An educational investigation of types of visual schemas in Nahj al-Balaghah

Visual schemas are one of the most important topics in cognitive linguistics that express cognitive processes that are formed as a result of human physical experiences in outside world and make it possible to understand abstract concepts. The present study has examined a number of sermons of Imam Ali (as) in the book of Nahj al-Balaghah in the framework of cognitive linguistics. The purpose of this study is to analyze the frequency of schemas in the mentioned book. The visual schemas used in the selected sermons were extracted and then descriptively examined from a religious and linguistic perspective. The results show that there are all kinds of image schemas (container- path- force) and there are also some sentences which show they have two kinds of schemas. Also the results shows that between the image schemas, the path schemas has the most frequent in the sermons. Which from an educational perspective is a kind of emphasis on the path of life, transience and it is mortal, starting from a point and ending somewhere.Container schemas has the most frequent after path schemas. Which in terms of education indicates the existential capacity of human beings, that force and motion are present in the volumetric schema. Eventually the force schemas and the schemas which are related to two groups have the least frequent in the table of frequency. This, in terms of education, can indicate the limited power of man and his inability to face the eternal divine power.