Metaphor and the representations of health and illness among the Semai indigenous community in Malaysia
Diverse methods and approaches have been utilised in researching the cultural bases of health, illness and wellbeing. Understanding the cultural representation of health and illness of particular communities becomes urgent especially when the community concerned is underserved in healthcare. In t...
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Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
2017
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11769/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11769/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11769/1/18741-63574-1-PB.pdf |
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ukm-117692018-06-28T07:17:34Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11769/ Metaphor and the representations of health and illness among the Semai indigenous community in Malaysia Lisbeth Sinan Lendik, Chan, Mei Yuit Sumathi Renganathan, Yap, Ngee Thai Diverse methods and approaches have been utilised in researching the cultural bases of health, illness and wellbeing. Understanding the cultural representation of health and illness of particular communities becomes urgent especially when the community concerned is underserved in healthcare. In this project, we sought to examine the representations of health and illness by members of the Semai indigenous community through the use of metaphor analysis, a qualitative method in applied linguistics that attend to how people use language in real-world discourses to understand their conceptualisations of abstract ideas and emotions. From semi-structured interviews with the indigenous Semai people in a village in Malaysia, metaphors of health and illness were identified from the oral stories told by participants. Metaphors were identified and analysed following Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) conceptual metaphor theory that explains how people understand one idea in a conceptual domain through accessing resources in another conceptual domain. The results show that universal metaphors are dominant in representing embodied experiences while culturally influenced metaphors are important as vehicles of expression derived from their environment and folk beliefs. We argue that while culturally influenced metaphors may mark the participants as strange in their ways of thinking, a closer look at their underlying frameworks finds that they connect with universal bases that are intrinsic to all human experience. Understanding conceptual metaphors can contribute to the expansion of the locus of shared understanding between healthcare providers and the communities they serve. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2017-11 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11769/1/18741-63574-1-PB.pdf Lisbeth Sinan Lendik, and Chan, Mei Yuit and Sumathi Renganathan, and Yap, Ngee Thai (2017) Metaphor and the representations of health and illness among the Semai indigenous community in Malaysia. GEMA: Online Journal of Language Studies, 17 (4). pp. 61-83. ISSN 1675-8021 http://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1043 |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Local University |
| institution |
Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia |
| building |
UKM Institutional Repository |
| collection |
Online Access |
| language |
English |
| description |
Diverse methods and approaches have been utilised in researching the cultural bases of
health, illness and wellbeing. Understanding the cultural representation of health and illness
of particular communities becomes urgent especially when the community concerned is
underserved in healthcare. In this project, we sought to examine the representations of health
and illness by members of the Semai indigenous community through the use of metaphor
analysis, a qualitative method in applied linguistics that attend to how people use language in
real-world discourses to understand their conceptualisations of abstract ideas and emotions.
From semi-structured interviews with the indigenous Semai people in a village in Malaysia,
metaphors of health and illness were identified from the oral stories told by participants.
Metaphors were identified and analysed following Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) conceptual
metaphor theory that explains how people understand one idea in a conceptual domain
through accessing resources in another conceptual domain. The results show that universal
metaphors are dominant in representing embodied experiences while culturally influenced
metaphors are important as vehicles of expression derived from their environment and folk
beliefs. We argue that while culturally influenced metaphors may mark the participants as
strange in their ways of thinking, a closer look at their underlying frameworks finds that they
connect with universal bases that are intrinsic to all human experience. Understanding
conceptual metaphors can contribute to the expansion of the locus of shared understanding
between healthcare providers and the communities they serve. |
| format |
Article |
| author |
Lisbeth Sinan Lendik, Chan, Mei Yuit Sumathi Renganathan, Yap, Ngee Thai |
| spellingShingle |
Lisbeth Sinan Lendik, Chan, Mei Yuit Sumathi Renganathan, Yap, Ngee Thai Metaphor and the representations of health and illness among the Semai indigenous community in Malaysia |
| author_facet |
Lisbeth Sinan Lendik, Chan, Mei Yuit Sumathi Renganathan, Yap, Ngee Thai |
| author_sort |
Lisbeth Sinan Lendik, |
| title |
Metaphor and the representations of health and illness
among the Semai indigenous community in Malaysia |
| title_short |
Metaphor and the representations of health and illness
among the Semai indigenous community in Malaysia |
| title_full |
Metaphor and the representations of health and illness
among the Semai indigenous community in Malaysia |
| title_fullStr |
Metaphor and the representations of health and illness
among the Semai indigenous community in Malaysia |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Metaphor and the representations of health and illness
among the Semai indigenous community in Malaysia |
| title_sort |
metaphor and the representations of health and illness
among the semai indigenous community in malaysia |
| publisher |
Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia |
| publishDate |
2017 |
| url |
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11769/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11769/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11769/1/18741-63574-1-PB.pdf |
| first_indexed |
2023-09-18T20:01:06Z |
| last_indexed |
2023-09-18T20:01:06Z |
| _version_ |
1777406853900140544 |