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14 Orazgozel Esenova

(24)    Joy has withered away from the sons of men.(Joel 1 WEB, http://bible.cc/joel/ l-12.htm).

Here are some other examples:

(25)    Their romance withered on the vine.

(26)    Such happiness as had returned with his wife’s recovery would wither as she spoke.

Summing up, six different stages of plant growth: seed, germination, budding, flowering, fruition and withering are systematically mapped onto different stages of emotion development. The only growth stage that has not been mentioned above is the stage when a plant goes to seed. However, a seed-bearing plant image is used in the conceptualisation of non-emotional domains. For example, go/run to seed means “to stop taking care of your appearance so that you no longer look attractive”. For example:

(27)    I almost didn’t recognise John. He’s really gone to seed sińce his wife left him.

2.3. An intensifying emotion as a plant growing bigger

From our agricultural experience, we know that when a plant grows it becomes bigger in size. In some metaphorical expressions, a growing plant represents an intensifying emotion. Here are some of them:

(28)    Fear is growing within me.

(29)    She spoke about the growing sadness in her heart.

(30)    There is a growing national anxiety about how we are going to deal with irrefutable issues like climate change.