Metaphorical Expressions of Anger and Happiness in English and Chinese

Abstract This article presents a comparative study of metaphorical expressions of anger and happiness in English and Chinese. It demonstrates that English and Chinese share the same central conceptual metaphor "ANGER IS HEAT," which then breaks into two sub-versions in both languages. Whereas English has selected "FIRE" and "FLUID" metaphors, Chinese uses "FIRE" and "GAS" for the same purpose. Similarly, both English and Chinese share the "UP," "LIGHT," and "CONTAINER" metaphors in their conceptualizations of happiness, although they differ in some other cases. These two languages also follow the same metonymic principle in talking about anger and happiness by describing the physiological effects of these emotions. A descriptive difference observed throughout the study, however, is that Chinese tends to utilize more body parts, especially internal organs, than English in its metaphors of anger, happiness, and other emotional states. A principled explanation of the differences between the two languages is then made on the basis of referring to the theories of yin-yang and of the five elements of Chinese medicine. These theories form a cognitive or cultural model underlying the metaphorical conceptualization in Chinese. This study shows that metaphors of anger and happiness are primarily based on common bodily experience, with surface differences across languages explainable from cultural perspectives. It also provides empirical evidence, from a language other than English, to support the claim that metaphor is essential in human understanding, meaning, and reasoning.