Cognitive Semantic Analysis of Fear Expressions in Bangla and Hindi

Abstract

Emotion concepts are largely metaphorical and metonymic in nature across languages. Fear is an intensely unpleasant emotion in response to perceiving or recognizing a danger or threat. Fear includes physical, psychological, and behavioural reactions. The language of emotion is one of the areas where the influence of culture on cognition has been studied. This study delves into a comparative analysis of fear-related colloquial and idiomatic expressions in Hindi and Bangla, juxtaposed with English expressions, adopting a cross-cultural perspective rooted in Cognitive Linguistics. In this paper, we analyze the metaphors and metonymies of fear in Bangla and Hindi using Cognitive Metaphor Theory (CMT)of Lakoff and Johnson and Extended Cognitive Metaphor theory of Kövecses and incorporating the lexical method for studying the fear metaphors in both the languages, taking data from the colloquial as well as idiomatic expressions from various sources like websites, books, and native speakers. We have classified these expressions into different stages of fear like auditory or visual stimuli causing fear, physiological arousal, and so on. A notable finding is that the majority of expressions in the selected languages utilize metonymy, particularly involving body parts, to convey fear. The research underscores the significance of a cross-cultural perspective in understanding emotion concepts linguistically. © 2024 Slovak Association for the Study of English. All rights reserved.