Publications
Publication details [#11717]
Herat, Manel . 2014. Avoiding the reaper: Notions of death in Sri Lankan obituaries. International Journal of Language Studies 8 (3).
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Keywords
Place, Publisher
Lulu Press Inc.
Abstract
The article discusses the findings from a study in the language of obituaries. It uses data from two obituary corpora taken from Sri Lankan obituaries published in The Sunday Observer in 2003 and in 2012. It attempts to answer a series of research questions having to do with the use of conceptual metaphor and euphemism as a way to avoid talking about death. The culture-specific metaphors reflect the cultural, religious and social characteristics of the Sri Lankan society as well as the personal and social characteristics of the dead and the bereaved.