Literary Analysis Final Project - 2020
A METAPHOR ANALYSIS IN “TAARE ZAMEEN PAR” MOVIE: A PRAGMATICS
APPROACH
Mariatul Qiftiyah
1710117120009
Abstract: As the daily language device, metaphor is one
of figurative language form, which means the words or
expressions that mean something different from their
literal definition. It could be applied in any form. Not
only in language, but also in thought, visual, and action.
Although metaphor, and any other figurative languages,
does not offer a literal explanation, it can be used to
compare one concept to another concept to make it easier
to visualize. Metaphors are used to elicit emotions, help
readers form mental images and draw into the work.
This study aimed the use of metaphor, namely
conceptual metaphor, in the film. The data of this study
was taken from a film entitled “Taare Zameen Par”. The
findings from this study showed that there are two kinds
of metaphors applied throughout the film, the verbal and
visual metaphors. As conclusions, metaphors are not
only in the form of linguistic, but also in other medium
like film.
Keywords:
conceptual
metaphors, filmic metaphor
metaphor,
multimodal
INTRODUCTION
One of the example of the common metaphor “every child is a star” depicts how a
simple form of flexible device communicates an intense and deep message, and helps us,
language users, to grasp an abstract concept. Metaphor, however, is not just a linguistic device.
It is indeed fundamental in everyday life, not only in language, but also in thought and action
(Lakoff and Johnson, 2003, p. 3). Even in the film as medium, people make use of the device
in the form of filmic metaphor. Through these varied and different devices, it allows us to
understand and grasp abstract concepts by mapping them to another form.
Since films can be interpreted and analyzed, they are considered as literary works. Thus,
movies can be analyzed using any proper approaches as well as other literary works. According
to M. H. Abrams (1953), he divides the literary approaches into four major approaches:
mimetic approach, pragmatic approach, expressive approach, and objective approach. The
pragmatic approach is the approach that has a purpose—to achieve certain effects in an
audience (Abrams, 1953). Pragmatic approach is an approach that views literary works as a
means to convey certain goals to the reader, such as educational goals, religious morals or other
goals. One way to understand the goal is by metaphors.
Metaphor, according to Aristotle (in Poetics, Ross 1952: 1457b), is ‘giving the thing a
name that belongs to something else’. However, metaphor has been almost solely proven as
linguistic-based. They are found in words, sentences and phrases. When considering these
metaphors in the light of the film medium, however, one is challenged by the fact that cinema,
unlike language, does not operate on the basis of arbitrary conventions and linguistic symbols.
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Considering this argument, one can hypothesize, then, that the study of conceptual metaphors
(and meaning in general) does not have to be limited to language alone, for the processes of
embodied meaning in non-verbal discourses are probably the very same ones that constitute
linguistic meaning (see also Johnson, 2007, p. 208).
Each film made may be the representation of any motives. Many films embody moral
values, bring the audience life advices, and all sorts. One of them is Taare Zameen Par. It is a
good and valuable example how metaphor is used in the film. Convey an implicit moral value,
this film embodies life lesson and advices that are meant to be home—to the viewers,
audiences, to everyone who watches it. In the following research article, the researcher will
analyze the film Taare Zameen Par using metaphor analysis, how the film is used to
communicate and spread a fact that not everbody is capable to understand. Thus, a theroritical
view on metaphor in general will be provided. In addition, a rough overview of the conceptual
metaphor theory will also be presented. The concept of metaphor will then be elaborated in
reference to film metaphor. The researcher will apply theoretical basis to the film in detail with
following focus: Ishaan Awasthi and his brother. Furthermore, the metaphorical visualization
of ‘every child is a star’ will be addressed.
The substance of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms
of another (Lakoff and Johnson, 2003, p. 5). In their book Metaphors We Live By (2003),
Lakoff and Johnson introduce the “conceptual metaphor theory” (CMT). This theory is based
on the assumption that humans try to understand abstract issues, like an argument, through a
less abstract domain, like war (ibid. 3-6). Consequently, the CMT is used to make sense of an
abstract, conceptual domain, which is called the “target domain”. This target domain is mapped
onto a less-abstract issue, the so-called “source domain” (Deignan, 2005).
With reference to the CMT, Forceville suggests that conceptual metaphor is neither
restricted to the field of language, nor to thought or action (Forceville, 2009, p. 20). He points
out that metaphor can be expressed non-verbally and has multimodal appearances (ibid. 21).
This claim suggests that metaphor can also be displayed through an unconventional medium,
such as image or film. Thereupon, Forceville differentiates nine different modes of depiction
which shall display how the metaphor appears to the human senses. These different modes
emphasize how multifarious a metaphor in film can be.
In contrast to conventional literary metaphors, which usually only manifest themselves
as “written signs” to the perceiver, the metaphor in film can appear in pictorial sign, spoken
sign, written sign, gesture, sound, and music (ibid. 23). Furthermore, Forceville introduces the
term “multimodal metaphor”, which entails the types of “metaphors whose target and source
are each represented exclusively or predominantly in different modes” (ibid. 24). Forceville
illustrates this term with the example of the metaphor “cat is elephant” cued in an animation
movie. If an animated cat is called an “elephant” in the diegetic world, then the metaphor is
triggered in two modes; language and sound, which are different from the source domain's
mode; a visual elephant (ibid. 25). This matter results in a “multimodal metaphor”. Moreover,
the term “filmic metaphor” can be applied when “the filmic level is essential to identify the
metaphor” (Coëgnarts and Kravanja, 2014, p. 159).
By here, the researcher will try to analyze and later to serve the metaphor analysis of
Taare Zameen Par. How the filmmaker tried to communicate with the audiences, how the
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filmmaker implicitly put a moral message and educational goals through the main characters.
Because sometimes, the movie and/or the movie title itself is already a metaphor—just like this
film’s title.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This research is conducted using descriptive qualitative methods, because the researcher wants
to figure out and tries to elaborate the metaphorical message conveyed in the film entitled Taare
Zameen Par. The researcher conducts this research by collecting the data, arranging or
classifying the data, and analyzing the data of research. The data source of this research is taken
from a 2007 Bollywood movie directed by Aamir Khan entitled Taare Zameen Par, a movie
about the struggle of a dyslexia kid.
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Taare Zameen Par in English will be translated literally as “stars on Earth”. It explains the film
within the context. It is stated once again that metaphors are not only in the form of language—
linguistic, but also in everyday life form: thought or action. Therefore, the researcher found a
verbal and visual which eventually lead to the final statement that the film itself is a metaphor.
Verbal Metaphorical
According to Coëgnarts and Kravanja (2014), verbal metaphors are subjected to the
rules and conventions of linguistic meaning. Croft notes (1993) that there is no essential
difference between (linguistic) semantic representation and (general) knowledge representation
as the study of linguistic semantics is the study of common sense human experience. An
important direction for cognitive semantics is to integrate it with pragmatics. This can be done
by investigating the contexts where the metaphor occurs and providing the evidence. A key
metaphor for the transfer of meaning is that ‘mapping’ from a source to a target domain
(Lakoff, 1993).
When Ram Shankar Nikumbh said to his co-worker, Jabeen, that the boy (Ishaan
Awasthi) is in danger, he just performed the verbal metaphor.
“Mujhe dar hai, vah doob jaega.” (I’m afraid, he will be drown).
He used the word “drown” to explain the potential future that might happen to Ishaan,
if he was let be without given any help. As in verbal metaphors, it is connotations rather than
denotations of source domains that get mapped in metaphors, and these may substantially differ
from one (sub)cultural group to another (see e.g., Maalej 2001). Nikumbh’s utterance was a
connotation, a figurative word.
Visual Metaphor
When readers interpret a visual metaphor, they start by perceiving the image, that is, by
identifying the visual input (Yus, 2009). Throughout the film, we are served with various
scenes which reflect Ishaan emotion. All those particular scenes conveyed emotion of a young
kid with his dyslexia. They show us how frustrating it was for Ishaan to get through everything
without anyone seemed understand.
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Image 1. Ishaan’s dyslexia
Image 2. Spider-letters crawled into Ishaan’s class
All those scenes that show Ishaan frustration and the scenes of Ishaan’s cartoon-like
imaginations, are the examples how metaphor work in a film. Certain symbol, scene, or any
visualization is almost always carries certain message. In general, visual metaphors are
integrated in other discourses (images in advertisements, cartoons in the press) and the readers
know that these images are intended to communicate specific, non-denotative information, and
hence they will not be cognitively satisfied at a purely denotative level (Yus, 2009).
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Visual metaphor involves a mapping of information transferred from one image to
another, which we have called source image and target image respectively. Often both images
are present in the picture (either fused together or separated) but sometimes one of them –
normally the source image – is absent. Therefore, there are different degrees of mental effort
involved in processing visual metaphors depending on whether both the source image and the
target image are depicted in a metaphoric visual configuration, or one of the images is absent
and is only accessible through an inferential operation regarding the encyclopedic information
on its prototypical referent. At the same time, some mental effort has to be devoted to
identifying the source and target images in the first place, which are not always clearly
distinguishable, even when both images are present.
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
Conclusion
The film is after all delivers the audiences the pragmatics message—the filmmaker tries to tell
us a message. From all the things that have been stated and explained previously, we can
conclude that:
1. Metaphor is not only used in linguistic field. It is also used in film as the medium and many
other things. Metaphor is basically found everywhere and that’s why there is something
called “multimodal metaphor”.
2. Taare Zameen Par is a good film to spread awareness about dyslexia. A kid with dyslexia
hardly able to understand things around him, yet it doesn’t make the kid’s intelligence
below average. It is shown throughout the film, the struggle of Ishaan. Many scenes show
how frustrated he was. Those scene might only half who took place in real world. The rest
are the visual metaphor of Ishaan’s mental condition. The verbal metaphor uttered by
Nikumbh emphasized the atmosphere, the feeling of this film. The future that might
awaited for Ishaan. Nothing felt more than that dyslexia, and other gift, is a real deal.
3. Eventually, the metaphor “every child is a star” is used by this film. The fact that Ishaan’s
brother is good at academic as well as sport is one example. Ishaan, however, is another
example. With his dyslexia being “fixed”, he showed everyone that he is as clever as he
supposed to be. It is shown that Ishaan is talented on drawing and painting. The message
is written there clearly, that one kid is different from another kid. This also means that not
every kid has the same talent, gift, but they are still special.
Suggestion
Based on the conclusion above, it is advisable for the future researcher that is going to
conduct the research with the similar topic to analyze more depth about metaphor. Since
metaphor is included in many fields, many sciences, it is important to set the scope of your
topic’s research. This research is somehow off the grid and went without any directions due to
human errors and the researcher’s lack of knowledge, either from examining theories or
delivering them to the readers. It is not impossible for the future research to re-evaluate and
perfect this research’s topic. This study, however, is subject to a weakness, in which the
researcher did not use member checking technique to verify the accuracy of data to the
participants, therefore the interpretation might be biased.
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REFERENCES
Abrams, M. H. (1953). The mirror and the lamp: Romantic theory and the critical
tradition. New York: Oxford University Press.
Charteris-Black, J. (2004). Corpus approaches to critical metaphor analysis. Springer.
Coëgnarts, M., & Kravanja, P. (2014). A study in cinematic subjectivity: Metaphors of
perception in film. Metaphor and the Social World, 4(2), 149-173.
Deignan, A. (2005). Metaphor and corpus linguistics (Vol. 6). John Benjamins Publishing.
Forceville, C., & Urios-Aparisi, E. (Eds.). (2009). Multimodal metaphor (Vol. 11). Berlin:
Walter de Gruyter.
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (2003). Metaphors we live by. London: University of Chicago press.
Yus, F. (2009). Visual metaphor versus verbal metaphor: A unified account. In Forceville, C.,
& Urios-Aparisi, E. (Eds.), Multimodal metaphor (Vol. 11, pp. 147-172). Berlin:
Walter de Gruyter.
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