6. The embodiment of fear expressions in Tunisian Arabic

Maalej, Zouheir A.

doi:10.1075/celcr.7.07maa

Cited by 14 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This finding contradicts previous research conducted in several countries, which has found that people are said to turn white, blanch, or become pale when they are frightened Maalej, 2007;Oster, 2010;Strugielska & Alonso-Alonso, 2007). For example, the phrase "to whiten" is used in the USA and Russia to indicate fear (Apresjan, 1997, p. 187) and the phrase "his face was white from fright" is used in Persia (Maalej, 2007, p. 98).…”

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 56%

“…Examining these phrases in light of our findings, we developed a new hypothesis about the association of white and fear. These sayings appear to be based upon a physiological reaction: When people become scared, the blood drains from their faces, making them appear pale or white (Maalej, 2007). Perhaps fear is only associated with looking white, not white in general.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Is sadness blue? The problem of using figurative language for emotions on psychological tests

2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Psychological tests sometimes include figurative language like I feel blue. However, figurative language may not mean the same thing cross-culturally. Previous research found cross-cultural evidence for 14 conceptual metaphors and metonymies for emotions (e.g., sadness is blue). Our two studies asked participants (total n = 795) in the USA and India whether happiness, sadness, anger, and fear are associated with certain descriptors (blue, down, bright, etc.). Most participants in both countries endorsed ten of the 14 hypothesized associations; however, the percentage of participants endorsing an association was often far from 100 %. For example, in the USA, only 71.7 % associated hot with anger and only 65.9 % associated blue with sadness. Moreover, descriptors were often associated with more than one emotion. Furthermore, only two associations (happiness is up and bright) were endorsed by more than 90 % of participants in both countries and had descriptors that were not associated with additional emotions. We conclude that figurative language is often ambiguous and should be used with caution on psychological tests unless there is evidence the language is understood cross-culturally. Advice to this effect is currently lacking from psychometrics textbooks and should be added.

show abstract

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 56%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is sadness blue? The problem of using figurative language for emotions on psychological tests

2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This means that human cognitive domains today have a striking resemblance with cognitive domains of people of more than a thousand years ago. It gives another reflection that the human conceptual system, unless and until it is affected by particular cultural aspects or social indoctrination, remains the same, structured by sensorineural models on the basis of human physical experiences within the bounded space (see Boroditsky 2001;Boroditsky, Fuhrman and McCormick 2011;Kövecses 2005;Maalej 2007Maalej , 2011.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Cognitive-Semantic Study of the Spatial Preposition Fī (فِي) in the Quran

Khan¹,

Ali²

2017

KAJH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. The existing literature has examined the preposition fī ‫ي(‬ ِ ‫)ف‬ in the Quran from lexical syntactic perspective in strict spatio-geometric sense, but its abundant use with abstract concepts, emotions and states needs an elaborate approach to investigate its complex semantic functions. Therefore, this paper has taken a corpus based approach to investigate the functional semantic complexity of the preposition fī in the Quran from a cognitive perspective. The conceptual metaphor perspective holds that the sensorimotor neural structures define the use of spatial preposition in both spatio-geometric positions and abstract states. The linguistic data reveals that the container image schema is at work both in the literal and metaphoric use of spatial preposition fī. However, the preposition fī carries its own distinct semantic argument in each context and sometimes overrides the symmetry of container image schema. This paper recommends a broader perspective for a comprehensive analysis of spatial preposition fī and suggests further studies on its functional semantic complexity in the Quran.

show abstract

“…Given the physiological and cultural-social embodiment (Geeraerts & Kristiansen, 2014;Maalej, 2004Maalej, , 2007 and the fact that metonymy usually involves direct physical or causal associations (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, p. 39), some scholars argue that metaphor tends to be more culturally embodied, while metonymy tends to exhibit a physiologically oriented type of embodiment (Maalej & Yu, 2011, p. 14). In order to prove that metonymy is a fundamental cognitive process in everyday life and to show that metonymy is derived from human life and bodily experience, much attention has been given to the ubiquity and universality of metonymy in CL (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Cross-linguistic variation in metonymies for PERSON

Zhang

Geeraerts

Speelman

2015

RCL

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper investigates metonymies for person in Chinese and English in the framework of Cognitive Linguistics with an emphasis on cross-linguistic variation. Our central goal is to highlight the important role of cultural elements on the use of metonymy. Three main types of cross-linguistic variation were found at different degrees of granularities of metonymies: variation in metonymic patterns for the general target category person, variation in metonymic patterns for a specific kind of person, and variation in metonymic sources in a specific pattern. The variation was examined against its cultural background, and we conclude that some cross-linguistic differences are to a large extent rooted in culturally relevant factors. The findings suggest that although bodily experience as the general cognitive basis for metonymic pattern/source selection implies the universality of metonymies across different languages, cultural elements contribute to the language-specific preferences for metonymies of a given target.

show abstract

6. The embodiment of fear expressions in Tunisian Arabic

Cited by 14 publications

References 0 publications

Is sadness blue? The problem of using figurative language for emotions on psychological tests

Is sadness blue? The problem of using figurative language for emotions on psychological tests

A Cognitive-Semantic Study of the Spatial Preposition Fī (فِي) in the Quran

Cross-linguistic variation in metonymies for PERSON

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About