The process of forming a more complex idiomatic meaning using a principle of integration metaphors

Abstract

The process meaning formation of idiom occurs more complexly in the four human mental domains using metaphorical integration strategies as a new alternative to metaphorical studies. The selected metaphorical data was the idiom “kepala angin” with the highest frequency at 531 occurances. The main purpose of this study is to analyze the process of forming the meaning of the idiom “kepala angin” using the principle of integration. The research method used is a qualitative method based on a computerized corpus approach. The two databases selected were Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) and Malay Concordane Project (MCP). The selected data were analyzed using integration principles modified from the Blending Theory introduced by Fauconnier and Turner (2002). To obtain “kepala angin” idiom, concordances of “kepala” lexical units were generated from a total of 12, 227 in DBP and MCP corpora from over six million data sets. A computerized corpus descriptive analysis approach was used to parse the “kepala” data. The findings proved that the meaning of idioms occur in an orderly manner through four separate mental mindset of the Malays, namely a first input, a second input, the generic space and space integration. Indeed, this study adds new information in the field of cognitive linguistics on the basis of the uniqueness of the Malay mind.