Vital relations in the metaphors of Covid-19 in Lukabaras

Abstract

Since the emergence of Covid-19 pandemic in late 2019, the metaphorical framing of this respiratory disease also known as the Corona Virus, has been manifested variedly in different social contexts and discourses. The pandemic offered an opportunity to explore the cultural framing of abstract concepts through conceptual mappings. Hence, the purpose of this article was to examine the extent to which vital relations accounted for the metaphors of Covid-19 pandemic in Lukabaras, a Bantu language spoken in Western Kenya. The study relied on the tenets of Conceptual Integrated Theory (CIT) to examine vital relations as one of the components in the cognitive operations in conceptual metaphors of Covid-19 in Lukabaras. The study established and described the following vital relations; Analogy, Disanalogy, Cause- Effect, Part-Whole, Identity, Uniqueness and Similarity. The findings also revealed that the most prevalent vital relation was Disanalogy. However, it was established that vital relations such as Intentionality, and Representation, Role, Time and Change were not present in the metaphors of Covid-19 in Lukabaras. Nevertheless, the study revealed that vital relations played a role in the metaphorical conceptualization of Covid-19 pandemic. This had implications on community-based health communication and interventions to prevent future disease out breaks.