follows: What is it about? What does it mean? What does it mean for me? What do I understand by it? All of these questions are to do with context and are a
crucial notion in cognitive poetics. Furthermore, the key to have a better understanding literary values and
meanings lies in the ability to have clear view of its text and context. Cognitive poetics provides us with it. It encompasses both social and personal circumstances
as it has the power to combine both individual and communal effects of language and experience. Response to the questions might be personal and communal based
on the context. What we do with a piece of literary work depends very much on the context in which we find ourself with the text. There are as many meanings as
there are different contexts for different readings. According to Stockwell, it is important to recognize that readings have status not objectively but relative to
their circumstances. Therefore, when this particular study asks what do Bob Marley’s and The Black Brothers’ songs mean? It is really asking what those
songs do, what are they being used for. Meaning is what literature does. Meaning is use.
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3.2. Conceptual Metaphor
One of the main points of cognitive poetic analysis is the conceptual metaphor, an idea popularized by George Lakoff which functions as a tool for
analyzing text.
40
This metaphorical analysis then can provide a window into the
39
Stockwell, Peter. Cognitive Poetics. London and New York: Routledge, 2002, p. 4.
40
Lakoff, George. The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor. Cambridge University Press: 1992. Web. January 18. 2014. http:terpconnect.umd.edu~israellakoff-ConTheorMetaphor.pdf.
conceptual system, or worldview, of a rhetor speaker.
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Metaphor can be found in many forms of communication, including spoken and written discourse.
Despite the fact that it is viewed as a literary device used for extraordinary or poetic utterances, it also can serve as an ordinary and conventional forms of
communication. It is confirmed by researchers that metaphor is commonly used in literature as in poetry, prose and song lyric. Like most songs, the lyrics in Bob
Marley and The Black Brothers songs make a significant use of metaphor and personification.
Leff in Worth p.56 concludes that metaphor consists of a juxtaposition of two terms normally regarded as belonging to different classes of experiences. The
same is true with personification in that the juxtaposition is specifically between animate and inanimate; how the quality of animate is equated to inanimate.
Therefore the writer assumes that Leffs concept of metaphor is applicable to personification as well. The two terms of comparison define the principle subject
of the metaphor and personification and the frame into which it is placed. Richards in Worth p.56 named these terms tenor and vehicle where widely
used and have provided a basic terminology for the study of metaphor in rhetoric. An example is man is wolf. In the example man is the tenor, the subject of the
metaphor and wolf is the vehicle, the frame into which man has been placed. The attributes of a wolf is given to the man. A wolf is a predatory animal, a hunter,
often despised in history and regarded as a bad animal. Thus, the man is being described as an undesirable, predatory, and animal-like person.
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Other examples are taken from Bob Marley and The Black Brothers. In
41
Worth, David Steven. Rastaman Vibration: The Rhetoric of Bob Marley, p. 54.
42
Worth, D.S. Rastaman Vibration: The Rhetoric of Bob Marley, pp. 5556.
Wake up and live Bob Marley equates life to a journey on a big road. Life is one big road with lots of signs so when you driving through the road don’t you
complicate your mind Flee from hate mischief, and jealousy. Here life is tenor, subject of the metaphor, and big road with lot of signs is vehicle, the frame into
which life has been placed. Big road is a hectic place where people travel on. Therefore, one needs to be careful in driving and paying attention to the signs.
Life is a journey that people need to stay in focus so that they will notice the signs and not to get lost and to avoid accident. Hates, mischief, and jealousy make
people lose focus and that can be fatal both for themselves and others. In Melati Plastik Plastic Jasmine, The Black Brothers equates a girl to
a plastic jasmine, a handmade flower. The fake flower can look beautiful and last forever but it does not have natural scent which is the essence of a true flower.
Kau melati plastik dikau melati palsu You the plastic Jasmineyou are fake like
camouflage. You is the tenor, and plastic jasmine is the vehicle, the frame into which you has been placed. The attributes of the plastic jasmine is given to you a
girl. Here we can see that the meaning emerges from the interaction of the two
terms. Jordan and Adams in Worth identified three functions of tenor and vehicle: their interaction; the similarity or comparison on which that interaction is based;
and the dependency upon context of the meaning which emerges from the interaction. The terms are juxtaposed and the juxtaposition leads to a pattern of
associations by the vehicle. Based on Osborn and Ehninger in Worth p.57, the role of context in the
metaphoric process consists of four level, which they call qualifiers that play an
important role in affecting the meaning of a metaphor.
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The first deals with the immediate textual or situational context within which the metaphor is used, the
second deals with social knowledge as discussed above, and the last deals with associations provided by the individual listeners. Contextual qualifiers refer to the
context of a discourse in terms of its actual text and the situation in which it is used. It is a social knowledge that bound to a particular audience at a particular
time. The writer would figure out an example, i.e. hostes. Originally this English term means a waitress which does not have negative connotation at all. But when
it was adopted to be used in Indonesia during 1970s to 1980s the term has a negative connotation similar to a prostitute.
The second level is called communal qualifiers. This level extends beyond the text or audience but is culturally bound, relying on culturally-based social
knowledge. It directs the meaning of the metaphor by drawing from the funded knowledge-the common experiences traditions, or folkways-of the public to
whom the stimulus is directed. The interpretation has been approved and stamped upon them by authority. It means that the meaning of the metaphor has been
sticked and inherited and accepted by the folks. As an example is the color of red and white. Red stands for the braveness of the martyrs who shed their blood and
white stands for the holiness. The third level is called Archetypal qualifier. These qualifiers are not
temporally or culturally bound. They supply meaning based on experiences common to men of many races and ages-experiences relieved by each generation
anew. It means that the meaning of the metaphor or the symbol is already
43
Worth, D.S. Rastaman Vibration: The Rhetoric of Bob Marley, p. 57.
accepted and understood by many people and not exclusively oriented to one culture. As an example is dove which symbolizes peace and heart for love.
The last level is private qualifier. This kind of context affects the meaning assigned by a listener through personal or subjective associations. This qualifier is
important because even when contextual, communal, and archetypal qualifiers share a high degree of commonality in a metaphor, it provides an interpretation
which is unique to the particular listener.
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As an example is taken from Bob Marleys song Burnin and lootin How many rivers do we have to crossbefore
we can talk to the boss. The term river is commonly found in Negro spiritual
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songs which symbolizes trials and tribulation, but also can mean freedom, hope and purification as in baptism. The term boss might refer to master slave or the
divinity of God. In the circumstance of crisis boss is the one to deal with if things are to improve. Israelites got their freedom after they come to meet Pharaoh, their
slave master, begging for mercy through the guidance and will of their God. It is in this sense that Marley would seem to employ these symbols.
There is a two-way connection between thought and language, language is metaphoric in nature, therefore thought affects, and is affected by, metaphor. The
relationship between thought, language, metaphor, and social knowledge eventuates into a position positing that metaphor provides a framework for reality.
All experience is shaped metaphorically. This shaping is called framing by Mumby and Spitzack. They regard metaphor as providing frames through which
the public views, and forms opinions of, specific social issues.
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It is through this
44
Worth, D.S. Rastaman Vibration: The Rhetoric of Bob Marley, p. 58.
45
Dawes, Kwame. Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius, London, United Kingdom: Sanctuary Publishing Limited, 2002, p. 86.
46
Ibid, p. 59.
sense that the writer assumes that the metaphoric expressions in Bob Marley and The Black Brothers songs can provide frame into which people can see specific
social and political issues based on the qualifiers above.
3.3. Hidden Transcript
