This paper investigates the metaphorical conceptualisation of the two basic emotions of happiness and sadness in the private correspondence of eighteenth- and nineteenthcentury men and women of letters. Grounded in the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory, it exploits metaphorical pattern analysis (MPA) and the metaphor identification procedure (MIP) in a corpus-based analysis of Late Modern English letters. The aim is to identify metaphorical expressions in the corpus and illustrate the conceptual mappings involved. First, a set of lexical items belonging to the two target domains under investigation was retrieved and subsequently used for concordance analysis. Secondly, a sample of metaphorical expressions was examined and mapped according to the metaphorical mappings described in the literature. Additional mappings are proposed for the conceptualisations identified in the analysed sample. Findings confirm the effectiveness of MPA in the identification of metaphors in corpus-based investigations and offer insights into the use of metaphor in Late Modern English educated, nonliterary discourse.

“It is a long road from sorrow to joy”: Metaphors of happiness and sadness in Late Modern English private correspondence

GLORIA MAMBELLI
2023-01-01

Abstract

This paper investigates the metaphorical conceptualisation of the two basic emotions of happiness and sadness in the private correspondence of eighteenth- and nineteenthcentury men and women of letters. Grounded in the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory, it exploits metaphorical pattern analysis (MPA) and the metaphor identification procedure (MIP) in a corpus-based analysis of Late Modern English letters. The aim is to identify metaphorical expressions in the corpus and illustrate the conceptual mappings involved. First, a set of lexical items belonging to the two target domains under investigation was retrieved and subsequently used for concordance analysis. Secondly, a sample of metaphorical expressions was examined and mapped according to the metaphorical mappings described in the literature. Additional mappings are proposed for the conceptualisations identified in the analysed sample. Findings confirm the effectiveness of MPA in the identification of metaphors in corpus-based investigations and offer insights into the use of metaphor in Late Modern English educated, nonliterary discourse.
2023
Late Modern English
metaphor
conceptual metaphor theory
corpus linguistics
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11562/1129487
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