تحلیل استعاره های مفهومیِ مثنوی معنوی؛ با تکیه بر استعاره های جهتی (مقاله علمی وزارت علوم)
درجه علمی: نشریه علمی (وزارت علوم)
آرشیو
چکیده
بیان مسئله: رابطه زبان با ذهن و اینکه زبان انعکاس دهنده ذهن است، از موضوعات مهم مطالعات زبان شناسی شناختی است؛ «استعاره مفهومی» که خود از نتایج دانش زبان شناسی شناختی است، به این موضوع می پردازد. این نوع استعاره در زندگی روزمره مردم، جاری است و به کمک آن، مفاهیم انتزاعی، عینی و ملموس می شود. در استعاره مفهومی، حوزه مفهومی مقصد که انتزاعی و مجرّد است با کمک تجربیات روزمره و به تأثیر از فرهنگ در حوزه مبدأ به صورت عینی تبیبن می شود. «استعاره جهتی» که یکی از گونه های استعاره مفهومی است، با استفاده از جهت های مکانی (بالا، پایین، درون، برون، پیش، پس، سطح، عمق و...) بعضی از مفاهیم انتزاعی را مکانمند و فهم پذیرتر می کند. تجربیات عرفانی، اغلب مسائل انتزاعی است و عارف با کمک زبان، آن را برای مخاطبان خود درک پذیرتر می کند. روش: در این پژوهش، استعاره های مفهومیِ مثنوی معنوی با تکیه بر استعاره های جهتی، با تمرکز بر دفتر اول مثنوی معنوی بررسی و تحلیل می شود. یافته ها و نتایج: مولانا در دفتر اول مثنوی با کمک گرفتن از جهت های مکانی، برخی از مفاهیم انتزاعی را به صورت عینی مفهوم سازی کرده است؛ ازجمله اینکه مقام معنوی در جایگاه بالا قرار دارد و اینکه تأثیر موسیقی، سخنان اولیا و تأثیرپذیری از این سخنان باعث رشد و حرکت رو به سمت بالا (تعالی) می شود و نیز شادی و آزادی، حرکتی به سمت بالا دارد؛ بنابراین مسائل مثبت و ایدئال، جهتی رو به بالا دارند. غرور و سرمستی از مسائل منفی است که آنها نیز به بالا گرایش دارند. درمقابل، ناشکری، خواری و حقارت که مسائل منفی است، به جهت پایین گرایش دارند. تواضع و فروتنی که از ویژگی های مثبت اخلاقی است، برخلاف ویژگی های استعاره مفهومی، به سمت پایین می روند. درون، بیرون، پس، پیش، عمق و سطح نیز از جهت های مکانی است که دردفتر اولِ مثنوی به صورت استعاره مفهومی به کار رفته است و در این مقاله بررسی، دسته بندی و تحلیل می شود.Analyzing the Conceptual Metaphors of Masnavi Manavi Based on Directional Metaphors
Statement of the problem: The relationship between language and the mind and the fact that language reflects the mind is one of the important subjects of cognitive linguistics studies. The conceptual metaphor which itself is one of the results of cognitive linguistics deals with this issue. In conceptual metaphor, the conceptual domain of the destination, which is abstract, is explained objectively with the help of everyday experiences and influenced by the culture in the source domain. The directional metaphor, which is one of the types of conceptual metaphors, has spatial directions (up, down, inside, out, front, back, surface, depth, etc.), and makes some abstract concepts localized and more comprehensible. Mystical experiences are often abstract issues, and the mystic makes them more understandable to his audience with the help of language.
Materials and Methods: In this research, the conceptual metaphors of Masnavi Manavi are investigated and analyzed by relying on directional metaphors, focusing on the first book of Masnavi Manavi.
Findings: In the first book of the Masnavi, Rumi conceptualized some abstract concepts objectively by taking help from spatial directions; for example, the spiritual position is in a high position and the influence of music, parents' words, and the impressionability of these words causes growth and upward movement (transcendence). In addition, happiness and freedom have an upward movement; therefore, positive and ideal issues have an upward direction, pride, and intoxication, which are negative issues with an upward direction. On the other hand, ingratitude, contempt, and humiliation, which are negative issues, tend downward. Humility, which is a positive moral characteristic, goes downwards, unlike the characteristics of conceptual metaphors. Inside, outside, after, before, depth, and surface are also spatial directions that are used as conceptual metaphors in the first book of Masnavi, which have been studied, categorized, and analyzed in this study.
Introduction
In conceptual metaphors, place and spatial directions are considered. With the help of spatial directions such as up, down, deep, shallow, inside, outside, etc., many abstract concepts can be made more objective and understandable. The following examples show the metaphorical use of directions:
- Success in the entrance exam boosted Parsa's spirit.
- Consecutive failures caused his self-confidence to drop.
- Hazrat Ali (AS) was among the people in his era, but they stayed away from him.
- True friends feel close to each other.
In the above expressions, the directions of up, down, far, and near are not in the real sense but express the metaphorical concept.
A new look at metaphor took a new direction at the end of the 20th century with the book Metaphors We Live With by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (1980) and the article "Contemporary Theory of Metaphor" by Lakoff (1992). These two works, rejecting the opinion of the predecessors who considered the metaphor as a rhetorical and special language array, are based on the fact that the metaphor is not only in language but in our daily thoughts and actions. These two researchers showed that the metaphor is not only for literary language and for decorating words but our minds and language live with metaphors every day. “Lakoff and Johnson convincingly showed that metaphor has a strong presence both in thought and in everyday language” (Kovecses, 2014, p. 13).
One of the types of conceptual metaphors is the ‘directional metaphor’. In this type of metaphor, abstract concepts with spatial directions appear objectively and concretely. “These directions are up-down-inside-outside-front-back, far-near, deep-shallow-center-periphery” (Lakoff & Johnson, 2017, p. 29). On the other hand, Masnavi is a mystical work in which Rumi expressed his mystical experiences and often abstract views to the audience in the form of objective concepts. Spatial directions are used in the form of metaphors to explain the original mystical concepts in the first book of Masnavi. Due to the abstractness of mystical and religious concepts, the type of spatial directions in the form of conceptual metaphors is abundantly presented in the first book of Masnavi. Therefore, the main issue of the present study is not only extracting verses containing directions and simply presenting directional metaphors but also trying to analyze the mystical, cultural, and literary content arising from the directional metaphors of the first book of Masnavi.
Review of the Literature
In the introduction of their book, Lakoff and Johnson present their opinion by presenting the attitude of the general public in this way: “Many people believe that metaphor is one of the tools of poetic imagination and rhetorical arts that belongs to normal language... It is considered as a feature of language unique to words and not thought and action... Contrary to this belief, we have found that metaphor is in everyday life and not only in language that exists in our thoughts and actions” (Lakoff & Johnson, 2018, p. 13). Lakoff in another work written twelve years after working together with Johnson presented the theory of conceptual metaphor and named it ‘the contemporary of metaphors’. He mentioned the nature of conceptual metaphor as follows:
- “Metaphor is the main mechanism through which we understand abstract concepts and engage it in abstract reasoning.
- Most topics from the most trivial subject to the most complex scientific theories are understood only through metaphor.
- The basis of metaphor is conceptual and not linguistic” (Lakoff, 2010, p. 215).
One of the types of conceptual metaphors is the ‘directional metaphor’. Among the mentioned spatial directions, there is a kind of order and harmony. This feature led some to suggest the name ‘coherent metaphor’ for directional metaphor; because these types are more compatible with the cognitive role of these metaphors. The meaning of ‘coherence’ is that some concepts tend to be conceptualized as a unit. For example, all the following concepts are formulated with the ‘up’ direction, while their opposites are expressed with the ‘down’ direction. Following is an example”
Happiness is high. Sadness is low. I am taking off my wings. He has really lost his spirit (Kovecses, 2014, p. 66).
There is a question of how mental concepts, which are abstract and unstructured, become objective and structured. In fact, “metaphor is a cognitive mechanism through which one experimental realm is roughly mapped onto another” (Barcelona, 2010, p. 10). In the aforementioned definitions, two abstract fields, destination and domain, which are difficult to understand, are discussed. To understand these abstract concepts, we need a field where the concepts become concrete. It is called the ‘origin area’. In this way, abstract and mental concepts such as feelings, thoughts, religious beliefs, thoughts, and mystical experiences can be understood with objective and tangible domains. These two areas have a systematic relationship. This connection which is created with a category is called ‘mapping’. This term, which is borrowed from a conceptual metaphor, displays a set of correspondences and similarities between the two fields of origin and destination.
Methodology
Using Rumi’s Masnavi, verses with directional metaphors were extracted, categorized, and analyzed. The theoretical method has been the views of cognitive linguists such as George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in the book Metaphors We Live With. In addition, sources of criticism of Persian poetry from the perspective of Iranian linguists were also used.
Results
Throughout the elements of worldview and the language of Rumi's poems, the frequent use and presence of directions with spatial-lexical subsections and metaphorization in the way of expressing mystical topics are impressive and frequent. Mystical language requires the poet to convey his messages and teachings to the audience by using visual elements and networks. The transmission of the message in the axes of coexistence of opposites is also evident and frequent in the directional metaphors used by Rumi. For example, propositions such as freedom and happiness, following the parents of God, pride, and intoxication, and spiritual status and music are high; on the other hand, propositions such as being obedient and submissive, ungrateful, and humble, and disobeying have a low status. In the same opening verses, Molavi uses the verb ‘stay’ (2 times) in the same way. The keywords ‘under-up’, out-in, before-after, left-right, direction-aimless, before-after, surface-depth, and so on are used repeatedly in Masnavi (For example, see verses 763-764).
The results of analysis show that Molavi used multiple spatial directions in the first book of Masnavi to make abstract ideas and concepts concrete and understandable. The eight directional words ‘up’, ‘down’, ‘inside’, ‘outside’, ‘before’, ‘back’, ‘depth’, and ‘level’ are used in this part with a metaphorical application. In this research, it was shown that the frequency of directional metaphors of up, inside, surface, and depth was higher than in other directions. Among other findings of the current research, contrary to what was said that positive and ideal issues have an upward direction and negative issues have a downward trend, several cases were contrary to this rule. Humility and humility, which are high moral characteristics, are conceptualized with a low direction, and pride and defiance with a high direction. Therefore, the main approach and frequent habit of Molavi in Masnavi is to tell stories and express concrete parables to explain and clarify complex mystical and intellectual issues and fundamental and important concepts to better explain and clarify important issues from structure and form and explicit or implicit meanings. Directional metaphors are also used a lot. A better understanding of Rumi's mystical and religious experiences and thoughts in Masnavi and his other works requires more comprehensive research focusing on conceptual-structural, ontological, and directional metaphors.
تبلیغات
