The Definition of Metaphor

12 c Approach to Metaphor by Sperber and Wilson Sperber and Wilson 1986 make a distinction between “representative” and “interpretive” uses of language, which is parallel to the “literal or figurative” distinction. In this approach, metaphor is not a special deviant. As the example,the children stood in a circle round the teacher . That expression does not give a feeling of metaphorical meanings, although some people may interpret the expression to have metaphorical meanings. Being contrary to the other researchers, Sperber and Wilson 1986 argue that the presence of metaphor can be found in greater proportion of metaphorical feeling found in expression. Despite the contrary, the researcher still finds that the mechanism of metaphor interpretation is the same for all the approaches, looking for relevant resemblances. d Approach to Metaphor by Lakoff The approach to metaphor by Lakoff will be the foundation in this research. According to Lakoff 1980, metaphors are not merely decorative features of certain styles, but are an essential component of human cognition. Lakoff 1980 explains that metaphor involves three important aspects. The first aspect is a source domain which is concrete and familiar. The second aspect is target domain which usually abstract or less well structured. The last aspect is a set of mapping relations or correspondences. The researcher takes a quite famous metaphor concept from Lakoff’s work as the example to explain the domains concept. The metaphor concept example provided is LIFE IS JOURNEY 13 metaphor concept. The metaphor concept borrows structuring ideas from the domain of a journey and applies them to life. Although there are more approaches to metaphor, the researcher will choose the theory from Lakoff since the theory is widely known. Moreover, Lakoff provides the concrete cases of the metaphor occurrence which are similar with the cases in this research.

5. Metaphor Identification Procedure

In order to differentiate whether an expression contains metaphorical meaning or not, there several steps need to be taken. Stern 2000 discusses about metaphor identification procedure MIP within the framework of the metaphor. The procedure involves metaphor annotation at the word level as opposed to identifying metaphorical relations between words or source - target domain mappings between concepts or domains. There are four steps neededin order to discriminate between the words used metaphorically and literally. The first step is to read the entire text-discourse to establish a general understanding of the meaning. The second step is to determine the lexical units in the text-discourse. The third step is establishing the meaning of each lexical unit in the text in context. This step analyzes how it applies to an entity, relation, or attribute in the situation evoked by the text or contextual meaning. There is possibility that the lexical unit has a more basic contemporary meaning in other contexts than the one in the given context. Basic meanings tend to be more concrete. What they evoke is easier to imagine, see, hear, feel, smell, and taste. If the contextual meaning is contrasts with the basic meaning but can be understood in comparison with it, the