Fables and Figurative Language

master's thesis

• Title (croatian): Basne i figurativni jezik
• Author: Sanja Rašković
• Mentor: Alexander Douglas Hoyt (mentor)
• Committee member: Anđel Starčević (predsjednik povjerenstva)
• Committee member: Janja Čulig (član povjerenstva)
• Committee member: Alexander Douglas Hoyt (član povjerenstva)
• Granter: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; (Department of English language and literature); Zagreb
• Defense date and country: 2023-02-28, Croatia
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: HUMANISTIC SCIENCES; Philology; Anglistics

Abstract

This thesis offers an analysis of metaphors in four of Aesop’s fables often used in teaching English as a foreign language. First it provides for some of the latest and most influential theoretical approaches to metaphors such as the cognitive linguistic idea of the existence of a conceptual metaphor and the method of metaphor identification through close reading. The latter was adopted to identify metaphors and applied to all examples found in the four fables that were potentially identified as metaphoric. This approach was useful in defining the characters of the fables and interpreting the main message of each one of them. It consists of a close confrontation of dictionary definitions of each lexical unit present in the example. If the basic meaning of the lexical unit is different from the meaning influenced by the context, we can define it as metaphorical. The analysis has determined that all examples were metaphorical and it has also established that all the characters in the fables were primarily created through personification. The theoretical analysis has been further corroborated with examples from personal teaching experience which prove the value of fables as original material in teaching a foreign language.

• Keywords: Aesop; fables; metaphor; personification; teaching
• Language: english
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:131:321485
• Study programme: Title: English Language and Literature (double major); specializations in: Linguistics, Literature and Culture, Translation, TEFL; Course: Linguistics; Study programme type: university; Study level: graduate; Academic / professional title: magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti (magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti)
• Type of resource: Text
• File origin: Born digital
• Access conditions: Open access
• Created on: 2023-03-29 14:50:53