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Article published In:
Review of Cognitive Linguistics
Vol. 19:2 (2021) ► pp.482–516

Red-hot faces and burnt hearts

Anger is heat metaphor from Amharic and Changana perspective

ORCID logo | Xiamen University
ORCID logo | Xiamen University

People from different languages draw from the knowledge they have from the domain of heat (source domain) and apply it to the domain of anger (target domain) through metaphor. This was also found to be the case with Amharic and Changana. Our study investigates how anger is metaphorically conceptualized in these two languages. Many similarities were found even though variations do exist cross-linguistically. It is suggested that the similarities between these languages in conceptualizing anger lie in the fact that human beings share the same bodily experience: (physiology) embodiment, even though variations may arise due to the differences in cultural embodiment (race, values and geographical localization, etc). The study seeks to demonstrate how these two dimensions contribute to the overall conceptual structure of anger is heat metaphor in these two (unrelated) African languages.

Keywords: metaphor, emotion, anger, embodiment, Amharic, Changana
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1The controversy: Embodiment or culture
    • 2.2Comparative studies of the metaphorical conceptualization of anger
  • 3.Research questions
  • 4.Methodology
    • 4.1Data collection
    • 4.2Sample selection
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1 The Physiological efect of an emotion stands for the emotion
      • 5.1.2The range of metonymy for anger in Amharic and Changana
    • 5.2 anger is heat metaphor in Amharic and Changana
      • 5.2.1 anger is a (hot) fluid in a container
        • Changana
      • 5.2.2 anger is fire
        • Amharic
        • Changana
    • 5.3Cross-linguistic variation
      • 5.3.1The heart as container for anger
        • Changana
      • 5.3.2The belly as the container for anger
      • 5.3.3 the caggwarra as (a container for) anger
  • 6.General discussion
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Noun affix classes
  • Notes
  • List of abbreviations used for Amharic and Changana
  • References
Published online: 11 October 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.00092.man
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