Cognitive Semantics of Hausa Metaphor: A Conceptual Metaphor Theory Approach to Cultural Meaning-Making

Conceptual metaphor theory, which holds that metaphor is not merely a linguistic phenomenon but a fundamental cognitive process through which abstract domains are understood through more concrete source domains, provides a productive framework for investigating the cultural specificity of metaphorical meaning-making in Hausa. This doctoral study applies and extends conceptual metaphor theory to the analysis of Hausa metaphor, making original contributions to both Hausa linguistics and cross-cultural cognitive semantics. Drawing on Lakoff and Johnson's conceptual metaphor framework, Kövecses's cross-cultural metaphor research, and Hausa cultural studies, the research employs a large-scale corpus and experimental design. A Hausa metaphor corpus of 180,000 words was constructed from literary, journalistic, and conversational sources, and systematically analysed for conceptual metaphor instances. Experimental elicitation tasks were designed to probe the cognitive salience and cultural embodiment of identified conceptual metaphors among 100 native Hausa speakers. Comparative analysis against documented English and Arabic conceptual metaphor systems was conducted to examine universals and culture-specific patterns. Original findings document a rich system of Hausa conceptual metaphors in which Islamic religious concepts, agricultural lifeworld experiences, and kinship-based social relations provide dominant source domains for understanding abstract target domains including time, governance, morality, and emotion. The study identifies significant divergences from both English and Arabic conceptual metaphor systems despite Hausa's heavy Islamic lexical borrowing. Theoretical contributions include a Hausa Conceptual Metaphor Inventory and a revised framework for analysing conceptual metaphor in linguistically-Arabised African languages. Keywords: Hausa metaphor, Conceptual metaphor theory, Cognitive semantics, Cultural meaning, Cross-cultural linguistics.