مصطفی شهیدی تبار

The present study attempts to probe into the reflection of aging in Azerbaijani Turkish poetry using Lakoff & Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT). The corpus of the study contains Azerbaijani Turkish poems of Shahriar (1906-1988) as well as seven other poets. A total of 50 Turkish verses on old age were recruited for this study. As an initial step, conceptual metaphors were extracted from the corpus. Then, conceptual mappings involved in each metaphor were provided. Finally, source domains in old age metaphors were obtained. The results of the paper reveal that old age is expressed through nine salient metaphors in Azerbaijani Turkish poetry. Moreover, some metaphors are shared between cultures, especially metaphors related to deterioration which are based on bodily experiences, while other metaphors are more based on the Azerbaijani culture of the poets and highly influenced by customs, traditions, religion, and economy. Also, physical deterioration rather than mental deterioration is an ideal source domain, since it is clearly delineated and people believe that they know it well.

Poetry often reflects the geographical environment in which it is written. This influence can be seen in the choice of metaphors and imagery. For example, in his poem "The Lake Isle of Innisfree," William Butler Yeats uses the natural beauty of Innisfree to criticize the harshness of urban life. By describing the sounds of bees, waves, and the peaceful environment of the island, Yeats give vent to his feelings towards urban life, and expresses his longing for a simpler existence. Similarly, the birthplace of the Persian poet Hafez significantly impacts his work. In one poem, he asks for “permanent wine” because even paradise cannot offer the beauty of the “Roknābād water and Mosallā garden” – both located in Shiraz, his hometown. This study focuses on how geographical setting shapes the way poets conceptualize emotions. Specifically, We will explore how the concept of "sigh" is portrayed across Persian, English, and Turkish poetry.

Theoretical Framework:

A cornerstone of cognitive linguistics, Conceptual Metaphor theory, as proposed by Lakoff (1993), posits that abstract concepts are understood through mappings from more concrete domains. This process, metaphor, allows us to comprehend complex ideas by relating them to familiar experiences. For instance, the Persian phrase "the dollar has gone up" employs the spatial concept of “upward movement”. Lakoff famously illustrated this with the concept of love, often metaphorically portrayed as a journey. Expressions like “Our relationship has hit a dead-end street” exemplify how abstract concepts are grounded in tangible experiences. Lakoff contends that such metaphorical thinking is fundamental to human cognition and language (Lakoff, 1993, 2003, 2021).

Corpus of the Study:

The corpus for this study comprises poems in Persian, Turkish, and English. Persian poets Sa’di (1399), Hafez (1391), and Attar (1378) are included, as are Turkish poets Shahriar (1377), Molla Mohammad Fozuli (1384), and Aliagha Vahid (1384). From English literature, the works of William Shakespeare, John Donne, and Edmund Spenser (Greenblatt & Abrams) are analyzed. The selection of these poets is based on the hypothesis that geographical location influences the conceptualization of "sigh" through metaphorical expressions.

The manner in which poets conceptualize the “sigh” is influenced not solely by language but also by the geographical and cultural contexts in which they live. In other words, it is not a language-specific issue, but rather a crosslinguistic one. While there are similarities across Persian, English, and Turkish poetry, significant differences emerge in the portrayal of this emotion. Persian poetry often depicts the sigh as a fiery and destructive force, which burns the house of the beloved, the Seven Seas, the Earth, the Sky, and the Stars. It is associated with arid and semi-arid climate and carries a sense of outward intensity. In contrast, the English sigh is frequently linked to water, suggesting a more inward-focused and melancholic tone. It is associated with humid climate and water. It makes floods and drowns the beloved, sometimes making tempests. Turkish poetry offers a middle ground, incorporating elements of both fiery intensity and gentle breeze. It does not burn the earth and the stars, nor does it make tempests. The timing of the sigh also varies across cultures. In Persian and Turkish poetry, the sigh is often associated with night or dawn, potentially reflecting the religious and spiritual significance of these times in Islamic cultures. English poetry demonstrates less specificity in the timing of the sigh, possibly due to different cultural and religious traditions. In Persian poetry, the "sigh" is often depicted as ascending to the sky and stars, whereas in English poetry, it is more commonly associated with tangible elements such as waves and the sea. In conclusion, the concept of the “sigh” is a rich tapestry woven from the threads of language, geography, and culture. By examining these factors, we gain a deeper understanding of how human experience is shaped and expressed through poetic language.

The following article tries to investigate the influence of popular culture on the understanding of Azerbaijani Turkish poetry. For this purpose, the poem “Əmoğlı (Əmoğlu)" written by Seifi Ardabili has been chosen as the linguistic corpus of this research. The research method in this article is descriptive-analytical. To analyze the poems, the principles of linguistics, especially the relationship between language and culture, have been used. The results of the present research show that language strata such as sounds, phonemes, words, expressions, conjunctions, grammatical clauses, proverbs, and presuppositions, along with the various cultural terms are used in this poem, which have a direct relationship with the level and type of understanding as well as the way of communication with the listener of it.Therefore, the reasons for the influence of “Əmoğlı’s (Əmoğlu)" poetry, in addition to its extraordinary performance by Salim Moazenzade Ardabili, can be found in two cases: a) maximum use of language capacity at different levels of the Turkish language; b) The poet's mastery of the cultural and social context of Azerbaijan and the use of cultural schemes and their integration and application in the mentioned language levels to convey the meaning to the listener. Changing the mental image of the reader or listener of the poem, sharing the linguistic and cultural assumptions and using the phonetic/phonology features of the language in order to convey the meanings intended by the poet are examples of these cases.

Translation of poetry has been a subject of scholarly interest for centuries. It poses numerous challenges, including the difficulty of conveying the poet's intended meaning, preserving the poetic form and structure, and retaining the emotional impact of the original work. The primary purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of the translation process, particularly when dealing with poetry. By employing Conrad Potter Aiken's analytical approach to translation, this research seeks to shed light on the cognitive aspects involved in the transference of poetic meaning from one language to another. Through a case study of the translation of "When You Are Old" into Azerbaijani Turkish, the study aims to explore the intricate decisions and creative adaptations that the translator had to make while preserving the essence of the original poem. In the second attempt, the translation of “When you are old” is compared with some translations in Azerbaijani Turkish (Sabir’s translation of Hafiz), Persian (Nasime- Shomal’s translation of Sabir), and English (Fitzgerald’s translation of Khayyam) to present a crosslinguistic analysis of poetic translation to study the qualities of successful poetic translations. The results of the paper showed that translators of poetry, to achieve a successful translation, must be successful in transferring both form and content. The conveyance of meaning in poetry translation can be similar to the conveyance of meaning from any text, and if the translator masters both languages, it can be possible. However, to covey the form, the translator must be a poet. The investigations of Turkish, Persian, and English translations showed that mastering the respective prosody is not enough, and the translator must possess poetic wit and he must be a poet himself. This study also showed that the poetic translation can be successful if it looks like a poem in the target language. Moreover, one of the criteria for examining and investigating the translation is referring to the successful translations of that language.

This study aims to introduce a noble cognitive schema of cohesion using some narratives in Azerbaijani Turkish, Persian, and English. The framework used in the current study is Dooley and Levinsohn’s (2001) model of functional-cognitive approach. The corpus of the study contains 15 stories. The results of the study show that narration can be imagined as a polygon. The polygon functions like a cognitive schema. According to the so-called cognitive schema, all sides of the polygon are fixed and can be used in any bedtime story. Of course, the narrator can increase or decrease the number of sentences of this kind but the point is that the more the narrator decreases or increases the sentences the less the coherence of the narration will be. This cognitive schema confirms why children’s bedtime stories are the easiest narratives while classic or detective narratives are among the most difficult ones to read and follow.

This study aims to consider ghazal/sonnet from conceptual metaphor perspective (Lakoff, 1980). The corpus used in the study contains 24 poems (189 couplets) in Persian, Azerbaijani Turkish and English. The results of the paper show that the most frequent target domain in ghazal is “love”. Moreover, central conceptual metaphors in “love” are: A) in Persian: LOVE IS JOURNEY, LOVE IS WINE, LOVE IS TIE, LOVE IS FIRE, LOVE IS AWAKENING, LOVE IS DEAL. B) in Azerbaijani Turkish: LOVE IS OPPRESSION, LOVE IS WAITING, LOVE IS TURNING/TAWAF, LOVE IS SPRING, LOVE IS WINE, LOVE IS SERMON. C) in English: LOVE IS LIVE, LOVE IS UNSTABLE, LOVE IS PARADOX. This study also confirms that linguistic form has a direct influence on conceptual metaphor occurrence in ghazal. According to the findings of the current paper, the central conceptual metaphor plays a key role in versification. That is, central conceptual metaphor in ghazal seems to be the stimulus to the poet.

This study aims to consider conceptual metaphors of “separation” in Azerbaijani Turkish poetry in an attempt to uncover the interactions of metaphorical expressions, culture, environment, and embodiment. The corpus of the study contains Azerbaijani Turkish poems of Shahriar (1906-1988) as well as seven other Azerbaijani poets. The results of the paper show that separation is expressed through eleven salient metaphors in Azerbaijani Turkish: 1. SEPARATION IS HUMAN/ANIMATE, 2. SEPARATION IS PAIN, 3. SEPARATION IS NATURAL FORCE, 4. SEPARATION IS FIRE, 5. SEPARATION IS THING/TOOL, 6. SEPARATION IS FALL, 7. SEPARATION IS OPPRESSION, 8. SEPARATION IS DEATH, 9. SEPARATION IS TRAVEL, 10. SEPARATION IS PLACE/CONTAINER, and 11. SEPARATION IS RESURRECTION. Moreover, according to the findings of the paper, Azerbaijani Turkish cultural/environmental schemata of separation lie at the root of most of the studied conceptualizations. That is, the studied metaphors are touched by cultural and environmental influences. Regarding embodiment and metaphor, the study confirms that some conceptual metaphors are based on recurring bodily experiences as it is seen in SEPARATION IS HUMAN/ANIMATE metaphors.

The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic around the world in late December 2019 has disrupted how human beings work, interact with each other, and engage in mundane activities on a global level. The Covid-19, initially detected in Wuhan (China), has spread around the planet in a relatively short period of time, causing unprecedented casualties in the 21st century. The pandemic has also received extensive media coverage around the world, reporting numerous deaths it causes every day. For example, Iranian media outlets, including online media, have covered Covid-19-related news from its outbreak. This article, utilizing George Lakoff and Mark Johnson Conceptual Metaphor Theory model, attempts to examine a selected number of published news in the Iranian online media about the Covid-19. It is tempting to suggest that Iranians, like many countries around the world, are involved in a “war” against the Covid-19 “enemy”. In this scenario, health care providers and medical staff, christened as “Iran’s health defenders” in a manner reminiscent of the eight years of Sacred Defense (1980-1988) and its martyrs, are sacrificing their lives at the frontline. Metaphors like “enemy”, “health defenders”, “war against Corona”, “martyrdom” have provided a better understanding of the critical situation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

This study aims to propose a new definition of ‘meaning’ using corpus linguistics. The framework used in the current study is the Dooley and Levinsohn’s (2001) model of functional-cognitive approach. The corpus of the study contains 4 narratives (two English narratives and two Turkish ones). The results of the study show that meaning develops like a cell. As far as the study is concerned, meaning, as a physiologic cell, can be imagined as a cellular-cognitive schema. According to the cellular-cognitive schema, meaning is built in three steps like giving a birth (to a baby or a butterfly). That is, the birth of a baby, a butterfly, and meaning follow the same pattern. In the mentioned items, a cell or a unit (caterpillar regarding butterfly, sperm regarding baby, word regarding meaning) is located in the initial step. In the second step, there happens to be a cell/unit growth (butterfly: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly; baby: sperm, getting flesh/bone, baby; language: word gets new information). And in the final step, the cell/unit turns into a live creature (a caterpillar turns into a butterfly, a sperm turns into a baby, a word gets its meaning). Each of the items is produced in its context (sperm in mother’s womb, butterfly in its living environment, and language in linguistic context).

The present study probed into the citation behavior and intertextuality use of EFL writers. The literature sections of 12 BA projects and those of 12 MA theses in applied linguistics written by the same writers were compared in terms of intertextuality and citation types. The results showed that the most frequent intertextuality type in both BA projects and MA theses was the unconventional intertextuality. The second frequent type was conventional intertextuality which was more frequent in MA projects due to the educational conditions and the readership. The third frequent type was ‘deceptive’ used equally in both undergraduate and MA projects. As for the citation behavior, the most frequent one in both MA and BA projects was the integral citation whose sub-type ‘verb controlling’ was more frequent in MA and its non-citation subtype was more frequent in BA projects probably due to cultural reasons or because of the students’ ignorance of the functions and applications of citation types. This type was followed by improper citations and non-integral citations in both BA and MA projects. As for the relationship between intertextuality and citation, the results showed a strong relationship between unconventional intertextuality and improper citations in B.A projects, a weak correlation between conventional intertextuality and both non-integral and integral citations in B.A projects, a strong correlation between conventional intertextuality and both integral and non-integral citations in M.A theses and also a weak correlation between unconventional intertextuality and improper citations in M.A theses. Also, in both MA theses and BA projects, conventional intertextuality included all subcategories of non-integral citations and two subcategories of integral citations including verb-controlling and naming. The study could serve MA and BA project raters and the instructors of research courses in undergraduate and graduate levels.