Conceptualizations of damâ, “temperature” in Persian: A Cultural Linguistic study

This paper examines conceptualizations of temperature in contemporary Persian, from the perspective of Cultural Linguistics. Several expressions in which temperature terms are used reflect cultural metaphors where temperature is used as a source domain for conceptual mapping to the domain of emotion. The paper also examines particular cultural (folk) categorizations of food, fruit, and human nature pertaining to the concept of ‘temperature’ in Persian, and traces back the root of these categorizations to Iranian Traditional Medicine. Temperature terms are also used to describe and categorize things such as color and smell. Overall, the observations made in this paper support the view that conceptualizations of temperature provide an interface for the interaction between sensory and bodily experiences, human conceptual faculties, and cultural conceptualizations.