On the Concept of Depression in American English: A Cognitive Approach

Abstract

Lakoff & Johnson (1980) give metaphor and metonymy an important role in conceptualization and in linguistic meaning. Lakoff (1985) claims that psychological states or processes like the emotions are conceptualized primarily via metaphor and metonymy, which he demonstrates convincingly in his study of the linguistic expressions of the concept of anger in American English. In the following essay, a characterization of the concept of depression in American English is attempted along the following lines: first, the relevant metaphors are isolated and briefly analysed, then the metonymies motivating them are discussed, and finally an approximate formal cognitive model of the concept is proposed on the basis of these data.