Linguistics ETDs

Publication Date

Spring 7-29-2025

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between emotion and experience from a cognitive perspective to fulfill two purposes. First, it seeks to identify the commonalities and differences in emotional metaphors across vastly different languages and the reasons behind these variations. Second, it aims to contribute to typological research in emotion studies beyond established areas such as color, time, and space using innovative approaches. Specifically, this study focuses on fear and surprise to categorize their source domains using lexical and corpus-based methods. Examples were collected from constructions and the corpus, and patterns of FEAR and SURPRISE metaphors in Mandarin were compared with those attested in English. The findings of this paper reveal nine categories of FEAR metaphors and seven categories of SURPRISE metaphors in Mandarin, and they are represented by images created by OpenAI. While some metaphors are shared between the two languages, the cognitive mechanisms behind those different patterns remain to be further analyzed due to social and cultural experiences. Moreover, the perception of emotions is complex, and the productivity and visibility of emotional expressions are limited. To address these issues, it is essential to combine insights from different disciplines to achieve more accurate recognition of emotions.

Language

English

Keywords

conceptual metaphors, emotion, fear, surprise, Mandarin, English

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Linguistics

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

Department of Linguistics

First Committee Member (Chair)

Erin Wilkinson

Second Committee Member

Joshua Birchall

Third Committee Member

Damián Vergara Wilson

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