Showing Surprise in Persian Language Based on Combination of Lexical and Corpus Approach

Lack of specialized studies in the field of feeling of surprise compared to other feelings directed the present study to examine the schema and concept of feeling of surprise in Persian from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. Objectives include drawing a surprise scheme for the Persian language and examining the productivity of source domains for this feeling. The emotion schema shows the specific structure of the feeling of surprise in Persian and the way it is displayed. In order to draw the schema, a lexical approach is used and the keywords of the feeling of surprise and the interpretations that existed in the metaphorical culture of Abolhassan Najafi, were examined. Then, based on Kovecses’ hypothesis, the metaphorical source domains and their frequencies were determined based on corpus approach. The results showed that in the schema of feeling surprise, due to lack of control and activity, the feeling of surprise is somewhat different from other feelings. The body domain has many uses for showing the feeling of surprise, and also the tendency for immobility and stillness is evident in most cases of surprise.