Metonymies and metaphors of sadness in the Old English vocabulary

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore the predominant metonymic and metaphoric conceptualizations of sadness in the Old English period. To this end, the Old English expressions for emotional distress recorded in The Old English Thesaurus and old English dictionaries have been analyzed. Taking as a starting point the experiential grounding of emotion conceptualization, we first present experimental evidence in support of the role of somato-behavioral reactions in emotion recognition, affective state induction and emotional information processing and interpretation, and review the most common metonymic and metaphoric expressions for sadness in Modern English. Next, we analyze the Old English vocabulary for sadness and the interplay between embodiment and culture in the conceptualization and linguistic description of emotional distress. Such analysis makes it clear that in ancient times, as in present day English, sadness and psychological distress were also conceptualized in terms of unpleasant physical conditions such as illness, cold, darkness or heaviness. Consequently, a long-term diachronic trend in the conceptualization of sadness can be traced even though its linguistic realization and motivation have varied through time.

The axes of time: spatiotemporal relations in Old English vocabulary

“…The use of terms also related to the sagittal axis, such as forþ 'forwards, onwards, hence, thence, henceforth, further', heonan forþ 'from here forth' or forþweard 'forward', to refer to time introduced a deictic construal of time that took the experiencer's now as a point of reference ( 20)-( 21). (20) Gif mon […] gehreowað his synna, and ful faestlice þencð þaet he if man repents his sins and firmly thinks that he forð ofer þaet þam aefre to eft ne gecyrre […] henceforth over that those ever to again not return þeah wile drihten hine faederlice onfon aet his forðsiðe still be willing lord him fatherly receive at his death 'If a man repents of his sins, and earnestly thinks henceforth he will not return to that again, even so the Lord will receive him like a father at his death' (DOEC,Instr [0046 (166)]) (21) …gif hit sceal heonan forð godiende weorðan …if it shall here forth improving come-to-be 'If things from here forth are to be improving' (DOEC, WHom 20.1 [0005 (20)])…”

“…See example(20) for illustration.3 SeeKarasawa (2015) for an alternative view of the influence of Irish and Latin on the Menologium.4 The specific semantic categories that were examined in the case of time were: 05.11 A time, period of time; 05.11.01 Length/duration in time; 05.11.02 A time, particular time, occasion; 05.11.03 Period of time, era, epoch; 05.11.04 Day and night; 05.11.05 A dial, horloge; 05.11.06 Course/cycle of time; 05.11.07 Relative time; 05.11.08 A suitable time, opportunity; 05.11.10; Frequency; 05.11.10 Timescale; 05.11.11 Continuity. 5 The semantic categories analyzed in the case of space were: 05.10 Space, extent; 05.10.01 Amplitude, spaciousness, vastness; 05.10.02 Narrowness, scantiness of space; 05.10.03 A gap, cleft; 05.10.04 Place, room; 05.10.05 A space, span; 05.10.06 Form, shape.…”

The metaphorical conceptualization of sadness in the Anglo-Saxon elegies

“…Many of these metaphorical patterns are in line with people's reports on their subjective experience of sadness, which include the sensation of having a lump in the throat, muscle tension, weak limbs, low felt temperature (Scherer et al 1986;Scherer and Wallbott 1994), tiredness, listlessness, slowing of the mind and body, downward body posture and a forwards bending of the head (Carroll 2000). 3 Although these reports do not provide direct evidence of a connection between body sensations and physiological responses, the way people describe sadness shows consistent enough patterns to suggest that our conceptualization of this emotion is largely based on our embodied experience (Castaño & Verdaguer 2018).…”