Publications

Publication details [#2110]

Barcelona, Antonio. 1986. On the concept of depression in American English: A cognitive approach. American Journal of Philology 12 : 7–35. 29 pp.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English

Abstract

In Lakoff and Kövecses 1987 it is argued that the emotion ANGER in American English is primarily conceptualized via metaphor and metonymy. In this work, Barcelona applies Lakoff and Kövecses' methodology to the analysis of DEPRESSION in the same language and concludes that this emotion is also largely conceptualized via metaphor and metonymy. The study has three distinct parts: in the first one, the relevant conceptual metaphors (e.g., the HEAT metaphor, the LIGHT metaphor, the ILLNESS metaphor, etc) are isolated and analysed; in the second part, Barcelona discusses the metonymies motivating them (which are based upon both the folk theory of the physiological effects of depression and the folk theory of its behavioral effects); finally, Barcelona shows how metaphors and metonymies converge in a cognitive model or cognitive scenario featuring the ontology and sequential structure of events that articulate our prototypical understanding of the emotion. (Cristina Soriano)