Chapter Nine Emotion
2. Metaphors of Emotion
2.1 Metaphors for the generic emotion noun ‘anem’
Cross-linguistic studies have suggested that every language has a term for FEEL, which does not need to be a verb but can be a noun or adjective as well (Wierzbicka 1999: 276). In Kavalan, this generic emotion term is anem ‘heart; feeling; emotion.’
This term can also be used as a verb, as demonstrated in the following example.
(15) mai anem-an-ku ci-shulan Neg like-LF-1stGen Ncm-PN “I don’t like Shulan.”
As a verb, anem is interpreted as ‘like.’
Anem, however, is more often used as a noun to denote one’s feeling or general emotional state. Since its basic meaning is ‘heart,’ its use as a generic emotion noun reflects a general conceptual metaphor HEART IS A LOCUS FOR EMOTION. Examples are provided below for illustration.
(16) a. m-rizaq anem-ku AF-happy heart-1stGen
‘I feel happy.’ (Lit. My heart is happy.) b. m-supul-ti anem-na
AF-introspect-Pfv heart-3rdGen
“He is not angry any more./He made a concession.”
(Lit. He examined his heart.) c. nengi anem-ku tangi
good heart-1stGen today
“I am in good spirits today.” (Lit. My heart is good today.)
These examples indicate that anem ‘heart’ is where one’s emotion is situated in Kavalan so that it can be described as ‘happy’ or ‘good’ as in (16)a and (16)c and that it can be examined for introspection as shown in (16)b.
There are other more elaborate metaphors which are based on the conceptual metaphor HEART IS A LOCUS FOR EMOTION. They involve more specific source domains that can be mapped onto the target domain of emotion, which is conceptualized as anem ‘heart.’ The following table lists what source domains can be applied to emotion concepts with their interpretations when predicated to anem
‘heart.’
Table 1. Source domains of the generic emotion noun anem ‘heart’
General State as Source Domain (17a-d) yau ‘exist’ Î ‘to be willing to’
mai ‘not to exist’ Î ‘to be unwilling to; not to feel like doing something’
sqaw ‘bad’ Î ‘to feel sad; to feel worried’
nengi ‘good’ Î ‘to feel happy’
Competence/Capability as Source Domain (18) satoRin ‘competent’ Î ‘to be willing to’
Texture Attribute as Source Domain (19a-c) spul ‘soft’ Î ‘to compromise easily’
Ratemu ‘hard’ Î ‘to be stubborn’
zinaq ‘heavy’ Î ‘to feel heavy-laden’
Table 1. (continued)
Temperature as Source Domain (20)
basaw ‘cool’ Î ‘not to be angry; to have no interests’
Physical State as Source Domain (21a-c)
qaRat ‘itchy’ Î ‘to be angry; to be repugnant’
pilay ‘tired’ Î ‘to be mentally exhausted’
taRaw ‘ache’ Î ‘to be sad; to be distressed’
Activity as Source Domain (22a-d)
sabiqbiq ‘boil’ Î ‘to panic; to be anxious’
quqang ‘change’ Î ‘to reform oneself’
qabutoR ‘explode’ Î ‘to be extremely angry; to be extremely nervous’
matemaq ‘burn’ Î ‘to be extremely worried”
Motion Event as Source Domain (23a-c) wia ‘leave’ Î ‘to be distracted’
masarin ‘drift away’ Î ‘not to care about what is happening here’
pasa ni ‘toward where’ Î ‘to be distracted’
The following are example sentences for these metaphors.
(17) a. (conversation_buya&engi)
yau anem saizi nani, yau ni-sulal-an-ku nani Exist heart SAIZI DM, Exist NI-write-Nmz-1stGen DM
“I am willing to…, and I have drafted (a project).”
b. mai-iku tu anem tu sa-qauRat-an Neg-1stNom Obl heart Obl SA-play-Nmz “I do not want to play.”
c. seqaw anem-na muRin bad heart-3rdGen cry
“He felt sad, so he cried.”
d. nengi anem-ku tangi good heart-1stGen today
“I am in good spirits today.” (Lit. My heart is good today.) (18) (conversation_buya&engi)
satoRin anem-ku t-em-ul cimaimuan zin-ku yu competnet heart-1stSg.Gen AF-teach 2ndPl.Loc say-1stSg.Gen Part.
“I’m willing to teach you”, I said.’
(19) a. spul anem-na soft heart-3rdGen
“He compromises easily.” (Lit. His heart is soft.) b. Ratemu anem-na
hard heart-3rdGen
“He is stubborn.” (Lit. His heart is hard.) c. zinaq anem-ku tu nalas zau
heavy heart-1stGen Obl thing this
“I feel heavy-laden because of this matter.”
(Lit. My heart is heavy due to this matter) (20) basaw-ti anem-na
cool-Pfv heart-3rdGen
“He is not angry any more./He has lost interests.” (Lit. His heart cooled.) (21) a. qaRat anem-ku tu qasianem tu qelawqaway-an-ku
itchy heart-1stGen tu think Obl work-Nmz-1stGen “I feel repugnant to think of my work.”
b. pilay anem-ku tu qasianem tu qelawqaway-an-ku tired heart-1stGen tu think Obl work-Nmz-1stGen “I feel mentally exhausted to think of my work.”
c. matanaqti-imi taRaw anem-ku separate-1stPlNom ache heart-1stGen
“We separated so I felt sad.”
(22) a. sabiqbiq anem-na boil heart-3rdGen
“He feels anxious.” (Lit. His heart is boiling.) b. quqang-ti anem-na
change-Pfv heart-3rdGen
“He has reformed himself.” (Lit. He has changed his heart.) c. m-aitis-iku tu (azu) ngil qabutoR anem-ku
AF-afraid-1stNom Obl (seem) want explode heart-1stGen
“I am so afraid that my heart seems to explode.”
d. m-laylaw-iku tu azu matemaq anem-ku tu lalas ‘nay AF-worry-1stNom Obl like burn heart-1stGen Obl thing that
“I am worried about that thing as if my heart was burning.”
(23) a. wia-ti anem-na leave-Pfv heart-3rdGen
“He is distracted.” (Lit. His heart left.) b. masarin-ti anem-na
drift_away-Pfv heart-3rdGen
“He does not care about what is happening here.’
(Lit. His heart has drifted away.) c. pasa-ni-ti anem-na?
toward-Que-Pfv heart-3rdGen
“He seems distracted.” (Lit. Where has his heart gone?)
There are limitations on the extent to which these source domains can be applied to the domain of emotion concepts. Take the domain of temperature as an example.
While it is acceptable to use basaw ‘cool (used for rice)’, another term with similar meaning toqbus ‘cool (used for water)’ cannot be employed as a metaphorical expression. Another instance is from the source domain of motion event. Although it is legitimate to use wia ‘leave’ to form a metaphorical expression, matiw ‘go’ is not allowed to predicate anem. Compared with Squliq Atayal, which permits profuse predicates in a variety of source domains to be combined with the generic emotion noun (Yeh 2002), the range of metaphors involving the generic emotion noun in Kavalan is relatively small.