Semantic analysis and frequency effects of conceptual metaphors of emotions in Latin. From a corpus-based approach to a dictionary of Latin metaphors

Abstract

This article presents the main results of a corpus-based analysis of the metaphorical expression of emotions in Latin and a new resource specifically designed to facilitate such large-scale study of conceptual metaphors, the Lexicon Translaticium Latinum. The first part of the paper provides quantitative and qualitative evidence about the types of metaphors used by Roman writers to express four basic emotions: fear, anger, love, and hate. Our research takes a corpus-based and target-oriented approach, analyzing all occurrences of the main lexemes denoting these emotions in Latin texts dating between the third century BCE and the second century CE. The results demonstrate the highly embodied nature of the metaphors used by Latin authors to make sense of (and express linguistically) their experiences of fear, anger, love, and hate. Moreover, the differences in the usage of the metaphorical patterns across the four semantic fields, in terms of type and frequency, correlate with the different physiological reactions provoked by the four emotions we examined. In the second part of the paper, we present the Lexicon Translaticium Latinum, an open-access, digital dictionary of Latin metaphors, currently under development. It facilitates large-scale analyses of highly conventionalized metaphoric patterns that organize meanings throughout Latin, at the same time allowing the kinds of relations that subsist between different types of metaphors to be captured and encoded in machine-readable formats.