Mapping the Abstract: How Conceptual Metaphors Architect Lampungese Social Realities

Abstract

Modern cognitive linguistics acknowledges metaphors as essential cognitive processes that influence human cognition; however, their manifestation in indigenous Austronesian languages remains significantly underexamined. This study seeks to address this gap by examining the social, relational, and emotional dimensions of the Lampung language (Lampungese) through conceptual metaphors. A qualitative research design was employed grounded in Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), utilizing a meticulous triangulation of naturalistic observation, in-depth interviews with twenty native speakers, and natural social experiments within traditional Lampungese enclaves. The analysis indicates that the meaning-making process of quotidian Lampungese predominantly relies on orientational and structural metaphors. The application of orientational mappings to systematically arrange spatial relations, such as face-to-face proximity (lawan) and linearity, serves as a metric for assessing cooperative dynamics and emotional resilience, devoid of the intrinsic competitiveness present in related languages. Simultaneously, structural metaphors facilitate the articulation of abstract cultural realities via tangible physical concepts. It transforms the physical aspects of family life (inggoman) into emotional experiences, everyday labour into sacred rituals of tradition (begawi), and the proportional into the divine (bagian). This study concludes that the daily vocabulary of the Lampungese is not merely a collection of arbitrary linguistic signs but rather the result of intricate and profoundly rooted cultural logic. The findings present substantial empirical evidence for the cultural specificity of CMT, contest superficial literal misinterpretations of the indigenous lexicon, and furnish profound insight into how the Lampungese community cognitively constructs a social reality characterised by harmony, fulfilment, and divine order.