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Abstract

Abstract

Previous studies have mainly focused on orientational, structural and ontological metaphors of happiness, and have not distinguished between luck and happiness; the latter in many languages originates from the former. This research aims to bridge these gaps by examining event-structure and () metaphors of 8000 hits for happiness and luck in the corpora of English, German, Greek, and Slovene. Our results suggest that luck is cross-linguistically perceived as non-pursuable and as through numerous () metaphors of , or as a deity based on many metaphors of . In contrast, happiness is understood as pursuable (through frequent metaphors of ) and as . This research proposes an embodied cognition model which includes orientational, psychological, and culture-specific embodiments to account for the cross-linguistic universalities and differences. Our study could contribute to overall human understanding of these two important concepts.

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2023-10-05
2025-04-20

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/content/journals/10.1075/cogls.21020.las
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When happiness can be luck
Cognitive Linguistic Studies 10, 146 (2023); https://doi.org/10.1075/cogls.21020.las
/content/journals/10.1075/cogls.21020.las
/content/journals/10.1075/cogls.21020.las
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): conceptual metaphor; corpus-based study; embodiment; happiness; luck

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