Space Metaphor in Kalhuri Kurdish: A Semantic-Cognitive Study of the Spatial Preposition /-naw/

Abstract

The present study aims to investigate one of the most widely used prepositions, ­i.e. ­/­naw/ in Kalhori Kurdish dialect from cognitive perspective. The methodology of this qualitative study is descriptive-Analytic. The data,­ whose authenticity has been approved by native speakers, has been extracted from interviewing with Kurdish speaking speakers. Also, in order to analyze this Kurdish preposition as a spatial preposition, the theoretical tools used are image schemas in cognitive approach. In this regard, by using container image schemes, the present study intends to show that in the semantic network of this spatial preposition, there are three distinct meanings: "in", "inside", "during­" and one semantic cluster that its prototypical meaning is "in­". Also, this spatial preposition conceptualizes abstract concepts, as if they have containment that each can be taken inwards and outwards. The findings show that this spatial preposition establishes the "container/containee" relation between the arguments of a predicator.

Keywords

• spatial propositions
• kalhori kurdish
• cognitive semantics
• space metaphors
• container image schema