A Study Of Discourse Metaphor InAmerican Rap Lyrics

Rap, a special artistic form chiefly based on language expression, has pervadedthe world. Unfortunately, it is often overlooked in the linguistic domain as it is quiteoften categorized into the music domain. In fact, rap lyrics show distinct features inthe use of language and narrate all kinds of social and cultural events that are of socialsignificance which can be realized through discourse metaphors. Cognitive linguisticshas shed light on metaphor study on the level of lexeme, phrase and sentence, whilestill leave much work to do on the discourse level. This paper thus probes into alinguistic study of rap lyrics with focus on its discourse metaphor.A qualitative analysis is taken in the present research. The lyrics of Grammyawarded rap songs are collected as the working text. Discourse metaphor in rap lyricsare explored from two aspects. First, Based on the metaphoric configuration anddiscourse organization, the linguistic realization of discourse metaphor in rap lyricsare identified and carefully analyzed. Second, a cultural analysis of American raplyrics is made on the discourse level based on the conceptual metaphor theory.The major findings are listed hereon. First, for the discourse including onemetaphoric expression, metaphoric sequencing is the main configuration, which isspecifically demonstrated as inflated sequencing, deflated sequencing, enclosedsequencing and paired sequencing. For the discourse with two or more metaphoricexpressions, metaphoric merging including endocentric merging and exocentricmerging is the main configuration. Second, in rap lyrics, a distinct symbolic meaningis usually hidden behind its literal or surface meaning. Rap lyrics constitute the sourcedomain and the social implications constitute the target domain. As for the mapping,the special property of rap lyric discourse leads to the specialties of the structure ofmapping which mainly focus on two aspects: a mapping chain within one discourse,and thematic mapping. In addition, rap lyrics express a kind of emotional attitudewhich, in a way, helps people to understand the life and culture of the given society.It is expected that the tentative study on rap lyrics from both linguistic andcultural aspects can help arouse interest in such a distinct linguistic form and broadendiscourse metaphorical studies.