What is an anger-as-dangerous-animal metaphor?

A conventional metaphor in which anger is represented as a dangerous animal, such that

• the animal's owner represents the angry person
• the animal's getting loose represents loss of control over anger
• the animal's sleeping represents little or no anger, and
• the animal's awakening represents anger near the limit of control.

Here are some examples:

• He has a fierce temper.
• It's dangerous to arouse his anger.
• That awakened my ire.
• He unleashed his anger.
• Don't let your anger get out of hand.
• He lost his grip on his anger.

• What is a metaphor for anger?

Kovecses 1986

• Concept module: anger-as-dangerous-animal metaphor
• In modular book: Metaphors in English, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H. Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
• In bookshelf: Lexicon

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 18 September 1998

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