Lilina Oszlnyi

Language, Mind and American Culture

Kvecses Zoltn
Home Assignment

Contrastive Analysis of the Container Schema in Hungarian and English

Hungarian and English do not have much in common. English is a West Germanic
language and Hungarian belongs to the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic language family.
English is an analytic language whereas Hungarian is an agglutinative language. When it
comes to the representations of the CONTAINER schema these differences melt away and the
general mechanisms of human cognition become visible.
English being an Indo-European language, sometimes with the transmission of other
Indo-European languages like French, has a great Latin impact on its vocabulary. Hungarian,
being lonely among all the Slavonic languages in Central Europe and also being exposed to
the impact of English as a lingua franca result in the very same phenomenon. Latin loan
words provide a great amount of examples for the CONTAINER schema. Some of these
expressions like impregnate in English may not even evoke the metaphor PREGNANCY IS A
CONTAINER in the English speakers mind. The reason for this is that the meaning and
usage of the very same loan word in different languages often change in the course of
language history. According to LONGMAN, Dictionary of Contemporary English,
impregnate also means to make a substance spread completely through something, or to
spread completely through something. This is what Hungarian impregnl means as well, and
in this sense, speakers of Hungarian do not have any in or out relationship involved, no
CONTAINER schema working here either. As for meaning equivalence, Hungarians use the
idiomatic expression teherbe esik which means (she) falls into burden. In this example two
metaphors evoke: PREGNANCY IS A CONTAINER and PREGNANCY IS A BURDEN.

The latter one may be derived from the natural extra weight that the mother puts up in the
course of the pregnancy. On the other hand, if we think of unwanted pregnancies, it is really
easy to understand how a baby can be referred to as burden. Even though words like import
and export still retain the meaning that is based on the CONTAINER schema, in both English
and Hungarian, and surely in many other languages too, expressions like impregnate are
reminders of the fact that the suffix in, im and its equivalents once involved the
CONTAINER schema.
Other great examples of the metaphor STATES ARE CONTAINERS are recognizable
while discussing health issues in both languages. If somebody is in good health in English, he
j egszsgben van in Hungarian. If somebody is in good shape in English, he j formban
van in Hungarian. The third and most generally usable idiomatic expressions are in good
condition and j llapotban van. These two can also be used to describe inanimate objects
like buildings or pieces of furniture in both languages. On the negative side of in shape/in
good shape, formban van/j formban van idioms we can see that out of shape/in a bad
shape and nincs formban/nincs j formban van displays a less picturesque way of
expression in Hungarian by simply denying the positive side.
THE VISUAL FIELD IS A CONTAINER metaphor or more precisely THE
PICTURE IS A CONTAINER invokes a nice example of cultural differences with the idioms
in the picture and kpben van. If a mom says that the father of the child is in the picture, she
means that he is involved in the childs life, but she may not have a romantic relationship with
him any more. On the other hand, if she says that the father of the child is out of the picture,
she means that neither she nor the child has relationship with the man. In the case of
Hungarian the idiom works the same way but means something very different. If somebody
kpben van, it means that he understands the situation, knows all the important details, knows
what to do and what not to do among the given circumstances. If the person nincs kpben (is

not in the picture), it means that he has no idea what is going on. We can conclude again that
Hungarian does not favor literally expressing the exterior element of the CONTAINER
schema.
Following the formal similarity of idioms the next noteworthy metaphor that should be
dealt with is THE SITUATION IS A CONTAINER or THE HUMAN MIND IS A
CONTAINER. According to thesaurus.com the expression know the ins and outs means
understand the particulars of a situation. In Hungarian there are two formally similar
expressions: kvlrl tudja (out from knows) and betve tudja (in taken knows). Though
formally they are similar two each other, all of them contain the verb know plus in/out, the
metaphor that they are based on are fundamentally different. In the case of the English
expression it is THE SITUATION IN A CONTAINER metaphor is in action, this may be
linked more closely to the previously mentioned Hungarian idiom kpben van. In this context
kpben van is based on two metaphors: THE SITUATION IS A PICTURE and THE
PICTURE (as a visual field) IS A CONTAINER. In this case, we also have the structural
element boundary, which is obviously the picture or its frame. As for knowing the ins and
outs the boundary could be the situation itself, the social rules or the etiquette but it remains
unexpressed in the idiom. On the other hand, kvlrl tudja and betve tudja invoke THE
MIND IS A CONTAINER metaphor. The first one assumes that the person knowing
something without looking into a textbook which is the interior of the schema here.
Obviously, this makes the mind the exterior of the schema which is the source of the
knowledge. In the latter idiom the whole logic turns upside down as the mind becomes the
interior, the source of knowledge, the textbook is the exterior and because of the natural body
central world view of humans this expression is more powerful. Kvlrl tudja implies a
mechanical knowledge of the material let us say knowing a poem by heart, whereas betve

tudja expresses a dynamic knowledge like knowing and being capable of applying properly a
more complex knowledge like Newtons laws of motion.
As humans are emotional beings there are plenty of metaphors based on THE
RELATIONSHIP IS A CONTAINER metaphor. The most commonly used is surely falling in
love in English and szerelembe esik in Hungarian. LOVE IS A CONTAINER, it is assumable
that it is a deep one. Love, just like pregnancy, can change a persons whole life; this is what
is indicated with the verb falling. Hungarians do fall into burden as well meaning getting
pregnant. Both of the idioms imply some kind of unexpectedness in what is happening by the
passive verb fall. When love does not happen automatically and a person decides to convey
some actions in order to speed up things he can jump into dating or even jump into a
relationship. Hungarians belevetik magukat a randizsba (in throw themselves dating to) or
beleugranak egy kapcsolatba (in jump a relationship to). It is important to note that
Hungarians use the schemas exterior element too: kiszeret belle (out love from her), though,
it may be common mainly among youngsters or as a slang expression. Another interesting
phenomenon in the conceptualization of the two languages is that they view friendship
differently. Speakers of English can have friendship between each other whereas speakers of
Hungarian can say bartsgban lenni (friendship be in). Based on these examples it seems
like for Englishmen friendship is not as intense and deep human relationship as for
Hungarians. This vertical or SOURCE-PATH-GOAL schematic view that determines the
distance between two people is much more distant than the in or out, so the CONTAINER
schematic.
THE ABSTRACT NOTION IS A CONTAINER is the next metaphor that needs to be
mentioned here. Coming into fashion with its equivalent in Hungarian divatba jn and it is out
of fashion with the Hungarian counterpart kiment a divatbl (out went the fashion from)
evoke the metaphor FASHION IS A CONTAINER. Verbs describing motion are very

important elements of these structures as fashion is always in motion by nature. Specific items
can go out and come back into fashion in both English and Hungarian displaying that the
actual trends are only temporary. Humans like to think that they are the only creatures on
Earth with such a great mental capacity that enables them to think. For this reason, very
similarly to the previously discussed THE MIND IS A CONTAINER, the metaphor THE
THINKING IS A CONTAINER can be recognized in the following expressions: think it
trough, tgongol, kigondol. The first two expressions are equivalents of each other whereas
kigondol (out think) is closer to find out in English. The previous two do not necessarily result
in a decision about the issue in question but the latter two do. In this case reaching the exterior
of the container brings the solution and this leads to the next ABSTRACT NOTION IS A
CONTAINER metaphor: PROBLEM/TROUBLE IS A CONTAINER.
Life is full of troubles, obstacles this is why it is not surprising that this metaphor
manifests in many figurative ways. To be in trouble and bajban lenni are quite obvious, just
like to be in a fix and nehz helyzetben lenni. On the other hand, being in a pickle and pcban
lenni bring up some interesting question. On of the possible explanation comes from the
history of gastronomy. Salting has been the cheapest and simplest way of meat conservation
since the dawn of man and it can also be viewed as the first variety of pickling. The main
chemical happening here is that salt subtracts humidity from the meat so that it does not rot
later. Obviously, there is LINK schema working here too; as both the meat that people want to
conserve and human body are made of flesh. So in other words, if somebody is put into salt
or salty water in order to dry him out, that is something disastrous for the persons physical
well-being. Another simplified explanation may be that if the meat that may have been a body
part of any kind of animal is put it into salty water, that animal is not alive any more. The
final conclusion is the same in both cases; if you are in a pickle, that is more than serious.
Nowadays, when pickling and pcols have no negative connotations, they simply mean a

procedure that makes meat smoother and tastier it is quite challenging to think about the
origin of these idioms. Obviously, the list goes on here from being in the jam in English and
szszban lenni in Hungarian to various expressions of excrement.
The most important bodily fluid is surely blood. It is the greatest transmitter of
chemicals and is also responsible for the thermostatic control of the body. The way we rarely
think of our blood is that THE BLOOD IS A CONTAINER. According to LDCE be/run in
somebodys blood means if an ability or tendency is in, or runs in, someone's blood, it is
natural to them and others in their family. The Hungarian counterpart is a vrben van (the
blood in is) but there is no equivalent of the expression with run. Hungarians use the term
somewhat more generally than the Longman definition indicates, a vrben van does not
necessarily imply family inherence which is indicated by run in English. In conclusion we can
say that blood is essential for the bodys operation, so if something is in the persons blood
that feature or thing is has the same essence in the persons character or personality.
Speakers of Hungarian can use prefixes instead of adverb particles to express phrasal
verb like relations. The varieties of these phrases are uncountable in both languages but there
is a new tendency in arising in contemporary Hungarian slang. This phenomenon is mainly
recognizable in the interaction of youngsters and is making some expert worry about the
diversity of our language. They claim that the increasing usage of the prefix be-, which is the
equivalent of in in the case of English phrasal verbs, is dangerous for the other prefixes. These
youngsters choose besr (cries in) instead of elsrja magt (cries himself away, starts crying),
behal (dies in) of belehal (dies in something), bealszik (sleeps in) instead of elalszik (sleeps
away, falls asleep). We can recognize the slightest difference in the case of the second
example pair and could call it a way of simplification. As for the first and the third example
pair there is definitely something else going on. The conceptualization of these happenings is
shifting from the SOURCE-PATH-GOAL schema towards the CONTAINER schema. While

the original conceptualization of these state changes were displaying the motion, the PATH
was the most important structural element, nowadays the in or out relationship is in focus.
You can either be crying or not, what is in between the two states seems to become less
important. It is not surprising at all, that these newer expressions are somehow more powerful.
The bodily experience, the CONTAINER schema defeats the SOURCE-PATH-GOAL
schema due to humans body centered worldview.
In conclusion we can say that the main logic can be found in both English and
Hungarian, even though structurally they are very far from each other. The main difference;
the preference of exclusively using the interior of the CONTAINER is clearly visible. There
are also some very interesting shifts in meaning between the two languages interpretations in
the case of loan words and idiomatic expressions as well.