Contouring Emotion Dynamics Through Metaphor: A Related-Event Approach to Emotion Nouns in Japanese and English

Emotions are inherently dynamic processes, often conceptualized through metaphors that convey movement and transformation, such as “anger rose” or “love blossomed.” Previous research has centered on metaphorical cross-domain mappings of emotion nouns, but how those mappings differ across successive phases of an emotional experience remains largely unexplored. This study addresses this gap by analyzing metaphorical expressions in corpora to reveal the dynamic nature of emotional conceptualization. Adopting a “related-event approach,” we investigate emotion nouns in Japanese and English corresponding to nine emotions (LOVE, FEAR, ANGER, SADNESS, HAPPINESS, PRIDE, SURPRISE, LUST, and SHAME). Examining metaphorical expressions that depict a sequence of mental movements – emergence, existence, intensification, and revelation – as well as their source concepts, we show that emotion metaphors differ significantly across these phases: Japanese tends to emphasize emergence and revelation, whereas English favors existence and intensification. Our findings shed light on the interaction of typological, cognitive, and cultural factors in shaping emotion concepts and provide a more fine-grained understanding of emotion dynamics across different languages. Future research could further illuminate other dynamic aspects of emotion, such as duration and variability, by using time-series data on emotion expressions.