Key publications

RELEVANCE: In this chapter, we contrast SADNESS in Old English and Old Norse, reconstructing their lexical fields with historical and cognitive linguistic methods. Both languages favour literal expressions, but figurative ones differ: Old English sees sadness as a low-control emotion, while Old Norse links it with anger, framing it as more controllable, often through revenge. We also find differing views of the mind: securely enclosed in Anglo-Saxon texts versus permeable boundaries in Old Norse.

KEY AREAS: Old English, Old Norse, Conceptual Metaphor, Cultural Linguistics, Sadness, Contrastive Linguistics.

RELEVANCE: In this paper, I examine identity construction and negotiation through face work in a Portuguese Inquisition trial, focusing on the case of Catarina de Orta. Analyzing both the inquisitor’s questions and the defendant’s responses, I show how impoliteness and self-politeness coexist in courtroom discourse. The inquisitor uses impoliteness to assert power, provoke negative emotions, and undermine the defendant’s credibility. In contrast, the defendant employs self-politeness to protect her face against these attacks. This interplay shapes the competing narratives of accuser and defendant, evolving with each interrogation.

KEY AREAS: Portuguese, Inquisitions, Jewish Studies, Negative Emotions, Courtroom Discourse, (Im)politeness.

RELEVANCE: In this study I explore how temperature metaphors shape our understanding of emotions, focusing on Old English texts (850–1100). While high body temperature is typically linked to negative emotions like anger, my analysis reveals its use in describing positive emotions as well. This challenges the idea that temperature metaphors are purely universal and highlights their cultural variability, contributing to the broader debate on metaphor and embodiment.

KEY AREAS: Old English, TEMPERATURE metaphor, History of Emotions, Conceptual Metaphor and Metonymy.

RELEVANCE: In this paper, I examine the shift from concrete to abstract meanings in Old English adjectives describing physical textures (e.g., roughness, smoothness). Using Old English dictionaries, I explore how these adjectives evolved to express physical, sensory, and emotional sensations. I categorize the secondary meanings into physical (e.g., weakness), sensory (e.g., sounds, sights), and emotional (e.g., grief, anger). I analyze these changes through metonymic, synesthetic, and metaphorical extensions. My study supports the idea that abstract concepts are rooted in physical experience and concludes by discussing the cultural influence of the Christianization of Anglo-Saxon England on these semantic shifts.

KEY AREAS: Old English, Emotion Metaphor, Cultural Linguistics, Sensorial Perception, Touch.

RELEVANCE: My research focuses on how speakers express aesthetic emotions, an area less explored compared to utilitarian emotions. Aesthetic emotions were once thought to lack specific patterns of metaphoric and metonymic representation, making expressions for art-related feelings seem arbitrary. However, recent studies show that many aesthetic emotions have characteristic embodiment. I analyzed a corpus of traveler reviews written by native speakers of Japanese and English. The findings reveal that both groups often use similar conceptual patterns, but also highlight cultural differences in how these emotions are described. Additionally, some emotions are expressed only in one sub-corpus, suggesting a cultural tendency to experience certain emotions in specific contexts. Overall, this research enhances our understanding of how culture influences the expression of aesthetic emotions.

KEY AREAS: Psychology, Japanese, English, Aesthetic Emotions, Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines.

RELEVANCE: The study of metaphor variation and change presents unique challenges for systematic linguistic analysis. Recent developments in cognitive sociolinguistic theory emphasize the importance of understanding conceptual differences across linguistic varieties. Our research contributes to this field by using statistical analysis of large dialectal data sets to explore lexical variation and change in World English. We focus on why certain emotion conceptualizations are more common in some varieties. Our findings show that local socio-cultural models of emotions influence lexical variation and change at the dialectal level, highlighting the relevance of socio-cultural contexts in shaping language..

KEY AREAS: Cognitive Sociolinguistics, Emotion Metaphor, Cultural Linguistics, Geopolitics of Emotions, Sociology.

RELEVANCE: This research analyzes onomasiological variation in Old English texts by Ælfric, focusing on how shame and guilt are expressed across genres. By examining all relevant expressions in the Ælfrician corpus, we propose a network of literal and figurative conceptualizations for these emotions. Our analysis reveals the tension between literal, metonymic, and metaphoric expressions. We show that the introduction of Augustinian psychology in Anglo-Saxon England led to (i) the decline of the Germanic view of shame and guilt as social control tools, (ii) the spread of new values, and (iii) the rise of embodied metaphors like SHAME IS SOMETHING COVERING A PERSON and GUILT IS A BURDEN, reflecting a shift toward self-directed emotional evaluation in line with Christianization.

KEY AREAS: Old English, Conceptual Variation, Intra-writer Variation, Shame, Guilt.