Conceptual Metaphors of the Emotion Concept of Happiness in English and Khowar: A Cross Cultural Study

Abstract

The study aimed to explore the„ metaphors of happiness‟ in English and Khowar to conceptualize the emotion concept „happiness‟. It was intended to examine the universally shared understanding and cultural embodiment of this emotional concept to show the organic nature of Khowar like English for contributing in the existing literature. Qualitative content analysis was employed as a method, and the data was collected systematically. The data was read and reread thoroughly and coded into manageable categories as well as sorted into similar groups thematically to explore the similarities and differences of the conceptual metaphors in English and Khowar. The thematically categorized plant metaphors of love were interpreted within Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT). The study revealed that the Khowar speech community seemed to express their happiness indirectly by employing the names of various objects metaphorically to express their love: whereas the English people seemed to be more eager to express their love frankly and directly. Thus, they used “Metaphors‟to conceptualizethe emotionconcept „happiness‟seemed to be cultural embodied ratherthan universal. This paper will open a fresh avenue in the field of cognitive linguistics by unwrapping the plant metaphors of love in English and Khowar for debate and discussion academically. Besides, this paper will contribute to the existing body of literature in the field. Moreover, it will encourage conducting research on the marginalized languages like Khowar. This study was conducted on the Orientalism prospective to show the organic or living nature of Khowar language and culture in term of English. Such study on the topic has yet not been conducted to fill the gap in the field of cognitive linguistics. It intended to preserve Khowar in the phase ofglobalization.