Conceptual Metaphors in Some Christian Praise/Worship Songs in Nigeria

This is a pragmatic study of the naturally occurring speech situations from Praise/Worship songs in the church context. The study involves a detailed consideration of the various contextual features needed and necessary for the understanding of discourse by identifying and systematically interpreting the various conceptual forces behind the utterances of the people in the songs selected. The author integrates the Mey’s pragmeme and Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) conceptual Metaphor. Conceptual Metaphor according to Lakoff is a powerful instrument to facilitate communication. It is a conceptual precepts shared by members of the same culture. The findings shows that contextual features are most attached to the production and interpretation of speech. And that language is understood as a product of general cognitive abilities (Timothy & Aremu, 2016). It establishes the fact that there are other aspects of meaning which the congregation derived that are not taken solely from the meaning of words in the praise/worship songs. And as a result of this, the composers and the singers should be mindful of what they compose and of cause what they lead people to sing or what people sing.