On the Conceptual Motivation Behind Animal Imagery
in the biblical Book of Proverbs
On the Conceptual Motivation Behind Animal Imagery
in the biblical Book of Proverbs
Author(s): Robert KiełtykaSubject(s): Biblical studies
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Sklodowskiej
Keywords: conceptual metaphor; conceptual metonymy; metaphtonymy; proverbs; symbolism;
Summary/Abstract: This paper investigates the conceptual motivation underlying selected proverbs from the biblicalBook of Proverbs that contain animal names. The analysis examines references to a range ofanimals, including birds, reptiles, and both wild and domesticated mammals, and highlightstheir culture-specific symbolic significance for the interpretation of the proverbs. Employingmethodological tools from Cognitive Linguistics – specifically conceptual metaphor, metonymy,and metaphtonymy (Goossens, 1990; Kövecses, 2010; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980; Ruiz deMendoza, 2011) – the study demonstrates that animal imagery in Proverbs functions as a vehiclefor moral and practical instruction. The corpus for this analysis is the English Standard Versionof the Bible, available at https://biblehub.com/.
Journal: Lublin Studies in Modern Languages and Literature
- Issue Year: 49/2025
- Issue No: 4
- Page Range: 107-120
- Page Count: 14
- Language: English
