Metaphors in Minangkabau Language: Meaning Shift and Change

Abstract

Metaphor is a tool to explain the nature of shifts and changes in meaning because it is able to serve the thoughts and feelings of language users. Metaphor serves as a source of strong motivation to express such thoughts and feelings and becomes expressive means of language. Not all meanings can be conveyed literally, and if speakers feel that there are no words with literal meaning available, they will convey the meaning figuratively which can be more captivating to the listener's attention or can bring out complexities that cannot be done in other ways. Minang native speakers consider settlement in the outside of deliberation to be bad. To avoid disputes, they must be good at finding and uttering expressions whose meanings are different from the sentences that are said, so, they do not immediately feel offended or humiliated. The utterance in (8) means ‘to clean village from all threats and disturbance.’ The analogy of red in (10) refers to saga fruit and the sentential meaning of (11) is associated to a person who has capability to posit him-/her-self. Meanwhile, the sentence in (13) might mean ‘what is hoped appears.’ There are similarities in the nature of animals equated with human character, for example, in Minang, the phrases pipik andak menjadi elang ‘the sparrow wants to be an eagle’ and gajah dilulue ular lidih ‘elephant is wrapped around by a small snake’ refer to a weak against a strong person or can be described as a person who is not aware of his abilities. Keywords: Metaphor, ontological, structural, inference, Minangkabau, meaning shift and change