Conceptual Metaphors in the Hazaragi Community’s Institution of Marriage in Balochistan, Pakistan

Abstract

Conceptual metaphor theory explains conceptual systems through cross-domain mappings. The mapping occurs on a conceptual level in a way that one conceptual domain is understood in terms of another conceptual domain. It also shows how target domain is perceived or understood through numerous source domains. Daily life experiences of people create patterns of understanding and conceptual metaphors are used to utilise these patterns in our utterances about issues in the world. In this research paper, Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) conceptual metaphor theory and Grice’s (1975) implicature theory are used as theoretical frameworks to identify, study and interpret conceptual metaphors for marriage in the Hazaragi community in Balochistan, Pakistan. This study focusses on the institution of marriage as this institution carries rich conceptual domains and has many conceptual mappings. Data collected from the book on Hazaragi idioms and two Hazaragi dramas were used to identify and analyse five general categories which include marriage as a food, marriage as an expensive commodity, marriage as a friendship, marriage as a slavery, and marriage as a journey or time. The paper also explores implied conceptual metaphors for marriage which do not indicate the concept of marriage directly. In short, this study discusses how conceptual metaphors in the institution of marriage depict Hazaragi culture and tradition.