Les nerfs en pelote et le pétage de câble

métaphores et modèles de représentations de la colère en français contemporain

Abstract

In the framework of Cultural Linguistics, this paper analyses the conceptual metaphors of anger in contemporary French. It shows that they can be related to four major cultural models: the humoral theory, the nerve psychology, the microcosm-macrocosm philosophy, Man as a machine. These four models are integrated into one single model of representations, which distinguishes ordinary fits of anger, regarded as positive and socially meaningful, from sudden bursts of rage (pétages de cable: cable break-downs) when a person totally loses controls on themselves. The paper also analyses the semiotic values of the phrases, such as their inchoative or punctual aspects, anticausative voice, semantic components, concluding as an hypothesis that these values could explain why the older part of this semantic field is still in use today.