the skies".

[13] nana k ɔ aduro and so, "Nana has gone to the medicine business firm".

[xiv] way ɛ Nyame dea, "s/he has become God's possession".

In each of these 5 euphemisms [9] [ten] [11] [12] [thirteen], the Akan refers to the issue of somebody's death as departure, where death is an event and going, following and climbing in the respective euphemisms [ix] [10] [eleven] [12] and [xiii] are deliberate deportment. Such conceptualization is based on the metaphors STATES ARE LOCATIONS and CHANGES ARE MOVEMENTS, both metaphors forming function of EVENT STRUCTURE metaphors. In [10] ɔ grand ɔ ne kra akyi, (Agyekum, 2010), his soul's origin is the hamlet from which his soul hails. That is where his owner is [14] manner ɛ Nyame dea, "s/he has go God'south possession", instantiating the metaphor Death IS ARRIVAL. The Akan believe those who embark on the journey of decease will return. They believe that the king/principal goes on a short trip into the afterlife for medical treatment as expressed in the euphemism [13] nana k ɔ aduro so. The agreement is that the departed king is just visiting the hospital in the underworld and he volition soon come dorsum through the process of rebirth.

2) In their used of euphemisms, Hebrew makes no distinction betwixt the death of the ordinary person and that of their king. In Hebrew, there are various expressions instantiating the DEATH IS A Journeying metaphor. Some of these expressions are: עֲבַר, ʽāḇar, "to pass abroad" and הָלַךְ בְּדֶרֶךְ hāla ḵ b^e -dere ḵ, "to go the way". The conceptual metaphor Death IS Deviation, marked by the verb עֲבַר, ʽāḇar, "to laissez passer away", is richly manifested at the linguistic level. An example is the case where the issue of someone's expiry is referred to as departure.

[15] , Though they be in total strength, and also many, yet shall they be cut downward, and he shall laissez passer abroad (Nahum 1: 12).

Another expression of the metaphor DEATH IS A Journeying IN THE Hebrew text is hāla ḵ b^e -dere ḵ, "to become the manner".

[16] "I get the style of all the earth" (I Kg. ii: 2).

Information technology is in this sense that David indicated on his deathbed, that he is embarking on the journey of the whole globe, that is "all humans". Death is the destiny of all humanity and this is confirmed by the Akan expression owuo atwede ɛ, ɔ baakon nforo, meaning, "all humankind will surely climb death's ladder". In the instance above death is an event and passing is a deliberate activity (Kövecses, 2002: p. 229).

The Akan euphemistic expression, [6] wafiri mu, "he has moved out" supports the CONTAINER image schema. Life is conceptualised as a container whose "structural elements [are] an interior, a purlieus and an exterior, besides as an entrance point (Marin-Arrese, 1996: p. 47). In this sense expiry tin be conceptualised as exiting a container (a torso of relatives and friends or a community of the living) and at the aforementioned fourth dimension an entry into another container (the world of the dead). In Akan traditional idea, the latter container representing the afterlife, is the world of the "living dead". The metaphorical expression too instantiates the metaphor DEATH IS A BOUNDARY. Thus, as Moreno (1998-1999: p. 292) observes, "beingness dead is being out of a bounded region, that is out of here." Thus, both the DEATH IS A JOURNEY and DEATH IS Deviation conceptual metaphors are linguistically manifested in both the Akan and the Hebrew languages.

Akan euphemisms employ the cognition well-nigh journey to talk about decease since the act of dying corresponds to the human action of departing and the destination of the journeying is the abode of God ([14] way ɛ Nyame dea) and the habitation of the ancestors, nananom or mpanyimfo ([11] watoa ne mpanyimfo or nananom). The euphemistic substitutes include, foro, "to ascend", firi, "to leave" or "move out", k ɔ, "go away", toa, "to become to" or "catch up with". All these words indicate that death involves travelling. Consequently, the deceased is conceptualized as embarking on a journey. In Akan, death is conceptualized every bit a journey and information technology is assumed that all the bodily experiences of movements occur. This analogy implies that the abeyance of actual experiences is not automatically identified with the symptoms of physical expiry, since they are present in a journeying. Thus, the conceptual metaphor DEATH IS A Journey is thought to provide some kind of respite for surviving relatives and friends, that the deceased, though dead, is alive in a form of life where there is action.

The Hebrew also conceptualizes death every bit travelling down to their destination, conventionally to a lower region chosen she'ol interpreted as the grave or the nether-globe⁴. Upon arrival, the expressionless as "shades" will be at rest. Instance of the use of this euphemism are [17] יָרַד, yārad, "to descend"; [18] נָפַל, nāpal, "to fall".

[17] , but he refused to be comforted; and he said: "Nay, simply I volition go down to the grave to my son mourning" (Gen 37: 35).

[18] , …and in that location was a very not bad slaughter; for there, roughshod of State of israel thirty thousand footmen (one Sam. iv: 10).

The euphemistic expression in [17] and [18] point that [could information technology be that expiry is missing out] is a downwards journey—DEATH IS DOWN. Notwithstanding, in the Akan euphemism DEATH IS Upwardly likewise as indicated in [12] Nana aforo soro.

The Akan expression way ɛ Nyame dea, "s/he has become God's belongings", [the expression southward/he has become God'southward appears to translate the Akan expression way ɛ Nyame dea better than south/he has go God's holding equally the latter may literary be translated every bit manner ɛ Nyame agyapade] is undergirded by the notion that God is grandparent. This is axiomatic in description of God as Nana Nyame. Again, the euphemistic expression, watoa nananom, "gone to exist with the ancestors" also implies literally, "to go to exist with the fathers". The term nananom refers to "living yard-parents" or "yard-relatives who accept departed". Thus, in Akan idea, death is conceptualized as a journeying which ends upon inflow at the abode or "bosom" of God or the ancestors. Thus, there can be an extension of the metaphor DEATH IS A JOURNEY to include derivatives such as DEATH IS ARRIVAL and Death IS REUNION.

The Hebrew has similar euphemistic expressions suggesting the afore-mentioned metaphors. The expression employs the discussion נֶאֱסַף, ne'ĕsap̄ "to be gathered". The expression "gathered to his people" is recorded at the expiry of such great personalities in the Erstwhile Testament equally: Ishmael (Gen. 25: 17), Isaac (Gen. 35: 29), Jacob (Gen. 49: 33), Aaron (Num. 20: 24), Moses (Deut. 33: 50), Josiah (2 Kgs. 22: eight). A close variant is the expression "gathered to one's fathers". Examples are:

[nineteen] , "And Abraham expired, and died in a good sometime age… and was gathered to his people" (Gen 25: 8).

[twenty] , "And as well, all that generation were gathered unto their fathers".

In both [xix] and [twenty] above, the Hebrew notion is evident, that upon arrival, the departed reunites with their relatives or fathers who have gone alee of them. Annotation too a metaphor of REUNION in the use of the death term , "to be joined" or "united", oft with such additions every bit "to his people", "tribe", "fathers", or "to his grave".

In this department, we discover that both the Akan and the Hebrew accept a common euphemistic presentation of death as a journeying. The DEATH IS Departure, DEATH IS Inflow and Expiry IS REUNION further analyze what the full general metaphor, Death IS A JOURNEY, comprises. Here could be seen an prototype-schema of a ROAD that explains the Akan and Hebrew understanding of death as travel, whose limits—the starting point and the cease point (the former indicating departure at the moment of dying, and the alphabetic character, reuniting with those who have gone alee of them). We realize that in both the Akan and Hebrew languages, the conceptual basis for Journeying metaphors respond to a full general view of death in terms of departure, arrival and reunion.

4.iii. Death as the Stop

According to Johnson (1987: p. 117), the passage of time is generally understood on the basis of motion forth a physical path, with the grade of processes being understood as a movement along a path to some cease point. Lakoff (1994: p. 232) observes that the passage of time will eventually issue in expiry, hence the conceptualization of death reaching an terminate point. To linguistically demonstrate their agreement of this finish point in spatial terms, the Hebrew employ metaphorical expressions such as: קֵץ, qēṣ, "terminate", אין, ʼyin, "is not", "is no more" תָּמַם, tāmam, "to be consummate, finished, gone, used up, annihilated, come to an end".

[21] , "And God said unto Noah, the end of all mankind is come before me" (Gen half-dozen: thirteen).

[22] , "Await away from me, that I may accept comfort, earlier I go hence, and be no more than" (Psalm 39: xiv).

[23] , So, it came to laissez passer, when all the men of war were consumed and dead from amid the people (Deut 2: xvi).

The corresponding Akan linguistic instantiation of the DEATH IS THE END metaphor is the expression, as ã, "it is finished".

iv.iv. Expiry as Sleep/Residuum

The conceptualization of DEATH as SLEEP is very present in both Akan and Hebrew thinking.

In the representation of metaphor by the A IS B formula, the "IS" represents a partial mapping from one domain to another and does non necessarily correspond equivalence. According to Lakoff and Turner (1999: p. 67), the conventional metaphor, DEATH IS SLEEP "does non map everything in our general knowledge of sleep onto death but only certain aspects: inactivity, inability to perceive, horizontal position and so on". The Akan expression, s ɛ wo nnim owu a hw ɛ nna, "if you don't know what decease is, and so look at slumber", agrees with the exclamation of Ozcaliskan (2003: p. 302), that "the appearance of a sleeping person resembles that of a corpse, with its silence, coldness and stillness." It is axiomatic that the features of a sleeping person mimic the features of a dead person, a universal perception which has led to several death metaphors both in Akan and Hebrew. In Akan, the idea of da "slumber" is to lie downwards. Here are some examples of the DEATH IS Slumber metaphor from Akan.

[24] ɔ dae a wans ɔ re, "When s/he slept s/he did non wake upwards".

[25] wada ne k ɛ t ɛ akyi, "Southward/he has slept at the back of his/her mat".

[26] wada ne bankum then "Due south/he has slept on his/her left side"⁵.

Lakoff and Turner (1989: p. 19) notice that "just as death is a particular divergence, a one-way divergence with no return, so death is item sort of sleep, an eternal slumber from which we never waken." In Hebrew idea, the place where a dead person interred is conceptualised as its place of perpetual sleep. This is obvious in the post-obit Hebrew expressions: [27] שָׁכַב, šāḵaḇ, "to lie down"; [28] נוּם, nūm, "to slumber"; [29] יָשֵׁן, yāšēn, "to sleep"; [xxx] נוּחַ, nūaḥ, "to rest" and [31] נָחַת, na ḥ a ṯ, "to recline", or "to residual".

[27] , "Yea, the cypresses rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon: "Since thousand art laid down, no feller is come confronting us" (Isa. fourteen: 8)^{half dozen}.

[28] , "Thy shepherds slumber, "O king of Assyria" (Nah. 3: eighteen).

[29] , "and I volition make them drunken, that they may be convulsed, and sleep a perpetual slumber, and non wake…" (Jer 51: 39)⁷.

[thirty] , The human that strays out of the way of understanding shall rest in the congregation of the shades." (Prov 21: sixteen).

[31] , "They shall go down to the bars of the nether-world, when we are at rest together in the grit." (Job 17: 16).

At that place are two common Hebrew words for "bed", namely, , mi ṭṭ â, "couch—a place or reclining" (two Sam. 3:31) or a , miškā ḇ, "bed—a place of lying" (2 Chron sixteen: 14)^eight. The dead body lying in state is euphemistically referred to as and . These two euphemisms for decease back up the metaphor Decease IS Residual/Expiry IS SLEEP^nine.

In both Akan and Hebrew euphemisms, death is viewed as "sleep" and "residue". The attributes associated with sleep are used in structuring death as they are transferred from the domain of slumber to the domain of decease. The conceptualization of Decease Equally Slumber portrays decease equally a serenity slumber or repose after earthly existence. These euphemisms demonstrate a positive view of and mental attitude towards death. This section reveals that there are similarities in the linguistic realization of the DEATH IS SLEEP metaphor in Akan and Hebrew.

4.5. Death as a Person

Personification is a type of ontological metaphor. According to Lakoff & Johnson (1980: p. 33), personification permits us to understand "a broad multifariousness of experiences with nonhuman entities in terms of human motivations, characteristics and activities. Co-ordinate to the generic-level metaphor EVENTS ARE Actions, events are viewed as produced by an agile, willful agent (Kövecses, 2002: p. 50). It is this upshot that is personified. In Akan, death is personified in the form of a ruthless and uncompromising tree-feller, a reaper who has no regard for anyone, not even for royalty.

This Akan perception back up the assertion that such personification of death "exists by virtue of the PEOPLE ARE PLANTS metaphor, in which people are plants which are harvested by the reaper" (Lakoff & Turner, 1989: p. 16). The conceptualization of death as a tree feller may be illustrated by the euphemistic expression of the death of a male monarch,

[32] odup ɔ n thousand ɛ se atutu, "a mighty tree has fallen (literally, uprooted)"¹⁰.

[33] Ade at ɔ k'ani, "an object has fallen into my heart".

In Akan conception of life, people are plants and their male monarch is the most gigantic tree among them. He is the protector and helper they await upwardly to. The expression in [32] is used for departed kings or chiefs and not for ordinary people. Therefore, his autumn spells disaster. Besides, as Kövecses (2002: p. 229) puts information technology, "[d]eath is an result and this outcome can exist conceptualized as an action via the EVENTS ARE Deportment metaphor." The upshot, in the example of Akan conceptualization of the expiry of the king, is uprooting or felling a person every bit if south/he is a tree. In other words, death causes fall, equally expressed in another Akan euphemism for expiry, Wat ɔ fam, "S/he has fallen on the footing". The two euphemisms "A mighty tree has been uprooted" and "Southward/he has fallen on the ground" instantiate the metaphors Decease IS A FALL. Such is the personification of death by virtue of the PEOPLE ARE PLANTS metaphor in which trees represent with kings who tin can exist uprooted by the tree-feller. Here Death IS A PERSON, a WORKER who uproots trees^eleven. Thus, in Akan, life is conceived as beingness firmly planted in the ground, and dying is "being dug out of the footing".

In [33], the understanding is that the bereaved person sheds tears every bit if something has been dropped into his or her centre. When expiry snatches a loved one away, it is as if information technology has bandage an object into the eyes of the living relatives and friends. Such a euphemism instantiates the metaphor DEATH IS A THROWER OF OBJECTS INTO EYES. Thus, DEATH IS A PERSON.

In the Akan conceptualization of decease as a person the euphemistic expression in [12] Nana aforo soro, which refers to the king climbing into the skies, is very relevant in our discussion. In Akan Adinkra symbols, the ladder represents the metaphorical expression owuo antwede ɛ, ɔ baako nforo, "Everyone will climb the ladder of expiry". In Ghana, one finds in the village where people die at home, a surviving relative giving h2o to the dying in order to, then to speak, ease the dying person's painful gasping for breath while climbing upward in death. This conceptualizing of dying as climbing a ladder agrees with the euphemism, Nana aforo soro, thereby suggesting the destination of the traveling dead person somewhere in the skies. Both euphemisms instantiate the metaphor Decease IS UP. Thus, DEATH IS A JOURNEY, a travel Up into the skies. As well, equally a WORKER whose task is to usher the dead into the afterlife, Decease IS A GRIM ESCORT who carries the ladder by which the dead climb into their destination somewhere in the skies. The ladder becomes the path bridging this life and the afterlife, and death is so to speak, the traffic warden.

Death in a personified class is besides conceptualized as an escort in the euphemistic expression, [xiv] mode ɛ Nyame dea, "due south/he has become Gods' property". This euphemism suggests that God the creator owns all life and that all expressionless persons belong to him. He owns both the living and the dead. When a person dies, s/he becomes fully God's possession. Thus, death does not necessarily undermine and revoke the identity of the expressionless as property of the creator. Death easily over to God what is God'south past ushering a person to his or her owner.

In the Hebrew, death is conceptualized every bit sweeping away dirt, as indicated in the significant of the expression , nispā, "to sweep abroad".

[34] , "and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be swept away in all their sins" (Num. sixteen: 26).

This Hebrew euphemism here instantiates the metaphor DEATH IS A WORKER. In this passage, breakers of God'due south commandments are moral garbage, littering the midst of the obedient and decease cleans them off—DEATH IS A SWEEPER.

In both the Hebrew and Akan languages, we meet metaphorical expressions in which death appears in a personified form. This instantiates the metaphor Expiry IS A PERSON, whose task description includes, for the Akan, felling trees, throwing objects into eyes, carrying ladders for traffic management, and for the Hebrew, sweeping. As Lakoff and Johnson (1980: p. 34) puts it, "personifications are employed "to make sense of phenomena in the world in human terms… terms that we tin sympathise on the basis of own motivations, goals, actions and characteristics." Over again, according to Kövecses (2002: p. 39) the EVENTS ARE Deportment metaphor accounts for many cases of personification. This suggests that death is an action that is performed past an agent.

5. Conclusion

In this newspaper, I take attempted to outline the implications underlying the use and interpretation of death metaphorization inside the framework of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory initiated by Lakoff & Johnson (1980). The nowadays report has provided evidence that euphemisms used to refer to expiry taboo are well accounted for in terms of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory. Information technology is evident from the analysis that decease is a subject that is charily spoken about in both Akan and Hebrew.

Metaphors have the ability to conceal or highlight; therefore it should not exist foreign that euphemisms in both Hebrew and Akan are frequently packaged in conceptual metaphors as one of the useful devices of forming euphemisms. The report in this paper has attempted to contrastively analyze numerous metaphors for death in Hebrew and Akan to establish whether both languages utilize the same euphemistic reference in dealing with the taboo of death. In almost every culture of the world people endeavour to shut off the idea of death in their minds and therefore employ metaphor-based mechanisms to deny unpleasant and dreadful experiences. The same is true of the Akan and the Hebrew. Equally we have seen in this newspaper, the role of metaphors in euphemistic reference has been demonstrated as being very significant in both languages. Through our assay, it is axiomatic that Hebrew and Akan share the aforementioned conceptual mappings regarding mortality. This is manifestly rooted in the universal understanding that DEATH metaphors are deeply ingrained in our physical and bodily experience.

The prove provided past this study supports the claim that members of different cultures cannot anticipate a universal experience "in a way that contradicts universal physiology", but tin anticipate it "inside the constraints imposed on them by universal physiology" Kövecses (2007: p. 165). In our data, the metaphors DEATH IS LOSS, DEATH IS THE Stop, Expiry IS Sleep, DEATH IS A Journey AND DEATH IS A PERSON indicate that in both Hebrew and Akan, death hides itself behind charily constructed metaphors on both the Akan and Hebrew languages.

The analysis undertaken shows that euphemistic expressions referring to expiry taboos tin be described in terms of Lakoff and Johnson (1980) cognitive view of metaphors. However, the analysis in this written report is past no means exhaustive for the area of biblical studies. Research into further comparative study may be needed in revealing the linguistic and cultural differences in the euphemistic conceptualization of decease in Akan and Greek (with specific reference to the Greek of the New Testament). It would as well be revealing to contrast the results obtained in this inquiry with some other Africa language in gild to find conceptual and linguistic differences or similarities.

Conflicts of Interest

The author declares no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

Cite this paper

Owiredu, C. (2020). Metaphors and Euphemisms of Death in Akan and Hebrew. Open up Journal of Modern Linguistics, ten, 404-421. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojml.2020.104024

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NOTES

^aneThe term kasambrani is fabricated upwards of iii words, kasa, "linguistic communication", the nominal prefix "1000-", the verb bra, "cover", and the noun ani, "face".

²At that place are also Akan euphemisms for expiry which lend support to the metaphor, DEATH IS SEPARATION. Examples are (i) W'adane ato h ɔ, "he has dropped information technology" and Wagyae mu, "he has left it". Both expressions indicate that life is an object we hold firmly onto or cling to, therefore, expiry is "letting go". Also, wadi ako at ɔ, "due south/he has fought and fallen", lends support to the popular Akan saying, "LIFE IS WAR". This confirms the belief that the living is in a constant battle for the living, and death is an indication that ane has lost the battle. DEATH IS LOSS, not only on the part of the survivors merely on the office of the deceased also.

³ Nana basically refers to an elderly person, particularly "grandparent". Even so, as a term imbued with respect, it is the title for King or chief.

^ivEncounter both Gen. 37: 35 and Job 17: 16.

⁵In Akan, left is sinister, weak, filthy, inferior, lacking, ugly, bad, misfortune, worthless, disrespect, and all sorts of insoluble problems. While the word nifa, "right" evokes well-nigh of the ideas contrary to these. In Ghana, one should not even pass or receive something from an elderly person or a superior with your left hand. 1 proverb reveals how offensive it is to bespeak at one'due south begetter's business firm with the left manus. The reason is largely because the left mitt is associated with actual functions, then it is considered to be dirty and junior to the right. Withal, a stranger who makes such a mistake for the starting time time is forgiven. Among the Akan, there is a notion that the left is the "side of expiry" and the right id the "side of life". Hence, the euphemistic expression for decease, wada ne bankum so, "he has slept on his left side".

⁶See besides or , "he rested with his fathers" (Gen. 47: xxx; ii Sam. 7: 12).

⁷The dead are also referred to equally "that sleep in the dust of the earth" (Dan. 12: 2) and , "that dwell in the grit" (Isa. 26: 19). Here is a conceptualization of dust as DESTINATION and Habitation/COUNTRY. Besides, the expression , "go down to she'ol" (Gen. 37: 35) indicate that she'ol is DESTINATION/Abode. The Hebrew euphemistic expression, "sleep the eternal sleep" (Jer. 51:39, 57), demonstrate the concept of death every bit a journeying of no-return.

⁸See the Sometime testament references: 1) , "And David said to Joab… wail before Abner". And king David followed the bier (2 Sam. iii: 31), 2) , "And they buried him in his own sepulchre… and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odours and divers kinds [of spices]…" (two Chron. 16: fourteen).

⁹For Kövecses (2002: p. 52), the perception of death as "the utmost human inability in which we are blind, deafened, dumb, immobile, etc.", supports the identification of death with sleep by means of the Sleep IS PHYSICAL DISABILITY metaphor. The cessation of a bodily role such as speech communication when sleeping might be the explanation of the Hebrew euphemism for death: , dūmā, "silence" (The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that become down into silence (Psalm 115: 17). the That the expressionless is dumb instantiates the metaphor Expiry IS SILENCE.

^xA like metaphor is bep ɔ due west g ɛ se atutu, in this euphemistic expression the king is conceptualized as bep ɔ w k ɛ se, "gargantuan mountain". That this mighty mountain has fallen suggests an Akan botanomorphic imagery of a mount every bit having roots. All citizens are landforms, their king is the landform with the highest peak. For him to exist uprooted is catastrophic and only death tin can dig upward this mountain. Only decease can cause that which is standing firm to fall flat. Death IS AN EARTH-MOVER.

¹¹Based on the metaphor Decease IS A PERSON, expiry is endowed with characteristics of a man being. There is a metaphorical expression in Akan where "death in a personified grade causes the divergence of the person from life" (Ozcaliskan, 2003: p. 292), e.m. owuo ab ɛ fa no ak ɔ, "death has taken him/her away", however, this expression which mentions decease "owuo" directly is not euphemistic.

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