Pint of Postdoc Speaker Recap - Dr. Gaëlle Chantrain

“Conceptual classification and figurative language in Ancient Egyptian: the case of emotion expression.  “

Dr. Gaëlle Chantrain

Edited by:

Jennifer Blackburn (assisted by Aileen Fernandez)

Abstract:

As in many world languages, the expression of abstract concepts in ancient Egyptian relies on the use of figurative language to a great degree. Gaëlle Chantrain’s study  is based on the conceptual metaphor theory and aims at 1) providing an overview of the semantic classifiers system in Ancient Egyptian; 2) showing how classifiers relate to figurative language and what were the conceptual paths used in a language that was spoken 4000 years ago. 

For the January 2021 Pint of Postdoc series, Gaëlle presented the basic principles of hieroglyphic script, focusing on the classifiers system. She shared how emotions are expressed through figurative language in Ancient Egyptian, both on the linguistic and the visual level in Egyptian.