The metaphors of wajh (face) in the Saudi media discourse: a corpus-based analysis

The reference to body parts in language is rooted in our mental cognitive system and driven by life experiences, which affect the way we perceive the world. This suggests that body parts are productive resources for expressing meanings and accomplishing discourse functions. This study aims to explore the metaphorical use of the human body part “face” in Saudi media discourse from the perspective of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT). Based on corpus techniques, this study analyzed 761 concordance lines of the word wajh (face), selected from the Timestamped Arabic corpus. The results reported several metaphorical patterns; the top six of which are: WAY, CONFRONTING, APPEARANCE, SURFACE, FRONT SIDE, and PRESERVING DIGNITY, showing variations in their quantitative distributions and their cognitive mappings. Furthermore, this research demonstrated how the conceptualization of “face” in Saudi media is linked with cultural, social, and political contexts and contributes to the wider context of CMT by validating and refining the universal and culturally specific aspects of the figurative uses of “face” manifested in real discourse.