The Use of Metaphor in the Youth’s Speech: A Cognitive Approach

In cognitive semantics, metaphor has been assigned a new meaning, aiming to evaluate the meaning of a more abstract field expressed in a more concrete field. Using a descriptive-analytic method within the framework of Laykoff’s contemporary theory of metaphor, this research aimed to explore metaphor development and to study the function of metaphor expressions in the conversations of high school students. Attempts were to find out the frequency of the metaphors used by the young people for expressing their opinions and intentions. The statistical population of this research included all 5000 high school students (aged 15-18) studying at some high schools in the academic year 2015-2016, of whom a sample of 550 students was selected using the random cluster sampling method. We used interviews and a questionnaire to collect the data required for this research. The data extracted from the ordinary conversations of the students were analyzed by quantitative statistical techniques, including the frequency distribution of the metaphors and the chi-square test. The metaphors in the data were classified based on their semantic functions and relevant mapping. The results indicated a significant difference between the metaphorical expressions used by male and female students. The findings revealed that male students used more metaphors in their conversations than females did. The findings also showed that structural metaphors were the most frequent ones used by both groups. In addition, orientational metaphors had the highest frequency of occurrence among male students, while female students most frequently used ontological metaphors.