Abstract
This pilot study attempts a novel comparison on how metaphors of BITTERNESS are used in English and Mandarin Chinese, in order to identify subtle crosslinguistic differences. Using dictionary definitions and WordNet databases, we conduct a lexical semantic analysis and establish the various senses “bitter words” can convey. Then, with the help of corpus data we explore the typical themes and contexts the two languages utilize sensory
words related to this concept. We observed that figurative uses of bitter in English tend to revolve around ANIMOSITY, while Chinese 苦ku3 ‘bitter’ frequently expresses SUFFERING. Due to the displeasing character of this
human taste experience, conceptualizations of BITTERNESS are overwhelmingly negative. However, we also found that BITTERNESS does not always transmit negative polarity, expressions such as “a bitter pill to swallow” and “良藥苦口good medicine tastes bitter” carry an evaluative positivity. Related to linguistic
synaesthesia, we found that bitter in English has origins in the tactile sensory domain, and channels this modality when used as a conceptual metaphor for HARSHNESS, describing colds and winds, or sometimes words.
words related to this concept. We observed that figurative uses of bitter in English tend to revolve around ANIMOSITY, while Chinese 苦ku3 ‘bitter’ frequently expresses SUFFERING. Due to the displeasing character of this
human taste experience, conceptualizations of BITTERNESS are overwhelmingly negative. However, we also found that BITTERNESS does not always transmit negative polarity, expressions such as “a bitter pill to swallow” and “良藥苦口good medicine tastes bitter” carry an evaluative positivity. Related to linguistic
synaesthesia, we found that bitter in English has origins in the tactile sensory domain, and channels this modality when used as a conceptual metaphor for HARSHNESS, describing colds and winds, or sometimes words.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Proceedings of the 35th Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computation |
| Editors | Kaibao Hu, Jong-Bok Kim, Chengqing Zong, Emmanuele Chersoni |
| Publisher | Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) |
| Pages | 700–710 |
| Publication status | Published - Nov 2021 |
| Event | 35th Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computation, PACLIC 2021 - Shanghai, China Duration: 5 Nov 2021 → 7 Nov 2021 |
Conference
| Conference | 35th Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computation, PACLIC 2021 |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | China |
| City | Shanghai |
| Period | 5/11/21 → 7/11/21 |