Semantic Analysis of Metaphors on Social Media

Abstract

This study set out to look into the semantics of metaphors on social media. The main aim was to investigate domain mapping in nominal, predicative and sentential metaphors. It also sought to find out potential problems that characterize cross-cultural domain mapping. The reason for the study was the fact that there are widely held anxieties about the effect of the internet on language and languages. This is because many practices and expectations associated with spoken and written language no longer obtain. Most of the changes witnessed in both written and spoken language are attributed to the internet especially in orthographic, lexical and morphological levels. However, little is known about the semantic level. This is because most scholars have delved into the former three levels leaving so much to be desired about the semantic level. The data in our corpus was derived from social media platforms; Face book and Whatsapp. The process of data collection involved going through face book posts, identifying metaphors randomly which touched on politics, education, and religion, personal and social lives. The analysis of the data was guided by four objectives. The study followed the framework of Conceptual Theory of Metaphor with the main objective of determining whether domain mapping works in the social media context. It was established that domain mapping works in the social media context but differently with respect to the three categories of metaphors. In Nominal metaphors, the source domain is a noun; in predicative metaphors, is a verb while in sentential, is a constituent which provides the hints needed for the interpretation of the metaphor. The study is organized into six chapters which have been used to test the theory and a summary of the research findings provided. The conclusion and recommendations of the study are also outlined