LEXICOGRAPHY AND COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS : HEBREW METAPHORS FROM A COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE

In 2000 the United Bible Societies have launched a new project: A Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (henceforth SDBH ). This dictionary is, to a certain extent, comparable to Louw and Nida's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, even though the methodology is somewhat different. Louw and Nida's dictionary is based on the semantic model that is usually referred to as componential analysis of meaning. This new dictionary is primarily based on insights from cognitive linguistics. As a result of this, the methodology underlying SDBH is based on a distinction between lexical and contextual semantic domains. This paper will focus primarily on the way SDBH will handle metaphors. First a description will be given of metaphors and other figurative extensions of meaning from a cognitive point of view. The second part of this paper deals with the cognitive perspective on metaphors in biblical Hebrew. Finally, some examples are given of the way SDBH intends to handle metaphors.