Metaphorical conceptualisation of happiness in Oromo

Abstract

Previous linguistic studies have not addressed how happiness is metaphorically expressed in Oromo and thus this study investigates the metaphorical conceptualisation of happiness in the language. The data for the research were collected from an Oromo web corpus which has around five million running words. The analysis followed a bottom-up approach whereby words related to happiness were extracted from the corpus and then happiness metaphors were identified with Linguistic Metaphor Identification (MIP). Results show that happiness is conceptualised in Oromo in terms of SUBSTANCE IN A CONTAINER, SOUND, STREAM WATER, PROPERTY, LIVING THING, GIFT, CONTAINER, PYHTON, RESULT, LIGHT and FOOD. The results also indicate that conceptualising happiness in terms of property, result, and alcoholic drinks is common. The metaphors of happiness metaphors have such meanings as goodness, presence, intensity, control and perfection. Overall, speakers of the language conceptualise happiness in multiple ways, which may enhance our understanding of the metaphor of happiness.

Keywords

• Oromo
• happiness
• metaphor
• emotion
• conceptual metaphor
• Jeroen van de Weijer, Shenzhen University, China