The emotion concept of JOY in the English linguaculture

Abstract

The article deals with the research of the means of verbalization and defines the structure of the concept joy in the English linguaculture applying the method of cognitive definition suggested by Jerzy Bartmiński. The direct nominations of the lexeme joy, its synonyms, antonyms and metaphors constitute the material of the study. By analysing the systematic data material of the English language drawn from etymological and monolingual explanatory dictionaries and thesaurі, the etymology of the lexeme joy is described as well as its inner form is identified, and the lexical means are marked out. The comprehensive overview of the major theories of emotions is given. The conceptual analysis of joy is presented within Wierzbicka’s Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach. The conceptual structure of joy is described in terms of conceptual metaphors, conceptual metonymies, related concepts and cognitive models suggested by Z. Kövecses.