Metaphor in Automatic Kurdish Language: a Cognitive Approach

The purpose of this research is to examine the metaphor in automatic Kurdish language from a cognitive point of view and on the basis of “conceptual metaphor theory”. After analyzing some data from everyday speech in Gurani dialect, existing linguistic metaphors in them are extracted, and then their underlying conceptual metaphors are determined and classified. The findings of this research show that orientation, ontological and container metaphors as well as personification are found frequently in everyday Kurdish language. Once more these findings prove the fact that the use of metaphor is not just restricted to literary language but must be seen as an essential part of mind and language system of human.