A Comparative Study of Kangavari Kurdish and Persian Animal Proverbs from Cognitive Semantic Approach

Proverbs are among linguistic chains that are metaphoric in nature which should be studied cognitively. In this research, 41 Kermanshahi Kurdish (Kangavari variant) proverbs containing animal names were collected in a field study. They were then compared with their modern Persian counterparts extracted from Dehkhoda’s (1995) Amsal va Hekam and analyzed based on Lakoff and Turner’s (1989) Great Chain Metaphor model and Mendoza and Diéz (2002) conceptual interactional patterns between metaphor and metonymy framework. According to the findings, Kurdish proverbs make use of animal names more than Persian counterparts because of the geographic conditions, Kurds lifestyle, and their general profession that is farming. According to Great Chain Metaphor model, when animals play the main role in proverbs, the conceptual metaphor “PEOPLE ARE ANIMAL” is applied to conceive human behaviors by animal traits. As to the findings, although there are cultural differences between language speakers in creating proverbs, the same cognitive mechanisms are used in proverb perceptions and this confirms the linguistic universalities among all languages.