METAPHORICAL CONCEPTULIZATIONS OF ANGER IN ENGLISH AND FULFULDE

Abstract

This study, using Lakoff’s (1993) Contemporary Metaphor Theory, compared metaphorical conceptualizations of anger in two typologically unrelated languages, namely, English and Fulfulde, with a view to finding out whether they have similar or different anger conceptual metaphors, and whether the languages differ in the way they elaborate the conceptual metaphors they share. In gathering the data, the researchers employed a focus group discussion in which native Fulfulde speakers living in Dukku Local Government Area, Gombe state, Nigeria participated. The discussion was carried out with ten different groups of participants who live in Dukku and its rural areas, each group comprising ten people. However, only the data that were found representative of all the ten groups were selected for analysis. In line with Metaphor Identification Procedure (MIP) developed by Pragglejazz Group (cited in Kovecses 2010a), Fulfulde conceptual metaphors for anger were identified from the selected data, and were compared with those of English. It was found out that the two languages share these conceptual metaphors (ANGER IS HOT FLUID IN A CONTAINER; ANGER IS FIRE; ANGER IS AN OPPONENT IN A STRUGGLE; ANGER IS DANGEROUS ANIMAL), although with some differences in metaphorical elaborations and specifications of some source domains. Moreover, it was discovered that Fulfulde has some conceptual metaphors not found in English and vice versa. The Fulfulde conceptual metaphors for anger are ANGER IS HEART; THE HEART OF AN ANGRY PERSON IS UP; WHEN ANGER COOLS THE HEART GOES DOWN; ANGER IS DANGEROUS TO THE ANGRY PERSON. The study concluded that the existence of similar conceptual metaphors in the two languages supports the claim of some cognitive linguists that some conceptual metaphors are universal (Kovecses, 2005; Lakoff, 1987). Article visualizations: