The Concept of Emotion: The Container Metaphor

Abstract

We have discussed the CONTAINER metaphor in connection with anger, fear, and pride in some detail. The purpose of the present chapter is twofold: First, it is to examine how this metaphor applies to a large number of emotions and, second, to show how a single conceptual metaphor can give considerable structure to the diffuse and vague notion of emotion. Thus in the analysis to follow both major senses of the word emotion are taken into account: the sense in which the word designates a number of specific emotions and one in which it is a mass noun, referring to a diffuse entity.