The Conceptual Metaphor LOVE IS A JOURNEY in Bengali Language

Abstract

The main purpose of the study is to see whether the conceptual metaphor LOVE IS A JOURNEY exists in the Bengali language or not. To conduct the research, Lakoff & Johnson’s thirteen metaphorical linguistic expressions of the conceptual metaphor LOVE IS A JOURNEY, from Metaphors We Live By (2003), were translated into Bengali equivalents and a questioner set was prepared and distributed among 386 participants. After analysis, it was found that the literal usage was 52%, 41% were found to be unspecified and metaphorical instances were only 7% of the total data. The source domain Journey has different target domains which are life, love, married life, purposeful activities, friendship and education in all metaphorical instances. The most common conceptual metaphor was LOVE IS A JOURNEY, occupying 79% and the least used conceptual metaphor was LONG-TERM PURPOSEFUL ACTIVITIES ARE JOURNEYS which made up only 0.30% among all metaphorical tokens. In both languages, it was also found that eight metaphorical linguistic expressions have similarities whereas the other five expressions have dissimilarities that basically arise due to cultural and technological differences for the conceptual metaphor LOVE IS A JOURNEY.