Connotations of animal metaphors in the Jordanian context

Table 10. Number and Percentage of Each Connotation and Related Tokens of X IS AN OWL

Being pessimistic

Just around 44 percent of the responses indicated that the metaphorical expression X IS AN OWL connotes pessimism and being full of negative thoughts as is the case in the following example:

`I use it to refer to a pessimist who always expects the worse to happen. For instance, if we are planning to go on a picnic, such a person would say we will be delayed or something will cause it to be cancelled, so I tell this person, `stop it, owl'.

Being a grouch and looking unfriendly

Just under a third of the responses associated describing a person as an owl with being bad tempered, being habitually irritable and looking unfriendly and unpleasant as in:

`I use this metaphor to describe a person who always puts a frown on his face and never smiles'.

`When bad things happen to you you describe him/her as an owl'.

Bringing bad luck

Just over a fifth of responses indicated that this metaphorical expression is used when the person involved brings bad luck to others or when he/she is like a bad omen.

Being an evening person

Similar to English, an Owl in the Jordanian context, is sometimes used to describe a person who stays up all night as in:

`We call those who stay up for late hours night owls'.

X IS A DEER

Analysis of the data shows that this animal metaphor has three connotations, namely, (1) being characterized by beauty, (2) wellness and being in good health, and (3) being slender and agile. Table 11 shows the numbers and percentages for each connotation.

Being characterized by beauty

Appreciation of beauty is something deeply rooted in the Arab culture and for expressing it, Arabs, since ancient times, have used several source domains such as moon, flower, sunset, among others. One source domain though which appeared extensively in literary romantic works among Arab poets is deer, also known as gazelle, antelope, oryx, among others. Be it for its eyes or its body, the deer is a symbol of beauty among Arabs. In one of the most delicate and beautiful poems, Ali ibn al-Jahm wrote of the oryx's eyes in a famous work sometimes titled 4^11 (Eyes of the Oryx) the following soft and sweet words:

The eyes of the oryx between Rusafa and Jisr

Spark desire from a place I know - and a place I don't;

Table 11. Number and Percentage of Each Connotation and Related Tokens of X IS A DEER

They restore old love to me, even though I did not forget,

Yet they fuel my fire with more fire.

In a similar vein, just over half of the respondents indicate that when a person, especially a girl, is described as a deer, this means she is remarkably beautiful as is demonstrated by the following example:

`Deer is used when flirting especially with beautiful girls'.

Because of their attachment to its beauty, many Arabs name their

daughters after the animal name deer and its synonyms such as Reem,

Shadin, Rasha, Khawla, among others.

Being slender and agile

Arabs in general and Bedouins in particular have long attributed to deer qualities of agility, speed and flexibility, due to its ability to maneuver and escape from predators in deserts and this legacy is articulated in early Arabic poetry whether by pre-Islamic or early Islamic poets. Similarly, about a third of the responses indicated such a resemblance between a person described as a deer and those qualities. Below is an illustrative example:

`It used when describing someone as slender'.

2. Wellness and being in good health

In an attempt to motivate and compliment a person who is sick or recovering from being sick, reference to deer is often made to indicate wellness and looking good as is seen in the following example:

`When I pay a sick person a visit, I use it to mean that the evil is gone'.

Conclusion

The findings show that the ten most common animal metaphors in the Jordanian context are (1) X IS A MONKEY, (2) X IS A DONKEY, (3) X IS A COW, (4) X IS A SNAKE, (5) X IS A DOG, (6) X IS A PIG, (7) X IS A BEAR, (8) X IS A DUCK, (9) X IS AN OWL, and (10) X IS A DEER. They have 39 connotations. To begin with

X IS A MONKEY it is used to convey five connotations, the most common of which is hyperactivity. As for X IS A DONKEY, it has four connotations with stupidity being its most common connotation. X IS A COW has six connotations and it is associated the most with obesity, especially when referring to females. X IS A SNAKE connotes being toxic and deceitful. With regard to X IS A DOG, is associated mostly with ill-mannerisms. In regard to X IS A PIG, it has three connotations and its mostly linked with being deceitful. As for X IS A BEAR, it has four connotations with its most frequent connotation being fat. X IS A DUCK has three connotations and it is associated mostly with being pretty with a beautiful body. X IS AN OWL has three connotations and it is linked mostly with being pessimistic. Finally, X IS A DEER has three connotations with being characterized by beauty as its most common connotation.

The environment we live in plays an important role in how we view the world around us and how we see animals and use them metaphorically in our conversations. For a Bedouin poet a dog was an ideal source domain for heaping praise since it is associated with loyalty, but for the Caliph al-Mutwakkil, who was well known of his power, authority and awe, it was regarded as very insulting. When the same Bedouin poet moved to the city, his views of the world changed and he started using source domains other than those that he was familiar with in the desert.

ADHERENCE TO ETHICAL STANDARDS

Ethics Declaration. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national committee (Institutional Review Board/Deanship of Academic Research/University of Jordan. Ref. № 74-2022 and with the Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed.

Funding. The research is not funded.

Conflict of Interest. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Data Availability Statement. The data can be accessed in Mendeley The data are also available on request from the corresponding author.

Author Contributions. Hady Jihad Hamdan, Hanan Majed Al-Madanat, and Wael Jihad Hamdan contributed to the study conception and design. Hanan Al-Madanat contributed to the selection of relevant sources for the literature review. Hady Jihad

Hamdan wrote the first draft of the manuscript and both Hanan Majed Al-Madanat and Wael Jihad Hamdan reviewed the draft and provided feedback. Wael Hamdan enriched the literature review with relevant material from first language acquisition. Hady Jihad Hamdan re-examined the manuscript in light of the given feedback and produced the final proofread edited and refined version. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript and all authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Informed Consent Statement. Informed consent was obtained from the participants.

Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

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