Extract

Corpus-based analysis of conceptual metaphors of HAPPINESS in Russian and English

    Olga Pavpertova (Heidelberg)

Learn a new language and get a new soul. (Czech proverb)

Emotions and feelings have always played a central role in human life. Happiness, in particular, is a state that human beings, consciously or unconsciously, have always been eagerly searching for. These feelings must be distinctly expressed and easily communicated among the speakers of a particular speech community. In fact, this assumption conforms to the main principle of cognitive linguistics, i.e. a synthesis of language, mind and culture, which has proved to be an efficient and highly productive approach over the last decades, providing new insights into the nature of concepts. A central concern in cognitive linguistics is the study of metaphors as thought- and reality-constructing products of the human mind. Each metaphor presents a unique way of thinking about a given concept, highlighting some aspects of the target domain and hiding others (cf., e.g., Lakoff & Johnson 1980: 10–14; Deignan 2005: 1). Generally, metaphorical and metonymic processes are in constant interaction within one emotion category and have to be considered in combination. In the present study, I will, however, highlight metaphorical conceptualizations of the emotion under investigation, i.e. HAPPINESS, and will not discuss metonymic aspects in detail.

Emotion concepts, and conceptual metaphors in general, have often been analyzed by means of introspective or informant-based elicitation approaches. In my study, I rely on the findings of this...