Abstract:
Conceptual metaphors pervade everyday conversations but are used
unconsciously. A sample of metaphorical expressions used to express
the abstract entity death was collected from two local dailies that is, The
Daily Nation and The Standard in Kenya. The deaths that formed the
point of focus for this study are those of three prominent Kenyan
personalities: Bob Collymore, the then Chief Executive Officer of
Safaricom, Ken Okoth, the then Kibra MP and Joyce Laboso, the then
governor of Bomet County all of whom died in month of July 2019.
Conceptual metaphors of death were derived from the metaphorical
expressions and analysed using Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) theory of
Conceptual Metaphors and Johnson’s (1987) theory of Image Schemas.
Steen’s (1999) five-step procedure that assists in the identification of
conceptual metaphor was employed. The metaphorical expressions of
death were extracted and classified with regard to their connectedness.
The data for the study was thereafter analysed qualitatively. A
descriptive research design was adopted for the study. Findings indicate
that the cognitive linguistics model used dispenses devices for
comprehending, interpreting and accounting for abstract concepts in
terms of concret eness. Conceptual metaphors are a cognitive means
for the society to conceptualize death as an abstract entity.
