Conceptual Metaphors and Image Schemes in the Song Lyrics of Nadin Amizah's Laika Album: A Cognitive Semantic Study

Abstract

This study aims to identify and describe the types of conceptual metaphors and image schemas found in the lyrics of Nadin Amizah’s album Laika, Yang Ditinggalkan. This study employs a descriptive qualitative method with a cognitive semantic approach. The data source consists of the song lyrics from Laika, Yang Ditinggalkan, while the data comprise words, phrases, clauses, or lyric excerpts containing metaphors. The data were collected through literature study and the listening-and-note-taking technique. The data were analyzed based on Lakoff and Johnson’s classification of conceptual metaphors, which includes structural, orientational, and ontological metaphors. The data were subsequently analyzed according to Croft and Cruse’s image schemas, including space, scale, container, force, unity/multiplicity, identity, and existence. The results show that all three types of conceptual metaphors are found in the lyrics of Laika, Yang Ditinggalkan. The metaphors employ the image schemas of space, scale, container, force, unity/multiplicity, and existence, while the identity image schema is not found in the analyzed data. The use of metaphors in the lyrics represents various emotional experiences, including loss, anger, doubt, sadness, attachment, and struggle. Abstract emotional experiences are conceptualized through physical, spatial, and interactional experiences that are closely related to human experience. These findings demonstrate the relationship between metaphorical expressions, embodied experience, and conceptualization processes in the construction of meaning in song lyrics.