METAPHORS OF MENTAL ILLNESS IN GĨKŨYŨ, A BANTU LANGUAGE SPOKEN IN KENYA, AFRICA

Abstract

Metaphor is an instrument of understanding reality. Diseases and illness are phenomena that are reliably understood through metaphors. It is against this backdrop that this study set out to identify the metaphors of mental illness in Gĩkũyũ, a Bantu language spoken in Kenya, then, interpret the metaphors using the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT). To achieve this objective, a purposive sample of twenty speakers of Gĩkũyũ (10 men and 10 women) was interviewed. The study collected 34 metaphors of mental illness in Gĩkũyũ. In addition, the metaphors collected were mapped into different kinds of conceptual domains: Mental disease is a disturbance, a deficiency and a head disease. Furthermore, the study noted that females tend to interpret the target domain of mental illness is disturbance; a deficiency and a head disease more than the males. The paper concludes that metaphor is an important cognitive process, central to language and thought in the conceptualization of mental illness in Gĩkũyũ. The paper, therefore, recommends that there is need to examine the correlation between the language that people use, the thought line behind the language and the way they behave.