A Study of Animal Metaphors in Defae Moghaddas Literature

This paper explores metaphorical expressions which are retrieved from animal names in Defae Moghaddas literature. The analysis of these metaphorical expressions is based on Lakoff-Johnson framework. According to this approach, the metaphor is not just a literary embellishment but it is an active process in the human cognitive system whereas conceptual metaphors are one of the basic ways in people understanding of concepts. This paper is seeking to answer the differences in the application of metaphors based on animal names between Iranian and enemy Iraqi forces. Moreover, each metaphorical expression is culturally investigated. The research method is descriptive-analytic. Data for this study were taken from 30 best story books of holy defense festival. The results revealed that animal domain as a source domain is one of the most used domains and also the most number of animal names are used to refer to the enemy force, which has the highest degree of offensive and bestiality. Furthermore, the names of the animals that were used to refer to own forces are low and these names have positive connotations.