Metaphorical Creativity in Zakaria Tamer’s Short Story Collection (Sahil al- Javad al-Abyad, Damascus al – Haraiq case study )

Cognitive linguists do not negate the metaphorical creativity inherent in the works of poets and writers. According to the ‘Cognitive Poetics’ theory proposed by Lakoff and Turner (1989), poets and writers frequently employ the same conventional conceptual metaphors in their compositions that are prevalent in everyday language. The creative aspect of poetry emerges from the adept manipulation and modification of these commonplace conceptual metaphors, achieved through the application of four conceptual tools: expansion, complication, questioning, and combination. The primary objective of this research is to introduce these strategies and assess their applicability in conducting a cognitive analysis of certain novel metaphors found in two collections of short stories authored by Zakaria Tamer (1931), a distinguished contemporary Syrian writer. The analysis of the data indicates that Tamer has utilized the same everyday conceptual metaphors in his narratives. Consequently, the creativity exhibited by this author could potentially be attributed to the proficient application of the aforementioned tools in the usage of ordinary metaphors. Based on the data analysis, it is observed that Tamer, in the creation of the metaphors examined, has predominantly employed the tool of combination, sparingly used the tool of questioning, and has made moderate use of the tools of expansion and complication. The findings also suggest that Tamer, through his judicious use of metaphor, not only imparts elegance and beauty to his prose but also effectively communicates the underlying concepts and messages of his stories to the reader.