Translation Problems of Emotional Internal Body Part Metaphors in Persian and English

Abstract

Emotions are usually expressed through conceptual metaphors. Many emotional concepts are embodied, i.e. they have a basis in bodily experiences. The notion of embodiment emphasizes the role of the human body in our cognitive experience of the world. The purpose of this study was to show how Persian and English speakers conceptualize the role of the body in emotion and the impact of emotion in the body and how this is manifested in these two languages. Its aim was to identify how emotional concepts are embodied in both languages and as a result to determine the similarities and differences of these two languages in using emotional internal body part metaphors. The internal body parts were chosen for this study because, in comparison to the external body parts, they are more subject to greater cultural diversity in the understanding of how they work and relate to each other. The materials for this study were gathered from different sources and dictionaries related to the translation of literary devices, particularly the translation of metaphors. The Persian metaphors were collected from three dictionaries and the English ones were gathered from twelve dictionaries. Then the metaphors found in both languages were compared and contrasted to determine which emotions the internal body parts convey in both languages and to see to what extent these body parts express the same or different emotions in both languages. The results of this study showed the embodiment of emotional concepts in human experiences and the fact that Persian speakers use more internal body parts in their emotional expressions.