Conceptualization of self in Nahj al-Balaghah Sermons based on Conceptual Metaphor

As one of the essential cognitive theories, conceptual metaphor forms a wide field of language and experiences in which a conceptual domain is understood based on another domain. One of the components of interest in conceptual metaphor is conceptualization. Language through facilitating the process of conceptualization, provides the context for complex processes of conceptual integration. The concept of self, as one of the essential topics in Nahj al-Balaghah, has been expressed in various metaphorical formats, and examining how it is conceptualized can reveal the hidden content angles to the audience. Based on this, the present study, with a descriptive-analytic method, dealt with the conceptualization of self in the sermons of Nahj al-Balaghah and indicated that Imam Ali (AS) explained the concept of the self, using different sources such as; humans, capital, goods, unruly animals, etc. On the other hand, the word self to represent human beings has a high frequency, and the representation of the self on this basis allows the audience to reach a more accessible and broader understanding of the different layers of the self.