"In the grip of fever": analysis of fever metaphors in Lithuanian and English

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Gretinamoji analizė; Karštligės metafora; Konceptualioji metafora; Metaforinis pasakymas; Conceptual metaphor; Contrastive analysis; Fever metaphor; Metaphoric expression.

ENThe subject of research reported in this article is conceptual metaphors whose source domain is fever, i.e. an illness or a medical condition characterised by high temperature and their realisation forms in two languages – Lithuanian and English. A corpus-based analysis of the metaphoric usage of nouns denoting fever (karštligė, karštinė, fever) and their derivatives (karštligiškas, karštligiškai, feverish, feverishly) reveals similar metaphorisation tendencies as well as certain language-specific patterns. The conceptual fever metaphor manifested by all metaphoric expressions in both languages is INTENSITY IS FEVER, encompassing two specific-level metaphors INTENSE ACTIVITY IS FEVER and INTENSE EMOTIONS ARE FEVER. In the field of activity, intensity metaphorised as fever refers to both qualitative and quantitative characteristics: the power of the action, the effort or energy put into it or the number of actions performed as well as participants involved and emotions caused. The frequency of metaphoric expressions with nouns denoting fever show that in both languages fever usually hits due to intense political, economic or sports events as well as different holidays, celebrations or entertainment activities. In Lithuanian, metaphoric collocations most frequently refer to economy, while in English the dominant cause of fever is sports. In both languages, the effect of fever metaphors is enhanced by realising additional features of a disease, using elements of other heat metaphors or employing power metaphors – fever is metaphorised as a powerful physical action or a powerful natural phenomenon (usually a violent storm or tide). The intensity of individual mental and physical activity, often accompanied by intense emotions (passion, excitement, enthusiasm) and speed, is most frequently expressed by collocations with metaphoric derivatives – karštligiškas, karštligiškai, feverish, feverishly.In both languages, the adjectives also manifest the metaphor INTENSE EMOTIONS ARE FEVER – collocations with nouns denoting particular emotions, which are more numerous and diverse in Lithuanian, express emotions which are very intense, extreme, difficult or impossible to control. [From the publication]