1.       Introduction

An idiom is defined as a “constituent or series of constituents for which the semantic interpretation is not a compositional function of the formatives of which it is composed” (Fraser, 1970, p.22). “The importance of idioms in any language cannot be doubted. Their ubiquity makes them anything but a marginal phenomenon, and surely a linguistic theory has an obligation to explain them in a natural way” (Chafe, 1968; p.111). Idioms provide the language with variety and imagination (Cooper, 1999) and their learning embodies learning a culture (Ovando and Collier, 1985; Glucksberg and McGlone, 2001). Learning idioms can lead to native-like proficiency since idioms are learned in chunks, and consequently, they are retrieved from the learners’ memory without hesitations which can lead to fluency (Lim et al. 2009; Cain et al. 2009; Boers et al. 2006).

Anger has always been included in the repertoire of basic emotions, mainly given its distinct and universally recognizable pattern of facial expression (Ekman, 1999). Psychophysiological parameters of anger are common to other emotional conditions, such as, for instance, a general condition of stress or fear or predatory behaviours (Scarpa et al., 2010). Anger entails a negative activation that leads the individual to resolve the tension through active behaviours. At the same time, behaviours sustained by anger can result in approaching behaviours usually sustained by positive emotions (Scarpa and Raine, 1997). Unlike other basic emotions, the environmental conditions expected to elicit anger are not invariably distinguishable as Basic Emotion Theory (BET) would require (Ekman, 1992). Anger can appear as a reaction to a condition of bodily distress, as a way to protect oneself to an attack from a predator (in this sense, anger is a possible consequence of fear; Wilkowsky and Robinson, 2010), as an emotion supporting goal-directed behaviour when a circumstance in the outside world prevents the desired goal to be fulfilled, causing frustration (Panksepp, 1988). Facial expression of anger can be interpreted as a sign of aggression, inducing reactions of fears or proneness to engage in a conflict, or can otherwise elicit enlivening feelings of sharing in other subjects, depending on the evaluation of the context (Emde, 1984). Critics of BET also highlighted that the expression of anger is virtually totally inhibited in some cultural contexts (Rosado, 1984). 

Circumplex model of affect developed by Russell is based on subjective feelings (see Figure 1). In an early study, Russell (1980) asked participants to sort 28 emotion words into categories based on their perceived similarity. He then used a statistical technique to group the emotion ratings according to positive correlations, effectively organizing similarly related emotion words into a circular pattern. This multidimensional scaling analysis revealed two bipolar dimensions: valence and activation. Consequently, any emotion can be described using an unpleasantness/pleasantness dimension (valence) and a high arousal/low arousal dimension (activation). Russell's (1980) model states that valence and activation are independent, bipolar dimensions. Independence implies that valence and activation are uncorrelated, while bipolarity indicates that opposite emotion terms represent the extremes of each dimension. For example, as shown in Figure 1 below, "happy" and "distressed" are positioned at opposite ends of the pleasantness dimension.

Figure 1- A graphical representation of the circumplex model of affect with the horizontal axis representing the valence dimension and the vertical axis representing the arousal or activation dimension (Source: Tseng et al. 2013)

According to Russell's (1980) circumplex model of affect, the emotion of anger can be described using two primary dimensions: valence and activation. In this model, valence represents the pleasantness or unpleasantness of an emotion, while activation (or arousal) represents the level of energy or intensity associated with the emotion.

Anger is characterized as having:

1. Negative Valence: Anger is an unpleasant emotion, situated on the negative side of the valence dimension. This indicates that experiencing anger typically feels bad or distressing.
2. High Activation: Anger is also associated with high arousal, meaning it involves a high level of energy and intensity. When someone is angry, they often feel a surge of energy and may experience physical symptoms such as increased heart rate, muscle tension, and agitation.

In Russell's circumplex model, these two dimensions intersect to place anger in the quadrant where emotions are both unpleasant and highly arousing. This positioning highlights the intensity and negative nature of anger, distinguishing it from other emotions that might be either less intense (low arousal) or more positive in feeling (positive valence).

2.       Conceptual Metaphor Theory

Conceptual Metaphor Theory, introduced by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in their seminal work ‘Metaphors We live by (1980)’, offers a radical departure from traditional views of metaphors. Traditionally, metaphors were seen as merely linguistic devices used for aggrandizement or rhetorical effect. However, CMT posits that metaphors are not confined to language but are pervasive in thought and perception. Metaphorical mappings structure our conceptual system and shape how we think and reason about the world. CMT emphasizes that our conceptual system is largely embodied, meaning that our understanding of abstract concepts is grounded in our bodily experiences and interactions with the physical world. Metaphor and metonymy are different kinds of processes. Conceptual metaphors and metonymies are conventionally represented in capital letters.

1. Conceptual Metaphor: Conceptual metaphor is principally a way of conceiving of one conceptual domain in terms of another, and its primary function is understanding.

Example: "LOVE IS JOURNEY."

a.) Realizing that it will not work out, we parted our ways.

b.) We tried to patch up our relationship but it failed dramatically. Destiny seems to have fixed different paths for us.

c.) This relationship isn't going anywhere (Kövecses, 1986, p.8).

Lakoff and Johnson (1980) originally identified three main types of metaphors: orientational, structural and ontological:

1.1. Ontological Metaphors: Ontological metaphors involve mapping abstract concepts onto concrete entities or experiences. They highlight the nature of existence or being.

Example: "TIME IS MONEY." (e.g., Please don’t waste my time with the unnecessary stuffs.)

1.2. Structural Metaphors: Structural metaphors are those where a complex concept, usually of an abstract nature, is presented in terms of another concept, which is usually more concrete. Example: “ARGUMENT IS WAR.” (e.g., He attacked every weak point in my argument).

1.3. Orientational Metaphors: Orientational metaphors involve mapping spatial orientations onto abstract concepts. They highlight directions, orientations, or spatial relationships between different concepts.

Example: "UP IS GOOD, DOWN IS BAD." (e.g., progress, success) are generally considered positive, while those associated with "down" (e.g., decline, failure) are negative.

2. Conceptual Metonymy: Conceptual metonymy, on the other hand, has primarily a referential function, that is, it allows us to use one entity to stand for another. It also serves the function of providing understanding. (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, p.47).

Example: “LAPSES IN HEARTBEAT.” In this expression ‘lapse in heartbeat’ stands for fear

3.       The present study attempts to answer the following questions:

1. What are the Conceptual metaphors and metonymies used in Hindi idiomatic expressions for anger?
2. When people speak about anger, are they invoking a coherent folk theory? That is, are the conventionalized ways of talking about anger actually based on some cognitive model of what anger is?

Emotion expression in language can provide valuable insights into psychological processes, such as cognition, perception, and social interaction. Linguistic analysis of emotional expression helps psychologists and cognitive scientists understand how emotions are experienced, expressed, and interpreted by individuals. Emotion concepts are mainly metaphorically and metonymically constituted and defined. They are composed of four distinct conceptual ingredients: conceptual metaphors, conceptual metonymies, related concepts, and cognitive models (see Kövecses, 1986, 1988, 1990, 2000/2003).

Rest of the paper is divided into four sections. The following section deals with a survey of relevant scholarly works on emotion metaphors across languages. Subsequently, the research gap is identified, and it is shown how the work is situated in a broader landscape of metaphor researches. The next section describes the data collection and analysis procedure in a detailed manner. The subsequent section states the findings and carries out a discussion. Finally, the last section sums up the study.

4         Review of the Literature

Following the seminal work "Metaphors We Live By" by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), the study of metaphor has undertaken a significant transformation. Metaphors are no longer viewed merely as rhetorical devices for embellishments; instead, they are recognised as fundamental to our cognitive processes and conceptualisation. Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) has emerged as a pivotal framework in numerous scholarly investigations focused on understanding the cultural conceptualizations of human emotions. (Sauciuc, 2009; Anash, 2010; Kövecses, 2018).

The exploration of anger's conceptualization across languages has been a subject of considerable investigation, unveiling intricate cognitive and linguistic processes underlying its expression. Kövecses et al. (2015) undertook an exhaustive analysis encompassing American English, Spanish, Turkish, and Hungarian to discern prevalent metaphors for anger. Leveraging extensive corpora and media sources spanning a decade, their study aimed to unearth dominant conceptual metaphors within each linguistic framework. Additionally, the research delved into systematic parallels and distinctions in how anger is conceptualized and articulated across the diverse linguistic landscapes under scrutiny.

Furthermore, Carrian and Cordova (2012) contributed nuanced insights into the conceptual scaffolding employed by native English speakers in expressing anger. Their work illuminated the multifaceted nature of folk conceptualization, encompassing experiential, physiological, cultural, and metaphorical dimensions. By elucidating the interconnectedness of conceptual metaphor and metonymy, the study showcased their pivotal role in weaving together diverse strands of information into coherent conceptual frameworks, thereby facilitating a deeper comprehension of the complexities inherent in emotional experience.

Abbasvandi and Maghsaudi (2013) in their work titled “contrastive socio-pragmatic analysis of anger metaphors in English and Persian.” aimed to investigate anger metaphors in English and Persian from a socio-cultural perspective in a curated list of English and Persian metaphors using. Kovecses’s (2000) cognitive qualitative method for contrastive analysis of anger metaphors. The findings of the study revealed that although the manifestation of anger in English and Persian is culturally-conditioned and has differing lexico-semantics realizations, both languages have certain commonalities owing to the universal nature of metaphors. The analysis shows that the conceptual metaphors “ANGER AS A FLUID”, “ANGER AS HEAT/FIRE”, “ANGER AS AN OPPONENT” and “ANGER AS INSANITY” are present in both languages but the entailments doesn’t overlap entirely. On the other hand, mappings like “ANGER AS A DEVIL THING”, “ANGER AS A BURDEN”, “ANGER AS A CHILD”, and “ANGER AS A PLANT” are not mutually inclusive in the two languages.

Ogarkova and Soriano (2014) delved into the embodied conceptualization of anger across English, Russian, and Spanish. Employing statistical analyses of metaphorical language usage drawn from representative corpora, their research lent empirical credence to the embodied cultural prototype view of emotion conceptualization. This perspective integrates universal bodily experiences with socio-cultural constructs, revealing both commonalities and disparities across languages. Notably, the study unveiled a shared prominence of the BODY IS A CONTAINER FOR ANGER metaphor across linguistic domains, alongside variations in the localization, expression, and elaboration of the intricate body-emotion relationship.

Dobiášová (2021) delved specifically into English idiomatic expressions pertaining to anger. By amalgamating Langlotz's idiom classification methodology with the Extended Conceptual Metaphorical Theory, the investigation meticulously dissected 37 idiomatic expressions to uncover the conceptual underpinnings of anger. The findings underscored the profound influence of both metaphorical and metonymic motivations in shaping the nuanced meanings embedded within these expressions. Particularly noteworthy were the identified image schemas such as ACTIVITY IS MOTION and INTENSITY OF ACTIVITY IS HEAT, which wielded significant influence over metaphorical idioms for anger in English, with motion assuming a paramount role.

Collectively, these studies offer rich and multifaceted insights into the conceptualization and expression of anger, highlighting the intricate interplay between cognitive, linguistic, cultural, and embodied dimensions. Through interdisciplinary lenses, they illuminate our understanding of these phenomena across diverse linguistic and cultural milieus.

In reviewing the contemporary literature, it becomes evident that extensive research has been conducted on emotion metaphors and expressions across various languages, including English, Greek, Spanish, Persian and French. However, a noticeable gap emerges in the dearth of such studies within Indian languages. Thus, the current endeavour seeks to address this gap by examining the metaphorical and metonymical motivations underpinning linguistic expressions of anger in Hindi. The paper proposes original findings that can be replicated in intercultural studies of metaphorical conceptualizations of Hindi anger expressions. Through this exploration, we aim to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of emotion expression across diverse linguistic and cultural contexts.

5.       Research Methodology

This section deals with the description of how the forty idioms were curated from various sources and the method employed to thematically analyse those idioms for conceptual metaphors and metonymies.

6.       Material

Forty Hindi idioms and idiomatic expressions related to anger (see Appendix 2 for an exhaustive list) were purposively selected based on their their potential metaphorical or metonymical motivations. These expressions were sourced from a variety of materials, including Hindi textbooks and websites such as https://m.bharatdiscovery.org/india/, https://hi.wiktionary.org/wiki/ and https://www.rekhtadictionary.com/idioms-containing-gussa. Additionally, the intuitive judgments of native Hindi speakers were incorporated into the selection process.

To ensure the grammaticality and acceptability of the chosen expressions, they were reviewed by a panel of four native Hindi speakers. Subsequently, the Hindi idiomatic expressions were transliterated from the Devanagari script to the Indian languages Transliteration (ITRANS) notation, as detailed in the appendix 1. Furthermore, each Hindi expression was provided with its English translation to facilitate comprehension for readers across different languages. This comprehensive approach aimed to ensure the accuracy and accessibility of the material for the ensuing analysis.

7.       Method

The selected anger-expressions were thematically analysed to investigate the conceptual motivations underneath them. The underlying conceptual metaphors, and metonymies on which the idioms can be based were identified and enlisted. A bottom-up approach was used to extract the conceptual metaphors from linguistic evidence. A systematic procedure to perform this extraction was proposed by Pragglejaz Group (2007: 3). CMT (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980) has been employed as the guiding framework for our analysis.

The Metaphor Identification Procedure (MIP) involves the following steps:

1. Reading the entire text to understand its overall meaning.
2. Identifying the individual lexical units (words or phrases) in the text.
3. For each lexical unit:
4. Determine its meaning in the given context, considering how it applies to an entity, relation, or attribute in the situation described by the text. Paying attention to the surrounding text.
5. Checking if the lexical unit has a more basic meaning in other contexts. Basic meanings are typically more concrete, easier to imagine with the senses, related to bodily actions, more precise, or historically older.
6. If the lexical unit has a more basic contemporary meaning in other contexts, assess whether its contextual meaning contrasts with this basic meaning but can be understood through comparison.
7. If the contextual meaning contrasts with the basic meaning but can be understood in comparison, marking the lexical unit as metaphorical.

Consider example (1) as a case in point:

(1) vah   gusse   ke   giraft    mein   aa   gayaa

  3SG.NOM anger.GEN grip in come.PRF go.PRF

Literal meaning: He is in control of anger.

In example (1), it seems that vah gusse ke giraft meM aa gayaa, “anger overpowered him” has a non-literal meaning, since anger does not literally control/arrest people. This expression is used to depict anger as a social superior.

We followed Littlemore’s (2015:127) procedure, adapted from Steen (2007), to identify metonymies, as in:

(2) us-ki    baat    sun    kar   mera   khUn   khaul    jaata   hai

    3SG.POSS-F  word   hear  do.CONV  1SG.POSS  blood  boil   go.PRS   be.PRS

Literal Meaning: My blood boils listening to him.

To identify and describe how the Hindi idiom "khUn khaul jaata hai" (blood boils) is an instance of conceptual metonymy, the following procedure has been followed. This involves several steps, including identifying the target domain and the source domain, and analysing how one concept is used to refer to another.

1. Identifying the expression: The idiom "khUn khaul jaata hai" (blood boils).
2. Determining the literal meaning: The literal meaning of the idiom is that someone's blood physically reaches a boiling point.
3. Determining contextual meaning: In the given sentence, the idiom "khUn khaul jaata hai" does not mean that blood is literally boiling. Instead, it means that the speaker is very angry or enraged.
4. Identifying the source domain: The source domain is the physical reaction of blood boiling. This concept is associated with heat, agitation, and a high temperature, typically observed when a liquid reaches its boiling point.
5. Identifying the target domain: The target domain is the emotion of anger. Anger is an abstract concept that can be difficult to describe directly, so physical manifestations are often used to express it.
6. Explaining the conceptual metonymy: In this instance, the idiom "blood boils" uses the physical reaction of blood boiling as a metonymy to describe the emotional state of anger. The physical state of "boiling blood" is closely associated with the physiological responses to anger, such as increased body temperature, agitation, and heightened blood pressure.

8.       Result and Discussion

The idiomatic expressions on anger found in our compilation from several sources can be mainly divided into two broad types:

1. Idiomatic expressions employing conceptual metaphors

Among metaphor motivated idiomatic expressions, we found anger as a domain to be mapped onto various other domains (abstract and concrete) which are tabulated below (See Table 1). Based on the thematic analysis of the idioms on anger, it was found that the conceptual Metaphors for anger employed are ANGER IS HEAT, ANGER IS FIRE, ANGER IS FLUID, ANGER IS INSANITY, ANGER IS ANIMAL, and ANGER IS FORCE. Among these metaphors, ANGER IS HEAT, ANGER IS FLUID followed by ANGER IS FIRE come as more frequent sort of conceptual mapping than others. In total we found nine conceptual metaphors employed to conceptualise anger as reflected in language usage. Some of these metaphors closely resemble English metaphors such as ANGER IS AN OPPONENT, ANGER IS A SOCIAL SUPERIOR, ANGER IS HEAT, and ANGER IS FIRE, as posited by Kövecses (1988). This resemblance supports the notion that certain metaphorical conceptualisations are universal across languages, suggesting a shared cognitive basis for understanding emotions.

Moreover, two conceptual metaphors ANGER IS FLUID and ANGER IS BURDEN in Hindi idiomatic expressions are also present in a similar study by Ansah (2014) analysing the conventional metaphorical expressions of anger in Akan (a Kwa language spoken in Ghana, West Africa).

The commonalities found in terms of conceptual metaphors can be linked to the claim by Kövecses (2006) that certain conceptual metaphors are potentially universal or near universal at a generic level (Hashemian et al. 2020)

Table 1- Idiomatic expressions motivated by conceptual metaphors

2. Idiomatic expressions employing conceptual metonymy

With regards to the domain of emotions, conceptual metonymies can be of two general types: CAUSE OF EMOTION FOR THE EMOTIONS, and EFFECT OF EMOTION FOR THE EMOTION. The latter being much more frequent than the former (Kövecses and Radden, 1998; Barcelona, 2000). Interestingly, in the present study as well conceptual metonymies of the type ‘EFFECT OF EMOTION FOR THE EMOTION’ has been found upon analysis. We found as many as nine conceptual metonymies after systematically analysing the select forty Hindi idiomatic expressions. The table below (Table 2) enlists various conceptual metonymies.

Table 2- Idiomatic expressions based on conceptual metonymy

Most of the metonymies identified in our analysis resemble those found in English. For instance, the state of anger in both languages is conceptualized using the body fluid ‘bile.’ In English, the phrase ‘swallowing bile’ refers to suppressing anger or enduring a bitter experience. Similarly, in Hindi, ‘pitta ubalnaa’ (boiling bile) signifies the intensification of anger).

Conversely, there are a few expressions exclusive to Hindi, such as ‘nathune phaRaknA’ (fluttering of nostrils), which employs the conceptual metonymy ‘FLUTTERING NOSTRILS STAND FOR ANGER.’ In this expression, the physiological response of heavy breathing, resulting in the fluttering of nostrils, is used to represent anger.

There are certain bodily responses as depicted in the wordings of the idiomatic expressions on anger like ANGER associated with HEAT/RISE IN TEMPERATURE. These conceptions in language arises naturally from our embodied experience (see Kövecses, 1986; Lakoff and Johnson, 1999)

In the expressions of anger, it was found that anger has been conceptualised by various body organs. The list of those organs with their respective activities articulated in the idioms are given below in Table 3.

Table 3- List of body organs and related actions signalling the state of anger.

The colour red has been frequently employed in the Hindi expressions on anger for example, ‘gusse se AMkh lAl honA’ (reddening of eyes due to anger). It is interesting to note that the popular Indian rasa theory[1] posits that the aura of an angry person is red. Hence it can be said that some of the idiomatic expressions on anger are also in accordance with the indigenous theory of emotion.

While examining the idiomatic expressions on anger, we found that the anger expressions are in accordance with the Circumplex model of affect/emotion (Russel, 1980). It implies that anger as depicted in the wordings of these expressions showed negative valence, i.e., lying towards the unpleasant side (Example: gusse se laRnA ‘fighing with anger’), and towards high activation, i.e., the emotion involves high arousal (Example: mAthA garam honaa ‘hot head’).

There are two broad claims about the conceptualisation of anger. One, that anger is conceptualized in the similar way universally, and two, that anger is a social construction and thus differs considerably across culture (Kövecses, 2000). In the present analysis of the Hindi idiomatic expressions on anger, both types of conceptualisations were apparent leading the researcher to agree with a middle way called ‘body-based social constructionism’ (Kövecses, 2000), that enables one to see anger and its counterparts as both universal and culture specific.

Based on the study, it can be inferred that the Hindi idioms on anger are mostly conceptually motivated and make predominant use of conceptual metonymies, metaphors and to certain extent in accordance with certain indigenous knowledge system and the Psychology of emotions/affects. This study (Cognitive linguistic approach to idioms) can have fruitful implications in teaching and learning Hindi idioms. 

9.       Conclusion

The present study focussed on select 40 idioms to investigate their underlying conceptual motivations employing the conceptual metaphor theory by Lakoff and Johnson (1980). The research aimed to decipher the metaphoric and metonymic motivations behind these idiomatic expression on anger.  Our thematic analysis identified as many as nine key conceptual metaphors for anger, including ANGER IS HEAT, ANGER IS FIRE, ANGER IS FLUID, ANGER IS OPPONENT, ANGER IS SOCIAL SUPERIOR, ANGER IS INSANITY, ANGER IS AN ANIMAL, ANGER IS STORM and ANGER IS FORCE. These metaphors align closely with English metaphors, such as ANGER IS HEAT, ANGER IS AN OPPONENT and ANGER IS A SOCIAL SUPERIOR, as posited by Kövecses (1988). This similarity supports the notion that certain metaphorical conceptualisations are universal across languages, suggesting a shared cognitive basis for understanding emotions. In addition to metaphors, we examined conceptual metonymies related to anger. Following Kövecses and Radden (1998) and Barcelona (2000), we found that metonymies of the type 'EFFECT OF EMOTION FOR THE EMOTION' were more frequent. Specifically, we identified nine conceptual metonymies across the selected Hindi idiomatic expressions. The frequent use of the colour red in expressions like ‘gusse se AMkh lAl honA’ (reddening of eyes due to anger) aligns with the Indian rasa theory, which posits that an angry person's aura is red, indicating a connection with indigenous theories of emotion. Our findings also align with Russell's (1980) Circumplex Model of Affect, which describes emotions in terms of valence and activation. The Hindi idiomatic expressions for anger typically depict the emotion as having negative valence (unpleasant) and high activation (high arousal). The study reveals that Hindi idioms on anger are predominantly conceptually motivated, utilising both conceptual metaphors and metonymies. Most if not all of the findings are in accordance with indigenous knowledge systems and psychological theories of emotion. This cognitive linguistic approach to idioms offers valuable insights that could enhance the teaching and learning of Hindi idioms, providing a deeper understanding of the cultural and cognitive underpinnings of language. The present analysis has been conducted on a limited number of expressions. Although an effort has been made to include the most frequently used Hindi idioms related to anger, yet the list is not exhaustive. A more comprehensive list and an extensive analysis can be undertaken to fully identify the governing pathways of conceptualising anger in Hindi idiomatic expressions.

10.    Acknowledgments

The author acknowledges that no financial assistance was received for the research and authorship of this work. The research was conducted independently, and the author assumes full responsibility for the content presented. The author also expresses gratitude to the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments, which helped improve the manuscript.

[1] Bharat Muni in his treatise, Nātyasāstra, an ancient Sanskrit text of dramatic theory and other performance arts, written between 200 BC and 200 AD define rasa as a sentiment or emotion evoked in each member of the audience by the dramatic art. The Nātyasāstra mentions six rasa in one section, but in the dedicated section on rasa it states and discusses eight primary rasa (see Dace, 1963 ; Meyer-Dinkgräfe, 2005, pp. 102–104, 155–156).