Conceptual Metaphors in Ken Walibora’s Novel: “Kidagaa Kimemwozea

Abstract

The deficiency of grammar in unearthing literary gist necessitates the borrowing of a Cognitive Linguist’s lenses for a fuller explication of a text. This motivates the blast-off point in pursuit of meaning where “backstage cognition” fills a lacuna whose origin is the apparent mismatch between the writer’s background and the reader’s linguistic resources. Whereas intellectual endeavors unclothing the correlation between language and cognition cannot be controverted, the diligence paid to the study of metaphor in literary texts within a cognitive-semantics perspective has hitherto been hemmed in. We, therefore, analyze the conceptual metaphors in Kidagaa Kimemwozea by the Kenyan novelist Ken Walibora. The novel reflects a bedeviled state whose unfeeling king abuses power to amass wealth as sounds of anguish rent the air. Luckily, the protagonist (Amani) conspires with the king’s son to exploit the father’s weakness for the benefit of common citizens. This chapter establishes, classifies and annotates the conceptual metaphors using survey descriptive research design within the backup of Conceptual Metaphor Theory. It utilizes the Great Chain of Being metaphor whose chief objective slots a place for any phenomenon in a set hierarchical system. Animals, plants, objects and natural things are stratified source domains richly used to depict the characters in the novel. For a better appreciation of conceptual metaphors, it is salient to use the spectacles of a cognitive linguist to understand contextual language against the cultural, historical and geographical backdrop. Conceptual metaphors are conduits of communication and should be explained using a cognitive linguistics approach. Language is embodied and situated in a specific environment, making it possible for the meaning of some of the metaphors to elude the reader.