Metaphor and cultural conceptualization of death: A study of eulogistic expressions in Christians’ and non-believers’ funerals in Taiwan

LU, Wei-lun. Metaphor and cultural conceptualization of death: A study of eulogistic expressions in Christians’ and non-believers’ funerals in Taiwan. In The 12th conference of RaAM – the Association for Researching and Applying Metaphor. 2018.

Basic information

• Original name: Metaphor and cultural conceptualization of death: A study of eulogistic expressions in Christians’ and non-believers’ funerals in Taiwan
• Authors: LU, Wei-lun (158 Taiwan, guarantor, belonging to the institution).
• Edition: The 12th conference of RaAM – the Association for Researching and Applying Metaphor, 2018.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Presentations at conferences
• Field of Study: 60203 Linguistics
• Country of publisher: Hong Kong
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• WWW: URL
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14640/18:00105049
• Organization unit: Language Centre
• Keywords (in Czech): metaphor; death; religion
• Keywords in English: metaphor; death; religion
• Tags: International impact, Reviewed

Abstract

The presentation explores cultural conceptualizations reflected in the language of death by analyzing metaphor in eulogistic expressions delivered at Christian funerals and non-believers’ in Taiwan. The data come from funerals in Taiwan, which constitute a distinctive cultural event category. Delivering eulogistic expressions is an integral part of any funeral in Taiwan, where written eulogistic expressions are displayed on white cloth banners throughout the ceremony. The expressions are highly conventionalized, as they always appear in the form of four-character idioms, which indicates how deeply rooted they are in the local cultural schemas. The practice is so frequent and culturally significant that the Taipei City Government set up an official online system for requesting eulogistic expressions on electronic banners at public funerals. A cultural metaphor analysis is done on the expressions in the system. The design of the eulogy-requesting system provides a convenient platform through which the interaction between culture, religion and metaphor can be observed. When one requests a eulogy, the system asks the religious belief of the deceased, and accordingly shows the appropriate expressions for selection. There are three main categories in the system: Buddhist, Christian, and General (which I take as non-believers), which more or less reflects the religious composition of the contemporary Taiwanese culture. I will discuss the metaphor differences among the three sub-cultures and will try to compare the sub-cultures especially to see whether Christian eulogies in Taiwan have picked up local cultural elements. It is hoped that the study can help show how metaphor research can shed light on the ways in which culture and religion co-contribute to variation of language use in conceptualizing death in a multi-religious society, with Christians’ and non-believer’s funerals in Taiwan as a case in point.