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METAPHORICAL CONCEPTUALIZATION OF SADNESS IN WOLAITA
Abstract. The present study investigates conceptual metaphors of sadness in Wolaita from a cognitive-linguistic perspective and compares them with previous research findings across languages. Its specific objectives are: (a) to identify linguistic metaphors used to express metaphors of happiness in Wolaita; (b) to describe the experiential and cultural bases of conceptualizing happiness in Wolaita. Grounded in Conceptual Metaphor Theory, CMT, which emphasizes cross-domain mappings in emotion concepts, we employed qualitative research methods. We used the CMT framework of metaphor analysis to elucidate systematically inferring conceptual representations and organization from linguistic expressions with metaphorical content. On the other hand, the qualitative research facilitated our aim to gain insights and explore the depth, richness, and complexity inherent in the phenomena of metaphorization. We followed an interpretive approach to data analysis since the collected data are in the form of words, phrases, and sentences used by the Wolaita people. Our research revealed that in Wolaita, sadness is conceptualized through various metaphors, including SADNESS IS PAIN, SADNESS IS FLUID, SADNESS IS DOWN, SADNESS IS ENEMY, SADNESS IS BURDEN, SADNESS IS JOURNEY, SADNESS IS FOOD, and SADNESS IS GIFT. These conceptual mappings offer valuable insights into the emotional conceptualization of sadness in the universal and distinctive ways in Wolaita. With these metaphors, the Wolaita people evaluated sadness negatively. The present study maintained that sadness is universal at the basic level. This study contributes to the universality versus culture-specificity debate about the cross-cultural conceptualization of emotions by showing evidence from the Wolaita language. 
Keywords: conceptual metaphor, conceptualization, concept, the Wolaita language
1.	INTRODUCTION
The object of this study was the metaphor of sadness in the Wolaita language. The name Wolaita denotes the self-name of the language and its native speakers. While Dalke (2012) states that Wolayta and Wolaittattuwa denote the name of the language, Elias (2017) and Wakassa (2008) extended  Wolaita qala ‘words of Wolaita’ as the alternative name of the language. 
Wolaita is one of the dominant languages spoken in Ethiopia. According to the 2007 Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia, the mother tongue speakers of the Wolaita language reached 1,627,955 in the country. The Wolaita language is a medium of education (Wakassa, 2014, p. 31), as well as the language of broadcast media. The immediate neighboring languages of Wolaita are Dawuro, Gamo, Timbaro, Kambata, and Sidama (Amha, 2009: 1088). 
According to a linguistic classification by Fleming (1976), the Wolaita language belongs to the Omotic language family of the Afro-Asiatic phylum. Together with its sister languages, namely Korote, Male, Dawuro, Dache, Gamo, Dorze, and Oyda, the Wolaita language was grouped into the North Ometo cluster of the Omotic language family (Fleming, l969, p. 3). Wolaita is mutually intelligible with these languages; it exhibits no internal dialectal variations on its own.
Wolaita is one of the widely studied Ethiopian languages. However, the previous works emphasized on description of its linguistic aspects, namely phonology, morphology, and syntax (e.g., Adams, 1983; Amha, 1996, 2002, 2002&2006; Bekale, 1983; Degefu, 2012; Elias, 2017; Hayward & Richard, 2000; Marcello & Sottile, 1997; Wakasa, 2000, 2002, 2005&2008; Woldemariam, 1999) were few previous works to mention. As can be observed from the complete list of bibliographies given in Wakasa (2008, p. 22-25) none of the previous works addressed the research problems of metaphor, especially sadness in the language.  
Metaphor is a figurative language usage in which the conceptual mapping of events and objects describes abstract concepts such as emotions (Lakoff & Johnson 1980; Kovecses, 1995). The world of concepts is not accessible to direct study, but language assists our understanding of conceptual meaning (Wierzbicka, 1995, p. 19). This premise evokes that the study of emotional concepts becomes possible because emotional behavior is innate as it is ‘a reaction of the whole organism to an internal or external event’ (Dissanayake, et al., 2020, p. 44). The languages that humans speak allow people to ‘engage in talk about the emotions’ (Bamberg, 1997, p. 309) and become sources of data.  
A large body of empirical research findings suggests that the focus of previous studies on emotion was on its universal nature. Eid and Diener (2001) challenged the ignorance of variation because universality played insufficient roles in the full understanding of the experience and expression of emotions. The study of emotions from the viewpoints of universal and culture-specific patterns (Dissanayake, et al., 2020, p. 44; Kovecses, 2015, p. 93) takes the balanced initiative. The emotional metaphors represented in the vocabularies of all languages do not imply the same ways of conceptualization (Alsadi, 2017; Galati, Schimdt, Sini, & Tinti 2005; Retova 2008). The languages of the world are independent of one another, so the metaphor in a language is certainly the metaphor of that language because its understanding is ‘folk’ (Wierzbicka, 1986). 
Cross-cultural emotion studies intend to explore idiosyncratic aspects of emotion conceptualization (Wierzbicka, 1995, p. 18). However, previous studies have not yet explored a satisfying collection of findings that resolve the controversy about the metaphors of emotions that are commonly recognized in all cultures (Alonso-Arbiol et al., 2006, p.  837). The present study aims to investigate the conceptual metaphors for sadness in Wolaita from a cognitive-linguistic perspective and compare them with previous research findings across languages. The concept of sadness is defined as a feeling of unhappiness or not being in a good mood (Sagista et al., 2023:240). In the context of Wolaita, sadness encompasses all the semantic fields of the concept of sadness, including words such as despair, melancholy, distress, and grief.  
It is of interest in the present study to establish how the Wolaita people conceptualize sadness in their linguistic and cultural contexts. Its specific objectives are: (a) to identify linguistic metaphors used to express metaphors of happiness in Wolaita; (b) to describe the experiential and cultural bases of conceptualizing happiness in Wolaita. 
This study will contribute to filling the knowledge gap on the controversies over the cognitive-linguistic analysis of emotion concepts as universal and culture-specific by providing data from Wolaita. Its particular significance will be a rich source of information for the researchers who aim to investigate sadness from a conceptual metaphor theoretical framework (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980).
2.	THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 
Conceptual metaphor is a theory that works at the level of general mapping from typically concrete source domains onto abstract concepts as the target domains. Lakoff and Johnson (2003) claimed that conceptual metaphor is an understanding and expressing one kind of thing (e.g., SADNESS) in terms of another (e.g., DOWN), as in SADNESS IS DOWN. The major claim of the theory that has drawn the attention of scholars is that metaphor structures much of the nonphysical reality in which we think and act. Lakoff and his colleagues asserted metaphor as an essential element in categorizing the world and our thinking process (Lakoff, & Johnson, 1980; Lakoff, 1987; Johnson, 1987). 
There are two layers of metaphor. The first one is metaphorical expression which manifests conceptual metaphor. The other is a conceptual metaphor, which brings two domains or concepts into correspondence. Lakoff and Johnson (1980) claimed that the source domain (concrete) entity is a borrowed concept to explain the context of a sentence or word. On the other hand, the target domain (intangible experience) is the content context that would like to be reached by the source domain (Sagista et al., 2023:241). Metaphor is considered a very crucial aspect of such human cognition and communication because metaphorical expression links mind and language and even more. For example, Lakoff & Johnson (1980) viewed that metaphor functions to mirror conceptual systems. 
Similarly, Khajeh& Abdullah (2012) elaborated that conceptual metaphors are bestowed in language, and at the same time language serves as a basic indicator of these conceptualizations. Liu (2002) as cited in Khajeh& Abdullah (2012) also posits that metaphor is universal in all languages and cultures which means that its use is not “culture-exclusive” rather its choice to carry the realities seemed to be “culture-specific”, or folk. Lakoff and his colleagues argued that the figurative usage of language is crucial in expressing the daily realities of people irrespective of language speakers’ lack of conscious awareness of these systems.  As a result, Khajeh& Abdullah (2012) evoked that careful study of metaphorical linguistic expressions can reveal the phenomena of people’s shared ideas, beliefs, and dispositions within a specific culture.
It has been claimed that the conceptualization of emotion in many languages of the world is universal due to the similarity of human nature, the physiological and behavioural responses of the body in reaction to emotions which in turn leads to similar experiences to the abstract concepts, i.e. emotion (Kovecses, 2000, 2010; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). Nevertheless, empirical findings on sadness only partially aligned with this assertion. The findings of comparative studies among English and other languages such as Minangkabau (Yanti, 2016); Chinese (Liu & Zhao, 2013), and Persian (Moradi & Mashak, 2013) showed that most conceptual metaphors of sadness are not universal. For instance, SADNESS IS COLOUR is understood as ‘Blue’ in English and ‘Black’ in Persian (Imran, Yanti &Aziz, 2021:86).
3.	METHOD AND MATERIAL
The present study investigates conceptual metaphors of sadness in Wolaita and employs the Conceptual Metaphor Theory proposed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), according to which much of our ordinary language is figurative and fairly systematic (Soriano, 2015, p. 206). CMT relies on linguistic metaphors to make generalizations about conceptual metaphors and accessible data sources (Ansah, 2010; Knowles & Moon, 2006:7; Moser, 2000; Pragglejaz, 2007). The study adapts a general CMT framework to address the verbal justification of systematicity in the metaphorical uses of everyday discourse about sadness in Wolaita. This paper followed qualitative research methods such as recording, elicitation, intuituion, and employed text materials  to conduct verbal analysis metaphors.  
3.1.	Tools of data collection 
In the present study, the researchers read and listened to text materials as well as employed elicitation and introspection to extract textual data from the data sources. In addition to the native speakers of the Wolaita language, the data for written texts comes from reading the Wolaita language students’ textbooks for junior and senior level grades.  The reaon is that the cademic texts are thought to involve a rich collection of metaphors (Schmitt, 2005, p. 370; Wojciechowska & Juszczyk, 2014, p. 6). Another source is the online Wolaita-English bilingual dictionary, retrieved as a mobile app from the Google Play Store. The recorded audio and song lyrics, as well as video of television programs, were naturally occurring data sources and were full of emotional expressions (Nugraheny & Yuwita, 2023, p. 258).
3.2.	  PROCEDURE
The collection of linguistic expressions as the data for the study adopted Kovecses's (2008) bottom-up approach to metaphor extraction and Pragglejaz's (2007) metaphor identification procedure. Through manual extraction, more technically termed ‘’searching’’ (Stefanowitsch, 2007), the principal researcher and his assistants were able to separate metaphorically used words, phrases, and sentences conceptualizing sadness in Wolaita.  To identify linguistic metaphors in the text materials, the researchers analyzed lexical units within their surrounding context. They marked these units as metaphors when the preceding and following context indicated an indirect or figurative usage.
In determining the basic and contextual meanings of the lexical units, the research team looked up the meanings of some lexical units in the online Wolaita-English Dictionary, and sometimes the principal researcher resorted to native speaker intuitions, as he is a native Wolaita speaker, before making any decision. The researchers employed inter-coder agreement reliability to resolve disagreement in deciding the lexical unit as a metaphor (Steen et al., 2010). Because the inter-coder agreement rate of 75% is the minimum requirement to determine a lexical unit as a metaphor (Cameron, 2003), each of the three inter-coder’s decisions in the present study was allocated 25%, or 0.25, to hit the target, where 3 multiplied by 0.25 is equal to 0.75. 
 After the identification of linguistic metaphors, Steen's (1999) five-step procedure (MIPVU) was employed to assist in the identification of conceptual metaphors and establishing metaphorical inferences gained from linguistic expressions: (1) Identifying metaphorical focus; (2) Identifying metaphorical idea; (3) Identifying metaphorical comparison; (4) Identifying metaphorical analogy; (5) Identifying metaphorical mapping.
To infer conceptual metaphors, the researchers closely examined conceptual mappings that included either explicit words for sadness or references to it. This scrutiny was aimed at understanding the underlying conceptual metaphors. Using the linguistic expression "gen-anʧa kofa" (‘a bullying idea’) as an example, the metaphorical nature of each lexical unit was determined by conceptually transferring the knowledge structure of "gen-anʧa kof" (‘a bully’) to understand sadness as an enemy in the Wolaita language.
3.3.	 DATA ANALYSIS
This study, as a piece of qualitative metaphor research, aimed to describe the conceptualizations of sadness by examining the conceptual mappings between their source and target domains. The verbal interpretations of specific metaphors, accompanied by literal glosses and their English equivalent translations, were conducted sequentially across the conceptual mappings. Finally, the implications of the results were discussed in light of previous cross-cultural emotion research findings.
4.	RESULTS OF THE STUDY
4.1.	 Sadness is pain 
The metaphors of sadness map a disease of the body or mind (Irma, et al., 2021, p. 89) which is a cause of suffering from the pain of injury or wound to conceptualize the psychological suffering.  
1	bari
her	hajk’-ida
died-that	naɁaá
son	miʃ-uwa
pain-ABS	mule
never	agg-uku.
forget-3sg.f.IMPFV
      Lit.  ‘She never got over the grief of her son’s death.’ ‘She has grieved.’
In the example 1, the metaphorically used word that describes the bad feelings of sadness is miʃ-uwa ‘hot’ or ‘fever’ in Wolaita.  It implies that a saddened person is hot in the same way to the degrees of heat of the entity that lie between doʃo ‘warm’ and séela ‘burn.’ Its metaphorical equivalence shows the emotional states that cause damage during its control. Its usage in the context of hajk’-ida naɁaá miʃ-uwa ‘the pain for the dead son’, (in 1), describes the remembrance of loss by death but not the actual moment of grief. 
2	a.	kuttia
hen	haik'-í-n
dead-ABS-for	I
he	tam-á-n
fire-OBL-in	geli
enter 	kij-íis.
be remove-3sg.m.PFV
          Lit. ‘He entered into the fire with sadness.’  ‘He sorrowed seriously.’
b.	táa-ssi
me.OBL-for	ta
my	mara-tu
chicken-ABS-3pl.	séel-ai
pain-3sg.m.NOM   	wopp-ibéenna
calm-3sg.m.NEG	gáa-su.
say-3sg.f.PFV
        Lit. ‘I still feel pain about my dead chickens.’ ‘I could not stop grieving’
These metaphors describe the pain of sadness as the pain caused by the burn of fire to the human body. The metaphor tam-a-n geli kij-íis ‘He entered into fire’ (in 2a) describes someone who was sad and could not control his sadness. Another metaphor séel-ai wopp-ibéenna ‘My pain has not been calm’ (in 2b) describes someone as extremely sad despite the attempts made to control it. 
3 	a
she	ta
my	háasaj-á-n
speech-ABS.3sg.m-in	masunt’-áasu.
be wound-3sg.f.PFV
  Lit. ‘She was injured with my speech.’ ‘She became sad about my speech.’
The bodily impact of illness caused by injury to the body is mapped to describe sadness. So, háasaj-á ‘speech’ (in 3) is taken as something that causes the accident of masunt’-‘injury’ and conceptualizes someone’s serious psychological distress. This metaphor illustrates how the negative emotional experience of sadness can impair rationality, much like an illness poses a threat to the body.
4	a.	dabúbé
place name.ACC	ne
your	aʃ-uwa-n
flesh-ABS-on	háattáa
water	tig-o
pour-3sg.m.OPT
              Lit. ‘Let water be poured on your pain.’ ‘Wish you a quick recovery from the grief.’ 
b.	tana
me.ACC	mo
burn.OPT	ta
my	aʃ-uwa
flesh.ABS	mo
burn.OPT
     Lit. ‘Let it burn me and my flesh.’ ‘Grieving hurt me.’
These metaphors imply that the saddened person is already a victim of the heat of sadness and its effects are painful to oneself and others. The metaphor ne aʃ-uwa-n háattáa tig-o ‘Let the water be poured into your pain’ (in 4a) assumes the intensity of grief is a heat that hurts the mourners so that the observers wish them a quick recovery from it. Another metaphor tana mo ‘Let it give me pain’ or ta aʃ-uwa mo ‘Let it give me pain to my flesh’ (in 4b) assumes that the mourners are in the heat that gives them and the observers a pain.
The examples provided illustrate scenarios where people express wishes for a swift recovery from sadness, similar to how they wish for a quick recovery from injuries or other physical ailments. Additionally, the effects of sadness as pain are likened to experiencing unpleasant sensations akin to physiological pain, though not caused by heat.
5	a.	a-ssí
his-to	naɁá
son	hajk-uwa
death-ABS	sij-í-n
hear-ABS-for	wozan-ai
heart-3sg.m.NOM	meɁ-íis.  
be break-3sg.m.PFV
              Lit. ‘His heart was broken with sadness.’ ‘He lacked control of his grief.’
b.	íita
bad	háasaj-ai
speech-3sg.m.NOM    	as-á-ssi
person-for	giddo
internal	asa-tettaa
body-NMNL.3sg.m
tolku
piece             	óott-idi
do-CONV	ment-ées.
break-3sg.m.IMPFV.
        Lit. ‘Bad news breaks the internal body.’ ‘It causes the loss of control sadness.’
c.	ʧ’aʃʃ-ai
insult-3sg.m.NOM	sot-uwa-n
diaphragm-in	seéll-ées.  
burns-3sg.m.IMPFV
      Lit. ‘Insult gives pain to the diaphragm.’ ‘I become out of control with sadness.’
In (5), the metaphors equated the unpleasantness of sadness, similarly the feelings of sickness around the internal organs. While wozan-ai meɁ-íis ’heartbroken’(in 5a) describes someone’s low-spirited feelings with the loss of sadness control, giddo Ɂasa-tetta ‘the internal body parts’ (in 5b), and sot-uwa ‘the diaphragm’ (in 5c), shows the loss of controlling sadness gives bad feelings around these organs. The reason is that someone’s loss of controlling extreme feelings of sadness is his or her loss of controlling the bodily sufferings caused by the damage to these internal organs. 
4.2.	 Sadness is a Fluid
In Wolaita, the causes and effects of sadness are metaphorically compared to a fluid that moves with mass and depth and is unclean, like rainwater. This metaphor takes into account both the contained and moving fluid.
6	a.	ta
my	ajfia-n
eye-3sg.m.-in	afutt-ai
tear-3sg.m.NOM	ʧ’agg-enna.
be rain-NEG-3sg.m.IMPFV
         Lit. ‘The rain of tears is nonstop.’ ‘I could not stop weeping with the grief.’
b.	afuttaa
tear          	sóos-íis. 
fall heavy rain-3sg.m.PFV
         Lit. ‘He wept a storm of tears.’ ‘He mourned hopelessly.’
c.	mult’á
snowy	t’óoh-íis. 
storm-3sg.m.PFV
         Lit. ‘He dropped the tears of snow.’ ‘He could not control his sorrow.’
d.	oiddusáa-ra
four sides-from	t’ig-íis. 
torrential-3sg.m.PFV
          Lit. ‘He wept the tears of torrential rain.’ ‘His sorrow was out of control.’
These metaphors describe the expression of sadness through weeping similar to the situations of rain in Wolaita. The intensities of sadness are the intensities of the rain that ranged from less powerful up to the most frightening situations of torrential rains. Thus, afuttaa ’weeping’ in sorrow or grief equates the rain that ʧ’agg-enna ‘fall continuously (in 6a), sóos-íis ‘is stormed’ (in 6b), mult’a t’óh-ís ‘He dropped the tears of snow’ (in 6c), and oiddusáa-ra t’ig-íis ‘is torrential’ (in 6d). The intensity and amount of the fluid that moves correspond to the release of tears with the loss of control over sadness. Besides, unexpected sadness causing someone to weep is the rain that falls unexpectedly in Wolaita. 
7	afuttaa
tear 	hotot-u
to drop-ABS	óott-áasu.
does-3sg.f.PFV
                 Lit. ‘She dropped sudden tears of rain.’ ‘She became sad and lacked control of it.’
Often, dropping tears in this way reflects the level of shock wherein someone’s sadness has become out of control with sadness or worry. In Wolaita, the expression hotot-u ‘it rained suddenly’ shows not the situation of actual rain but describes the situation where someone drops tears unexpectedly or in massive amounts.  The reason is that sadness caused the shock and tears of sadness as the real-world phenomena of rain produced the mass of running water.
8	afuttaá
tear	tek’k’anau
to protect	dandaj-abéekku
is able-3sg.f..NEG.PFV
         Lit. ‘She couldn’t stop the flooding of her tears.’ ‘She lost the control of her sorrow.’
This metaphor maps both the contents and intensity of fluid, which jointly implies the severity of grief that hurts a person. The use of afuuttaa ‘the tear’ gained the conceptual equivalence to the concept of flooding because tek’k’anau danddaj-abéekku ‘She couldn’t stop the flooding of her tears’(in, 8) conceptualizes someone’s hopeless cries with a loss of controlling sadness. 
9	a.	asá
person	dúussá
life   	balbuk’-ées
impure -3sg.m.IMPFV
            Lit. ‘It makes personal social life impure.’ ‘It makes the people feel sad.’
b.	 asá
person	dúuss-ai
life-3sg.m.NOM	bulk’otana
becomes muddy	dandaj-ées.
be able-3sg.m.IMPFV
           Lit. ‘Social life may become impure.’ ‘Saddening things may happen in relations.’
These metaphors mapped the features of an impure liquid that becomes unsuitable for personal use to describe the causes and effects of sadness. Such misbehaviors cause dúussá ‘interpersonal life’ balbuk’-ées ‘it forms wave’ (in 9a), and makes the relationship bulk’k’otana danaddaj-ées ‘it mud’ (in 9b). This metaphor equates personal abuse, which poses a threat to interpersonal relationships, to an external force that contaminates the liquid.
10	met-uwa-n
difficulty-ABS-in	múuhetti-nnée
sink-and	atti
left	agg-óosona.
stay-3pl.IMPFV
             Lit. ‘They sink in difficulty.’ ‘They are failing to fulfill their needs.
In Wolaita, the metaphors that describe the experiences of sadness in terms of fluid also map its content with depth to imply extreme emotional states. The depth of fluid is metaphorically significant because extreme sadness is the person’s sinking into it, as in múuhetti- ‘to sink’ as mapped in met-uwa ‘difficulty’ (in 10) describes someone’s expression of sympathy. 
4.3.		 Sadness is Down
This metaphor maps emotionally dejected bodily behaviors such as slouching, drooped shoulders, and turning down corners of the mouth to show their direct relation to the loss of controlling one’s sadness. The intensity of sadness acts as a force that weighs heavily on a person's physical being and the emotional state of their rational mind, making them feel closer to or beneath the ground.
11	deɁo
life	gufant-ia
upside-down-NOM	imatta
guest 	moh-oi
invitation	íita.
be bad.OPT
       Lit. ‘Wasting money downed the economy.’ ‘Extravagancy threatened life.’
The metaphorical use of imatta moh-oi ‘inviting guest’ as extravagance deɁo gufant-ia ‘makes the economy upside down’ and puts people in danger of hunger. This situation conceptualizes the economic failure caused by the waste of money that gives people sadness as a force that dejects their spirit. It is an expression of criticism and sympathy for someone’s failure to lead a healthy life. 
12	a.	m-io-bi
to eat-3sg.m.NOM-what      	t’ají-n
disappear-for	namisa-n
hunger-in	kund-íis.
fall-3sg.m.PFV
              Lit. ‘He fell in hunger and lacked what to eat.’ ‘I was economically poor.’
b.	met-oi
difficulty-3sg.m.NOM	duge
down	náak’k’i
to push	ojk’-íis.
catch-3sg.m.PFV
              Lit. ‘I was pressed down by the difficulty.’ ‘I have a low economy.’
In Wolaita, the expression duge ‘downward’ implies something situated nearer to or under the ground physically, and its meaning relates to something kund- ‘to fall’ or náak’k’i oik’- ‘to press down’. Its metaphorical extension describes an expression of sadness because of namisa ’hunger’ (in 12a) and met-oi ‘difficulty’ (12b). This describes the bad life situations of economically disadvantaged people who are assumed to face the accident of kund- ‘to fall’ which implies their physical and emotional failures.  
13	a.	a
she	gúuttio
a while	gamɁa-ida
stay away-that	áaɗa-woɗ-a-nnee…
turn upside-down-OBL-and
                Lit. ‘After a while, she turns overturns...’ ‘She starts to feel sad for me.’
b.	naʃʃ-iogaa-ppe
repute.NMNLZ-from	tóoʧ-io-gée
shame-NMLZ	dar-idi
exceed-CONV	béett-ées.
see -3sg.m.IMPFV
               Lit. ‘Humiliation is greater than respect.’ ‘Someone has shown disrespect.’
These metaphors describe the interpersonal relationship problem that caused a decrease in the intimacy with friends, family members, and colleagues are a downward orientation. In (13a), for example, aaɗa woɗa-áasu ‘she was overturned’ describes an expression of sadness towards the bad temper of one’s friend as a complaint whereas naʃʃiogaa-ppe ‘instead of being respectful’ they prefer tóoʧ-io-gé ‘to humiliate’ (in 13b) describes the situation of sadness that the observers can express towards the people’s lack of respect  each other. That is, this metaphor describes the high degree of disrespect against each other as the saddened people ignore their friendship relationships, which as a result gets lowered. 
4.4.	 Sadness is Enemy 
This metaphor portrays that sadness is a powerful struggler and a person who attempts to control sadness defends him or her by defeating sadness as the enemy.
14	a.	eti
they	issi
one	mala
kind	gid-enna
be-3sg.m.NEG	téela
attitude	ojk’-idosona.
hold-3pl.PFV
              Lit. ‘They held dissimilar views.’ ‘They became enemies.’
b.	éen-enna-nne
be fine-NEG.3sg.m-and	ekett-enna
accept- 3sg.m.NEG 	t’éela
attitude
              Lit. ‘It is a rebellious attitude.’ ‘Someone held the hatred attitude.’
The metaphor oik’-idosona ‘they held’ (in 14a) describes sadness for the dispute that caused them to hold issi mala gid-enna t’éela ‘dissimilar way of seeing’ and to become enemies. Similarly, éenn-enna ‘rebellious’ (in 14b) also describes a bad attitude or t’éela ‘the way of seeing’ towards the enemy who held divergent attitudes towards each other. In this regard, the rational self and sadness are the enemies.  
15	a.	asa
human	máat-ai
right-3sg.m.NOM	jerett-io
walk over	wode…
when 
              Lit. ‘Human rights are walked over.’ ‘The gender equality is tortured.’
b.	móor-o
wrong-ABS	k’of-a-ti
thought-3pl.NOM	náa-tu
child-3pl.m.GEN
máata
right	jeɗ-ia
step over-ABS	t’éela-tu-n
perception-3pl-in	móodett-óosona
category-3pl.PFV
     Lit. ‘Wrong sayings step over the children’s right.’ ‘Children are deprived of their rights.’ 
In (15), the person’s misbehavior is the enemy because it arouses sadness, which is often the winner of the struggle and threatens the person. Therefore, jerett- ‘to step over’ as in Ɂasa máat-ai ‘human right’ (in 15a) and t’éela ‘way of seeing’ (in 15b) describes the person’s loss of controlling sadness towards the attitudes and practices that violate human rights.
16	gen-anʧa
ill behaving-NMNLZ	kofa.
idea
                   Lit.  ‘It is a bullying idea.’ ‘That is saddening misbehavior.’   
The metaphorical use of gen-anʧa ‘hurtful’ maps qofa ‘idea’ to conceptualize sadness towards misbehavior that hinders interpersonal relationships as the enemy.  
17	a.	náa-ti
children	ʃátetetan-ada-n
no intimacy- that-to	óott-ia
does-ABS	hantáa-ra
dangerous-with   
gúussa-ti-kka
saying-3pl-too	deɁ-óosona.
exist-3pl.PFV
               Lit. ‘Dangerous sayings isolate children.’ ‘The children develop inferiority.’
b.	báattisóo-ra
[person name]-with	palamett-ido-bai
argue-that-thing	húup´ia-n
mind-in	sim-erett-idi
come-3sg.m.REFL.CONV  
ʃemp-uwa
rest-3sg.m.ABS	digg-iís
refuse.3sg.m.PFV
       Lit. ‘Mr. Batiso’s abuse urged me.’ ‘Mr. Batiso saddened me.’
The literal usages of hantáara ‘life-threatening’ and ʃemp-uwa digg-ís ‘was urged’ correspond one’s enmity with the unacceptable behaviors of persons, things, or animals that are dangerous. Thus, hantáa-ra gúussa ‘dangerous speech’ (in 17a) and palamett-ido ‘for the argument’ (in 17b) described the loss of control over sadness because sadness was powerful to control. 
18	a.	óos-uwa
work-ABS	lag-ia
hate	as-ai
person-NOM      	hijéesa-tetta-n
hunger-NMLZ-by	ʧ’ad-ettées.
hit-3sg.m.IMPFV
              Lit. ‘Lazy persons hit by hunger.’ ‘They are vulnerable to the hunger.’
b.	hakko
sadly	 I
He	óos-uwa
work-ABS	birʃ-idi
be lazy-CONV    	góolatt-idi
be swing-CONV      	júuj-ées.
walk-3sg.m.PFV
            Lit. ‘He swings everywhere for no affair.’ ‘I feel sad that he is a lazy person.’
c.	banta
their 	wolk’-aá-ppe
energy-OBL-from   	daro
beyond	dúussa
life 	dáan-awu
lead.ABS	pork’att-óosona.
torture-3pl.IMPFV
           Lit. ‘They struggle to improve their life.’ ‘They are poor people.’
These metaphors align the real-life conflict between individuals with the struggle between life's challenges and the principles of positive psychology. The metaphor hijées-atetta ‘backwardness’ (in 18a) is the enemy by which the economically poor person ʧ’ad-ettées ’is hit’ and becomes sad because of the lack of success. 
In addition, the term "góolatt-idi," meaning "is swung," illustrates the misbehavior of individuals whose lack of privilege results in sadness for both themselves and those who observe them. The root of this sadness is the life circumstances that toss the idle person around. Similarly, banta wolk’-á-ppe ‘beyond their energy’ (in 18c) is an expression of sadness towards the saddened persons pork’att-óosona ‘are being tortured’ in life. 
4.5.	 Sadness is Journey
The metaphors of the journey describe the existence and intensity of sadness in Wolaita. It mainly equates the obstacle aspects that impede the success of a journey to provide its negative evaluation. 
19	a.	hagée
this	halaʧ-oi
[person name]-NOM  	bana
him	kess-ées
succeed-3sg.m.IMPFV
g-íidi
say-CONV	ojk’-ido
begin-that	ogia.
journey-3sg.m.NOM 
           Lit. ‘Mr. Halacho thought to travel this way.’ ‘It is sad that he was misled.’
b.	ha
this	joh-uwa
affair-3sg.m.ABS	ogia
road	ogia
road	ane
let	ojtt-óos
begin-3pl.IMPFV
            Lit. ‘Let this dispute begin its journey.’ ‘Let’s reconcile the disputers.’
These metaphors showed the observers’ reaction towards something they realized was wrong and saddened them. The metaphorical use of ogia ‘the road’ (in 19a) implies someone’s observation regarding the wrong strategies that were followed in the arguments which are thought to be kess-ées ‘the route that takes to the destination.’ Another expression ogia Ɂojt-óos ‘let its journey begin’ (in 19b) describes sadness towards the affairs that had been in a mess and becomes a cause of sadness. The conceptual equivalence of these metaphors lies in the notion that a person's failure in an argument is akin to embarking on a journey in the wrong direction.
20	a.		t’éell-enna-ba-n
concern-thing-that-in	wot’-ada
run-that	gel-oppa.
take part-3sg.m.NEG.IMPFV
                  Lit. ‘Do not run to argue for nothing.’ ‘It gives me sadness.’ 
b.		od-ada
talk-that	b-íiʃ-n
go-when-in	ogia-n
road-3sg.m.-in	dogett-íi-n.
forget-ABS.for	azzan-áas
sad-3sg.m.PFV
            Lit. ‘I forgot my talk on the road and felt sad.’ ‘I was sad about the failure.’
An offending person is a traveler whose misbehavior is the obstacle that the actual traveler encounters. The metaphor wot’- ‘to run’ (in 20a) describes the intentional offensive behavior that shows someone’s lack of respect for the personal interest of other people. The cause of sadness is that someone attempts to be involved in affairs that do not concern him or her. Similarly, the expression bíiʃ- ‘while traveling’ (in 20b) describes someone’s sadness for the failure while delivering the speech because the idea dog-ettíis ‘was forgotten’ and became an obstacle. 
21	a.	gatt-enna-ba-n
range-thing-3sg.m.NEG-in	gel-oppa.
take part-3sg.m.NEG.IMPFV
          Lit. ‘Stay out from issues not in your range.’ ‘Your interference saddens me.’
b.	ʧ’ima
elderly	asa
person	k’anggett-ai
curse-3sg.m.NOM	gakk-ées.
reach-3sg.m.IMPFV
         Lit. ‘The adult’s curse reaches you.’ ‘Do not make adult persons sad the.’
These metaphors describe an expression of sadness towards someone’s offensive behavior that spoils the pleasure of the victim traveler. In Wolaita, the offenders are travelers whose unnecessary involvement in someone else’s gatt-enna-ba ‘affairs’ (in 21a) is a cause for sadness for the victim person. The metaphor k’angg-ettai gakk-ées ‘the curse travels to reach’ (in 21b) conceptualizes the act of cursing to condemn misconduct as a journey that is not enjoyable for the traveler. 
22	a.	I
he	ai
any	wode-kka
time-too	gosa-n
where-at	ek’k’i
stand	er-enna.
be able-NEG.3sg.m.IMPFV
            Lit. ‘He keeps not standing at what he says.’ ‘He does not keep promises.’
b.	ha-gée
this-ABS	tanáa-ra
me with	bia
go	óos-o
work-ABS	gid-enna.
be-NEG-3sg.m.PFV     
         Lit. ‘This work does not go with me.’ ‘My job gives me sadness.’
The metaphorical use of gosa-n ’at the place’ (in 22a) personifies sadness for promising something that a person ek’k’i er-enna ‘never stops’ or does not keep the promise. The expression tanáa-ra bia ‘that accompany me’ (in 22b) shows the speaker is sad towards Ɂós-o ‘profession’ that satisfied him or her no more. 
23	dabb-o-tettaa-ssi
friend-ABS-NMNL-in	t’ube-ti
obstacle-3pl.NOM   	deɁ-ana
exist-.3sg.m	dandaj-óosona.
be able-3pl.IMPFV
       Lit. ‘Obstacles may occur in the journey of friendship.’ ‘Friends can quarrel.’
This metaphor implies that the disagreement that occurs between friends is the obstacle to the journey of their friendship. That is, dabb-o-tettaáa ‘friendship’ as a route of journey in the friendship can be hindered by misbehavior which is t’ube ‘the obstacle’ that saddens the friend. 
24	a.	azzan-ida-g-au
sad- that-3sg.m-for 	bio-si
where	Ɂit’ior-í-n
refuse-OBL-3sg.f-to
             Lit. ‘With sadness, he wandered.’ ‘He lost control of his sadness. 
b.	náati
children.NOM	lut’etta-n
education-in	sintau
forward 	b-énna
go-NEG.3sg.m.IMPFV
         Lit. ‘The children do not travel in their education.’ ‘They lacked success in it.’
c.	eʧaivia
HIV	met-oi
problem 	náatu-ppe
children-from	ʧ’ima
elderly 	gakkanau
reach 	b-ées.
go-3sg.m.IMPFV
        Lit. ‘HIV victimizes children up to the adults.’ ‘It is a deadly disease.’
These metaphors describe the situations of wandering to escape from dreadful emotional feelings as the obstacles. The metaphor bio-ssi it’ior-í-n ‘When she does not know where to go (in 24a) describes the emotional wandering of someone azan-ida-g-au who feels sad and attempts to escape from the expected danger. The academic failure of students is described  as a journey that náati sintau b-éenna mala óott-ées ‘makes the children not  travel further in their education’ (in 24b). The metaphor eʧaivia metoi ‘the problems of HIV’ that spreads náatu-ppe ʧ’ima ‘from children to adults’ is assumed to gakanau b-ées ‘travels to arrive’. 
25	azzan-iaga-ssi
sad-3sg.m NMNLZ-for	ellell-idi
be fast-CONV	ane
let	gakk-óos.
reach- 3pl.IMPFV
        Lit. ‘Let’s arrive quickly for sad persons.’ ‘Provide them with support.’
In (25), the metaphorical use of gak-ós ‘let us travel to arrive’ describes finding a means to support azan-ia-ga-ssi ‘the saddened person’ to gain calmness in the same way as helping the injured or exhausted traveler. 
4.6.	Sadness is Food
In Wolaita, the conceptual mappings with bad taste, smell, texture, and others conceptualize the unpleasantness of sadness. 
26	woni
ever 	malɁ-ia
tasty-ABS	t’al-ia-n
medicine-3sg.m.NOM-in	búut’i
straw	gel-íje
enter-3sg.m. IMPV
          Lit. ‘Put unclean straw in a sourer medicine.’ ‘Cause a sadness to intensify.’
The concept of t’al-ia ‘medicine’ implies the attributes of traditional medicinal foods and drinks that are prepared from the leaves, stems, or roots of plants and often taste sourer. Its metaphorical extension in woni malɁ-ia ‘never taste sweet!’ describes the sadness that occurred between people and búut’i gel-íje! ‘Enters a straw’ describes its expected escalation.  
27	jel-enna
give birth-NEG	náata
children.ACC	diʧia
take care	áaje-ti
mother-3pl.F.NOM
darotó
many time	náat –u –ssi
children-ABS-for	azzan-okkona
sad.3pl.NEG.IMPFV	k’aj-óosona
be uncook-3pl.IMPFV
     Lit. ‘Stepmothers become raw for stepchildren.’  ‘They abuse the children.’
The metaphorical use of k’aj-ósona ‘they become raw’ in (27) describes the misbehaviors of stepmothers who become bad to their stepchildren. Therefore, the situation that is not suitable for the stepchildren equates to the person’s attempt to consume food that is not well cooked or the immature fruit. It is also interesting to note from the following examples that low amounts of food that the person consumes are mapped to describe sadness in Wolaita. 
28	a.	hegée
that	kall-iss-enna
be satisfy-CAUS.NEG.3sg.m.PFV	k’ofá.
Idea
               Lit. ‘That idea is not satisfying.’ ‘It gives me sadness.’
b.	I
her.GEN	háasaja
speech 	I
he.MOM	kall-enna.
be satisfy-NEG.3sg.m.PFV    
           Lit. ‘Her speech dissatisfies him.’ ‘He is unhappy with her speech.’  
c.	he
that	k’ofa-ssi
idea-for	kal-iss-ia
satisfy-CAUS.3sg.m	záar-uwa
response-ABS 	imm-ibéenna.
give-NEG.3sg.m.PFV
      Lit. ‘He provided not a satisfying response.’ ‘I feel sad for his weak counter argument.’
In Wolaita, the literal use of the expression kal- ‘to satisfy’ shows the feelings of satisfaction after eating foods, though the negative suffix –enna ‘is not’ portrays the lack of such feelings. Its metaphorical usage reflects the person’s lack of satisfaction with someone’s behaviors or action, as in k’ofa ‘idea’ (in 28a), háasaja ‘speech’ (in 298b), and zár-uwa ‘response’ (in 28c). 
4.7.	 Sadness is Load
A person who feels sad towards someone who misbehaves carries someone else’s misbehavior and faces a burden of load to his or her body. 
29	baina-ba
none exist-thing	ʧ’áanoi
to load	íita
be bad
         Lit. ‘Do not load disinformation. ’Do not abuse innocent persons.’
In (29), the metaphor ʧ’áanoi ‘to put a load’ describes baina-ba ‘disinformation’ that gives a person sadness. It usually causes a person to lose control over sadness when he or she faces intentionally abusive behaviors. 
30	a.	I
he	ta-ssi
me-to	aissa-kko
what reason-too	déet't'-ées
be heavy.
              Lit. ‘He has become heavy to me.’  ‘He feels sad at me.’
b.	a
she	ta
my	bolli
body 	deet’t'ia
heavy 	k’áala
expression 	háasaj-áasu
talk-3sg.F.PFV
        Lit.  ‘She talked a heavy word at me.’ ‘She abused me verbally.’ 
In Wolaita, the literal use of déet’o ‘is heavy’ implies the heavyweight of something that is carried. Its metaphorical usage describes the existence and intensity of sadness.  The metaphor Ɂaissa-kko ‘for no reason’ (in 30a) describes its existence and háasaj-áasu ‘verbal abuse’ (in 30b) as a heavy load describes the intensity of sadness. 
4.8.	  Sadness is Gift
The metaphors of gift evaluate sadness negatively because they map the attributes of declined offers as well as the gift that gives no pleasure to the receivers. 
31	a.	náa-ti
child-3pl.ABS	dunggút’á
isolation              	ekki
hold	j-ósona.
bring-3pl.IMPFV
 Lit. ‘The children bring fearful behavior.’ ‘They become fearful.’
b.	tájilo
my mother-3sg.f.GEN     	néni
you	ne
your	k’áad-io
fate-3sg.f.NOM   	ekk-adasa.
receive-3sg.m.PFV
       Lit. ‘Oh! Mom, you received your fate.’  ‘You were disadvantaged.’
In (31), the expression ek- ‘to receive’ equates sadness to the gift from the saddening behaviors of the offenders. The resulting feelings as in dunggúut’á ‘isolation’ (in 31a) and k’áad-io ‘fate’ (in 31b) as the gifts that are given but not received happily. The gifts that are being given produce pleasurable feelings to the givers, though the receivers suffer from it. 
32	a.	náa-ti
child-3pl.ABS     	háasa-ido-bai
talk-that-thing.3sg.NOM      	ek-ettenna-ba
accept-3sg.m.NEG-thing     	g-óosona.
say-3pl.IMPFV
  Lit. ‘The children’s talk is unacceptable.’ ‘They are inferior.’
b.	a-bá
 his thing-OBL	as-ai
person-3sg.m.NOM	ekk-enna
take-3sg.m.NEG
           Lit. ‘People ignore his speech.’  ‘He is being viewed as a silly person.’
Sadness is also the effect of a rejected gift, even though the receivers seek it to happen. The metaphors náa-ti háasa-ido-bai ekk-ettenna-ba ‘what children speak is not acceptable’ (in 33a) and a-ba as-ai ekk-enna-n ‘people ignore his speech (in 33b) conceptualize the person’s feelings to practice their freedom of speech and social equality. 
5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 
This section presents the results of the study on the metaphorical conceptualization of sadness in Wolaita to highlight its culture-specific and universal aspects from the perspective of previous cross-cultural findings. Our finding showed that the conceptual metaphors of sadness in Wolaita mapped the domains of PAIN, FLUID, DOWN, ENEMY, BURDEN, GIFT, JOURNEY, and FOOD to describe its existence, intensity, and control. A large portion of these source domains and their corresponding conceptual metaphors were identified in the previous cognitive-linguistic research works by Csillag, 2017; Essenova, 2011; Tran, 2018; Wen &Chen, 2023 and others. The representation of sadness as an emotional feeling towards loss, loneliness and disadvantage (Retová, 2008) was a central message communicated in the metaphors. The discussion that follows reflects how the metaphors of emotion portray the cultural sadness in Wolaita. 
The metaphors of sadness in Wolaita dominantly mapped unpleasant aspects of food such as smells of spoiled local foods and bitter tastes of traditional medicines. The metaphorical use of k’aj- ‘to become uncooked’, and kall-iss-enna ‘not satisfying’ associate the saddening behavior with the food that tastes bad and during its consumption. According to Khajeh, Ho-Abdullah and Hua (2013), the specific features of foods that are tasteless, bitter, and sour correspond to negative emotions. In Japanese, the bitter lemon conceptualizes sadness (Irma, et al., 2021, p. 91).
Moradi and Mashak (2013) studied the metaphors of burden and generalized that the causes and existence of sadness are a heavy burden imposed on the sad person. Bas and Büyükkantarcıoğlu (2019, p. 283-284) confirmed that the psychological burden of controlling sadness is the external burden imposed on the body. Sagista, et al. (2023), for example, support the feeling of controlling heartbroken with its intensity is a feeling of burden that gives pain to the body. In the Wolaita language, misbehavior that saddens a person is the person’s burden of carrying a heavy load around the shoulder, though it is the heart and liver in Turkish.
The Wolaita metaphors of burden also diverge from the situation in Korean, which showed the existence of endurance with sadness, as in seulpeum/ uureul gyeondida ‘X bear/put up with sadness’ (Türker, 2013, p. 108). When the intensity of sadness gives burden to their shoulder, the Wolaita people put it down or throw away with a loss of control. 
Regarding the metaphors of load, the person’s struggle to control sadness as the struggle with opponent or enemy was studied by Csillag 2017; Moradi and Mashak 2013; Rull 2001, which jointly portrayed sadness as both a powerful challenger and a loser as in Wolaita. However, Csillag (2017), for instance, reported that ‘SADNESS IS A POWER STONGER THAN THE SELF’ elsewhere across languages though sadness can be a loser to the rational self in Wolaita. Csillag’s finding supports SADNESS IS ENEMY wherein the attacker is emotion and the victim is a sad person, which is still not a characteristic in the Wolaita metaphors.
The findings on the container metaphor of sadness across languages showed that human body is a container and sadness is a fluid or substance that is placed inside the container (Irma, et al., 2021, p. 90; Türker 2013, p. 106; Moradi & Mashak, 2013, p. 109). The conceptual mappings apply either to its MOVEMENT, CONTENT, or both to equate the intensity of sadness. The intensity of sadness in Wolaita maps both high contents and intensity of movements, as reflected in the tears of grief and equates the tear to the powerful rain. Because of this, sadness as impure fluid in Wolaita contrasts the absence of mixture metaphors of sadness in Korean (Türker 2013:, p. 110).
As to Kovecses (2005), the metaphor journey is part of SOURCE-PATH-GOAL and equates PURPOSES with DESTINATIONS, ACTION (CHANGE) with MOTION and DIFFICULTIES with IMPEDIMENTS. In Wolaita, the obstacles related to locations of destination characterize the travelers’ uncertainty about the preferred roads to take and the intended destination of the journey. In addition, SADNESS IS OBSTACLE maps interpersonal relationship problems as obstacles and extends the metaphorical understanding of LIFE IS JOURNEY. 
Finally, the metaphor "SADNESS IS A GIFT" illustrates the presence of sadness by likening it to the act of giving a gift that the recipient has no interest in receiving, thereby conceptualizing misbehavior that causes distress to others.As a result, a harmful traditional cultural practice is a gift which offends the persons who are living in the globalized twenty-first century. Thus, these practices, passed down from our forefathers, are like gifts that people today often show little interest in. However, they continue to be observed in rural areas. Contrary to this, some other metaphors equate sadness to the gift rejected by the receivers, as in the children’s attempt to become sociable with the adults is a gift, but the adults rejected the children’s offer.
5.	CONCLUSION 
Based on the results and findings of the study, sadness is a negative emotion that is conceptually structured in terms of PAIN, FLUID, DOWN, ENEMY, BURDEN, GIFT, JOURNEY, and FOOD source domains. Conceptual mappings characterizing sadness in Wolaita are SADNESS IS PAIN, SADNESS IS FLUID, SADNESS IS DOWN, SADNESS IS ENEMY, SADNESS IS LOAD, SADNESS IS JOURNEY, SADNESS IS FOOD, and SADNESS IS GIFT. Concerning the cultural salience, however, the metaphors that describe the intensity and control aspects of the emotion mapped these domains to conceptualize sadness in the language. This situation maintains sadness as universal at the basic level, though its complex level conceptualization revealed an idiosyncratic feature. The fundamental peculiarities established in the Wolaita perspective elaborated the common source domains of PAIN, BURDEN, JOURNEY, and FOOD beyond the newly incorporated one, the domain of GIFT. As an example, SADNESS IS PAIN commonly elaborated on the use of heart and belly; however, it is special to the Wolaita language that the pain of sadness damages the diaphragm. The most noticeable peculiarity was the use of spoiled local foods to show the existence of sadness and unpurified states of the liquid conceptualized the intensity. These conceptual mappings offer valuable insights into the emotional conceptualization of sadness in the universal and distinctive ways in Wolaita. With these metaphors, the Wolaita people evaluated sadness negatively. The present study maintained that sadness is universal at the basic level. This study contributes to address the universality versus culture-specificity debate about the cross-cultural conceptualization of emotions by showing evidence from the Wolaita language. 
Financial support:
Addis Ababa University
Conflict of interest:
The author states that there is no conflict of interest.

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