Metaphorical images of emotional states in the Russian linguistic picture of the world: movement and impact patterns

This article describes metaphorsdescribing the emotional sphere of the person. Two groups of metaphorical models, the movement and impact ones, were examined.These groups are the most representative and embody the concepts of feelings and emotions as entities that are in constant interactionwith the person. Metaphorical models are formed on the principle of the common source (CS) and the resulting values (RV) ofpredicates used to describe feelings and emotions. In the metaphorical model of motion the effects can be divided into two types (subjectand object), which have a definite correlation. In metaphors of movement, matching the original images leads to the coincidence of theresulting situations described by metaphorical predicates, thus, the correlation can be classified as interchangeability or synonymy,whereas the relations of subject and object model of impact are antonymic. 1. Metaphor of movement. Metaphors of the subject type arecharacterized by a sense of how actors can move or be in some space (in this case a person can act as the movement landmark of theemotion or space in which it is). Metaphors of the object type make the emotion similar to the space where a person is or moves. Forthese types of spatial metaphors synonymous correlation is characteristic. Thus, the emergence of the emotional state is likened to penetration,approximation. Stopping showing feelings can be characterized by the predicate of moving away from any object. Potential lackof sense of motion, stop, being in space are also actualized in the subject and object spatial metaphors. The image of the vertical motionis present in both models, but it describes the distinct results of the situation. In this case, the correlation is observed at axiologicalgrounds: in both models the considered metaphorical verbs of movement along the vertical axis preserve their archetypal associations,linking the top to the positive and the bottom to the negative start. 2. Metaphor of impact. Metaphorical description of emotional statesby means of verbs with the meaning of physical impact is a fairly common way of conceptualizing emotions in the Russian linguisticpicture of the world. Subjective effects of metaphors illustrate the idea of independence of emotions, their authority over the person,whereas the object argues the possibility of human control over emotional states. Thus, this study allows us to establish that within eachof the two major groups of metaphorical models discussed in this paper, there is a definite correlation. Models of movement are characterizedby the interchangeability of metaphors of the subject and the object types: in each model predicates with similar CS may describethe same resulting situation; in this case they differ only in the position of the subject and the object. Metaphors of impact are also usedmostly the same set of predicates, but interchangeability in this case is impossible, since the subject-object parameters here are meaningful:the RV depends on who or what is the subject or the object.

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