Metaphors and Metonymies for death and grief in Hungarian Laments from the Upper-Tisza Region

The present chapter attempts to identify cultural metaphors and metonymies for death and grief in the texts of a regionally representative corpus of 29 Hungarian laments from the Upper-Tisza Region (which extends across the borders of Hungary). No previous linguistic research has been conducted on Hungarian metaphors and metonymies for grief, and no death and grief metaphors or metonymies have been investigated in the Hungarian lament, a special ancient oral genre which treats the taboo topics of death and grief through the creation of a sacral and liminal space. Personal, emergent, and expressive, the lament allows topics and modes of communication normally avoided in everyday discourse, thus aiding the mourner. Verbal expression gives rise to metaphors and metonymies of death and grief, some of which have not surfaced elsewhere (muteness, wilting) in addition to the ones already detected (departure/separation, journey). Several metaphors and metonymies of death and grief are observed to be connected to each other (e.g., muteness to lack of something and separation to futile search/motion). Relations to folklore as well as Christianity are revealed through observations of the wake, other genres, the author’s knowledge deriving from ethnographic interviews, observations, and other studies. As to their practical value, metaphors in the lament may interact with formulas in some manner and thus assist memory. Also, since metaphors can have healing power, a parallel is drawn between the lament and modern-day grief therapy.