Orð og tunga - 08.07.2019, Side 67

Yuki Minamisawa: Metaphor and Collocation 55
(1) a. He was filled with anger.
b. He was bursting with anger.
c. You make my blood boil.
d. She got all steamed up. (Kövecses 1990:53−55)
As shown in (1), English has many expressions related to a hot fl uid
in a container to express diff erent aspects of anger, and this phe-
nomenon is well-explained by conceptual metaphors. According to
Lakoff & Johnson (1980:3−5), we understand abstract concepts (like
emotions) in terms of more concrete concepts; our conceptual system
is fundamentally metaphorical in nature. From this point of view, a
metaphorical expression is a linguistic manifestation of a conceptual
metaphor, and the sentences above are all instantiations of anger is
a hot fluid in a container (hereaft er, the fluid metaphor). Accord-
ing to this metaphor, the body is regarded as a kind of container, and
the emotion as a hot fl uid. Moreover, more than one metaphor can be
used to conceptualize a single concept. Below are examples of anger
is fire (2a, b) and anger is a dangerous animal (2c, d) (hereaft er, the
fire metaphor and the animal metaphor, respectively).
(2) a. She was doing a slow burn.
b. He was breathing fire. (Kövecses 1990:58)
c. It’s dangerous to arouse his anger.
d. His anger grew. (Kövecses 1990:62)
The conceptual metaphors above can all be applied to anger, and
each metaphor highlights diff erent aspects of the emotion, such as
control and danger to others.
As more than one metaphor is used for a single concept, the fol-
lowing two questions can be raised: 1) What metaphors are mainly
used for a particular emotion? and 2) Which one is central to the emo-
tion? As for the fi rst question, Kövecses (2000:21) lists 12 main meta-
phors for anger, including the ones mentioned above. With regard
to the second question, it is generally agreed that the fluid metaphor
is central to the emotion of anger, for which Kövecses provides two
reasons: First, many diff erent aspects of anger can be represented by
regarding the body as a container. Second, many words and expres-
sions are subsumed under the fluid metaphor, which productively
carries over knowledge from a hot fluid in a container to anger.
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