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Article published In:
Transcategoriality: A crosslinguistic perspective
Edited by Sylvie Hancil, Danh Thành Do-Hurinville and Huy Linh Dao
[Cognitive Linguistic Studies 5:1] 2018
► pp. 155–187

The kaleidoscope of divine images

Conceptual metaphors concerning God in gospel songs

| National Taiwan University
| National Taiwan University

Compared to metaphors about God in the Bible, those in other Christian contexts seem to receive little academic attention. To bridge this gap, this study examines metaphors gathered from gospel songs on Billboard and iTunes to analyze the abstract concept of God from a cognitive linguistic viewpoint through extending the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory. Our findings indicate that while diverse kinds of metaphors focus on the multi-dimensionality of God such as his characteristics (e.g., GOD IS A MAGICIAN and GOD IS A LOVER), outline (e.g., GOD IS A CONTAINER and GOD IS LIQUID), and supreme status (e.g., GOD IS HIGH), structural metaphors tend to represent the overwhelming majority and thus form the basis for the structural-metaphor-dominant phenomenon. In addition, the flawless figure of God is suggested to result from the PERFECTION image schema which is responsible for hidden aspects in related metaphorical structures. Furthermore, metaphors about divine images, having their mapping details enriched by biblical context, are suggested to possess recessive metaphor inheritance. Finally, the rhythm of ‘chain of metaphors’ is proposed to interpret how the spirit of the songs about the divine being are brought out. This study sheds light on our overall understanding of the concepts of God in Christian culture, and contributes to the development of interdisciplinary studies concerning metaphor, religion, cognition, and culture.

Keywords: Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), gospel songs, divine images, structural metaphors, the Bible, chain of metaphors, cognition
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background information and literature review
    • 2.1Metaphor and religion
    • 2.2The development of gospel song in Western culture
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Sources of the data
    • 3.2The definition of God
    • 3.3The identification of metaphorical linguistic expressions in the data
    • 3.4The classification of different types of metaphors
  • 4.Discussion
    • 4.1The structural-metaphor-dominant phenomenon
    • 4.2The eternally perfect images of God
    • 4.3Recessive metaphor inheritance
    • 4.4The rhythm of the chain of metaphors
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 30 August 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cogls.00017.hua
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