The metaphoric conceptualization of emotion through heart idioms in Turkish

Abstract This paper aims to analyze the Turkish words for “heart” (yürek, kalp) in idiomatic expressions to unveil how the heart — as a part of the human body — is categorized and schematized in the minds of Turkish speakers and to establish a cognitive-cultural model for emotions. The idioms containing the words kalp and yürek are taken from several dictionaries. Those idioms that express or are related to an emotion are determined and included in the study based on an emotion categorization model developed for Turkish. The heart idioms are analyzed in relation to the metaphor-based linguistic account of emotions. Findings reveal different conceptualizations of emotions such as physical damage, fire, burden, agitation, force, and so on. The study demonstrates that yürek and kalp are productive source domains in Turkish for their metaphoric conceptualization of a wide range of emotions, hence constituting a complex cognitive-cultural model for emotion in Turkish.