Food Metaphors in Tunisian Arabic Proverbs

International audience This paper investigates food metaphors in Tunisian Arabic proverbs. This study is stimulated by the seemingly abundant presence of food terms in proverbs along with the relevance of this domain in metaphorical understanding.Focusing mainly on mapping across conceptual domains as a distinct feature of the metaphor theory (Lakoff, 1993) and the Great Chain Metaphor Theory (Lakoff and Turner, 1989), the different target domains of the food domain will be sorted. The role of theembodiment theory (Lakoff and Johnson, 1999) in conceptualizing different abstract concepts as manifesting itself in the food experience will be highlighted. Three man conceptual metaphors: A HUMAN BEING IS FOOD, EMOTIONS ARE FOOD and LIFE IS FOOD were found to account for the understanding of many food proverbs.