The Concept of Emotion: A Prototype

Abstract

The main focus of the previous chapter was on the relationship between groups of metaphors and metonymies on the one hand and various scientific theories of emotion on the other. What was not done, however, is the study of how the various groups of metaphors and metonymies are related to each other. They were treated as isolated classes of linguistic expressions. But we have seen in many other chapters that the metaphors and metonymies do seem to converge on cognitive models that can in turn be conceived as prototypes for the emotion in question. The same applies to the concept of emotion in general. The metaphors and metonymies will enable us to propose a language-based cognitive prototype for the category of emotion as well. Furthermore, in the light of this prototype it will be possible to see the details of why certain emotions are considered as very good examples of the category, others as not so good, and still others as poor examples. More importantly, the approach will allow us to see the subtle details of the dynamic nature of the concept of emotion.