The semantics of a parallel reality: what does religion do to metaphor in an Ancient Egyptian context?

This paper considers the use of figurative language when intangible or supernatural phenomena are described in language. The case studies are derived from texts written in Ancient Egyptian, an extinct Afroasiatic language (ca. 3200 BCE–1300 CE). It is argued that a MIPVU-based analysis, otherwise very useful for interrogating all kinds of texts, even those from the ancient world, needs to be modified to account for the layers of meaning encountered in texts in which a deity is being described. A more nuanced approach, which considers the scalarity of metaphor and reconsiders the conceptual modelling of metaphorical language in a culturally sensitive way, is proposed. As such, the methods proposed here may be useful for scholars working on metaphor in texts with religious content.