Metaphors of Turtle Dove Physical Characteristics in a Javanese Community: A Preliminary Study

Abstract

The Turtle dove (Javanese: perkutut) is one of most popular pets of the Javanese people. Here, they aim to have high quality turtle doves, either in the way that it chirps or in the luck that it may bring. The selection process is quite complex and extensive, one method of which is to carefully observe the physical characteristics of the bird. Accordingly, the community of turtle dove fans and experts has become enriched with a variety of turtle dove registers (words, phrases, idioms, etc.), many of which are metaphorical. This paper intends to study the metaphorical expressions used by the Javanese to compare the body characteristics of turtle doves with various natural and mythical realities surrounding the doves. The study will focus on how Javanese people associate the shapes of turtle dove body parts (the target domain) and natural objects used as a comparison (the source domain) for yielding metaphorical names of the turtle dove, either for obtaining a high quality sound or magical powers that the animal can bring to its owner.