The Impact of Primary Emotions on the Structure of Conceptual Metaphors in Contemporary Persian and English Poetry: From Neural Foundations to Cultural Explanation
Subject Areas : Literary criticismahmad mohamadi suhrawardi 1 , Ali Asghar Dadbeh 2 , بهرام پروین گنابادی 3
1 -
2 - Department of Persian Language and Literature, Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran, Iran.
3 - دانشیار گروه زبان و ادبیات فارسی دانشگاه تهران شمال
Keywords: Cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphors, cultural differences, emotions, English, Persian, primary emotions,
Abstract :
This research examines the relationship between primary emotions and conceptual metaphors in Persian and English from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. As cognitive tools, conceptual metaphors play a vital role in organizing and processing linguistic information and facilitating human understanding of abstract concepts through tangible experiences. Similarly, primary emotions such as joy, sadness, fear, and anger, rooted in common human neural structures, form the basis of many of these metaphors. This study conducts a comparative analysis of emotional metaphors in contemporary Persian and English literature. Findings indicate that while both languages employ similar metaphors to express emotions, for instance, love is described using metaphors like warmth, light, and fire, and fear is depicted with darkness and shadow, cultural, historical, and linguistic differences lead to distinctions in the type and frequency of metaphor usage. In Persian, emotions are often expressed more broadly through concepts such as "good mood" and "bad mood," whereas English utilizes more specific vocabulary to describe emotions. The results indicate that emotional metaphors not only reflect shared human biological experiences, but are also shaped by cultural and social influences, functioning as tools for the cognitive organization and processing of emotions.
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