What the study found
The study found that the Amharic lexeme ləbb, meaning “heart,” is strongly associated with positive emotions. It can metonymically stand for courage and love, and it is also used with words for negative emotions.
Why the authors say this matters
The authors say the findings contribute to understanding how body-part terms are used to conceptualize emotions. They also suggest that natural languages share important similarities in body-based conceptualization of emotions.
What the researchers tested
The researchers analyzed the Amharic lexeme ləbb “heart” from a cognitive linguistics perspective. They based their analysis on metaphoric and metonymic extensions found in Amharic monolingual and bilingual dictionaries.
What worked and what didn't
The analysis showed that the heart is intrinsically associated with positive emotions and can metonymically represent courage and love. The connection between “heart” and negative emotions is also present, but the abstract says this is mainly possible through compositionality.
What to keep in mind
The abstract does not describe the scope of the dictionary sources in detail beyond monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. It also does not provide quantitative results or explain the full range of examples examined.
Key points
- Amharic ləbb (“heart”) is strongly associated with positive emotions.
- The word can stand metonymically for courage and love.
- Links between “heart” and negative emotions are also used, mainly through compositionality.
- The authors say the findings add to understanding of body-part terms in emotion conceptualization.
- The abstract suggests similarities across unrelated languages in body-based emotion conceptualization.
Disclosure
- Research title:
- Amharic “heart” is linked to positive emotions
- Authors:
- Sérgio N. Menete, Guiying Jiang, Betelhem Tirusew Bayu
- Institutions:
- Fujian Normal University, Xiamen University, Xiamen University of Technology
- Publication date:
- 2026-02-24
- OpenAlex record:
- View
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