Conceptualization of Anger in English and Japanese

この論文は松木（1995）の日本語における怒りの認知モデルを批判的に考察し、英語と日本語の比喩表現の背後にある意味論的動機と語源学的動機に焦点を当て、それぞれの言語文化モデルを対照分析する。中国伝統医学、そして四体液説の役割に特に注意が払われている。This paper is concerned with the conceptualization of anger in English and Japanese. In 1995, Matsuki proposed a cognitive model of anger in Japanese, which linked anger to three body areas: hara (belly), mune (chest) and atama (head). According to this model, true emotions, including anger, are contained in the hara (belly). While it is in the hara, anger can still be controlled. However, if its intensity increases, anger moves to the mune and finally to the atama where it is most difficult to suppress. Matsuki argued that the bearing of true emotions in the hara, where they were least likely to be detected by others, reflected sociocultural notions of honne (private self involving one's true feelings) and tatemae (behavior displayed in public). When one's inward feelings are contrary to what is expected by society, honne is suppressed, and a person adopts tatemae, acting in line with social expectations.The present paper questions some of Matsuki's propositions following the results of three surveys conducted with 57 Japanese informants from different age groups. In the first survey, 35 university students were given a list of emotion-related idioms and instructed to mark the phrases that they associated with anger. After that they were asked to answer five questions regarding the parts of the body in which true emotions are felt, the intensity of these emotions, and the ability of the respondents to control them. The survey was then repeated with a group of 10 college instructors. Finally, a follow-up survey that involved anger intensity judgments was conducted with a new group of 12 students. The results obtained did not support Matsuki’s claims about the bearing of true emotions in the hara or the supposed movement of anger through the body from the hara to the atama as the intensity of the emotion increases. The paper offers a critical contrastive analysis of English and Japanese cultural models of anger by examining the semantic and etymological motivation behind metaphoric expressions in the two languages. Special attention is given to the role of traditional Chinese medicine and the theory of the four humors.