ABSTRACT
The work takes a look at the metaphorical extension of the body part terms in Igbo language and their meaning interpretations, when such body part terms are used in constructions and expressions. The study also examined metaphorical use of words in Igbo language constructions. It identified metaphors and how they are used in constructions. The information and the data used for this work were collected from native speakers of the Igbo language and from text books and journals by other scholars. The objective of the study was to examine the nature and structure of Igbo metaphors, how the meanings inherent in them are extended. Also extended metaphors in Igbo language as that with a continued meaning was examined and analyzed. As stated above, the data for the study was sourced from Igbo language speakers in the South Eastern Nigeria.
Selected metaphors and metaphorical expressions in Igbo language constructions were analyzed. The metaphorical analysis were made based on the structural data gathered and generated from Igbo language metaphors. The metaphorical extension of the body part terms analysis was carried out looking at what metaphors are, and how they extended in meaning from the literal domain of meaning to the figurative domain that is where the extended meanings come in.
It was observed that literal and figurative languages is a distinction within which some fields of language analysis presented in particular stylistics, rhetorics and semantics. Literal language uses words in a way that conveys their conventionally accepted meanings, whereas figurative languages, uses words in a way that deviates from their conventionally accepted definitions in order to convey a more complicated and extended meanings.
It was observed in the course of the study that figurative languages are often created by presenting words in such a way that, they are equated, compared or associated with normally unrelated meanings and these meanings could be extended. Considering the fact that in Igbo language figurative constructions are very significant, in that it conveys meanings other than its literal meanings and conventionally accepted usages or meanings, as literal meanings confer meaning to words in the sense of the meanings they have by themselves, outside any figure of speech. Literal languages ensures consistency in meaning regardless of context, with the extended meaning corresponding exactly to the meaning of the individual words.
The use of body part metaphors in Igbo language constructions use words or phrases that implies a non-literal meanings which do not make sense or that could be true also.
Therefore the work or study investigated extended metaphor that is continued over multiple senses. When a body part term is used in communication, the body acts as a container and the parts represent different content or things outside their literal meanings.
