Metaphor and the Expression of Emotion: The Value of Cross-Cultural Perspectives

Abstract

Examination of the metaphors used in colloquial speech for expressing and talking about emotions suggests that there are limits on the communicative resources employed. This article explores the metaphoric expression of sexual desire and the articulation of feelings about sex. I describe the principal metaphors in Chagga, a Bantu language of Tanzania; consider English parallels; and propose that the two semantic domains of eating and heat may be favored cross-culturally as vehicles for conceptualizing lust and sex. This close investigation of sexual metaphor in a less studied language highlights the role of embodiment in inspiring and constraining how people understand and articulate experience. Cross-cultural similarities in the metaphorical expression of sexual feeling appear to be motivated specifically by perceived isomorphism in the salient schemas of the source and target domains and by significant psychological and physical associations between the two domains. The similarities are nevertheless tempered by particular culture histories.