CONCEPTUAL ORIENTATIONAL METAPHORS OF THE “HEAD” IN LITERARY ARABIC
CONCEPTUAL ORIENTATIONAL METAPHORS OF THE “HEAD” IN LITERARY ARABIC

Summary/Abstract: The present paper deals with metaphorical expressions containing the name of the “head” (ra’s) in Literary Arabic, in an attempt to assess the part played by the conceptual metaphors they reflect within the wider frame of metaphorical conceptualization. The starting point is represented by the statements made by George Lakoff about metaphors involving names of body parts in his work Metaphors We Live By (1980), where these metaphors are deemed to be rather modestly representative for conceptual metaphor and, moreover, to reflect a generally nonsystematic conceptualization of different notions in terms of the human body. The material we have examined suggests that, while it is true that metaphors involving the head in Literary Arabic are, just as in English, nonsystematic inasmuch as they are not part of a broader conceptualization process of the notions in questions based on the human body and its parts, it is also highly likely that these metaphors, when the notions are abstract or have a referent lacking clear cut physical boundaries, acquire an orientational nature and thus contribute to the systematicity of metaphors pertaining to this type.

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