What is a cause-of-anger-as-physical-annoyance metaphor?

A conventional metaphor in which any cause of anger is represented as being of a physical nature.

Here are some examples in English:

• Stop bugging me!
• Get off my back!
• You're getting under my skin.
• He's a pain in the neck.
• Don't be a pest!

• What is a metaphor for cause of anger?

Kovecses 1986

• Concept module: cause-of-anger-as-physical-annoyance 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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