What

1
Whats hot and whats not in English and
SerbianA contrastive view on the semantic
extensions of temperature adjectives

• Katarina Rasulic
• University of Belgrade, Serbia
• ekv_at_eunet.rs

2
The scope and the aims

• Semantic extensions of English and Serbian
  temperature adjectives in abstract domains
  (excluding the extensions within the physical
  domain e.g. warm/cold clothes)
• To identify and compare the semantic extensions
  of English and Serbian temperature adjectives in
  terms of the underlying conceptual mechanisms
• To highlight different dimensions of
  cross-linguistic and cross-cultural variation
  relevant to the study of the semantics of
  temperature adjectives

3
The approach and the data

• Usage-based approach collocability of
  temperature adjectives in their abstract senses
  (cf. Firth 1957, Apresjan 2000,
  Koptjevskaja-Tamm and Rakhilina 2006) both
  attributive and predicative uses (without further
  analysis of the syntactic behaviour cf. Taylor
  1992)
• Sources of data representative dictionaries
  (OED, RMS), electronic corpora (BNC, NKSJPMF),
  the Internet (Google search engine)
• 700 English examples, 600 Serbian examples
• Analysis descriptive and contrastive

4
English and Serbian temperature adjectives that
extend their meanings to abstract domains
ENGLISH SERBIAN
TORRID SCORCHING ŽARKI torrid/scorching
VREO boiling hot
HOT VRUC hot
WARM TOPAO warm
LUKEWARM TEPID MLAK lukewarm/tepid
COOL prohladan cool/chilly HLADAN cool/chilly/cold
CHILLY prohladan cool/chilly HLADAN cool/chilly/cold
COLD prohladan cool/chilly HLADAN cool/chilly/cold
ICY ICE-COLD LEDEN icy/ice-cold
5
English Serbian temperature adjectives

• Highly polysemous extending their meanings to a
  number of abstract domains and across perception
  modalities
• Meaning extension patterns vary along the
  temperature scales both intra-linguistically
  and cross-linguistically

6
EMOTIONS

• Metaphorical conceptualization of emotions
  primary and complex metaphors arising from the
  temperature domain (Kövecses 1990, 2000, Grady
  1997, Lakoff and Johnson 1999)
• AFFECTION IS WARMTH
• ANGER IS A HOT FLUID IN THE CONTAINER
• FEAR IS COLD
• INTENSITY OF EMOTION IS HEAT
• Characterization of emotions in terms of
  temperature adjectives?

7
Temperature of emotions intrinsic qualityE
HOT/TORRID/SCORCHINGS VRUC/VREO

• ANGER, FURY, RAGE
• to boil/seethe with hot/torrid/scorching
  anger/fury/rage
• neobuzdani vruci/vreli bes uncontrollable
  hot/boiling hot fury
• EXCITEMENT, AGITATION
• look forward to sth with hot/torrid/scorching
  excitement
• tragati za vrucim/vrelim uzbudenjem look for
  hot/boiling hot excitement
• PASSION, LUST
• a wave of/nights of hot/torrid/scorching
  passion/lust
• oblila je vruca/vrela strast/požuda hot
  passion/lust swept over her
• DESIRE, LONGING (also S ŽARKI
  torrid/scorching)
• a tide of/be filled with hot/torrid/scorching
  desire/longing
• goreti od žarke želje/žudnje/cežnje burn with
  torrid desire/longing

8
Temperature of emotions intrinsic qualityE
WARMS TOPAO

• LOVE, AFFECTION
• feel/be filled with warm love/affection
• topla majcinska ljubav warm motherly love
• HAPPINESS, JOY
• his heart swells with warm joy/happiness
• prožima je topla sreca/radost she was filled
  with warm happiness/joy

9
Temperature of emotions intrinsic qualityE
COLD/CHILLY/COOL/ICE-COLD/ICYS HLADAN/LEDEN

• FEAR, PANIC
• be gripped by cold/chilly/ice-cold/icy
  fear/panic
• hladan/ledeni strah u kostima cold/ice-cold
  fear in the bones
• SADNESS, DEPRESSION
• a cold/chilly/cool/ice-cold/icy sadness burrowed
  into my body
• obuzela ga je hladna tuga a cold sadness
  overwhelmed him
• DESPAIR, MISERY
• feel cold /chilly/cool/ice-cold/icy
  despair/misery
• oseti hladan/ledeni ocaj he felt cold/ice-cold
  despair
• HATRED
• he just felt cold/chilly/ice-cold hatred towards
  her
• ispunjen ledenom mržnjom filled with ice-cold
  hatred
• JEALOUSY, ENVY
• the women ignored her with cold/icy
  envy/jealousy
• pun hladne ljubomore/zavisti full of cold
  jealousy/envy
• CONTEMPT, DISGUST
• she looked at him with cold/cool
  contempt/disgust
• oseca samo hladan prezir he feels only cold
  contempt

10
Intensity of emotions is heat?

• lukewarm hot passion/excitement
  S mlaka vruca/vrela strast, uzbudenje
• lukewarm warm hot affection/joy
  S mlaka topla vruca
  naklonost/radost
• lukewarm ice-cold hot fear
  S mlaki ledeni vruci strah
• The intensity of emotions measured within the
  temperature range intrinsic to particular emotions

11
Temperature of emotions considerably more
complex than suggested by CMT

• The case of anger - Anger may
  manifest itself as red-hot or ice-cold.
  - Cold anger is when you refuse to speak to
  anyone. - Behind professor's scientific
  brilliance lurked cold fury. - Keith Richards
  tells us that he felt cold rage at Mick Jagger's
  blind stupidity in accepting a knighthood.
  -Tada me obuzima neopisivi ledeni bes...
  - Edison oseti kako se u njemu
  gomila hladan bes. - seethe with cold
  anger / fury / rage
  - u njoj kljuca ledeni bes ice-cold fury is
  boiling in her
• Blending (Fauconnier and Turner 2002)
• Dynamic aspects ENERGY TRANSFER outwards
  hot, inwards cold

12
PEOPLE TEMPERAMENT, DISPOSITIONE WARM/COLDS
TOPAO/HLADAN

• EMOTIONAL IS WARM, UNEMOTIONAL IS COLD
• How can you expect a man who's warm to understand
  one who's cold? (A. Solzhenitsyn)
• a cold and introvert/ cold and indifferent/cold
  and distant / cold and enigmatic person
• topla i dobra/nežna/prisna osoba a warm and
  good/gentle/intimate person
• hladan i ravnodušan/hladan i strog cold and
  indifferent, cold and strict
• Individual and collective identities
• topli južnjaci i hladni severnjaci
  warm southerners and cold northerners
• Cultural and historical heritage of the theory of
  four humours (cf. Geeraerts and Grondelaers 1995)

13
PEOPLE TEMPERAMENT, DISPOSITIONE WARM/COLDS
TOPAO/HLADAN

• Energy transfer
  SHOWING/ NOT SHOWING
  EMOTIONS
• Metonymic extensions
• warm/cold heart/face/eyes/look/smile/voice
  cold shoulder
• topao/hladan srce/lice/oci/pogled/osmeh/glas
  warm/cold heart/face/eyes/look/smile/voice

14
PEOPLE SELF-CONTROL, TEMPERE COOL HOTS
HLADAN VREO

• CALM IS COOL
• a cool and composed leader play it cool
• bio je miran i hladan he was calm and cold
• EASILY AROUSED IS HOT
• hot vs. cool temper
• vreli momci boiling hot guys (criminals)
• Metonymic extensions
• try to keep a cool head
• razmišlja hladne glave he thinks with cool
  head
• hot vs. cool blood vrela krv hot blood
• Cf. Ayduk, Mischel and Downey (2002)

15
PEOPLE SEXUAL ATTRACTIVENESS/RESPONSIVENESSE
HOT/COLDS VRUC/VREO/HLADAN

• SEXUALLY ATTRACTIVE/RESPONSIVE IS HOT,
  UNATTRACTIVE/UNRESPONSIVE IS COLD
• hot girls/babes/chicks in bathing suites, hot
  Hollywood actresses, hot men
• she was cold to his advances
• vrele žene/dame/Madarice boiling hot
  women/ladies/Hungarian girls
• moja devojka je kao Sibir hladna i nedostupna
  my girlfriend is like Siberia cold and
  inaccessible
• Metonymic extensions
  E hot lips, hot tits, S vrele
  usne, vrele sise

16
RELATIONSE WARM/COLDS TOPAO/HLADAN

• Temperature distance
• warm and close relations/ties/bonds/
  friendship/cooperation/collaboration
• cold and distant relationship/relations
• topli i bliski odnosi/saradnja warm and close
  relations
• hladni i zategnuti odnosi cold and strained
  relations
• Interpersonal relations metonymically ?
  relations between institutions, cities,
  countries...

17
Experiential correlations between WARM/COLD and
CLOSE/DISTANT

• Conflation of abstract and concrete concepts
  (cf. Johnson 1997) may involve more than two
  experiential domains ?
  transitivity of metaphorical mappings
  (cf. Gradys 1997
  primary metaphors AFFECTION IS WARMTH
  INTIMACY IS CLOSENESS)
• INTIMATE/FRIENDLY IS CLOSE
  CLOSE IS WARM gt
  INTIMATE/FRIENDLY IS WARM, DISTANT/UNFRIENDLY IS
  COLD
• Cf. Williams and Bargh 2004, Zhong and
  Leonardelli 2008

18
SOCIAL INTERACTION (COMMUNICATION)E
WARM/LUKEWARM/COOL/COLD/ICE-COLDS
TOPAO/MLAK/HLADAN/LEDEN

• AFFECTION IS WARTMH
  warm regards, warm thanks
• Affection enthusiasm (energy transfer)
• warm/lukewarm/cool/cold/ice-cold
  welcome, reception, reaction, feedback,
  response, greeting, words
• topao/mlak/hladan/leden
  docek, prijem, pozdrav, reci, govor
  warm/lukewarm/cold/ice-cold welcome, reception,
  greeting, words, speech

19
LACKING ENERGY, VIGOUR, ENTHUSIASME LUKEWARM
(TEPID)S MLAK

• LACKING ENERGY IS LUKEWARM
• lukewarm (tepid) excitement, love person,
  voice relationship reception, reaction
  applause match, attack
• mlaka ljubav osoba, glas bilateralni odnosi
  docek, reakcija pohvale, aplauz utakmica, napad
  lukewarm love, person, voice, bilateral
  relations, reception, reaction, praise, applause,
  match, attack
• Cf. S N mlakonja a lukewarm man lacking
  vigour

20
INTENSE ACTIVITY HIGH ENERGY TRANSFERE HOTS
VRUC/VREO

• CONFLICT
• hot battle, conflict, contest
• vruca/vrela bitka, borba, utakmica hot/boiling
  hot battle, fight, match
• Cf. Cold War, S hladni rat
• INTENSE ACTIVITY IS HOT ? metonymic
  extensions
  hot line, hot chair, hot topic, hot spot
  S vruca linija, vruca stolica, vruca tema

21
PROXIMITY AND DISTANCE IN SPACE/TIIMEE
HOT/WARM/COLDS VRUC/TOPAO/HLADAN

• Basis for numerous further extensions
• hot-warm-cold game / S vruce-toplo-hladno
  (finding objects or guessing answers)
• warm/cold trail, case / S vruc/hladan trag
• hot and cold lotto numbers (recent/not recent) /
  S vruci/hladni brojevi

22
DISTANCE DETACHMENT ? RATIONAL E
COOL/COLDS HLADAN

• RATIONAL IS COLD OBJECTIVE IS COLD
• cool/cold reason, statistics, facts, figures,
  reality, truth cold and calculating and
  scientific
• hladna racunica, statistika, cifre, cinjenice
  cold calculation, statistics, figures, facts
• Transitivity of conceptual mappings RATIONAL
  IS DETACHED/DISTANT, DETACHED/DISTANT IS COLD gt
  RATIONAL IS COLD (Cf. Narayanan, forthcoming)

23
ACROSS PERCEPTION MODALITIESE WARM/COOL/COLDS
TOPAO/HLADAN

• COLOURS warm and cool/cold colours
  tople i hladne boje warm and cold
  colours
• LIGHT combine warm and cold light
  mešavina toplog i hladnog svetla
  a mixture of warm and cold
  light
• SOUND warm sound, a dark and cold sound
  topao zvuk saksofona the warm sound of
  saxophone
  hladan, metalni zvuk
  cold, metallic sound
• SMELL the warm smell of christmas trees
  the cold smell of a different
  country topao miris juga the warm smell of
  the south hladan miris kiše the cold smell
  of the rain

24
Major differences in the semantic extensions of
English and Serbian temperature adjectives COOL

• Positive evaluation good, great
• Thats really cool!
• cool Christmas gifts, jeans, hair cuts, gadgets,
  ipod accessories, ringtones
• I am cool with that
• Cultural influence
• The philosophy and aesthetics of COOL
  http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_(aesthetic)
• Lewis MacAdams (2001). Birth of the Cool Beat,
  Bebop, and the American Avant-Garde.
• COOL widely borrowed by other languages,
  including Serbian KUL

25
Major differences in the semantic extensions of
English and Serbian temperature adjectives
HOT

• An array of semantic extensions that do not have
  a parallel in Serbian vruc, vreo
• The GUSTATORY meaning
• hot peppers, hot spices vs.
• S separate lexeme ljut hot angry
• POPULAR, TRENDY, FASHIONABLE
• Whats hot and whats not for 2010
• Hot Christmas gifts, hot toys for 2010, hot hair
  styles this season, hot new rapsongs, HDTV still
  hot with consumers, Scandinavian mystery novels
  hot with the US readers

26
Major differences in the semantic extensions of
English and Serbian temperature adjectives HOT

• (SEXUALLY) ATTRACTED TO/INTERESTED IN (pred.)
• Why Is Everybody So Hot for Gerard Butler?
• Hot For Words Marina Orlova, known to millions
  of fans around the world as a sexy master of
  language
• Cf. S slang word napaljen turned on (lit.
  burned on)
• HOT IS COOL Thats hot!
• "Her cell phone has diamonds all over it! That's
  hot Thats awesome, That's cool
• Paris Hiltons signature line
  (Thats hot! trademarks mens and
  women's clothing, electronic devices and
  alcoholic beverages cultural influence)

27
Summing up

• Polysemy patterns of English and Serbian
  temperature adjectives vary in number and in kind
  along the temperature scales (the widest range E
  hot, S hladan)
• A high degree of similarity in the overall
  underlying metaphorical and metonymical
  conceptualization (overriding the
  cross-linguistic differences in the elaboration
  of the lexical segmentation in the concrete
  domain cf. hot vreo, vruc cool/chilly/cold
  hladan)
• Substantial differences in specific semantic
  extensions of individual adjectives and in the
  distribution of polysemy patterns along the
  temperature scales in the two languages (esp. E
  cool and hot)

28
Asymmetries in the semantic extensions of
temperature adjectives
intra-linguistic cross-linguistic

• Lexical segmentation and polysemy range in the
  concrete domain (e.g. E hot vs. S vruc)
• Physical experience and metaphorical mappings
  - ENERGY TRANSFER PROXIMITY/DISTANCE
  - Transitivity of conceptual mappings
  INTIMATE IS WARM, RATIONAL IS COLD
• Cultural factors
  - The theory of four
  humours -
  Thats cool/hot!
  -
  Cross-cultural/cross-linguistic influences
  (lexical and conceptual borrowing, metaphorical
  loan translation)

29
Concluding remarks

• Cross-linguistic and cross-cultural examination
  of temperature terms can shed fresh light on the
  question of universality and variation of
  metaphors
• The semantics of temperature terms (adjectives in
  particular) across languages much more than
  meets the eye calls for systematic examination
  a promising hot topic in cognitive linguistics

30
References

• Apresjan, J. D. (2000). Systematic Lexicography.
  Oxford Oxford University Press.
• Ayduk, O., Mischel W. and G. Downey (2002)
  Attentional Mechanisms Linking Rejection to
  Hostile Reactivity The Role of Hot Versus
  Cool Focus. Psychological Science, 135, pp.
  443-448.
• Deignan, A. (1999). Metaphorical polysemy and
  paradigmatic relations A corpus study. Word, 50,
  319-38.
• Fauconnier, G. and M. Turner (2002). The Way We
  Think. Conceptual Blending and the Minds Hidden
  Complexities. New York Basic Books.
• Firth, J. R. (1957) Studies in Linguistic
  Analysis. Oxford Blackwell.
• Geeraerts, D. and S. Grondelaers (1995). Looking
  Back at Anger Cultural Traditions and.
  Metaphorical Patterns. In Taylor, J. and R.
  MacLaury (eds.) Language and the Cognitive.
  Construal of the World. Berlin Gruyter. 153-179.

31
References

• Grady, J. (1997). Foundations of Meaning Primary
  Metaphors and Primary Scenes. PhD dissertation,
  University of California, Berkeley.
• Johnson, C. (1997). Metaphor vs. Conflation in
  the Acquisition of Polysemy The Case of See. In
  Hirago, M. K., C. Sinha and S. Wilcox (eds.),
  Cultural, Typological and Psychological Issues in
  Cognitive Linguistics. Amsterdam John Benjamins,
  155-169.
• Kövecses, Z. (1990). Emotion concepts. New York
  Springer.
• Kövecses, Z. (2000). Metaphor and Emotion.
  Language, Culture, and the Body in Human Feeling.
  Cambridge/New York Cambridge University Press
• Koptjevskaja-Tamm, M. and E. Rakhilina (2006).
  "Some like it hot" On the semantics of
  temperature adjectives in Russian and Swedish.
  STUF (Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung),
  Leuschner, T. and G. Giannoulopoulou, eds. 59
  (2).
• Lakoff, G. and M. Johnson (1980). Metaphors We
  Live By. Chicago Chicago University Press.

32
References

• Lakoff, G. and M. Johnson (1999). Philosophy in
  the Flesh. New York Basic Books.
• Lehrer, A. (1970). Static and dynamic elements in
  semantics hot, warm, cool, cold. Papers in
  Linguistics, 3, 49-74.
• Narayanan, S. (forthcoming). The thermal
  qualities of substance a cross-cultural account
  (http//www.icsi.berkeley.edu/snarayan/cogsci.pdf
  )
• Sutrop, U. (1998). Basic temperature terms and
  subjective temperature scale. Lexicology,
  4.60104.
• Taylor, J. (1992). Old problems Adjectives in
  cognitive grammar. Cognitive Linguistics, 3,
  135.
• Williams, L. E. and J. A. Bargh (2004).
  Experiencing Physical Warmth Promotes
  Interpersonal Warmth. Science, 322 (5901),
  606-607.
• Zhong, C-B. and G. J. Leonardelli (2008) Cold and
  Lonely Does Social Exclusion Literally Feel
  Cold? Psychological Science, 199, pp. 838 -842.