Strategies and Tactics of Metaphorical Conceptualizations of Fear in Contemporary English

The present research paper focuses on the metaphorical conceptualization of fear in contemporary English and examines various tactics and strategies employed in creating fear metaphors. Fear is an inevitable experience in our lives, a basic and universal emotion, characterized by a rich system of physiological, psychological and behavioral reactions, which are verbalized by people with the help of various figurative language means. Despite the fact that this emotional state can be experienced differently and can lead to divergent reactions, people tend to express their feelings with already existing and culturally licensed concepts and expressions. This paper aims to analyze the contemporary use of metaphors for expressing fear in order to understand the correlation between the conceptualization process and the Anglophone culture, its static and dynamic aspects. The present research is also supposed to design a new classification of emerging concepts of metaphorical conceptualization of fear in English based on bodily localization and to elucidate discrepancies between strategies and tactics, which were used in the past and which are used in the present.