Once/ outside,/ the/ seven/ of/ us/– Walter,/ Raymond,/ Govan,/ Kathy,/ Andrew,/

Elias/ and/ I/ – were/ handcuffed/ and/ piled into/ the/ back/ of/ a/ police van (p.
453).

There are 23 lexical units in this sentence, only one of which was annotated as
being metaphor-related: the phrasal verb piled into.

Piled into
Contextual meaning: The Macmillan Dictionary categorizes piled into as a phrasal
verb that means ‘to get into a place or something such as a car, especially in large
numbers or in a way that is not organized’, e.g. a number of people into the back of
a van where they would sit uncomfortably due to limited space.

Basic meaning: The basic meaning is the same as the contextual meaning ‘to get
into a place or something such as a car, especially in large numbers or in a way
that is not organised’. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) lemmatises pile as a
verb which usually goes with in, into, on, off, out of. The meaning is the same as
found in the Macmillan Dictionary ‘(pile into/out of) (of a group of people) get into
or out of (a vehicle) in a disorganized manner’.

Sufficiently distinct: The contextual and the basic meanings are the same: they
refer to a number of people getting inside a vehicle in a disorganised manner. The
difference in this instance is that the people were forced to get into the police
vehicle; they did not do so voluntarily. Note the phrase ‘were handcuffed and piled
into’. This suggests that the people were not treated as people but objects in which
case piled into can be annotated as metaphor-related.

Comparison: We can understand the manner in which Mandela and his

colleagues were reduced to objects.
Decision: The lexical unit piled into is related to metaphor.
Type: Structural (HUMANS ARE OBJECTS

(2a) ST: The/ high/ spirits/ with/ which/ we/ left/ Pretoria/ had/ been/ snuffed out/ by/
its/ stern/ atmosphere (p. 460).
There are 15 lexical units in this sentence, only two of which were annotated as
being metaphor-related: the adjective high and the phrasal verb snuffed out.
High
Contextual meaning: The contextual meaning is sense 5 in the Macmillan
Dictionary ‘happy or excited’.
Basic meaning: The basic meaning is sense 1 in the Macmillan Dictionary ‘large in
size from the top to the ground’.
Sufficiently distinct: This is sufficiently distinct as the basic meaning is concrete
and is used when referring to things that are a long way from the ground, while the
contextual meaning is abstract and refers to human emotions.
Comparison: The happiness Mandela and company experienced can be
understood in terms of something that is at a higher level.
Decision: High is metaphorical and is used indirectly.
Type: Orientational (HAPPY IS UP).
Snuffed out
Contextual meaning: The contextual meaning is sense 2 in the Macmillan
Dictionary ‘to make something end quickly, especially by force’.
Basic meaning: The basic meaning is sense 1 in the Macmillan Dictionary ‘to
make a flame stop by squeezing it with your fingers or covering it with a snuffer’.
Sufficiently distinct: The basic meaning is concrete and relates to physically
putting out a flame, while the contextual meaning is abstract and is concerned with
people’s emotions.
Comparison: We can understand people being depressed by a gloomy
atmosphere. Mandela and his colleagues were in high spirits when they were in
Pretoria prison because they were near their people, but at Robben Island they
were far from friends and family and the new surroundings were depressing. It
refers to the manner in which they were saddened.
Decision: Snuffed out is related to metaphor and is used indirectly.
Type: Ontological metaphor (EMOTION IS FIRE).

2019-THE VALUE OF METAPHORS pdf

3. Research Methodology
The qualitative research methodology which, according to Mugenda and Mugenda
(2003), does not produce discrete numerical data was employed in the present
study. The text was purposively sampled for study because of its richness in
metaphors. Kidagaa Kimemwozea is also a compulsory set text for all students taking
the 8-4-4 system of education in Kenya. The paper used four coders (including the
researcher) and the Metaphor Identification Procedure Vrije Universiteit (MIPVU) to
select the metaphors from the text. The four coders had to first read the text and
then propose lexical units which were thought to be metaphors. The proposed
metaphors were then subjected to inter-rater reliability check to test if indeed they
were metaphors. The inter-rater reliability check is one of the tenets of the MIPVU
that is used to measure exact metaphors. In this, a lexical unit is selected as a
metaphor-related word if its contextual meaning contrasts with its basic meaning
(Goatly, 1997). In cases where the four coders disagreed with the identification of a
metaphor, they discussed its meaning and categorized it once there was an
agreement (Steen et al., 2010). Although there are other procedures employed by
cognitive linguists to identify metaphors, the MIPVU was used because it provides
analytical steps that can be used to measure precise metaphors. After the selection
of the metaphors, they were classified and tabulated into the conceptual domains
of Human Being, Animal, Plant and Objects using the principle of Great Chain of
Being metaphor (GCBM).