Figurative Language in Anger Expressions in Tunisian Arabic: An Extended View of Embodiment

TLDR

Anger has been theorized as a universal physiological embodiment, where bodily parts used in conceptualization are also physiologically affected, a view supported by Lakoff and colleagues and mirrored in English. This study shows that Tunisian Arabic anger expressions exhibit multiple embodiment dimensions beyond physiological embodiment. The authors identify three embodiment modes in TA: physiological, culturally specific, and culturally tainted, the latter incorporating animal behaviors and ecological features. They find that physiological embodiment aligns with metonymic expressions, while culturally based embodiments correspond to metaphorical expressions.

Abstract

Abstract The work of Lakoff (1987), Lakoff and Kovecses (1987), and Kovecses (1990, 2000a, 2002) on anger situates it within the bounds of "PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF AN EMOTION STAND FOR THE EMOTION," thus implying a universal form of physiological embodiment for anger. The main contribution of this article is that anger in Tunisian Arabic (TA) shows many more dimensions of embodiment than physiological embodiment. Anger in TA comes as physiological embodiment, culturally specific embodiment, and culturally tainted embodiment. Similar to English, physiological embodiment yields expressions of anger where the part of the body used for conceptualization is also actually physiologically affected. Culturally specific embodiment involves parts of the body that are culturally correlated with the emotion of anger. Culturally tainted embodiment uses animal behaviors and cultural ecological features to taint physiologically embodied anger expressions. These types of embodiment are shown to generally correlate physiology-based anger with metonymy, and culture-based anger with metaphor.