Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, University of Malayer, Malayer, Iran.
2
Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, University of Malayer, Malayer, Iran (Corresponding author).
10.22034/jmzf.2025.498923.1218
Abstract
Introduction
This research falls within the field of cognitive semantics, which is one of the main branches of cognitive linguistics, and the study of conceptual and figurative metaphors is one of its most important topics. From a cognitive perspective, “a conceptual metaphor is an organized mapping from the source domain to the target domain” (Rasekhmahand, 2011:55). For example, the term "to boil" means "to become extremely angry" and is conceptualized based on the metaphorical mapping "anger is hot liquid in a container" (Maleki, 99:2024). "Metaphor is a type of substitution relationship in the chain of speech based on kinship" (Safavi, 2013:231). For example, when we say "My car got a flat tire," what we mean here is that the car tire got flat, and "car" is the correct form of "car tire." The purpose of this research is to conduct a descriptive-analytical study of the cognitive mechanisms of metaphor and metaphorical representation in conceptualizing the feeling of fear in the short story "Broken Branches" by Jamal Mirsadeghi (1975). The questions of this research are:
The emergence of the feeling of fear in the story of Broken Branches is formulated with which metaphorical areas of origin?
B- How is the feeling of fear in the story of Broken Branches organized using the metaphor?
Research Methodology
To conduct this descriptive-analytical research, all sentences expressing the concept of fear, which include conceptual metaphors and figurative bodily and behavioral reactions, were extracted from the short story Broken Branches and analyzed within the framework of the theory of conceptual metaphors.
Discuss
In the present study, conceptual and figurative metaphors were first discussed, then the types of metaphorical mappings of the conceptual domain of fear in the story of Broken Branches were presented, citing relevant evidence. For example, the sentence "His shiny black eyes were full of fear" (Mirsadeghi, 1975:47) is based on the metaphorical mapping "Fear is the substance inside the container." Next, it was discussed, citing evidence, that there are two basic metaphorical schemes for representing the feeling of fear, namely, bodily changes resulting from the feeling of fear rather than fear, and behavioral reactions resulting from encountering fear rather than fear. "Haj Agha... was shaken" (ibid.: 46) is an example of a bodily reaction instead of fear, and "so powerfully did he flee" (ibid.: 43) is an example of a behavioral reaction instead of fear. It was also discussed that in the aforementioned work, the intensity of fear is based on the imagery of quantity; Thus, as the amount of fear increases and becomes more intense, more metaphorical areas, and especially more bodily and behavioral reactions, are used in succession to induce the intensity of fear.
Conclusion
In response to the first research question, it was concluded that in the story of Broken Branches, the reasons for the emergence of fear are formulated with the objective domains of "seeing a stranger", "sharp object", "darkness", "supernatural being", "hearing a voice", "being alone", "substance in a container", "death", "seeing a shadow", "blood", "rival", and "seeing an unfamiliar face". It was also concluded that in this story, structural metaphors were mostly used to conceptualize the feeling of fear. In response to the second research question, it was concluded that in the story of Broken Branches, the effect of fear on the characters is organized in a metaphorical form and as a variety of "bodily reactions" and "behavioral reactions." Physical reactions include "gaping", "eyes shining", "hearing breathing sounds", "body tremors", "inability to think", "eyes widening", "fainting", "sweating palms" and "redness of eyes" and behavioral reactions expressing fear include "inability to move", "fleeing", "looking behind", "keeping silent", "saying prayers", "hiding" and "animal behavior". Metaphorical reactions are common experiences among people who experience fear or any other emotion; therefore, the reader of the story more easily touches the embodiment of these objective metaphorical reactions in the characters. By using bodily and behavioral reactions, greater fear is created in the reader.
