Feelings and emotions in the Russian linguistic world view

This paper explores the ways of displaying emotions and feelings in the Russian linguistic view of the world. We can describe it as an emotional state, perception or attitude, but the treatment of an emotional substance becomes a linguistic study only in case we research the real use of words, independently of any reference to physical or psychological manifestations. According to the Russian National Corpus, feelings are nourished, shared, awakened, hidden, suppressed. In metaphoric mapping, feelings are defined in relation to the elements of other conceptual areas, including resource, fluid, fire, power, etc., determining the choice of attached predicates. By analogy with a resource, feelings are stored and wasted; by analogy with an independent power, they move, cover, master and subordinate the mind; by analogy with a fluid, they fill and overflow; by analogy with fire, they can ignite and fade. Such use becomes so common that speakers do not pay attention to metaphorical expressions any more but take them almost as an objective characteristic of feelings.