Re: cold logic

[Robin Turner <robin@BILKENT.EDU.TR>]

Chris wrote:
>As to why we use warm and cold for the associated emotional attitudes; I =
>bet if they use temperature metaphors in equatorial countries for warm =
>and cold emotions, that they use the same ones as in colder countries.  =
>What we call emotional warmth is probably universally associated in one =
>way or another with physical contact, which really is warm.
>

Of course - I really should have thought of that one. What had been going
through my mind prior to writing about the cold/hot schema was the way
Muslims see Heaven as cool - I once had an argument with one of my more
religious relatives where I used this as evidence that the Koran was not
universal, since for us Nordic types, it used to be Hell that was chilly.
Anyway, this confirms my suspicion that with "emotional warmth" are dealing
with an image-schema (which is rooted in universal psycho-physical
experience) rather than a more culture-specific metaphor.  As far as I
know, the Lakoff-Johnson model does not overtly distinguish between
metaphors such as EMOTIONS ARE WARM, which follow more-or-less
automatically from image-schematic universals, and those which have
culture-specific preconditions, such as TIME IS MONEY (obviously
meaningless in a culture which does not have money).

I love the "warmly logical" examples.  Can't see them catching on, but why
not use them annyway? As I said, they have shock value.  I find solving
something using logic (e.g. the "flowers" translation I attempted) gives me
a feeling that is anything but "cold".  Puts me in mind of a scene in Star
Trek when someone asked Mr Spock if he ever felt happy.  His reply was, I
think, "I sometimes feel a certain sense of satisfaction after solving a
difficult logical problem."


Robin Turner

Bilkent Universitesi,
IDMYO,
Ankara,
Turkey.

<http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/8309>