High off her love - LOVE IS A DRUG : A comparative study of the use of love and sadness metaphors and their meaning in country and rap song lyrics

Abstract: This paper researches the use of conceptual metaphors in rap and country song lyrics. It looks specifically at conceptual metaphors for the concepts of LOVE and SADNESS, focusing on what source domains are proposed in each genre, what similarities there are in source domains between the genres and the style of language found in the linguistic expressions in the two genres. Song lists and lyrics were obtained from internet sites and then, using the Metaphor Identification Procedure (MIP), linguistic expressions were identified which were then subjected to a qualitative analysis. Those relating to SADNESS and LOVE were grouped according to proposed source domains for comparison. The results show that there are similarities, and some differences in the source domains identified within the genres and that they have a wide variety of sub-domains. Concrete concepts common to both genres do not exhibit the same mapping of correspondences to the target domains. There is no discernible difference in the style of language used in the linguistic expressions of the two genres. Nevertheless, the rap expressions tend to be more in the present, dynamic and at times sexually provocative whereas in country expressions they tend to be more reflective, virtuous and at times, depressing.