Strategies and tactics of metaphorical conceptualization of fear in contemporary English

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FEDERAL STATE AUTONOMOUS EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

FOR HIGHER PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION

NATIONAL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY HIGHER SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

Department of foreign languages

BACHELOR'S PROJECT

Strategies and tactics of metaphorical conceptualization of fear in contemporary English

Ekaterina Sotskova

Supervisor Professor Nagornaya A.V.

Doctor Habil. in Philologу Advisor

Moscow, 2019

Contents

notion emotion metaphorical english

Introduction

1. Emotion as a subject of research

1.1 Notion of emotion and emotion as a phenomenon

1.2 A brief history of emotion research

1.3 Emotions and the human body

2. Fear as a subject of research

2.1 Notion of fear and fear as a phenomenon

2.2 Fear as a subject of research in different fields

2.3 Different aspects and classifications of fear

2.4 Direct and figurative verbalizations of fear

3. Metaphorical conceptualization of fear

3.1 Notion of metaphor

3.2 Metaphorical projection and role of the context

Conceptual metaphors of Fear in Contemporary English

1. Material of the research

2. Various loci of metaphorical conceptualization of fear

2.1 The heart as a locus for metaphorical conceptualization of fear

2.2 The stomach as a locus for the metaphorical conceptualization of fear

2.3 Eyes as a locus for the metaphorical conceptualization of fear

2.4 The face as a locus for metaphorical conceptualization of fear

2.5 The throat as a locus of metaphorical conceptualization of fear

2.6 The head as a locus of metaphorical conceptualization of fear

2.7 The skin as a locus of metaphorical conceptualization of fear

2.8 Bones as a locus of metaphorical conceptualization of fear

2.9 The neck as a locus of metaphorical conceptualization of fear

2.10 The liver and the lungs as loci of metaphorical conceptualization of fear

2.11 The whole body as a locus of metaphorical conceptualization of fear

Conclusion

References

Appendix



Introduction

It is an indisputable fact that all people, regardless of their age, sex, cultural background and social status, have emotions. They influence our mood, psychological and mental state, thoughts, actions and other aspects of everyday life, which is why emotions have become one of the central issues for various disciplines, such as philosophy, sociology, biochemistry, psychiatry, physiology and others.

Linguistics is not an exception, because since birth people learn how to verbalize their emotional state, which is why language abounds with words, phrases and figurative means, which help human beings express their feelings in a comprehensible format. These facts lead to the conclusion that emotions permeate human's speech activity and they are fixed in the semantics of the word as specifiers of various emotional states of a person. That is why, as pointed out by V. I. Schahovskii, in the study of language it is important to take into account not only the logic and subject semantics, but also the emotive one. (Schahovskii, 2010)

Verbalizing emotional states in their speech, people use different collocations and phrases either literally or figuratively. It is noteworthy that verbalization involves figurative means of language more frequently than direct designation of emotions with terms or culturally conditioned phrases such as “I am happy” or “I am scared”. People tend to use metaphors, metonyms, epithets and personalization in cases of emotional arousal, because these expressive means of language help create the atmosphere of what is happening and convey all the feelings in more precise details. Moreover, metaphors and metonyms enable us to connect a new feeling with something that is familiar to the person, in order to mitigate stress and negative outcomes from unexpected situations.

Fear, as a basic and universal human emotion, has a huge impact on language, which is why it is significant to pay attention to this phenomenon in order to trace the development of the metaphorical landscape of fear. This work is based on the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, proposed by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in the book “Metaphors We Live By” (Johnson & Lakoff, 1980), where the authors highlight the significance of metaphors not only from the linguistic point of view as an expressive means of language, but also from the point of people's understanding of everyday experience.

Relevance of this research can be justified by the fact that language as a living system always changes its variations and thesaurus, which is why it is significant to examine all possible shifts of language, influenced by modern trends and events, throughout time. Moreover, figurative means of language constitute a considerable part of people's vocabulary, therefore, this field of linguistics needs a thorough analysis in order to classify them and identify corresponding features. Last but not least, this paper contributes to the research into the field of cognitive linguistics, focusing on both language and psychology and physiology of people.

Novelty of this research consists in the fact that on the basis of contemporary English language we propose a new classification, based on the correlation between metaphorical conceptualization of fear and the bodily localization of this emotion. The analysis of these metaphors is conducted, taking into account new trends, concepts and theories in the field of linguistics. The analysis is based on the literature, which is published on various types of modern resources including contemporary artworks, blogs and fanfiction websites.

The object of this research is fear as a basic human emotion.

The subject of this research is metaphorical and metonymical conceptualization of fear. We study the correlation between these figurative means of language and emotion concepts, based on physiology and psychology of a human being.

The hypothesis of the current research is that although fear is a highly subjective experience, it is mediated by culture, which offers ways of conceptualizing it. Even unorthodox, creative descriptions of fear largely depend on culturally licensed conceptual and verbal models.

The main aim of this research is to analyze the tactics and strategies of metaphorical conceptualization of fear in contemporary English and identify the correlation between physiological level of human's perception of fear and its conceptualization in the language.

Within the framework of the research, a number of specific objectives can be isolated:

- analysis of already existing tactics and strategies of metaphorical conceptualization of fear;

- analysis of already existing metaphorical concepts of fear;

- designing a new classification, based on fear concepts, related to the bodily localization;

- analysis of a diversity of figurative means for expressing fear in contemporary English;

- identification of original concepts of metaphorical conceptualization.

The scope of the study covers the Conceptual Metaphor Theory and investigations within the paradigm of Cognitive Linguistics, which encompasses both linguistics and psychology. In order to conduct a thorough analysis of metaphorical units, the paper relies on a complex system of methods which includes analysis of various sources (such as academic works, historical and cultural data), descriptive analysis, comparative, contextual and retrospective analyses and classification. Comparative analysis is applied to identify possible differences between fear concepts in the past and in the present. Retrospective analysis, in its turn, enables us to analyze different attitudes to particular phenomena, such as emotion and fear, in order to trace significant shifts in its comprehension. In order to specify the field of research and works, which are instrumental for further analysis, some types of qualitative and quantities analysis were applied. Last but not least, the paper uses random sampling for the selection of metaphorical expressions.

The research draws on the works of Russian scholars, which focus on the study of linguistics and emotion research (Anokhin 1949; Simonov 1987; Luriya 1973; Nagornaya 2019; Podlesova 2013; Schahovskii 1994) and foreign works on conceptualization of emotions and significance of emotions in language (Carroll 1977; Damasio 2005; Ekman 1990; Faust 1986; Johnson & Lakoff 1980; Kцvecses 2003; Muroff et al. 2014; Barnden 2010; Goossens 1990)

The theoretical significance of this work is seen in its contribution to the study of metaphorical conceptualization of fear. The research focuses on determining new concepts and classifying the already existing ones, with a narrower focus on the features of the newly emerging forms.

The practical significance of the research is dictated by the possibility to use the collected data in cognitive linguistic research and theory of conceptual metaphor. Moreover, it points out new tendencies in metaphorical conceptualization of fear, which is why this paper can contribute to the creation of new academic literature, based on the material analyzed.

1. Emotion as a subject of research

1.1 Notion of emotion and emotion as a phenomenon

Without any exception, people of all ages, cultures, backgrounds, levels of education and financial status have emotions. Every day people experience a plethora of emotions, starting with positive emotions such as happiness, sympathy and love, and ending with negative ones, for example, anger, wrath and disappointment. Unlike animals, people express their feelings and make some decisions based not only on their initial and primitive instincts such as self-preservation and provision of posterity, but also on social and moral grounds. Since the emergence of scholarship, specialists in different fields of research have been striving to shed light on this complex phenomenon, analyzing it from various and sometimes conflicting points of view, but even nowadays, this topic remains largely underinvestigated and is actively discussed in the academia.

In order to understand this phenomenon, it appears expedient to start with the definition of “emotion”.

Within different approaches to emotions, there exist several widely accepted definitions of the term, the most accurate of which sound as follows:

1. a complex experience of consciousness, bodily sensation, and behaviour that reflects the personal significance of a thing, an event, or a state of affairs (BRITANNICA, 2019);

2. a strong feeling deriving from one's circumstances, mood, or relationships with others (https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/emotion, n.d.)

3. an experience characterized by a strong degree of feeling and usually accompanied by marked motor expression (Campo, 2013)

On the basis of these definitions it can be assumed that emotion is a peculiar state of consciousness, determined by the occurring circumstances or events and marked by a strong feeling, which a person experiences at this moment. It is clear that emotions show a personal attitude to the situation, which is based on background and experience, which makes it extremely difficult to analyze emotions. They cannot be generalized and it is virtually impossible to reveal absolutely identical and universal features of their expression in various cultures around the globe. For example, according to Gallup's A global analytics and advice firm 2018 global emotions report, which is based on more than 150,000 interviews with people in more than 145 countries conducted in 2017, emotions and their expression vary considerably from one country to another. It also reflects the effect of political and economic situation on people's negative or positive experiences. For instance, in countries, where some military actions are undertaken, the score of negative experience index is very high. (War-torn Central African Republic score) On the other hand, countries, where economic system is thriving, for example, Australia, index of negative experience is much lower comparing to less favorable for business and life in general countries.

Although emotions are culturally conditioned and their manifestations are culturally licensed, some elements of emotive behavior appear universal. For instance, practically everywhere people smile when they are happy or cry when something bad has happened.

Throughout time, understanding of emotions and their interpretation have been in constant flux, with new lines of research emerging and new theories being proposed. For the purposes of the current research, it appears necessary to trace the development of the major research trends and the most influential ideas.

1.2 A brief history of emotions research

Originally, the theory of emotions was developed within philosophy, where scholars such as Plato, Aristotle, Spinoza, Descartes, Hobbes, Hume, Locke considered several aspects, trying to understand the nature of this phenomenon. They attempted to determine whether emotions had any impact on our actions or the latter were only determined by reasoning and cognitive processes. Moreover, there was an attempt to establish the hierarchy of human abilities and their correlations with feelings. Last but not the least, scholars tried to look into the origin of emotions: whether they occurred from the outside or people could take them under control because they emerged in the human body. Due to absence of scientific research in this field, classical philosophy considered emotions as something strange, existing in the human body. This lack of information and accurate details led to incomprehension of what emotions are, why they occur and what happens to our mind and body, while we experience something. Although philosophers like Aristotle, Plato, S. Augustin, S. Thomas and others underlined different peculiarities of this phenomenon (e.g. Aristotle and Plato considered emotions to be an important part of human existence, while S. Augustin proposed the idea of inhuman nature of emotions), most of them wrote about the “strangeness” of emotional phenomena in their works. They were often called “foreign” to the concept of man, because these strong feeling disrupted the existing principle of human, who was able to control and manipulate his or her thoughts and behaviour. (Campo, 2013)

The approach to emotions changed in the second half of the 19^th century, when the development of science enabled emotions to become the object of academic research and to shed light on the tight connection between body states, behavior, body language in general and our emotions. At that time, it became clear that emotion was a multifaceted phenomenon which required a multidisciplinary approach, as it could be considered from different perspectives. Since that time emotions have been studied in various disciplines such as sociology, biochemistry, psychiatry, neurology, pharmacology and others. This development gave researchers a chance to explore further details in order to get a clearer vision of emotion generation and expression processes. For example, pharmacological and biochemical research revealed the importance of hormones and adrenaline secretion in emotional process, while neurology showed a correlation between the brain processes and mechanisms and human feelings. (Belenkov, 1972), (Luriya, 1973). These studies made it absolutely clear that emotions are not “foreigners” for us, on the contrary, they are the product of people's everyday life.

The first attempt to illuminate the nature of emotions in detail was made by Charles Robert Darwin, who made a significant contribution to the comparison of animal and human emotional states and processes in his work “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals”. (Darwin, 1872) In this work the emphasis is also laid on the correlation between emotion and our body motions. It is noteworthy that the very term emotion is etymologically related to the idea of movement. Cf: This word comes from Old French emouvoir "stir up", which first appeared in 12 century and further developed in 1570s in "a (social) moving, stirring, agitation," from Middle French йmotion. It is also known from Latin emovere "move out, remove, agitate". (Etymonline.com) Online Etymology Dictionary, Mode of Access: https://www.etymonline.com/word/emotion#etymonline_v_5814.

Another valuable contribution was made by Sigmund Freud, who first proclaimed that deliberate emotions were an inseparable part of our mental processes, which is why emotions were no longer opposed to rational decision-making processes, contrariwise, it was admitted that they play an important role in these processes and have an impact on them. (Freud, 1916)

It is also important to mention that emotions became an object of linguistic research because emotions manifest themselves not only with the help of human actions and body reactions, but they are also expressed in language. The study of emotion verbalization has become an integral part of various spheres of Linguistics; however, until recently a profound analysis of emotional components in human speech was not a priority for linguists. The linguistics of emotions or emotiology has its roots in a long dispute between two groups of linguists (Michel Brйal, Karl Bьhler, Edward Sapir, Jac. van Ginneken, Gustave Guillaume, Charles Bally and etc.) who argued about the role of emotive components in the study of language. (Schahovskii, 2008) The first group of scientists, represented by Karl Bьhler, Edward Sapir and Gustave Guillaume, claimed that the dominant component of language is its cognitive function, while emotive components are irrelevant. On the other hand, Michel Brйal, Jac. van Ginneken and Charles Bally believed that emotion expression is the key element in language, therefore it is necessary to study this concept. For example, Michel Brйal assumed that speech and language were created not for description, narration and unbiased discussions, but for expressing desire and preconceptions, and none of these can be expressed without emotional accompaniment (V.I. Schahovskii, 2008:8).

Nevertheless, emotiology began to develop actively only in the 1980s. Nowadays there are a lot of monographs and dissertations, which focus on this topic in linguistics, e.g. language emotionality, the role of emotions in human language behaviour and emotional concepts. (Johnson-Laird, 1989), (Bamberg, 1997), (Kцvecses, 2000), (Foolen, 2012), (Nagornaya, 2019) At the same time, there are some discussions about such notions as emotionality and emotional components within the word and its semantics. That is why various spheres of Linguistics consider emotions differently.

It is obvious that emotions permeate human speech activity and they are fixed in the semantics of the word as specifiers of various emotional states of a person. That is why, as pointed out by V. I. Schahovskii, in the study of language it is important to take into account not only the logic and subject semantics, but also the emotive one. In general, the emotive semantics of the word can be defined as the language-mediated attitude of emotionally sociological representations of a human being to the world (Shakhovskii, 1994: 20). Through various emotions, a person receives special experience, which is also registered in his or her consciousness and language, which subsequently verbally denotes the objects of our world, situations, some phenomena and their emotional evaluation. The words and phrases became their substitutes and are also experienced by the person, because they mean the same as the substituted situations and objects. Speaking about verbalization of emotions, we often come across different means of figurative language such as metaphors, metonyms, epithets and others, because they help people create emotive reality and express their thoughts in a more comprehensible manner.

There are several theories which explain the emergence of emotions. As mentioned above, the theory of Charles Darwin was the fundamental work “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals” in studying the issue. He was the first who ventured to assume that there is not such a huge gap between subjective experience of emotions by people and animals, but he also highlighted the differences. (Darwin, 1872)

The James-Lange theory, which was created by two 19-century scholars William James and Carl Lange, is a hypothesis about the origin and nature of emotions. This theory underlines the correlation between emotions and physiological changes in the human body, where emotions are considered secondary to physiology. It was stated that after experiencing the situation, where the emotion emerged, a human being feels this emotion through physiological changes in his or her body, which means that actually these physical sensations are emotions themselves. However, critics of this theory claimed that physiological shifts are not specific, which is why they cannot determine the qualitative originality and specificity of emotional experiences. Moreover, autonomic changes can occur more slowly than emotional changes, and do not have time to follow the range of feelings that a person is capable of experiencing almost simultaneously. (Being happy and sad practically at the same time). (James, 1884), (Lange, 1885)

Thalamic Cannon-Bard theory laid emphasis on the connection between emotions and the brain structure. The main concept of the Cannon-Bard theory is that the expression of emotions is the result of the function of hypothalamic structures, and the emotional experience is the result of the stimulation of the thalamus. Physiological changes and subjective feelings are separate and independent; physical arousal should not appear before emotions. Thus, the areas of the thalamus are considered to play a major role within this theory of emotion. (Cannon, 1927), (Bard, 1934). Moreover, this theory is known to be opposed to the James-Lange theory, because the authors of latest theory argued that physiology is secondary to emotions. The criticism and alternative way of perceiving emotions is documented in the American Journal of psychology “The James-Lange Theory of Emotions: A Critical Examination and an Alternative Theory” (Cannon, Walter, 1927)

Another theory, which was advanced by Donald Benjamin Lindsley, has its focus on the brain structure, too. This theory allows to connect the concepts of activation and emotional arousal with some characteristic changes in the bioelectric brain activity. (Lindsley, 1949)

The biological theory of P. K. Anokhin emphasizes the evolutionary adaptive nature of emotions, their regulatory function in providing adaptation of the organism to the environment. The essence of the biological theory consists in the following: any emotional state occurs only if the feedback information from the results of the action is exactly the same as expected. On the contrary, the discrepancy between the result and expectations immediately leads to anxiety and a search that can ensure the achievement of the desired result, and therefore, to full-fledged emotions of satisfaction. From P. K. Anokhin's perspective, all emotions, ranging from the lower to the higher, socially preconditioned ones, have the same physiological architecture. (Anokhin, 1964)

The information theory of emotions introduces the concept of information, which should also be analyzed in the process of emotion expression. Emotions are closely related to the information we receive from the world. As a rule, emotions arise from an unexpected event, which happens to be new for the recipient. At the same time, people do not feel such a rich spectrum of emotions if they face the situation, which is familiar to them or they have enough background information to perceive it in a calm way. This theory was developed by P.V. Simonov, who linked people's needs and their satisfaction with information, which people possess at a particular moment. He created a formula, which showed that a low probability of meeting the need leads to the emergence of negative emotions and vice versa. This theory highlights the evaluative function of emotions, which is always the result of interaction between two factors: demand (needs) and supply (opportunities to meet this need). (Simonov, 1987)

Last but not the least, Paul Ekman developed a theory in the field of neurocultural research. P. Ekman identifies six main (basic) emotions -- anger, fear, sadness, surprise, disgust, happiness. According to this theory, expressive manifestations of basic emotions are universal and are considered to be practically insensitive to environmental and background factors. In other words, all people use almost the same facial and body muscles while experiencing basic emotions. Each of them is connected with a genetically determined program of the movement of the muscles. However, even these emotions are culturally conditioned, and this can be proved by the fact that in the situation of social control people are able to monitor facial expressions in accordance with accepted norms and traditions of education. (Ekman, 1999)

Until now, there is no single point of view on the nature of emotions. There is still intensive research aimed at studying emotions. Currently accumulated experimental and theoretical material allows us to talk about the dual nature of emotions.

1.4 Emotions and the human body

Emotion is a complicated phenomenon, in the study of which it is necessary to take into account different aspects. American psychologist and specialist in the field of human emotions Carroll Izard suggests paying attention to three main categories, while analyzing emotions: 1) the experience of emotions; 2) processes, which happen in the systems of the human body; 3) expressive complexes of emotions, in particular, those reflected on the face (Carroll, 1977).

Each of these aspects can be considered relevant in various fields of research, especially in Linguistics, on which this paper will focus. The first aspect is correlated with terminology, which is used in order to describe the feeling of fear in real life. The perception of feelings means its verbalization in speech, the ability of a person to name and describe it. On this stage people use the exact designations of experienced feeling: “I am afraid” when a person experiences fear, “I am sad” when something bad or disappointing has recently happened. It is significant that with the development of mental abilities and maturing people develop this ability to characterize emotions, which they experience.

The second aspect, which was pointed out by Carroll Izard, is connected with the description of bodily sensations, which people have in the state of emotional arousal. These bodily changes can manifest differently, but in general they possess a variety of common qualitative features. For example, in the state of fright we feel that our heartbeat becomes more frequent and our body can tremble; the feeling of grief is connected with heaviness and lifelessness of the body and so on (Nagornaya, 2019, p. 199-226)

The third aspect concerns the externally visible signs of emotional states, and these include mimics, facial expressions, specific poses and actions, which people use while experiencing one of the emotions. For instance, the phrase “He turned red” denotes that this person has a feeling of anger and helps avoid the explicit indication of this emotion.

After thorough analysis of these aspects, it can be stated that emotion cannot be identified only as a psychological phenomenon, which exists out of the human body, because it is tightly linked to human physiology. Due to this fact, a lot of authors started to represent their characters' feelings with the help of describing physiological symptoms, sometimes even without naming the actual emotion. For example, the phrase “The man gives me the creeps” gives the readers a clear understanding that another person has a feeling of fear because a shivering body is one of those physiological symptoms, which always occur when people are frightened. These physiological symptoms, which are part of the emotional state, were named “somatic markers of emotion” by Portuguese-American neurologist Antonio Damasio in his work “Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain”. (Damasio, Antonio R., 1994) In this book he claims that it is absolutely wrong to think that only the brain is responsible for thinking processes; our body and emotions play a pivotal role in rational decision-making process. This theory states that emotions initiate our thinking process and also determine what results we are going to have.

A thorough linguistic analysis of all emotions within one paper is an unattainable goal. Therefore, it appears expedient to focus narrowly on one emotion, presenting it from different angles. The emotion of our choice is fear. The choice is accounted for by a number of factors. First and foremost, it belongs to the basic emotions and forms an inseparable part of people's emotive experience. Secondly and specifically, it has many forms and gradations, which are potentially reflected in language. And finally, expression of fear feeling in people's speech is connected with figurative means of language, which is specifically significant for this research.



2. Fear as a subject of research

2.1 Notion of fear and fear as a phenomenon

It is an indisputable fact that every day people experience a variety of feelings, sometimes more positive ones, but sometimes negative ones occur in life, too. As mentioned above, there are several emotions, which are considered to be basic. Among them are anger, fear, sadness, surprise, disgust, and happiness. The present paper focuses on fear, which all human beings are familiar with.

Fear is an inevitable emotion in our lives, characterized by a rich system of physiological, psychological and behavioral reactions, which are reflected in people's speech. It appears expedient to consider some definitions of fear to get a clearer understanding of this phenomenon. Fear is defined as

1) an unpleasant emotion or thought that you have when you are frightened or worried by something dangerous, painful, or bad that is happening or might happen (Online Cambridge Dictionary, 2019);

2) an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain, or harm (Online Oxford Dictionary, 2019)

3) an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger (Marriam-Webster, 2019)

Undoubtedly, fear is a congenital emotion inherent in the human psyche, because it is one of the most important survival mechanisms and a natural response to threats and dangers. Fear can be determined by certain situations in a person's life, it can be based on personal experience, but at the same time, it is culturally specific.

On the one hand, fear can be considered a universal emotion, because it is associated with several bodily sensations, such as crawling skin, sweating palms, increasing heart rate and so on, and these bodily changes are familiar to people all around the globe.

On the other hand, when it comes to other fields of research, such as psychology or linguistic verbalization of fear, lots of differences can be observed. For instance, people's behavioral reactions in the state of fear can be different: some people can concentrate better, but others get lost and do not know what to do. Moreover, speaking about factors which trigger fear, a lot of other discrepancies can also be mentioned. People are afraid of various things: animals, heights, darkness, spirits and even more generalized fears such as social phobias and fear of diseases. The first group of fears is connected with the biological factor of self-preservation, since people because of their experience and background information are sure that these things can harm their mental and physical condition. The second group is preconditioned by the role of society in people's life, because such fears as stage fright or diffidence are related to the upbringing and maturing processes, during which one person develops different qualities and acquires various points of view. The last but not the least thing to mention here is the personal experience of a human, who finds him/herself in a dangerous, frightening or unfamiliar situation. Experience of a person sometimes helps him/her overcome a frightening situation more easily, with less emotional shock than the previous time in a similar situation.

2.2 Fear as a subject of research in different fields

Previous ideas give a clue that fear is an object of research within different scientific fields and can be considered from various points of view.

The phenomenon of fear, as was already mentioned, is closely connected to human physiology. Physiology considers fear to be a mechanism of protective reaction to some dangerous stimuli or situations, which facilitates bodily reactions such as adrenaline secretion or goose bumps. These reactions are typical practically of all human beings, but definitely they manifest themselves with different levels of intensity.

Psychology plays an essential role in researching the fear phenomenon. It reflects the influence of fear on our mental and physical condition, highlights its peculiarities, such as the duration of this emotion, because fear in most cases is a situational emotion, which is triggered by some stimuli. However, some people are in a constant state of fright during their lives and it is considered to be a psychological disease and must be treated with the help of professionals.

Fear has been extensively discussed in the field of Philosophy for a long time. In the Middle Ages fear was interpreted in the way, which was stated in Divine Scripture, which is why people perceived fear as a punishment for sinners and thought that only the outer body was somehow affected by it. People sometimes experienced fear when they were not sure that their souls would be saved by God. However, during the Renaissance fear was considered to be unnatural for a human being, and people were ashamed to experience it. The philosophers of the Late Modern Period claimed that people could overcome fear with constant attempts to find the truth in the world. Eventually, philosophers such as K. Jaspers, S. Kierkegaard, J.-P. Sartre and others made a significant contribution to the development of this research field, adding such notions as existentialism, neurotic fear, paranoia, pointing out several levels of emotional state: fear, anxiety and horror. K. Jaspers first published two works in 1910 and 1913, where he addressed the issue of mental stability and psychological illnesses like paranoia; he focused on the problem whether these states are connected with the personality of a human being and his/her emotional state or the result of some biological changes (Jaspers, 1913). S. Kierkegaard is considered to be the founder of religious existentialism. He related a person's attitude to life, fear and mental abilities to religion. For instance, his work “Fear and Trembling” represents the way of Abraham to God and his personal life choices (Kierkegaard, 1843). J.-P. Sartre was also a key figure that developed the philosophy of existentialism and phenomenology. In his works he claimed that a person' s existence should be considered prior to his/her essence, and this statement became a symbol of existentialism in 20^th century (Sartre, 1946). Thanks to their works, researchers of different scientific fields began to analyze this feeling as an internal state of the human being.



2.3 Different aspects and classifications of fear

While analyzing fear, it is necessary to mention several approaches to defining the degrees of fear in people's mind. The first one considers three stages of perceiving fear. The first stage is indicated by a primary assessment of a negative, dangerous and sometimes life-threatening situation, which can possibly involve physical or mental pain. The next stage is marked by a secondary assessment of the needed resources for reacting to the situation and possibly dealing with it. Finally, stage three is characterized by the natural response to the danger (Faust, 1986; Fries, 2000, Boerner, 2003; Bandelow, 2003, 2004).

Another significant contribution to the sphere of fear research was made by Russian psychologist A. Karvasarskii, whose classification was based on the object of fear: what is scary for people in real life? A. Karvasarskii distinguished eight groups of fear. The first one is connected with a fear of space, which can be manifested in various forms: fear of enclosed/open space, fear of heights and so on. The second group is called social phobias, and obviously this fear is associated with social life, with making friends and basic communication. The third one, nosophobia, describes the fear of getting sick of any disease. A lot of people have an imperishable feeling of indisposition, being paranoid. The fourth group includes the fear of death, the fifth is connected with various sexual fears; the sixth group is comprised of fear of causing harm to themselves or loved ones. The seventh group includes "contrasting" fears, which denotes fear of being different from other people. And the last group of fears is phobophobia, fear of being afraid of anything (Karvasarskii, 1982).

Another classification was proposed by Y. Scherbatyh, who has a doctoral degree in biology. His classification is based on three main groups of fear: 1) biological ones, which can directly influence people's life and are connected with threat to life; 2) social fears, which are associated with the dread of changing one's social status; 3) inner fears, which actually do not have any factual justification, but are created by a person because of his/her worries and contrived problems. (Scherbatyh, 2000)

Moreover, it should be stated that the problem of fear is of a certain interest not only for scientists, but also for representatives of creative professions, for instance, writers, directors and painters. Fear is often perceived as an object of artistic reflection in various artworks.

One of these classifications of fear was proposed by the famous American horror writer Stephen King in his book “Danse Macabre”, where he provided a deep analysis of this feeling, describing all the aspects of this emotion.

His classification is different from those described above, because it concentrates on the intensity of fear in the human mind, rather than the causes of fear. The following quote from his book helps us understand this classification - “Terror on the top, horror below, and lowest of all, the gag reflex of revulsion” (King, 1981, p. 25). This gradation of feelings helps us distribute various descriptive expressions across the levels of intensity, which will be employed in the empirical part of this research. Stephen King divides this emotion of fear in general into three specific, descending levels: terror, horror, and revulsion. He claims that it is often useful to recognize these three distinctions, however, writers and readers should also avoid any preference for one of them. Terror is defined by him as "the finest emotion" of all the given degrees, and the one he is eager to reach in his works, because it gives an almost quintessential effect (King, 1981, p. 25). Providing a great number of examples of horror works, such as “The Haunting”, “The Monkey's Paw”, “Salem's Lot” or “Dracula”, he defines “terror” as the harassing and worrisome moment in horror before the actual cause of the fear (ghost, monster and so on) is revealed. “Horror” is defined as the moment at which this person sees the creature that causes the strong feeling of terror, and this degree is connected with the so-called “shock value”. The final degree is “revulsion”, which is compared with the vomiting-reflex: post-reaction after experienced intense emotions of terror and horror. In his book, Stephen King admits the fact that sometimes it is really hard to achieve the degree of terror in the book and consistently follow it, which is why he uses all three degrees in his works.

“I recognize terror as the finest emotion, … and so I will try to terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify him/her, I will try to horrify; and if I find I cannot horrify, I'll go for the gross-out. I'm not proud.” (King, 1981, p.25)

Although the situation where fear can occur is perceived through personal experience differently and can have certain peculiarities related to the individual who overcame it, the conceptualization of fear with different language means is often based on the already existing and culturally conditioned expressions and concepts.

2.4 Direct and figurative means of verbalizing fear

Fear as a complex phenomenon is reflected practically in all spheres of people's life. It has a certain impact on our body, psychological and mental condition, and is also verbalized in our speech. The ability to name this emotion develops with age and is influenced by the experience that a person possesses.

While considering fear verbalization in human speech, it is necessary to mention that a person can name this emotion either in a direct or in a figurative way, using such linguistic devices as metaphors, metonyms, personalization, epithets and others.

Direct verbalization, or terminological language for emotions means that a person names his or her feeling with a term or a phrase, which is preconditioned by the culture they live in. For example, children are always looking forward to getting presents on their birthdays, and when it has happened, they feel happiness and joy. In direct verbalization they will say “Thank you very much, I am really happy to get these presents from you”, because they have already seen this situation in their lives, and their parents previously said “We are happy”. Getting back to fear, the same situation can be observed. People watch a horror film in the cinema, and when they experience this fear, they can say “I was really scared because of this creature”. They use this or similar phrases, because in their culture people always use such expressions to describe their feelings. There are various set phrases in the English language to describe the degree of fear in the emotional state directly starting with expressing your own emotions. For example:

I was afraid / I was frightened / I panicked / I was scared/ It was scary/ I felt uneasy/ I was spooked/ I was terrified/ I was petrified/ I had a fear of smth/ I was horrified, etc.

Moreover, there are lots of examples of terminological language to define the reason, why a person is frightened.

To be fearful/ scary/ frightening/ chilling/ horrifying/ creepy/ dreadful/ spooky or creepy crawly/ it daunts me/ it intimidated me/ it browbeats me/ it cows me/ it startles me/ it affrights me, etc.

Finally, there are a number of words which denote this feeling of fear directly. All of them have various connotations (more positive/negative attitude to this feeling, for instance, cowardice is the manifestation of a negative quality of a person), different degrees of fear, however, in general they describe the same feeling of emotional state.

Fear/ terror/ dread/ fright/ horror/ dismay/ funk/ pavor/ awe/ anxiety/ intimidation/ consternation/ affright/ phobia/ cowardice/ awfulness/ startle/ scare, etc.

Nevertheless, people tend to use figurative language to characterize their emotional state, because it helps them create a wider and deeper insight into the feeling they are experiencing. Figurative language conveys the lived-in experience of fear, enabling the speakers to portray its most minute nuances, while term-like vocabulary units appear dry and semantically insufficient. Moreover, figurative language gives people a possibility to connect new feelings with something they have already experienced, and this association always helps them understand new emotional states better, and if they are negative, to overcome them more easily.



3. Metaphorical conceptualization of fear

3.1 Notions of metaphor, metonymy and metaphtonymy

While analyzing figurative components of a language, it is important to mention that these expressive means can be referred to the category of descriptive emotion words, which “describe the emotions they signify” or that ``they are about” (Kцvecses, 2004:2). In contradistinction to the words wow, yuk, eek, hurrah, which really express the emotions of surprise, delight or disgust, for example, the metaphor “Love is a fire. It burns everyone” only describes and denotes various aspects of emotion concepts such as intensity, cause, control and others. The figurative words and expressions are subdivided into two types in the aspect of emotions expression: metaphorical and metonymical expressions.

The metaphorical expressions are phenomenon of conceptual metaphors in terms of G. Lakoff and M. Johnson (1980), who were the first to change people's understanding of metaphors in their book “Metaphors we live by”. Metaphor is considered to be not only a figurative component of a language, but also, primarily, a fundamental mechanism of the mind, that enables human beings to use what they know about any kind of experience to provide awareness of countless other subjects. Conceptual metaphor as an object of thorough research emerged at the junction between two disciplines: linguistics and psychology, which is why the conceptual metaphor theory is the domain of cognitive linguistics, which focuses on both psychology and linguistics. Cognitive Linguistics is aimed at the language interaction with human cognition, the formation of our thoughts with the help of language and some shifts in common worldview throughout the time.

The main function of conceptual metaphor is to connect two different domains or concepts with each other: one of the concepts is typically more concrete and physical than the other one. The relation between them is established to better understand the more abstract things in terms of the more concrete ones. For example, the sigh filled her with fear is a suitable linguistic example for conceptual metaphor FEAR IS A FLUID IN CONTAINER (Kцvecses, 2003). G. Lakoff and M. Johnson claim that without metaphors, it will be almost impossible to express new thoughts, ideas and emotions because it is quite hard to explain new concepts without reliance on the already well-known concept. In the updated version of this book (Lakoff&Johnson, 2003), the authors supplied an afterword surveying how their conceptual theory of metaphors has influenced the attitude to this particular figurative component of language, showing that this theory has developed to become the central one for understanding how we think and how we express our thoughts in language.

Linguistic expressions, which also belong to this large descriptive group, can be metonymical, which, unlike conceptual metaphors, involve only one domain. The purpose of metonymy is “to provide mental access to a domain through a part of the same domain” (Kцvecses, 2000, p.5). Emotion concepts have several elements and they are verbalized by conceptual metonyms. For example, two phrases my heart began to race and the man gives me the creeps reflect two different elements of the same concept FEAR, where the first one shows us that fear means increase in heart rate and the second one - fear causes the skin to shrink.

Moreover, it is important to mention that metaphor and metonymy are often combined when conceptualizing emotions, merging into metaphtonymy: a conceptual combination of metaphor and metonymy, which serves as a means of interpreting and verbalizing complex processes. This term was first introduced by L. Goossens in his work “Metaphtonymy: The interaction of metaphor and metonymy in expressions for linguistic action” (1990), where he showed that metonymy and metaphor can be recognized as parts of a single continuum in various relationships, forming hybrid forms of structures, which are based on similarity and adjacency (Nagornaya, 2013). Different contexts and figurative expressions show that there is no single and clear line of metaphor-metonymical projections. L. Goossens figures out three possible interrelations between metaphor and metonymy: metaphor from metonymy, metonymy within metaphor and metaphor within metonymy (Goossens, 1990). The core role in ensuring the connection between the body experience and the abstract concept is given to metonymy, which forms a strong cognitive basis for the processes of metaphorization. A number of researchers in the field of Linguistics argue for the proximity of metonymy and metaphor. For instance, J. Barnden claims that metaphors reflect our subjective perception of various objects, while metonymy depicts the objectively existing relations in the world at the same time (Barnden, 2010). Z. Kцvecses argues that metonymy determines only the so-called "correlative metaphors", while "metaphors of similarity" do not reveal a connection with it (Kцvecses, 2010, p.86).

Despite the fact that there is a huge variety of terminological expressions and words for a direct description of human's emotional state, people tend to use figurative means of language in order to reflect physical and mental processes more precisely and provide the recipient with a subjective and personal coloring of the unfolding situation.

Nevertheless, these means of language have received the least attention in the study of emotion language, because an overwhelming majority of researchers consider figurative expressions to be “epiphenomena”, or a secondary product of more literal and simple ways to express various feelings, experiences and thoughts.

3.2 Metaphorical mapping and the role of context

According to the conceptual theory of metaphors, introduced by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), metaphors serve as a significant tool for various complex cognitive processes. First and foremost, they create and form the psychological, social and cultural reality for one individual. Secondly, a considerable part of metaphors of emotions is based on different cultural peculiarities and traditions and can reflect cultural diversity. Conceptual metaphor is based on “certain prototypical cognitive model associated with particular emotions and with the abstract category of emotion” (Kцvecses, 1990, p.4) To better understand this notion, it appears expedient to describe the process of metaphorical mapping. As previously said, conceptual metaphor helps connect two different domains (metaphorical source domain and domain of emotion), which are practically always related to distinctive semantic fields of language. The metaphorical source domain is more concrete, which helps a person to verbalize and understand his/her emotions better. Each emotion has its specific metaphorical domains, for instance, based on Z. Kцvecses's research (Kцvecses, 2000, p.36), there are some metaphorical domains, which are universal and applicable to every emotion (existence of emotion is presence here), source domains that can be applied to most emotion concepts (a human body is a container for emotion) and finally domains that are applicable only to some emotions (heat/fire is relevant for anger, love and lust). Emotion concepts can be studied on two levels: in general and in particular (examination of a particular emotion and its connection to broader cultural values and principles. Examination of one particular emotion concept and its connection to the broader environment is important, because this research helps figure out fine details, which link this emotion to peculiar cultural values, which are country specific. Propositional and image-schematic knowledge (Kцvecses, 2000), which constitutes knowledge and experience associated with emotions, plays an important role for emotion conceptualization, and this knowledge can be different considering various emotions. One of the most applicable image-schema is EMOTION IS A SUBSTANCE IN A CONTAINER. Practically every emotion can be conceptualized within this image-schema. However, taking into account one particular emotion, it should be identified what kind of substance is connected with this specific emotion (anger - hot and boiling substance, fear - cold and icy one).