Investigating Quranic anger conceptual metaphors based on basic emotion and conceptual act theories

Document Type : Research

Authors

1 PhD student in Linguistics, Department of English, Zahedan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Zahedan, Iran

2 PhD, Linguistics, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Faculty member of Velayat University, Iranshahr, Iran, (corresponding author); m.mohammadinia

3 PhD, Arabic Language and Literature, Assistant Professor, Department of Arabic Literature,Faculty member of Islamic Azad University, Zahedan, Iran; m.akbarizadeh

Abstract

Several works of research done in the past 50 years have largely convinced some researchers that fundamental emotions are natural and can be seen in all animals, this view is called the basic emotion theory. One of the recent meta-analyses of the human neuroimaging literature was interpreted as supportive of the basic emotion hypothesis (Vytal and Hamann, 2010). However in fact, although there are some consistencies between limbic and non-limbic regions, some of non-specific regions become activated during anger, sadness, fear, disgust, and happiness. Based on this point, each emotion category arises from an innate, specific brain module with homology to other animals. This basic emotion view has commonly loomed large in the science of emotion, and is broadly accepted by many researchers in this field. It has also become a general topic in the popular mainstream media, in spite of the fact that there is still a long way to perceive how the brain basis of emotion is functioning. All in all, some scientists think that certain emotions, such as anger, fear, sadness, happiness and disgust, are biologically basic. It means that these primary and fundamental emotions are natural and can be seen in all beings, that is why it is called the basic emotion theory.
In contrast to the basic emotion theory, another approach to emotion, the ‘conceptual act theory of emotion’ assumes that an emotion such as anger, sadness, fear, disgust or happiness is an instance and these instances do not originate from their own. They come from different parts and sections of the brain and they are not specifically devoted to identified brain networks. It means that emotions are built from the combination of activities in domain-general and core brain systems that perform more basic psychological functions, such as salience detection, memory, sensory perception, language, and so on (Barrett, 2006; Lindquist and Barrett, 2012). On the other hand, many different parts of brain are involved in order to understand the concepts of emotions and act, react, or take positions while they are being processed.
The present study, which has a qualitative and descriptive-analytic character, aims to specify and discover the active parts of the cerebellum, when they process and understand the concepts of power and movement in the form of conceptual metaphor for the concept of anger based on Quranic data. That is why the present research has focused on anger verses in the Holy Quran. To do so, eighty conceptual metaphors in the source domain of power and movement were gathered from the Holy Quran. To find the appropriate metaphors, first the lexica of anger terms were looked up in the Holy Quran thesaurus (Ghoreshi, 2007), then the verses containing those terms were extracted to discover the conceptual anger metaphors. After that, the derived metaphors were studied and analyzed by some Quran experts to ensure their accuracy.
To perform the present investigation, the following practical steps have been taken. First, metaphorical representations sought in the conceptual anger metaphors were considered as signs indicating the activation of the functional regions of the cortex. Second, the themes and evidences of any conceptual metaphor, in other words, the kind of Qur'anic look to anger in different verses, are identified. For example, an extracted metaphor in Quran says: anger is chewing the fingertips, based on precise divisions of cortical functions put forward by Brodmann (Judas, et al. 2012), this conceptual metaphor can be attested to by the activation of parts of motor, executive, attention, emotion functions of the cerebellum during processing anger in the mind. Third, in the same vein, then, given that the active regions of the brain are widespread during anger (Vytal & Hamann, 2010: 2880), it became clear that Quranic anger metaphors entail some different parts of brain to be involved in processing anger. Finally, by matching and comparing the data of Vital and Haman (2012) with Bradman, adapted from Judas (2012),and analysis of the explanation of the concept of motion and power metaphors the data was analyzed and represented.  .
Living experiences are the main sources by which emotions are conceptualized in the brain networks.  Consequently, based on the previous experiences, these emotions start to be processed. It has been proved that by means of already – made concepts many possible connections of brain neurons happen in the brain, which have important impacts on our ultimate decisions and reactions while beings emotional (Vytal & Haman, 2010). Therefore, this shows that those situations that you experience while you get angry exert strong influences on your future behavior. Based on the data analysis for metaphorical comprehension, the findings show that the sources domains of power and movement in the form of conceptual metaphors for the concept of anger are shown in the target domains, such as patience, charity, forgiveness, actions, denial, neglect, repentance, blasphemy, eulogy, hell, provocation, excitement, self-denial, curse, and torment. It was also found that different areas of the cerebellum are active during the processing of anger through different responses. The findings also display that the concept of anger and the concept of exposure to anger rebound. Moreover, these reactions are reflected from interactions between areas, networks and numerous neural networks, and ultimately, a conceptual action theory is confirmed. In addition, the results demonstrate that the conception of anger is transitional, transitory and context-based in the Holy Quran. Findings also indicate that while we are exposed to conceptual metaphors for the concept of anger, many different somatosensory feedbacks are observed. These are because of the interactions of brain networks and neuron connections. Results also show that the conceptual act theory of emotion is approved and anger is not only transitory but also context-based

Keywords

References

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ZABANPAZHUHI (Journal of Language Research)
Volume 13, Issue 38
May 2021
Pages 35-64

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