Cognitive models of anger in Akan: A conceptual metaphor analysis

This paper analyses the conventional metaphorical expressions of anger in Akan, a Kwa language spoken in Ghana, West Africa, in order to identify conventional conceptual metaphors of the concept in the language. Native and relatively monolingual speakers of Akan in semi-rural and rural Ghana participated in focus group discussions to generate a corpus of 23,800 words from which metaphorical expressions of anger were drawn. The analysis reveals that Akan conceptualisations of anger are based on both general metonymic and metaphorical principles that are grounded in fundamental human experiences including physiological and socio-cultural experiences. The major conventional conceptual metaphors identified in Akan are: ANGER IS A HOT FLUID IN A CONTAINER, ANGER IS A GROWING WEED, ANGER IS A BURDEN, ANGER IS A DANGEROUS THING, ANGER IS A DISEASE and ANGER IS FOOD. While Akan conceptualisation of aspects of anger are similar in some ways to Lakoff’s prototypical anger scenario, i.e., akin to the retribution stage of the prototypical anger scenario in English, it is important to mention that stages 3 and 4 of the prototypical anger scenario in English may be of no consequences at all in what appears to be the prototypical anger scenario in Akan.