Cognitive Linguistic Perspectives of Metaphoric Conceptualization of Pain in Jordanian Arabic

The aim of the study is to analyze metaphorical Arabic expressions used by Jordanians as they describe their experience of pain. The study investigates whether Arabic expressions include metaphors and whether these expressions have similar counterparts in English. It uses the Conceptual Metaphor theory of cognitive linguistics, specifically conceptual theory on happiness and pain (Kovecses 2006) and Metaphors We Live By (Lakoff and Johnson’s 2003) as the theoretical framework to analyze the figurative formulations of the concept of pain among patients. The analysis shows that the expressions of the patients were loaded with metaphors used to describe their ailments which they could not diagnose in most cases. The study finds that the metaphoric expressions of pain in Arabic converge with the universal trends of metaphoric structuring and conceptualization of pain in English.