Decoding embodied metaphors in Ja Loka’s X Discourse: An embodied cognition analysis

Abstract

The X platform began with microblogging but now diversifies to provide more financial and communication-related services. From Ja Loka’s discourse on X, the study analyzes how embodied metaphors, which brainstorm the connection between the concrete and the abstract domains are manifested in the digital sphere. This research analyzes the COGNITIVE PROCESSES that underlie the construction and understanding of the embodied metaphors in Ja Loka’s discourse in the X platform.  The present study is based on image schemas as the primary COGNITIVE PROCESSES and examines how Ja Loka conveys abstract concepts, emotions, and values using embodied metaphors. The present study employs a comprehensive descriptive qualitative method that cautiously looks into the COGNITIVE PROCESSES of metaphorical language within the X-platform. The data used to interpret the metaphorical discourse of Ja Loka in the X platform is collected using a web scraping tool called Octoparse. This allowed examining what is entailed in decoding embodied metaphors using image schemas within embodied cognition. The empirical findings present a vast array of embodied metaphors, and the cognitive foundation is varied in terms of image schemas used such as TRANSACTIONAL OBJECTIFICATION, SPATIAL REPRESENTATION, and CONTAINER. The analyzed data substantiate that metaphorical semiosis itself is a multifaceted phenomenon; the structures that are employed require state-of-the-art COGNITIVE PROCESSES to capture all the underlying components of metaphorical meaning-making.