An Analysis of Conceptual Metaphors in Selected Folk Poetry of Nangarhar

Abstract

Pashto folk preserves collective experiences, beliefs, emotions, and cultural values. This study examines conceptual metaphors in a purposively selected corpus of Nangarhar folk poetry using Lakoff and Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT). A qualitative descriptive-interpretive design was employed, drawing on published collections, literary and research sources, and selected oral materials. Examples were coded by source domain, target domain, mapping, metaphor type, and cultural interpretation. The findings identify orientational, ontological, and personification patterns, including container structures and metaphors in blessings and curses. Abstract concepts such as honor, suffering, knowledge, love, moral transformation, and social evaluation are conceptualized through spatial relations, bodily experience, objects, substances, and human agency. The findings suggest that these mappings are cognitively motivated and culturally situated. While not representative of all Nangarhar folk poetry, the corpus reveals recurring relationships among metaphor, cognition, and Pashtun cultural experience, contributing to cognitive linguistics, Pashto literary studies, and folklore research.