A CROSS-CULTURAL COMPARISON OF METAPHOR IN SINGAPORE POETRY

Abstract

This study aims to find support for the conceptual approach to metaphor through the analysis of metaphors for life found in Singaporean English and Singaporean Malay poetry. It follows the framework for metaphorical analysis which has been laid out by Lakoff ( 1993 ). Lakoff has argued that if metaphors were merely linguistic expressions, we would expect different linguistic expressions to be different metaphors. However, this is not the case. Instead, different linguistic expressions are often different realisations of a unified way of conceptualising a particular abstract concept, for example, life. Insofar as the conceptualisation of experience feeds on universal modes of input like sight, sound, touch, or on universal parameters of perception such as vertical vs horizontal, up vs down, we will expect that metaphors, which tap on concrete experiences to capture abstract concepts, will, at some fairly abstract level, be generalisable across cultures. This will be true of the use of metaphor both in ordinary language, as well as in literary works. At a lower level of metaphorical expression, however, culture-specific parameters often come into play to shape the ultimate linguistic form of the metaphors. As a result, a metaphor for life may be realised linguistically in different ways. This study begins with a look at some of the metaphors for life used in ordinary language. Samples of English and Malay poetry are then analysed to find out if similar metaphors also occur in literacy language. Singaporean literature reflects the cultural and linguistic pluralism of the country. There have been substantial bodies of local literature in the four official languages - English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil, each reflecting to a certain extent the unique features of its literary heritage and cultural context. However, approaching the cross-cultural comparison of metaphor from the conceptual perspective, we would expect similarities to exist in the way life is expressed metaphorically across different genres and languages. This is because metaphors are not seen as the unique creation of individual poets or speakers, but rather as a manifestation of a universal tendency to express abstract concepts in terms of concrete experiences. These experiences, in tum, are accessed through sight, sound, touch and other forms of sensory input which are common to all human beings. Besides looking for these superordinate-level similarities, this study also looks at the ultimate linguistic expression of the metaphors, which may vary due to culture specific influences. I will examine the differences that emerge in the use of metaphor to conceptualise life in Singapore Malay and English poetry, and attempt to account for these differences in terms of the salient culture-specific factors.