Exploring metaphorical conceptualizations of ENVY in English and Chinese: A multifactorial corpus analysis

Abstract

Adopting a multifactorial analysis, this corpus-based comparative study examines the metaphorical conceptualizations of ENVY in American English and Chinese. All the metaphorical occurrences of ENVY in the two languages were collected from the corpora and then submitted to a detailed semantic and usage analysis. The qualitative and quantitative analyses show both striking similarities and differences in the metaphorical structuring of ENVY across the two languages. Both languages resort to largely the same common conceptual metaphors but use divergent elements from these metaphors’ source domains in their conceptualizations of ENVY. Moreover, a correspondence analysis of the most frequently used envy metaphors in relation to four important factors reveals some noticeable cross-language differences in their behavioural profiles. Based on the corpus findings, this study also explores the motivations underlying the similarities and differences in the metaphorical structuring of ENVY. The results indicate that the similarities are grounded mainly in common bodily experiences, whereas the differences are motivated by either differential cultural experiences or differential cognitive preferences.