Cognitive Metaphors Used in Colombian Sign Language in Five Autobiographical Stories and the Image Schemata They Are Related to

Abstract

This paper reports the results of an exploratory study whose purpose was to identify and characterize the metaphors in a sample of five videos in Colombian sign language (in Spanish, lsc).The data were analyzed using theoretical contributions from Lakoff and Johnson’s theories (1980) about cognitive metaphors and image schemata, and from Wilcox (2000) and Taub (2001) on double mapping in sign language. The results show a frequency analysis of image schemata and the metaphors present into metaphorical expressions in five autobiographical narratives by five congenital deaf adults. The study concludes that sign language has cognitive metaphors that let deaf people map from a concrete domain to an abstract one in order to build concepts.

Keywords

• Lengua de señas, doble mapeo, metáforas cognitivas, esquemas de imagen, dominios