Phraseological units describing symptoms of anger in Polish and Italian. A contrastive analysis

Joanna Szerszunowicz

Uniwersytet w Białymstoku

Abstract

The focal issue of the paper is how symptoms of anger are expressed in Polish and Italian phraseological units. Expressing anger is discussed as a culture-specific phenomenon, which is reflected in language. The analysis of units excerpted from mono- and bilingual phraseographic works aims to determine differences and similarities in the conceptualization of symptoms of anger in both languages. The units excerpted are divided into three groups: the first group of units is composed of idioms motivated by physiological changes occurring due to anger; the second contains units motivated by expressive symptoms of anger, while the third one is composed by units motivated by the observations of typical behaviour caused by anger. As a result of the analysis the following groups of equivalents are distinguished: full equivalents, more precisely called quasi-equivalents, partial equivalents (further subdivided into units of pictorial congruence and the units whose imagery differs), non-phraseological equivalents (further subdivided into units of pictorial congruence and those devoid of imagery). The results of a quantitative analysis of equivalents are discussed for each group.

Keywords:

frazeologizm, ekwiwalencja międzyjęzykowa, emocje w języku, gniew