Filial Construct States in Arabic: Exploring Metaphtonymies and Embodied Cultural Cognition

Abstract

This study explores a specific category of construct states in Arabic, which involves the use of filial words to form the construct head, producing what we refer to as “filial construct states”, e.g., bana:t llajl, which literally translates to “daughters of the night” meaning “dreams”. Using a manually collected specialized corpus, and adopting Conceptual Metaphor Theory as based on main meaning focus (Kövecses 2010, 2011) as a theoretical framework, we argue that the way Arabic-speaking individuals perceive family and society may influence linguistic constructs leading to the development of filial construct states. Additionally, we propose that these constructs arise from the interaction between two cognitive processes: metaphor and metonymy, and as such they are of a metaphtonymic nature. We maintain that cognition is profoundly influenced by embodiment and cultural context. Thus, in order for cognition to be considered cultural, it needs to encompass and reflect the cultural knowledge that arises and develops from interactions and communication within a specific speech community.