“Being a teacher means running a business” Conceptual metaphor as reflected by the language user in teachers’ academic textbooks

Abstract

     The research aimed to analyze the concept and function of the metaphor “Being a teacher is doing business”. The data used in this research were teachers’ academic textbooks from 2001 to 2016 (70 books). Based on cognitive linguistics, according to Lakoff and Johnson (1980) and Kövecses (2002), the theoretical used in this study was the conceptual metaphor, involving metaphor analysis according to Goatly’s framework. The researcher found that the conceptual metaphor was “Being a teacher is doing business”, which demonstrates that being a teacher and doing business as follows: Conceptual Metaphor: “The teacher is a service provider” and “The teacher is an executive” and “The teacher is a producer”. All of these transfer a teacher’s thoughts and explain the abstract thought by comparing different things. These create the new viewpoint. Furthermore, the conceptual metaphor is an interpersonal function including presenting the image of teacher.