Cognitive Metaphors of Anger and Madness in The Canterbury Tales

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of a number of cognitive metaphors, and metaphors based on metonymy pertaining to the concepts of ANGER and MADNESS. The study will approach frequent collocations related to the afore-mentioned concepts and will view them from a cognitive perspective. The analysis takes as its text Caxton’s The Canterbury Tales: The British Library Copies (ed. by Barbara Bordalejo), a CD-ROM containing the first full-color facsimiles of all copies of William Caxton’s first and second editions of the Tales. The theories drawn upon for the analysis include those of Jäckel (1995) and connected with the metaphorization of the mind, as well as those that reflect the strong impact of culture upon emotion (Dźwirek and Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk 2010, Kövecses 1995, 2000, 2005, 2006). The analysis focuses on the detailed contextual study of the cognitive metaphorical concepts. This paper will demonstrate the close relationship between emotion,culture and the language used to express emotions, and will also reveal emotion to be a conceptualized feeling highly affected by culture. The perspective on metaphor/ metonymy continuum will be applied to the analysis of the metaphors linked with the concepts of ANGER and MADNESS.