All Metaphors Are Equal, but Some Metaphors Are More Equal Than Others: A Comparative Study of Metaphors in George Orwell’s Animal Farm and Two Persian Translations

Metaphors, and the implication they bear on languages, is a hotly-debated topic among cognitive linguists. According to Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, a metaphor is a figure of speech that implies two things are equivalent. However, ever since the emergence of Conceptual Metaphor Theory, cognitive linguists have considered the very term in another light. Kövecses (۲۰۰۵) argues that conceptual metaphors are a near-universal phenomenon that manifest in a similar style in almost all languages and cultures. The present study endeavors to explore the cognitive aspects of conceptual metaphors used in George Orwell’s Animal Farm in two distinctly different languages, English and Persian, and to see if Kövecses’s hypothesis on near-universality of metaphors stands true in this particular case. The similarities and differences discovered are further narrowed down into the typology suggested by Grady (۱۹۹۷) in search of a meaningful connection. The findings of this research and other similar studies can help shed light on the unknown aspects of cognition and language and the implications it might have on the way our brain interprets language.

Keywords:

cognitive linguistics , metaphors , conceptual metaphors , metaphoric blends , universality in metaphors