Metaphorical profiles and near-synonyms: A corpus-based study of Indonesian words for HAPPINESS

This thesis investigates metaphors for different words of happiness in Indonesian. It finds that happiness is predominantly described, among others, as an object we possess, share, and acquire; a goal one seeks to attain; a substance filling the human-body. Moreover, each of the happiness words shows statistical preferences for certain metaphors. For instance, while kebahagiaan ‘happiness’ and kesenangan ‘pleasure’ are frequently described as a desired goal, this metaphor is much less frequent for kegembiraan ‘joy’, described more frequently as a contained liquid (e.g., kegembiraan terpancar ‘joy is spurted out’). This suggests nuances between these happiness words in Indonesian.