Metaphorical Conceptualization of Emotive Concepts in Amharic

Abstract

This article describes the construal of emotive concepts such as anger, fear, love, hate, and sadness in Amharic, a Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia. The study is conducted within the framework of cognitive semantics, specifically guided by the conceptual metaphor theory. The database of the study includes written texts, elicitation, and introspection as supporting methods. The study has shown that emotive concepts can be metaphorically structured in terms of various source domains. For example, anger can be associated with the devil, insanity, fire, wounds, and physical force. Additionally, linguistic expressions that originate from the domain of containment, womanhood, and excretion can be used to describe a state of fear. The source domains of space (more specifically, a bounded region, a moving entity, and a downward type of verticality schema), injury, black color, and bitter taste can be mapped onto the target domain of sadness. It has also been found that the emotion of love can be understood through physical force and as an object. In Amharic, spatialization metaphors, specifically, terms corresponding to an out schema can be used to talk about hate. The motivations behind such mappings are physical and cultural experiences.