Cover not available

Article published In: Review of Cognitive Linguistics
Vol. 14:2 (2016) ► pp.416–441

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

The externality of anger as conceptualized in Kiswahili

 | The Catholic University of Eastern Africa
Published online: 10 January 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.14.2.06kah
This paper discusses everyday expressions of anger in Kiswahili, a Bantu language spoken in Eastern Africa. Following Lakoff and Kövecses (1987), linguistic expressions of anger, collected from both written and oral discourses, were analyzed for metaphoric and metonymic content. Our findings reveal that Kiswahili manifests some striking differences in conceptualization of anger. A notable difference is found in the locality in which anger is perceived to originate, or the conceptualized “originating locality” of anger. The onset of anger, or stage at which a person ‘becomes angry’, is depicted via predicates such as shik-w-a ‘catch.PASS’ and ingi-w-a ‘enter.PASS’. A participant is seen as having been ‘caught’ or ‘entered’ by anger, thus construing anger as an externally-originating emotion. Consequently, we propose a prototypical cognitive model that appears to reflect the anger scenario in Kiswahili.
References (41)
References
Andersen, T., & Omar, Y. (1986). Syntactic valency and contextual specialization: The case of -shika in Swahili. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 49(2), 364–376. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ansah, G.N. (2011). Emotion language in Akan: The case of anger. In G.C. Batic (Ed.), Encoding emotions in African languages (pp. 119–157). Munich: Lincom.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barcelona, A.S. (2003). Metonymy in cognitive linguistics: An analysis and a few modest proposals. In H. Cuyckens, T. Berg, R. Dirven, & K. Panther (Eds.), Motivation in language: Studies in honour of Günter Radden (pp. 223–256). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beger, A., & Jäkel, O. (2009). Anger, love and sadness revisited: Differences in emotion metaphors between experts and laypersons in the genre psychology guides. Metaphorik.de, 161, 87–108.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ding, Y., Noël, D., & Wolf, H. (2010). Patterns in metaphor translation: A corpus-based case study of the translation of FEAR metaphors between English and Chinese. In R. Xiao (Ed.), Using corpora in contrastive and translation studies (pp. 40–61). Newcastle: 
Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Geeraerts, D., & Grondelaers, S. (1995). Looking back at anger: Cultural traditions and metaphorical patterns. In J. Taylor & R.E. MacLaury (Eds.), Language and the construal of the world (pp. 153–180). Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johnson, F. (1939). A standard Swahili-English dictionary. Nairobi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. (2015). Economic survey 2015. Nairobi: Herufi House.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
King, B. (1989). The conceptual structure of emotional experience in Chinese. PhD Dissertation, Ohio State University. Retrieved from [URL].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kövecses, Z. (1990). Emotion concepts. New York: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2000a). Metaphor and emotion: Language, culture, and body in human feeling. Cambridge: Cambridge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2000b). The concept of anger: Universal or culture specific? Psychopathology, 331, 159–170. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, G. (1987). Women, fire, and dangerous things. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, G., & Kövecses, Z. (1987). The cognitive model of anger inherent in American English. In D. Holland & N. Quinn (Eds.), Cultural models in language and thought (pp. 195–221). New York: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lewis, M.P., Gary, F.S., & Charles, D.F. (Eds.). (2015). Ethnologue: Languages of the world (18th ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Retrieved from [URL].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Longhorn Publishers. (2011). Kamusi ya karne 21. Nairobi: English Press Ltd.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maalej, Z. (2004). Figurative language in anger expressions in Tunisian Arabic: An extended view of embodiment. Metaphor and Symbol, 19(1), 51–75. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matsuki, K. (1995). Metaphors of anger in Japanese. In J. Taylor & R. MacLaury (Eds.), Language and the cognitive construal of the world (pp. 137–150). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matsunaka, Y., & Shinohara, K. (2001a). Anger is gastric contents: Japanese anger metaphor revisited. Paper presented at the 4th International conference on researching and applying metaphor , Tunis, Tunisia.
. (2001b). Emotion and outer force schema: A perspective from Japanese. Paper presented at the First Seoul international conference on discourse and cognitive linguistics , Seoul, Korea.
Mohammed, A.M. (2001). Modern Swahili grammar. Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nitzkin, A. (2008). Cognitive universality and cultural variation in the conceptual structure of language about meaning: A cognitive semantic lexicography of the intangible in old English, Kiswahili and Yucatec Maya. Unpublished PhD thesis. Tulane University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Parkin, D. (1985). Reason, emotion, and the embodiment of power. In J. Overing (Ed.), Reason and morality (pp. 135–151). London: Tavistock.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pragglejaz Group. (2007). MIP: A method for identifying metaphorically used words in discourse. Metaphor and Symbol, 22(1), 1–39. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Radden, G. (1998). The conceptualisation of emotional causality by means of prepositional phrases. In A. Athanasiadou & E. Tabakowska (Eds.), Speaking of emotions (pp. 273–294). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reh, M. (1998). The language of emotion: An analysis of Dholuo on the basis of Grace Ogot’s novel Miaha . In A. Athanasiadou & E. Tabakowska (Eds.), Speaking of emotions (pp. 375–408). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Semino, E., Heywood, J., & Short, M. (2004). Methodological problems in the analysis of metaphors in a corpus of conversations about cancer. Journal of Pragmatics, 361, 1271–1294. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shinohara, K., & Matsunaka, Y. (2009). Pictorial metaphors of emotion in Japanese comics. In C.J. Forceville & E. Urios-Aparisi (Eds.), Multimodal metaphor (pp. 265–293). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stefanowitsch, A. (2006). Words and their metaphors: A corpus-based approach. In A. Stefanowitsch & S.T. Gries (Eds.), Corpus-based approaches to metaphor and metonymy (pp. 63–105). Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Steen, G.J. (1999). From linguistic to conceptual metaphor in five steps. In R. Gibbs & G.J. Steen (Eds.), Metaphor in Cognitive Linguistics (pp. 57–77). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Steen, G.J., Dorst, A.G., Herrmann, J.B., Kaal, A.A., Krennmayr, T., & Pasma, T. (2010). A method for linguistic metaphor identification: From MIP to MIPVU. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Taylor, J., & Mbense, T. (1998). Red dogs and rotten mealies: How Zulus talk about anger. In A. Athanasiadou & E. Tabakowska (Eds.), Speaking of emotions (pp. 191–225). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
TUKI. (2001). Kamusi ya Kiswahili-Kiingereza. Dar es Salaam: University of Dar es Salaam.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vitale, A.J. (1981). Swahili syntax. Dordrecht: Foris. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wamitila, K. (2000). Kamusi ya Misemo na Nahau. Nairobi: Longhorn Publishers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Google Kiswahili search engine. Retrieved from [URL]
Helsinki corpus of Swahili. Retrieved from [URL]
Cited by (5)

Cited by five other publications

Wu, Shuqiong & Dilin Liu
2025. Exploring metaphorical conceptualizations of ENVY in English and Chinese: A multifactorial corpus analysis. Language and Cognition 17 DOI logo
Asare, Esther, Isaac N. Mwinlaaru & Emmanuel Amo Ofori
2024. Construing Joy as Body Parts in Akan: Synergizing Conceptual Metaphor and Transitivity Analyses. WORD 70:2 ► pp. 75 ff. DOI logo
Kahumburu, Monica & Yo Matsumoto
2024. A Corpus-Based Study of the Externality of Emotions in Swahili and Japanese. In Cultural Linguistics and (Re)conceptualized Tradition [Cultural Linguistics, ], ► pp. 119 ff. DOI logo
Kraska-Szlenk, Iwona
2024. Embodied Lexicon and Cultural Conceptualizations in Swahili. In Cultural Linguistics and (Re)conceptualized Tradition [Cultural Linguistics, ], ► pp. 33 ff. DOI logo
Rajeg, Gede Primahadi Wijaya & I Made Rajeg
2023. Exploring diachronic salience of emotion metaphors. Review of Cognitive Linguistics 21:1 ► pp. 229 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 30 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue