Metaphor Use in Nigerian Nollywood Film Scripts: A Conceptual Metaphor Analysis

Conceptual metaphor theory, which holds that metaphorical language reflects underlying cognitive mappings rather than merely decorative linguistic choices, provides a productive analytical lens for examining the cultural assumptions embedded in popular media texts. This study applies conceptual metaphor analysis to selected Nollywood film scripts produced between 2020 and 2024, examining the conceptual metaphors used in constructions of love, wealth, and spiritual power, three of the most recurring thematic domains in contemporary Nollywood productions. A corpus of scripts from fifteen commercially released Nollywood films was assembled, with metaphorical expressions identified using the Metaphor Identification Procedure (MIPVU) and subsequently classified into source domain categories. Results reveal a rich inventory of conceptual metaphors, with LOVE IS A JOURNEY, WEALTH IS VEGETATION, and SPIRITUAL POWER IS PHYSICAL FORCE emerging as the most systematically instantiated mappings. Several metaphors identified in the corpus show clear roots in Yoruba and Igbo conceptual systems, demonstrating that Nollywood scripts mediate between indigenous and globally circulating conceptual metaphor conventions. The prevalence of journey metaphors for love across scripts from different language backgrounds suggests partial conceptual universality, while vegetation metaphors for wealth appear distinctively West African in their specific lexical realizations. The study contributes to the emerging literature on African conceptual metaphor and has implications for understanding how Nollywood constructs and circulates cultural values. Keywords: conceptual metaphor, Nollywood, film scripts, cultural cognition, Nigerian English.