Understanding Sarcastic Metaphorical Expression in Hindi through Conceptual Integration Theory

Abstract

Metaphorical expressions are one of the most indispensable aspects of human language, thought and action. Their meanings are figurative, which in other words means that they carry literal meanings, which are in direct opposition to the intended or primary meanings. Metaphors are not only limited to being used in figurative writing and speaking but they are also pervasively used in everyday language. Irony, sarcasm, jokes, puns and other such metaphorical expressions rampantly occur in our everyday speech. This paper examines the abstract notion of sarcasm with special reference to Hindi language within the framework of conceptual integration theory. A corpus of five thousand sentences has been procured from Indian Language Technology Proliferation and Deployment Centre (TDIL) for the present study. The findings of the existing paper aim to provide a theoretical understanding of how Hindi sarcasm is perceived among the native speakers.