Metaphors in everyday language

Abstract

This aim of this study is to investigate speakers' awareness of metaphors in everyday language. The study tested the hypothesis that native speakers of English, in other words persons who make frequent use of the language, are likely to be less aware of the metaphorical structures present in language than bilingual speakers of Maltese and English since the metaphorical status of certain structures may be lost to speakers for whom English is more automatic and spontaneous, metaphors in such cases being referred to as ''dead". It was further hypothesized that awareness of metaphoricity will be lower amongst bilingual Maltese speakers having English as their dominant language as compared to their Maltese dominant counterparts. A survey was compiled to test this hypothesis. This consisted of three exercises. The exercises required the participants to identify the metaphorical structures and explain the comparisons involved. Participants were also asked to indicate whether they understood each metaphorical phrase and also whether they thought that they were likely to use the phrase in question. The results obtained provide evidence for the position that the more native-like the proficiency of the participants, the lower the likelihood of their identifying the metaphors within the phrases provided. However, while this was the case for the native speakers only, the English Maltese speakers were on the whole highly aware of the presence of metaphorical structures, and in some cases, the awareness of metaphorical structures was greater amongst these speakers than amongst their Maltese dominant counterparts. A reason for this could be that their specialization in English at University level has resulted in their being more alert to certain figures of speech than other native English dominant speakers of English would have been.