A Cognitive Study of Happiness Metaphors in Persian and English

Abstract

Metaphorical expressions are widely used in everyday language. The present study aims to examine and compare how metaphorical expressions of happiness are employed in English and Persian. The conceptual metaphor theory was adopted as the analytical framework. Using the framework, emotive metaphorical expressions of happiness were analysed according to these metaphorical mappings. The findings showed that English and Persian share many metaphorical expressions of happiness that are based on common bodily experiences. Consequently, the similarities can be attributed to the universality of conceptual metaphors, whereas differences in metaphorical expressions relate to specific different cultural modes in English and Persian.