Metaphors and culturally unique idioms of eating and drinking in Mongolian

Abstract

This paper investigates the cognitive mechanisms underlying eating and drinking metaphors in Mongolian and discusses complex linguistic features of some culturally unique idioms relating to id- ‘eat’ and uu- ‘drink’, which are interpreted from a sociocultural perspective, along with the help of world knowledge. Metaphorical extensions of id- and uu- fall into three subcategories: (1) agent-oriented extensions, highlighting the consumer’s role in the source domain of eating and drinking; (2) patient-oriented extensions, focusing on destructive effects on the patient in the source domain; (3) extensions involving both agent and patient orientations, describing the agent’s sensation and “destruction” of the patient at the same time. Based on the Mongolian Web Corpus (mnWac16) and an extensive online dictionary (mongoltoli.mn), it is found that patient-oriented extensions tend to be more connected with EAT verbs in Mongolian, denoting a range of extensions like overcoming of the patient, spending material wealth, psychological torment or destruction, corrosion caused by external factors, etc., while agent-oriented extensions are more likely to involve DRINK verbs, denoting ‘smoking’, receiving material wealth (e.g., earning money) and absorption of such liquids as ink or oil. Overall, id- has a broader extension than uu-, and there are some overlaps involving both agent and patient orientations in terms of living on material wealth and physical exploitation. Some common usages pertaining to metaphorical extensions of consumption verbs are found cross-linguistically.

1. Introduction

Eating and drinking are basic activities in any culture and are universally represented in language and thought. In many of the world’s languages, EAT and DRINK verbs are polysemous with metaphorical extensions. A wide range of cross-linguistic studies have investigated the metaphorical extensions of these verbs from the cognitive linguistic perspective (Agyepong et al., 2017; Kiryu, 2008; Newman, 1997; Taljard & Bosman, 2014, etc.). In Mongolian, id- ‘eat’ and uu- ‘drink’ are the most commonly used consumption verbs. The aim of the present paper is to explain metaphorical extensions of these verbs from the cognitive linguistic perspective by adopting Newman’s (2009) experiential view of eating and drinking metaphors across languages. Culturally unique (culturally specific) idiomatic expressions or chunks involving id- ‘eat’ and uu- ‘drink’ verbs which go beyond Conceptual Metaphor Theory are also briefly discussed from a sociocultural perspective.

The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 describes the theoretical basis of this study, namely Conceptual Metaphor Theory and the experiential view of eating and drinking metaphors pertaining to it. Section 3 briefly summarizes the existing literature on consumption verbs cross-linguistically. Section 4 outlines the corpus-based data-extraction method used for the current analysis, while clarifying the defining criteria of eating and drinking idioms in Mongolian and the classification of relevant corpus data. Section 5 analyses metaphorical extensions of Mongolian ingestive predicates based on Newman’s (2009) experiential view of eating and drinking metaphors across languages. Section 6 discusses unique idiomatic expressions involving EAT and DRINK verbs in Mongolian which cannot be explained by Conceptual Metaphor Theory. Section 7 presents the findings of this study and points out limitations of the paper and directions for future research.

2. Theoretical basis

2.1. Conceptual metaphor theory

There exist various approaches to the understanding of metaphor, that is, (a) the Aristotelian approach, which defines metaphor from the perspective of poetics and rhetoric as transference, that is, naming one thing in terms of another; (b) the traditional linguistic approach, by which metaphor is generally understood as a figure of speech; (c) the pragmatic approach in which metaphor is seen as a special speech act, considering that metaphors not only stimulate emotions but also perform speech acts such as producing wonder and puzzlement (Mac Cormac, 1985); ¹ (d) the interaction approach, namely the meaning of a metaphor is produced through an interaction between two elements of the metaphor, that is, the tenor and the vehicle, with the former referring to “the underlying idea which the metaphor expresses” and the latter meaning “the basic analogy that performs the function of carrying or embodying the tenor” (Richards, 1936, cited in Zeng, 2013, p. 9); ² (e) the cognitive approach, which emphasizes the conceptual (or cognitive) metaphor “as a central tool of [the] cognitive apparatus” (see Zeng, 2013, pp. 5–14).

In line with the cognitive approach, metaphor is defined here as a mapping between two conceptual domains (a source domain and a target domain) in accordance with Cognitive Metaphor Theory (abbreviated as CMT henceforth) as suggested by Lakoff (1987), Lakoff and Johnson (1980) and Lakoff and Turner (1989). Cognitive domains (or human conceptual systems in a different terminology) are largely metaphorically structured (Langacker, 1997). Conceptual mapping (also known as “metaphorical projection”, Lakoff, 1987, p. 268) is seen as a corresponding relationship that is used to link constituent elements between these two domains in a systematic way.

There is a body of works on metaphor in Cognitive Linguistics that follow and develop the conceptual metaphor views of Lakoff and Johnson (1980). For example, Barcelona (2012, p. 3) contends that metaphor is the cognitive mechanism through which one experiential domain is partially projected onto a different experiential domain, as a result of which the second domain is partially understood in terms of the first one. In a similar vein, Zeng (2013, p. 11) argues that a conceptual/cognitive domain is a sort of human experience, which is coherently organized; the source domain is a basic human experience on which we develop metaphorical extensions of meaning, while the target domain is a more abstract human experience which we aim to understand.

Nevertheless, recently there is a scholarly debate regarding the cognitive plausibility of CMT in terms of mental processing during the production or interpretation of metaphors in a language. Scholars disagree on the generalizing power of conceptual metaphor in knowledge processing or the crucial role that it plays in human cognition. For instance, based on the evidence of cultural-historical psychology, Glebkin (2015) argues that conceptual blending is not the key to the mystery of human evolution and cognition and that conceptual blending should not be considered to be a basic instrument for the creation of new knowledge. Likewise, Steen (2017, p. 14) maintains that conventional metaphors do not require online meaning construction via cross-domain mapping from one conceptual domain to another, as their entrenched metaphorical meanings are directly accessible.

While acknowledging the existing scholarly contentions around mental processing of metaphors, the current study tries to avoid the theoretical debates regarding this issue and aims to demonstrate the applicability of CMT practice to the analysis of metaphors pertaining to Mongolian consumption verbs. Some data which go beyond the scope of CMT are interpreted from a cultural perspective.

2.2. An experiential view of eating and drinking metaphors across languages

Cognitive linguistics theory explores how human cognition shapes language (Agbo, 2011, p. 8). Based on theoretical assumptions of cognitive linguistics, experiential reality, especially a human perspective, plays a crucial role in the explanation of linguistic phenomena (Newman, 1997, p. 214).

Newman (1997) argues that the concepts of eating and drinking are based on basic human experiences and function as source domains for metaphorical extensions in English. The target domain is a relatively abstract conceptual structure that is based on the source domain; it includes the emotional domain, the intellectual domain, and the psychological domain. The human body, body parts, and associated processes are understood as conceptually basic experiences and function as source domains (images) for various metaphors, because the human body plays a unique role in everyday life. Eating and drinking are basic acts that involve our bodies; for this reason, the relevant concepts of these acts serve as sources of metaphorical extension in many languages (Newman, 1997, p. 213).

Moreover, our bodily experiences of eating and drinking actions have an internal structure involving different processes, and some processes (components/facets) of eating and drinking acts motivate different metaphorical extensions of EAT and DRINK verbs (Lakoff, 1987; Newman, 1997, 2009). According to Newman (1997) and Newman and Aberra (2009, p. 255), the basic bodily experience of eating involves the following components: (1) intake of food into the mouth; (2) mastication of the food which involves mainly teeth, tongue, and roof of the mouth; (3) swallowing of the masticated food; and (4) sensory experiences on the part of the consumer. In comparison, the event of drinking involves the following components: (1) intake of liquid into the mouth; (2) swallowing of the liquid, and (3) (usually positive) sensory experiences on the part of the consumer. Apart from these facets of actual acts of eating and drinking, it is important to recognize the crucial function of both eating and drinking, that is, to supply nourishment for the body and the accompanying sensory effect of (normally) enjoyable gustation, that is, the pleasant impression of taste for both eating and drinking; the experiences of hunger and thirst which precede the acts of eating and drinking should also be acknowledged in understanding typical kinds of eating and drinking acts (Newman, 1997, p. 215). ³

This paper follows the theoretical assumptions of metaphor proposed by Lakoff (1987) and Lakoff and Johnson (1980). Concepts of eating and drinking function as source domains, which provide the basis for metaphorical extensions of the two Mongolian verbs id- ‘eat’ and uu- ‘drink’ (typically used together with nonedible or non-drinkable entities, as is observed cross-linguistically). These extensions can be conceptualized as different target domains such as (1) acquiring material objects (e.g., embezzling tax money), (2) the breathing domain (e.g., smoking cigarettes), (3) the emotional domain (e.g., experiencing unpleasantness), and (4) the psychological domain (e.g., bullying someone) in Mongolian. Since different components (facets) of eating and drinking acts play a role in motivating metaphorical extensions of id- and uu-, different metaphorical mappings caused by each of these components will be discussed in Section 3.

3. An overview of cross-linguistic studies of consumption verbs ⁴

The concepts of ‘eating’ and ‘drinking’ as source domains for metaphorical extension have been studied in such languages as English, Chinese, Korean, Hausa, and Igbo. Typically, the conceptual domain of eating and drinking serves as the source domain, and the target domains vary (Agbo, 2011; Croft, 2009; Hook & Pardeshi, 2009; Jaggar & Buba, 2009; Newman, 1997; Newman & Aberra, 2009; Pramodini, 2010; Song, 2009; Yamaguchi, 2009; Zeng, 2013). Research on eating and drinking metaphors in Mongolian is rather limited (Wu, 2019).

The following literature review centers around the entire volume of Newman (ed.) (2009), given its significant contribution to the study of consumption verbs. The figurative and grammaticalized extensions of ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ predicates in these works are explained in the pre-linguistic, experiential realities of eating and drinking. Selected additional references, especially those concerned with the perspective of agent-oriented and patient-oriented metaphorical extensions of consumption verbs in the same experiential framework, are also discussed.

3.1. Lexico-grammatical and metaphorical usages of EAT and DRINK

The volume entitled The Linguistics of Eating and Drinking (Newman (ed.), 2009) comprises 11 papers which, taken together, constitute an extensive study of EAT and DRINK verbs cross-linguistically. It discussed the form and function of ingestive verbs across languages and the theoretical orientations taken are either functional, cognitive, or typological. Topics in the volume cover the semantic characterization of ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ predicates, metaphorical extensions of these verbs, clausal properties of these predicates and so forth. In Sections 3.1.1 and 3.1.2, these studies are put into several categories according to their themes and are discussed along with some examples.

Selected additional works which adopt the same theoretical approach as Newman (ed.) (2009) are remarked upon in Section 3.1.2.

3.1.1. Lexicalization, grammaticalization, and transitivity of ‘eat’ and ‘drink’

The literal use and morphosyntax of ingestion verbs are worthy of attention cross-linguistically. In languages like Kalam (Papuan) and Warlpiri (Australian), there is a unitary concept of eating and drinking; no concrete lexeme meaning only ‘eat’ or ‘drink’ is available and the generic verbs ñb- and ngarni- are, respectively, used to roughly denote the meanings of ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ in Kalam and Warlpiri (Wierzbicka, 2009, p. 72, p. 81). In Manambu (Papua New Guinea) the same verb ke- is used to cover the notions of ‘eating’, ‘drinking’, ‘smoking’, ‘sucking’, and ‘breastfeeding’; the object arguments (e.g., types of food or drink consumed) of these verbs can be used to disambiguate the semantics of these verbal predicates (Aikhenvald, 2009, p. 92). In Korean, mek- is a superordinate term that encompasses both ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ meanings (Song, 2009).

In Athapaskan languages, there is a classificatory verb system in which verb stems of consumption are distinguished in accordance with the manner of consumption or the physical attribute of a relational participant (Theme or Patient), that is, whether it is round/compact, flat/flexible, animate or a sticklike object. There are 15 verb stems of consumption reported in Navajo (Athapaskan, North America), for example, -kaah ‘consume/drink from open container’ and -t’aah ‘consume/drink from closed container’. (cited in Rice, 2009, p. 120; Young & Morgan, 1987, pp. 251–263; p. 875).

Lexical items which correspond to ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ are prone to grammaticalization in some languages. Whereas the ‘eat’ verb may denote completion (finality) of a situation; in comparison, ‘drink’ may denote a sense of continuity and repetitiveness. Note the following example from Chepang (Tibeto-Burman, Nepal):

In (1) the second -jeɁ in the verbal form jeɁ-jeɁ is used as a grammaticalized verbal suffix that denotes a perfective meaning. In Hausa, shaa ‘drink’ denotes a grammaticalized meaning of ‘(do) often; frequently’, as is illustrated in (2):

A number of studies point to the fact that ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ verbs are not typical transitive predicates (cf. Newman, 2009, pp. 1–26). For example, the causativization patterns of these verbs behave just like that of intransitive verbs in some languages. In Berber (Afro-Asiatic), the causative prefix ss-, which is normally only allowed for intransitive verbs, is used to causativize ingestive verbs (cited in Amberber, 2009, p. 51; Guerssel, 1986, p. 36). Likewise, Næss (2009, pp. 27–43) argues that ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ verbs are cross-linguistically atypical as transitive predicates, because in a prototypical transitive clause structure, Agent and Patient arguments are maximally semantically distinct, but ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ verbs have an “affected agent” in some languages, ⁶ namely the consumer is an agent who is at the same time affected by the activity of consuming. She provides a large amount of evidence that demonstrates the atypical usage of ingestive verbs as transitive predicates.

3.1.2. Figurative extensions of ‘eat’ and ‘drink’

Apart from the literal usage of ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ verbs, Newman’s (2009) volume also concentrates on the discussion of figurative extensions of these verbs cross-linguistically. It is argued that metaphorical and metonymic extensions of consumption verbs in several languages are built on the facets of experiential reality introduced in Newman (1997). Two sources are involved in figurative extensions of ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ constructions across languages, that is, (1) the consumer’s sensation when someone is ingesting; (2) the destruction (or disappearance) of the entity which is consumed (Newman, 2009, p. 1). The figurative extensions of ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ are thus categorized into three main categories: (1) internalization, (2) destruction, and (3) affected agent. In the following the cross-linguistic figurative extensions of these verbs are briefly discussed with some examples, keeping in mind that it is almost impossible to summarize all usages of consumption verbs cross-linguistically.

In Hausa (Chadic/Afroasiatic) ci ‘eat’ and shaa ‘drink’ allow a wide range of metaphorical extensions. The former mainly denotes “overcoming” of a patient, typically with an animate agent, while the latter denotes the meaning of “undergo”, usually with an experiencer subject that is nonagentive. The act of eating is higher in transitivity than that of drinking (Jaggar & Buba, 2009).

The honorific status of ‘eat’ verbs is important in establishing certain metaphorical expressions in Japanese. It is part of the Japanese cultural orientation that some figurative (metaphorical) EAT and DRINK verbs denote adverse (negative) states which are related to unhappiness. Yamaguchi (2009, p. 176) argues that the use of kuu and kurau (‘eat’ forms) is restricted to the male register, either indicating coarse vulgar speech or suggesting intimacy between the speaker and the interlocutor. In contrast, taberu ‘eat’ is honorifically neutral. Kurau is used in place of kuu when describing such an “unusual way of eating and drinking” as that of a wild animal, carrying a unique derogatory meaning; it can also occur with the agent when it denotes a metaphorical meaning of ‘receive’ or ‘accept’. (Yamaguchi, 2009, p. 177).

The extension of ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ to the senses of ‘inhale’ and ‘smoke’ is widespread cross-linguistically. Note the following examples:

Note, too, that in Mandarin ‘eat’ has an extended meaning of ‘take medicine’, where its use could still be related to the earlier ‘drink’ sense of Classical Chinese chī (Newman, 2009, p. 10):

A number of studies other than Newman (ed.) (2009) also adopt agent-oriented and patient-oriented perspectives on metaphorical extensions of ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ across languages which, respectively, correspond to the categories of ‘internalization’ and ‘destruction’ described by Newman (1997). Sometimes both perspectives might be relevant to the extended meanings of ‘eat’ and ‘drink’.

The verbs dí ‘to eat’ and nóḿ ‘to drink’ serve as rich sources of metaphorical extensions in Akan (Niger-Congo) (Agyepong et al., 2017). The extensions of these verbs are discussed under two broad themes, that is, agent-oriented extensions and patient-oriented extensions in accordance with Newman (2009). Extensions based on internalization (agent-oriented) are categorized into four kinds, namely: (1) gaining of possession (the use of dí ‘to eat’ in á-dí né pàpá ádé ‘inherited his father’s fortune’ and dì-ì àdànmúdé ‘took a bribe’); (2) absorption (the use of nóḿ ‘to drink’ in the sense of ‘absorb’ co-occurring with súúdéé ‘dye’, ǹsúó ‘water’ and àngwá ‘oil’); (3) inhaling (the use of nóḿ ‘to drink’ in the sense of ‘smoke’ or ‘inhale’ co-occurring with ébúá ‘pipe’ or mfràmá ‘air’); and (4) emotional and sensual internalization (either pleasant or unpleasant; dí ‘to eat’ co-occurs with such pleasant experiences as àgórↄ́ ‘game’ and dέ ‘joy’, meaning ‘play’ or ‘rejoice’; dí ‘to eat’ co-occurs with such unpleasant experiences as yáẃ ‘pain’ and awèrԑ̀hòↄ́ ‘sorrow’; in terms of sexual intercourse, dí ‘to eat’ means ‘have sex’) (Agyepong et al., 2017, pp. 68–72). Extensions based on destruction (patient-oriented) are divided into physical destruction, psychological destruction and waste. Extensions of physical destruction contain injuring and conquering, in which both dí ‘to eat’ and nóḿ ‘to drink’ are used in the sense of ‘beat’ or ‘punch’. Extensions of psychological destruction involve the use of the verb dí ‘to eat’ only, whereas both dí ‘to eat’ and nóḿ ‘to drink’ are used in the meaning of ‘waste’ as a form of destruction.

Taljard and Bosman (2014) include a solid discussion on the metaphorical extensions of ‘eat’ in Afrikaans (Germanic) and Northern Sotho (Bantu), adopting the same kind of agent-oriented versus patient-oriented perspective. It is found that there are remarkable similarities between the two languages in terms of eating metaphors, as EAT verbs are used in these languages not only to cover the agent-oriented extensions in the senses of ‘intellectual satisfaction’, ‘intellectual activity’ and ‘uncritical acceptance of ideas’, but also the patient-oriented extensions in the senses of ‘destruction’ and ‘elimination’; the ‘conceding’ sense of EAT might be both agent and patient oriented in Afrikaans and Northern Sotho. Few differences attested are insignificant (Taljard & Bosman, 2014, p. 14).

In Igbo (Niger-Congo), the actor-oriented category contains the following extensions of ‘eat’: instilling discipline, enjoying the gains of enterprise, enjoying wealth or legacy and escaping danger. Actor-oriented extensions can be interpreted as “incorporating something into one’s personal or private life” as described by Newman (1997, p. 216) and “the property of the subject NP in the clause motivates the metaphorical extension”; that is, the role of the Agent is more important than that of the Patient in the clause when it comes to metaphorical expressions (Agbo, 2011, pp. 9–10).

Note the following examples:

Instilling discipline like ‘suffer for one’s bad deeds’ (lit. eating body pain) deals with human character flaws; therefore this concept requires the human agent to admit to the offence committed above all, which is internalization of an unpleasant experience.

In contrast, the undergoer-oriented metaphorical extensions of ‘eat’ in Igbo include the target domains of mental pain, falling in love, loss of life, punishment and profligacy (Agbo, 2011, p. 31).

In Manipuri (Tibeto-Burman), ca- ‘eat’ is “a rich source of metaphorical extensions into a variety of cognate semantic domains” (Pramodini, 2010, p. 1). The meanings of ca- associate with consumption of nonedible items (e.g., torment), and some idiomatic expressions can be quite opaque semantically. In most commonly used eating metaphors, an animate or inanimate agent which functions as the subject overcomes (or controls) a patient or theme (Pramodini, 2010).

All the above studies follow the theoretical model of CMT to some extent. However, it is noteworthy that not all studies of consumption verbs support the view of CMT as proposed by Lakoff (1987), Lakoff and Johnson (1980) and Lakoff and Turner (1989). For instance, metaphors of ‘eat’ and ‘feed’ are also analyzed from the perspectives of frame semantics and constructions in Croft (2009). In this study, the eating process is divided into three phases (intake, process and ingestion) and the analysis of relevant eat and feed constructions in English challenges the Invariance Hypothesis proposed by Lakoff (1990). It is argued that the image schematic structure of the target domain also plays a role in metaphorical mapping even if it does not exist in the source domain (Croft, 2009, p. 26).

In general, languages differ in the extent to which ingestive verbs are used metaphorically. Ingestive verbs of some languages are highly figurative with a wide range of extensions, while others are comparatively limited in their metaphorical usages.

3.2. Mongolian consumption verbs

To date, there is little literature concerning the usage of Mongolian consumption verbs. The basic meaning of the verb id- ‘eat’ in Mongolian involves putting food into the mouth, chewing, and swallowing it, while the central meaning of the verb uu- ‘drink’ is to take liquids into the mouth and swallow them. Wu (2019) investigates both literal and metaphorical usages of Written Mongolian ¹¹ eating and drinking expressions in her unpublished doctoral dissertation. Her research focused on discussing grammatical properties of eating and drinking expressions in Written Mongolian. The cognitive mechanisms underlying both metaphorical and metonymic eating and drinking expressions are discussed as a part of her thesis. According to Wu (2019), the semantics of id- ‘eat’ is more complex than that of uu- ‘drink’: the former has several extensions of meaning such as ‘take/accept (bribes)’, ‘exploit; oppress’ and ‘suffer; undergo,’ etc., while the latter usually recognizes two extensions only: (1) ‘take (medicine)’ and (2) ‘inhale, smoke’.

The clausal and lexico-semantic properties of Written Mongolian consumption verbs are summarized as below:

1. 1. Ingestive predicates are either transitive or intransitive;

2. 2. Different lexemes (ǰaǰil- ‘chew’, kemkel- ‘break into pieces; chew’, qaǰa- ‘bite’, kemeli- ‘gnaw, nibble, bite’, aγu- ‘absorb, suck’; sime- ‘sip, suck’; soro- ‘suck’; tata- ‘suck, inhale’, kökö- ‘suck the breast/breastmilk’, mölǰi- ‘nibble, gnaw’, mere- ‘nibble, gnaw’, ǰalγi- ‘swallow, gulp, devour,’ etc.) are used to denote such concrete aspects of the consuming act as chewing, biting, nibbling, sucking and swallowing;

3. 3. Honorific concepts (with either respectful or pejorative meanings) are available for the action of consuming, with the verbal forms of ǰoγoγla- ‘have a meal’(resp.) and čiki- ‘stuff oneself, overeat,’ respectively;

4. 4. Mongolian consumption verbs have not grammaticalized into auxiliaries or other grammatical units.

5. 5. EAT and DRINK verbs serve as a rich source for metaphorical and metonymic extensions.

Elaborating on Wu (2019), the current paper discusses the metaphorical usages of Mongolian consumption verbs with the help of a more extensive range of data, that is, an online corpus with a size of over 6 million words combined with an extensive dictionary, to facilitate our understanding of eating and drinking metaphors in Mongolian.

4. Methods

The corpus serving as the major data source of this paper is the Mongolian Web Corpus (abbreviated as WaC hereafter), also known as Mongolian Web Texts 2016 (mnWac16) which comprises 6,104,565 words. It’s created in 2016 as a collection of sentences from the Internet. The Cyrillic Mongolian Alphabet is used in the corpus, while Latin transcription is adopted in this paper. ¹²

4.1. Data extraction method

The corpus data were extracted by applying the Concordance tool of Sketch Engine tools (Dashboard | Sketch Engine) which provides examples of the search word used in context. The Mongolian WaC is an unannotated, unlemmatized corpus that does not indicate parts of speech or grammatical category of tokens. Therefore, it was necessary to extract all tokens with the stems ид* and yy* (i.e., id- ‘eat’ and uu- ‘drink’) from the corpus and then manually remove all false positives. Since there were 5,212 tokens of ид* and 20,919 tokens of yy*, but download size is limited to 10,000 tokens and the work-around was required. So the original stem yy is searched in combination with any of the letters вбгджклмнстухцчя, that is, for yy, уув*, ууб*, ууг*, ууд*, and ууж*, etc. to obtain all plausible orthographically correct or nonstandard instances of the lemma uu- ‘drink’. The data was then manually classified into genuine tokens (‘basic meanings of id-/uu-‘, ‘extended meanings of id-/uu-’) vs. ‘false positives’. For the 5,212 tokens of ид*, there were 3,863 false positives and 1,349 genuine tokens. Likewise, for altogether 16,726 tokens found for the different sequences representing uu- there were 15,813 false positives (including, e.g., a large number of polar question particles uu? rather than imperative verb forms uu!) and 912 genuine instances of DRINK. Frequency counts of tokens indicating extended meanings and basic meanings of id- and uu- are given in Section 4.3. Concordance lines that indicate the individual search results are combined and listed in a spreadsheet and are provided as an appendix. Next to this corpus, dictionaries (Sodobilig, 2006; mongoltoli.mn, henceforth abbreviated as MT) were used as Supplementary Materials for the extended senses of EAT and DRINK verbs, as was on occasion the author’s native intuition.

4.2. Defining criteria of idioms

Before we sort out metaphorical extensions of id- ‘eat’ and uu- ‘drink’, it is important to grasp the definition of idioms. This section clarifies the defining criteria of idioms, paving the way for the classification of our corpus data.

Broadly speaking, there are two approaches to the study of idioms. One is the traditional view of idioms as dead metaphors and the other is the conceptual metaphor approach applied to idioms. By “dead metaphors” is meant that the origin of metaphors is lost in the course of time; that is, they are frozen in form and noncompositional in meaning (Gibbs, 1993, p. 57).

Read and Nation (2004) point out that noncompositionality ¹³ and fixedness are the two common criteria that characterize idioms. By noncompositionality is meant “the meaning of the whole being different to the sum of the parts” (Wray, 2002, p. 56). Fixedness refers to the degree of flexibility in changing word order in the sequence, replacement of individual words, insertion or inflection of certain items (Read & Nation, 2004, p. 32). Overall, an idiom, in a traditional view, can be defined as “a lexicalised, reproducible word group in common use, which has syntactic and semantic stability, and may carry connotations, but whose meaning cannot be derived from the meanings of its constituents” (Gläser, 1998, p. 125).

However, based on recent studies, the majority of idioms are still quite “alive” in terms of their metaphoricity, being partially motivated (motivatable) from a cognitive perspective, so their figurative meanings can be explained by a conceptual metaphor theory (Gibbs, 1993, pp. 57–77). Furthermore, Gibbs (2007, p. 697) argues that idiomatic phrases constitute an indispensable part of the language which facilitates social interaction, textual coherence and, above all, reflects basic patterns of human thought, more than just being linguistic ornaments, which improves one’s speech style, so idioms are not fixed expressions or “dead” metaphors as traditionally viewed. Boers (2014, p. 188, p. 192) also adopts a cognitive semantic approach to idioms and maintains that “not all idioms are by definition nondecomposable or opaque”; there are cross-linguistic differences among idiom repertories in languages despite the fact that the conceptual metaphors may be represented consistently (congruently) in different languages. Corpus investigations have proven that idioms are commonly used in various genres, variable in form, playing crucial roles in discourse, thus their frequency in discourse tends to be underestimated in corpus-based automatic searches; on the other hand, research on large electronic corpora of such languages as Spanish and German disproves the folkloric claim that “English is exceptionally idiomatic” (Boers, 2014, p. 193).

In addition, Wulff (2013) takes a usage-based construction-grammar perspective and upholds the view that all complex constructions are idioms, therefore idioms should not be considered as peripheral language phenomena. The difference between idioms and other constructions lies in the fact that “effects of idiomatic variation are best observable (sic) in partially schematic complex constructions”; in the meanwhile, it is emphasized that more empirical research is needed to explore the variables which constitute idiomatic variation and their measurement (Wulff, 2013, p. 20). A multiple regression analysis of corpus and judgment data shows that idiomaticity of V NP-constructions may be judged in accordance with a variety of parameters, attaching importance to the morphological and lexico-syntactic variability of the verb. Moreover, tree syntactic and semantic features of the phrase are important factors in judging idiomaticity which denies the decisive role of compositionality in idiomaticity (Wulff, 2013, p. 18).

To sum up, the two approaches to the study of idioms do not compete with each other; both theories are needed to explore idioms in order to understand the mechanisms underlying their formation. Furthermore, given the complex nature of idioms, each individual idiom deserves a careful examination of its own (Gibbs, 1993, p. 74).

4.3. Classification of corpus data

In line with the above theories of idioms discussed in Section 4.2, our corpus data are classified into the following three types: (1) Mongolian consumption verbs with literal meanings; (2) dead metaphors, namely Mongolian idiomatic expressions (conventionalized chunks) containing consumption verbs that retain literal meanings; (3) living metaphors which involve metaphorical extensions of Mongolian consumption verbs. The majority of corpus examples belong to the first type and will not be discussed in this paper. The last two types are analyzed in Sections 5 and 6 of this paper.

In the current study, dead metaphors involving Mongolian consumption verbs, namely idioms in a traditional view, are discussed from a sociocultural perspective in Section 6, while those living metaphors involving metaphorical extensions of Mongolian consumption verbs are analyzed from the perspective of CMT in Section 5.

In Table 1, the frequency counts concerning extended meanings refer to the subtotals of dead metaphors, including proverbs and living metaphors. The second column lists total token frequencies, which includes tokens with identical longer sentences (which might have been copied and pasted from a single source). The effective number of unique tokens that was included into analysis is given in the third column.

Table 1. Frequency counts of id- ‘eat’ and uu- ‘drink’ with basic meanings and extensions in Mongolian WaC

5. Metaphorical extensions of Mongolian ingestive predicates

Following Newman (1997, 2009), metaphorical extensions of id- ‘eat’ and uu- ‘drink’ in Mongolian are analyzed under the following three categories: (1) Agent-oriented extensions which highlight the role of the consumer in the source domain; (2) patient-oriented extensions which describe types of “destruction” (of the patient), stressing the effects on the consumed object (food or drink) in the source domain; and (3) extensions involving both agent and patient orientation, which describe both the sensation of the agent and destruction of the patient. These categories will be explicated below.

5.1. Agent-oriented extensions of id- ‘eat’ and uu- ‘drink’

Some metaphorical extensions of id- and uu- are agent-oriented, as the properties of the agent are vital in the process of metaphorical mappings (Newman, 1997, p. 216). ¹⁴ The source domain of this type of metaphor mainly involves two components of eating and drinking acts, that is, (1) intake of food and drink into the mouth whereby a transition of food and drink from outside the body to inside the body is finished; and (2) swallowing which moves the food and drink from being in the mouth to being in the stomach and then to the intestines. Both components highlight the agent’s role in eating and drinking acts, serving as the basis for conceptualizing different kinds of events. The agent also plays a role in such aspects of eating and drinking as mastication, digestion, nourishment and enjoyable gustation which accompany both acts.

5.1.1. Acquiring material objects

The source domain of food digestion relating to the verb id- ‘eat’ and uu- ‘drink’ can be metaphorically mapped onto the target domain of acquiring material objects like möngö ‘money’, zoos ‘coins’, xeel ‘bribe’, tatwariin möngö ‘tax money’, ulsin xöröngö ‘state property’ and gazar ‘land’. Note the following examples:

In (11) to (13), the verbs id- and uu- have the metaphorical meaning of ‘receive’ or ‘embezzle’. The source domain of eating (taking food into the body) is mapped onto the target domain of acquiring material objects, that is, putting entities into the sphere of possession of a person. Similar to the food consumed, material objects such as bribes and money become parts of the agent’s possession through the processes of intake and swallowing. In these examples the agent benefits through receiving the thematic patient; thus, a positive sensory experience on the part of the consumer is mapped onto a pleasant feeling associated with the new possession of items. In the meanwhile, material objects like money are arranged in a desired way for the consumer’s use, just like people’s pleasant digestion of food. On the other hand, ‘eat’ in the sense of ‘acquire; embezzle’ tends to be derogatory to some extent. It can be argued that the derogatory sense arises out of the concern for the negative effect incurred on the patient, resulting from the agent’s ‘embezzling’ or ‘acquiring’ action, just as food (patient) is destroyed while the eater’s (agent’s) stomach is fulfilled. In the source domain of the swallowing action, people transfer the visible material objects into something invisible; in the metaphorical embezzling process, whatever money or properties embezzled are gobbled up by the agent for their own benefit.

The conceptual mappings between the source domain of eating/drinking and the target domain of acquisition of material objects are listed in Table 2, where the correspondences between the sub-components of both domains are illustrated. Notably, it is possible that certain sub-components of the source domain cannot be assigned corresponding subcomponents in the target domain. Likewise, the conceptual mappings between the source domain of eating/drinking and the target domain of inhaling are listed in Table 3.

Table 2. Mappings between the domain of food digestion and the domain of acquisition of material objects

Table 3. Mappings between the eating/drinking domain and the inhaling domain

5.1.2. Pleasant inhaling

In the Khorchin dialect of Mongolian, the verb ‘drink’ may be extended to denote the sense of ‘inhale’ or ‘smoke’. The verb ‘eat’ may denote the sense of ‘inhaling’ opium. In such usages, the agent usually experiences pleasant feelings of inhaling the patient. Note the following examples:

5.1.3. Consuming/Absorbing

The source domain of eating can be metaphorically mapped onto the target domain of consuming such things as xüč ‘power’, sanax oi ‘memory’, and xool/težeel ‘food’ in Mongolian, in which process, these items are incorporated into the private sphere of or are consumed by the agent. Note the following examples:

As for consumption of gas to drive a car, the source domain of eating is metaphorically mapped onto the target domain of consuming šataxuun‘fuel’ or xool šataxuun ‘food’. Note the following examples:

In (16) to (20), where the consumed items all belong to one unified category of natural resources such as food or fuel, only id- ‘eat’ (rather than uu- ‘drink’) is used to denote the extended meaning of ‘use up’. In such usages, the agent benefits from the act of consuming by internalizing the consumed items into its private sphere.

Sometimes the source domain of eating can be mapped onto a target domain of absorbing abstract things like xaraal ‘a curse’, that is, absorption of a ‘curse’ by the entity. Note the example below:

The metaphorical meaning of uu- ‘drink’ is much narrower than that of id- ‘eat’. The source domain of drinking can be metaphorically mapped onto the target domain of absorbing, only when the absorbed items are such liquids as ink or oil in Mongolian, as is shown below:

In (22), the patient bex ‘ink’ is absorbed into the private sphere of the agent caas ‘paper’. Similarly, in (23), the patient tos ‘oil’ is absorbed by caas ‘paper’.

The conceptual mappings between the source domain of eating and the target domain of consuming/absorbing are listed in Table 4.

Table 4. Mappings between the eating/drinking domain and the consuming/absorbing domain

5.1.4. Experiencing unpleasantness

The metaphorical extension of id- may denote the meaning of ‘undergo; suffer from conflagration’, which represents an unpleasant experience of being burnt by a blazing fire. The agent’s unpleasant or painful experiences serve as the basis for metaphorical extensions of id-. Note the following example:

In (24), the xar xow ‘black hole’ is the agent which suffers from the action of tüimer id- ‘catch fire’. The conceptual mappings between the source domain of eating and the emotional domain are listed in Table 5.

Table 5. Mappings between the eating domain and the emotional domain

5.2. Patient-oriented extensions of id- ‘eat’ and uu- ‘drink’

The second category of metaphorical extensions of id- and uu- is patient-oriented, which means this type of metaphor is motivated by the patient in the eating and drinking process, that is, the effect of consuming on the items consumed plays a crucial role in giving rise to different extensions; and the striking feature which concerns food or liquid is that it changes from the state of being visible to being invisible after being taken into the body. In the case of eating, the source images for the destruction of the patient are as follows: (1) mastication of the food which involves mainly teeth, tongue and roof of the mouth and (2) swallowing of the masticated food. In contrast, the patient-oriented extension of drinking only involves the source image of swallowing without mastication. The patient-oriented extensions differ from those of agent-oriented extensions, as they highlight the destructive or transformative effect of the consuming act on the patient, whereas in agent-oriented extensions, the emphasis is on the eater’s role of taking something into the body.

5.2.1. Physical/material destruction (killing or looting)

The metaphorical extension of id- may denote the meaning of ‘destroy; kill’. In the following examples, the destructive effect of eating on the food consumed is emphasized in the source domain of eating:

In (25) and (27), the physical body of the patient is destroyed in the act of killing. In (26), the possessions and belongings of the sum ‘the administrative unit’ in question would be destroyed and there will be a loss of fortune due to a raid.

5.2.2. Mental (or psychological) destruction

5.2.2.1. Verbal attack

Another semantic extension of ‘eat’ is ‘behave in a bad temper or scold fiercely’. In (28), the patient is mentally tortured or destroyed by someone’s verbal attack caused by anger. Note the following examples:

In (28), bar^jž id- denotes a meaning of ‘verbally attack somebody’. Likewise, in MT this phrase is either explained as sürxii uursan nexež šaardan dawšlax ‘attack with a strong rage’ or tal talaas n^j aašlan šaardax, baix suuxin argagüi bolgox ‘make someone restless by putting him/her under duress’. The use of this idiomatic expression tends to imply that a certain situation is intense and people who are involved usually behave in a crazy manner. The source domain of bar^jž id- is the grabbing and devouring act of wild animals between each other; the target domain of ‘verbally attacking someone’ emphasizes the process of the criticizing act which sometimes involves hitting, thus the patient is mentally destroyed.

In (29) the patient undergoes psychological torment in the process of ‘being abused or sabotaged’. The patient biye ‘body’ is attacked and is mentally crushed in the process. This can be seen as metonymy, where biye stands for ‘the person who carries the body’. Biye ‘body’ may function as a secondary reflexive pronoun in Mongolian and other Mongol dialects (Sechenbaatar, 2003, p. 112). Janhunen (2012, p. 141) argues that the reflexive forms of the regular nominal biye in Mongolian can replace the oblique forms (accusative, dative, ablative and instrumental case forms) of the reflexive pronoun öör-öö ‘(one)self’, that is, biye ‘body’ > ‘(one)self’ in biy-ee(n), biye-d-ee(n), biy-ees-ee(n), biy-eer-ee(n); the reciprocal meaning arises when biye is reduplicated as in biye biy-ee(n) ‘each other’ (in reflexive form) and biye biye-d-ee(n) ‘to each other’ (in dative-reflexive).

5.2.2.2. Psychological torture

In the following examples, the patient undergoes psychological torture after being blamed or criticized by the agent. Note the following examples:

In (30), the patient bi ‘I’ is psychologically tortured by his or her inner struggle. In (31), the patient ta ‘you’ undergoes a psychological torture resulting from the swearing or criticism instigated by the agent, that is, xen negen ‘whoever’ in this context. Likewise, in (32), the experience of being criticized by the agent, namely the Mongolians who advance the act of criticizing, tortures the minds of the patient, that is, those Arabs who were gloating over their previous victory.

The conceptual mappings between the source domain of eating and the target domains of material and mental/psychological destruction are summarized in Table 6.

Table 6. Mappings between the eating domain and material & psychological destruction domains

5.2.3. Spending material wealth

The source domain of eating and drinking can be metaphorically mapped onto the target domain of spending or wasting such things as money and time in Mongolian. ²⁰ Note the following examples:

The conceptual mappings between the source domain of eating/drinking and the target domain of spending material wealth are listed in Table 7.

Table 7. Mappings between the eating/drinking domain and the domain of spending material wealth

5.2.4. Being exposed to external factors

The verb id- ‘eat’ also denotes the metaphorical extension of ‘corroding; corrupting or eating into’, which is often used in the passive or causative voice. The target domains involve being exposed to items such as rust, worms, and sores. There is no figurative usage relating to the verb uu- ‘drink’ in such contexts. Note the following examples:

In (35), id- is used in the passive voice in the expression zewend idegd- ‘be corroded (eaten) by rust; be exposed to rust’ along with the agent zew ‘rust’. This is in line with the interpretation of zew id- ‘be exposed to rust’ given by MT. A similar usage listed by MT is yar id- ‘develop sores’ or ‘(skin) is corroded/damaged by sores’; however, no such usage is found in the corpus.

In (36), the patient “e-nom” is not exposed to such external factors as worms or insects öt xorxoi ‘worms’; therefore, id- ‘eat’ in the passive voice is again used in its metaphorical sense to denote the meaning of ‘be corroded’, while the agent is öt xorxoi ‘worms’. However, id- in the previous attributive clause nögöö nom sudrin caasig idež zooglogč öt xorxoi ‘worms which eat the paper of other books’ is used in its literal meaning.

The target domain of corrupting or corroding may also involve being exposed to such external factors as bribery, corruption, poverty, debts, lies and sly tricks. Note the following examples:

In (37), xeel xaxuulʲd idegdsen ‘corrupted by bribery or bribes’ involves the passive voice form of id- ‘eat’, in which xeel xaxuulʲ ‘bribes; bribery’ serves as the agent and aldar ner orilogčid ‘celebrity candidates’ is the patient; in other words, xeel xaxuulʲ “eats into” the minds of those who desire fame. In contrast, in Khorchin Mongolian, xeel xaxuulʲ id- ‘take bribes’ is used instead, where it might be a calque borrowed from Chinese idiom 吃贿赂 chī huìlù (< chī ‘eat’ + huìlù ‘bribe’); in this case, both id- and chī mean ‘take; accept’.

In (38), the patient, Mongol oron ‘Mongolia’ was corroded by the agent, that is, awliga ‘corruption’; in (39), the patient Mongol xünii amʲdral ‘Mongolian people’s lives’ is being eaten up by the agent, namely yaduural ‘poverty’. The conceptual mappings between the source domain of eating and the target domain of corroding are listed in Table 8.

Table 8. Mappings between the eating domain and the domain of corroding

5.3. Extensions of id- ‘eat’ and uu- ‘drink’ involving both agent and patient orientations

Some metaphorical extensions of id- and uu- can be seen as both agent-oriented and patient-oriented. They are motivated by: (1) the agent’s sensation and (2) the destruction of the patient in the process of eating (Newman, 1997, p. 228, 2009, p. 18).

5.3.1. Breaking one’s promise

The source domain of eating is sometimes mapped onto the target domain of ‘breaking one’s promise’ which involves both agent and patient orientations. In this instance, the agent experiences an unpleasant feeling of having to swallow what one has always spat out of one’s mouth, that is, ‘words’ in this case; meanwhile, the patient, namely what was said before, was completely destroyed.

In (40), xelsenee id- ‘eat what you said’ can be interpreted as ‘eat one’s words’. In (41), tüünii ügsiig idsen ‘eat/retract his words’ is a calque borrowed from the English expression ‘eat one’s words’. In Khorchin Mongolian, ügeen id- ‘eat one’s words’ is used to denote the meaning of ‘go back on one’s words; break one’s promise’; it might be a calque borrowed from Chinese 食言 (shí yán < shí ‘eat’ + yán ‘words’).

5.3.2. Living on material or intellectual wealth

Extensions of id- ‘eat’ and uu- ‘drink’ are based on both the sensation of the agent and the destruction of the patient, when these verbs denote the meaning of ‘live on’. Objects such as ül xödlöx xöröngö ‘real estate’, öw ‘inheritance’, ex oron ‘homeland’, ner ‘reputation’ and xödölmör ‘labor’ may be consumed, and destructive effects of consumption on these patients are obvious. Meanwhile, the agent benefits from the action of ‘living on something profitable’. Note the examples below:

5.3.3. Conquering, defeating, or winning something

Both agent- and patient-oriented extensions of ‘eat’ are seen in the context of a game, where the patient is destroyed and conquered, while the agent enjoys the sensation of being a winner. Note the following examples:

Note that the metaphorical extension of uu- ‘drink’ does not denote any meaning of ‘destroy; kill’ or ‘conquer; win’ in Mongolian.

5.3.4. Physical exploitation

5.3.4.1. Exhausting someone

Extensions of id- and uu- can be based on the physical destruction of concrete objects such as max ‘flesh’ and cus ‘blood’. The destructive effect of eating on the patient is evident in these examples where those people who are exploited suffer physically, while the agent is the beneficiary of these actions. Note the following examples:

In both (50) and (51), the patient is physically exploited. Meanwhile, someone benefits as a result of its suffering. In (50), the person who arranges for the job benefits by getting the work done by others; in (51), xüüxed ‘children’ benefits as a result of the speaker’s suffering.

5.3.4.2. Exploiting someone

Extensions of id- and uu- may both denote the meaning of ‘exploitation’ in certain contexts. The metaphorical extension of uu- in the sense of ‘exploit’ involves physical destruction of cus ‘blood’ in the source domain of drinking blood.

In (50) to (51) above, metonymy seems to be involved as well, given that max ‘flesh’ is part of the human body, which stand for the humans who suffer by actions of eating with the extended meaning of ‘exhausting someone’ or ‘exploiting someone’. In these examples, the agent or instigator of such actions benefits from the exploitation. Note also the following example:

In (52), the agent xün ‘people’, normally feudal officials or lords who belong to the ruling class in the social hierarchy, benefit economically and socially, whereas the patient xün ‘people’, the fellow human beings, who are the commoners or the ones who struggle at the bottom of the social hierarchy suffer physically or mentally. Thus, this can be seen as an example where both agent and patient are involved in the metaphorical extension of id- ‘eat’. Here id- is used in the same metaphorical sense of ‘exploit’ as that of uu-; the agent profits from the exploiting act, while the patient suffers. However, it should be noted that id- and uu- in these examples are not interchangeable (‘Eating blood’ is unacceptable in Mongolian). However, it is possible to say max cus idež uu- ‘exploit’ (lit. ‘eat flesh and drink blood’).

5.4. Summary

To sum up, the metaphorical extensions of id- ‘eat’ and uu- ‘drink’ in Mongolian can be summarized, respectively, in Tables 9 and 10.

Table 9. Metaphorical extensions of verbal concepts relating to the verb id- ‘eat’

Table 10. Metaphorical extensions of verbal concepts relating to the verb uu- ‘drink’

6. Conventionalized idiomatic chunks of eating and drinking in Mongolian

In Section 5, living metaphors which involve extensions of consumption verbs in Mongolian were analyzed from an experiential perspective. In this section, we will discuss conventionalized idioms of eating and drinking which are comparatively fixed in form and meaning; a sociocultural perspective is taken to explain their overall meanings and usages, although encyclopedic knowledge is also a factor which contributes to the understanding of idioms. The sociocultural perspective may to some extent interpret people’s behavior and mental processes by their social and cultural contact, including race, gender and nationality, while encyclopedic knowledge relies more on individuals’ knowledge about a large number of diverse subjects.

6.1. Culturally unique idioms of eating and drinking in Mongolian

There are some culturally unique idiomatic expressions relating to consumption verbs in Mongolian, which fall outside of the scope of CMT and display gradable features in semantic compositionality, as well as being flexible in grammatical form. Both sociocultural perspective and encyclopedic knowledge are needed to understand the meanings and usages of such idioms.

The majority of conventionalized idiomatic expressions in Mongolian which involve EAT and DRINK verbs keep their literal meanings. In terms of meanings and grammatical features, they show various degrees of semantic noncompositionality and formal fixedness. Note the following examples:

In (53) and (54), the verbs id- and uu- keep their literal meanings, whereas the overall meanings of these expressions are less transparent, denoting the metaphorical meaning of ‘living or surviving’. This idiom can be explained by one’s knowledge of life experience, in which food and water are essential for existence. In these examples, the overall meaning is relatively transparent and the form is relatively fixed. In Khorchin Mongolian, xuw^j-tai can be replaced with buyan-tai ‘fortunate’ (<buyan ²³ ‘fortune’ + -tai = com) (own knowledge).

In (55), one’s encyclopedic knowledge is required again to explain the sense of this idiom. Normally, as a person grows older, he/she eats more salt which is an indispensable substance for one’s living. The amount of salt eaten reflects a person’s knowledge of the world to some extent.

In (56) and (57), the act of copying is either compared to eating food with the mouth of another person or with eating ready-made food. In both cases, something is accomplished without making enormous efforts. Notably, id- keeps its literal meaning in these instances and the overall meaning is not deducible from the components. Such expressions are relatively fixed in form and either compositional or noncompositional in meaning. The variation of belen budaa id-, namely budaa id- which carries the same extended meaning of ‘copy’ is attested in the corpus, as is seen in (58):

In (59) there is an implied object arxi ‘liquor’, which has an intoxicating effect on the human mind. A rhetorical device of exaggeration is used here, considering that the person who is drunk might still keep one’s sanity even if he or she gets drunk. The meaning of (59) is compositional and rather transparent.

In (60) the overall meaning of this idiom is somehow deducible, given that people have to concentrate on what they eat for the sake of safety or pleasurable gustation so that other things can be easily ignored and forgotten.

The use of uu- with a sense of ‘take medication’ in (61) is conventionalized and it seems to be culturally specific. In Mongolian, em ‘medicine’ in whatever form (tablet, powder, or liquids) are drunk and not eaten. ²⁵

The idiom in (62) is also conventionalized (cf. noxoi id-Ø/id-eg in Table 12). No related corpus example is found. According to MT, noxoi idmeer is interpreted as yumiig golž čamlan noxoi idex yum ‘(someone is) picky and things that are eaten by a dog’. This expression might be explained from a cultural perspective, as things that are not eaten by humans are normally fed to dogs in Mongolian culture. It implies that someone is dissatisfied with things and is picky.

Table 11. Conventionalized idioms of eating and drinking in Mongolian WaC

Note. In the concordance in example 1, two examples use the Arabic letter 2 instead of the Cyrillic script xоёр, that is, xoyor; one example occurs in reverse order xooson xonoxgüi xoyor idexgüi. The expression in example 6 is slang; based on MT, the context further says, ‘xöörxii balar cagiin xün xoyor čixnees n^j xoiš orox yum l oldwol cadaxaa medxgüi idež awaad tüüniigee žargalin deed gež üzdeg baižee.’ (lit. The poor primitive man, as long as (he) found something to come after his ears, (he) would eat it to his heart’s content and considered it the highest happiness’. (B. Rinčyen, Zaan Zaluudai, wiktionary.org). It can be deduced that it is difficult for a primitive man to find food, where to protect ‘two ears’ (i.e., ‘body’) from danger is the primary concern for him; other items like food must have come after (lit. Food has to be put behind two ears/considered next). Thus, ‘things that come after two ears’ refer to ‘things to eat’ here.

Table 12. Modern Written Mongolian idiomatic expressions containing consumption verbs with literal meanings (cited and translated from Bürintegüs 2001)

Note. Bürintegüs (2001, pp. 208–211, 249–251) lists more idioms relating to EAT and DRINK in Written Mongolian which denote the meaning of ‘enjoy eating and drinking but lazy to work’.

The idiom in (63) is obsolete. Traditionally, in Mongolian culture, there was a rite to strengthen the tribal bond between the wife’s and the husband’s families, in which the throat of a sheep is eaten at the wedding (MT). Note also the following examples:

In (64) erüünii šöl uux is an idiom, which denotes the meaning of ‘be scolded’. The corpus context of this example did not provide a useful clue for us to understand the meaning of the idiom. In MT, it is interpreted as zagnuulax, aašluulax ‘be scolded’; likewise, according to Wiktionary, this idiom is explained as xüneer zemlüülex, zagnuulax ‘be reprimanded or scolded by a person’.

The idioms in (65)–(67) are fixed in form but their meanings show various degrees of transparency. The meanings of the idioms in (65) and (66) are rather transparent based on world knowledge, whereas the meaning of (67) is semi-transparent and somewhat deducible, given that a person would eat the same food as a herded animal does for the sake of survival, but such sustenance does not suffice for a human to stay fit and healthy, thus the meaning of ‘powerless’. The meaning of (67) is rather opaque without proper cultural context.

Other culturally unique conventionalized idioms which appear in the corpus are listed in Table 11.

In the examples in Table 11, the verb id- keeps its original basic meaning of ‘eat’, but the overall meaning of the chunks (except for examples 2 and 6) can be deduced from the individual components. Semantic transparency and formal fixedness of these idioms lie on a continuum.

Some idioms are relatively transparent in their meanings and their forms are variable: example 3 ‘eat too much’ in Table 11 (see example 6 in Table 12, which means the same, that is, yesön süwee böglertel id- ‘eat too much’ < yesön ‘nine’ + süw ‘aperture; orifice; hole’ + -ee = rposs + bögler- ‘fill’ + -tel = cvb(until) + id- ‘eat’) and example 4 ‘to be very intimate’ are exaggerated expressions whose meanings can be deduced to some extent based on common knowledge. Example 5 ‘will drink bitter wine of regret to one’s satisfaction’ can be seen as a poetic expression where metonymy is involved; xaruusliin gašuun dars ‘bitter wine of regret’, stands for ‘feelings of sorrows and regret’ and alliteration between xaruusal ‘regret’ and xanatal ‘till getting satisfied’ is used to achieve a poetic effect. In comparison, other idioms are rather opaque in meanings while the forms are fixed or semi-fixed. Example 2 ‘be humiliated’ has an opaque meaning and a fixed form and Example 1 ‘eke out a living’ allows a variant form of xoyor idel ügüi, xooson xonol ügüi in Written Mongolian with the same meaning. It is hard to explain why the numeral xoyor occurs in this expression, making its meaning rather opaque.

6.2. A comparison with idioms of eating and drinking in Modern Written Mongolian

To give a broader view of culturally unique idiomatic expressions relating to consumption verbs, several usages given in an Inner Mongolian dictionary (Bürintegüs, 2001) are cited in Table 12. It is obvious that idioms of eating and drinking in Modern Written Mongolian share great similarity in usages with those found in Khalkha Mongolian, which show varying degrees of noncompositionality and fixedness. To be consistent in style, Written Mongolian is transcribed following the same scheme as Khalkha Mongolian and is converted to Khalkha spelling (cf. fn. 8).

The examples listed in Table 12 reveal that wild animals like horses and bulls (see examples 3, 4) or human being’s behaviour patterns (see example 5) are used in idiomatic expressions pertaining to Mongolian consumption words to denote the meaning of ‘being lazy and gluttonous’. Such vivid expressions can be analyzed as figurative idioms with comparatively transparent meanings and semi-fixed structures. In addition, exaggeration is an important means of forming figurative idioms in Mongolian; usually the meaning of such an expression is rather transparent (see examples 6 and 7). There are similar idioms to example 7 in Modern Written Mongolian, for example, öglöö idbel üdeš ügüi, ömd xibel xantaaz ügüi. ‘After eating in the morning, there will be no (meal for) dusk; after making trousers, there will be no vest’, which have the same meaning of ‘be poor’. In example 2 the verb awax ‘take’ is replaceable by idex; id- would denote the extended meaning of ‘take’ in this case.

Apart from what is listed in Table 12, Bürintegüs (2001) also covers some calques of Chinese idiomatic expressions concerning Mongolian consumption verbs whose meanings are relatively opaque and whose structures are semi-fixed. Note the following examples:

Example (68a) is widely used on occasions when an ugly man wishes to marry a pretty girl. It is used to advise that someone should be practical and stop day-dreaming. The component tiānéròu ‘swan meat’ has an extended meaning of ‘something desirable’. In (68b), the tiānéròu ‘swan meat’ is replaced with luun max ‘dragon meat’, but it does not alter the meaning of the whole chunk.

(69a) means that in one’s mind a person has a clear idea of what he or she is doing, so even the weakest people should be respected. In (69b), the jiǎozi ‘dumplings’ is changed into boob ‘pastries’ in Mongolian, which does not affect the overall meaning of the chunk.

There are more calques of Chinese idiomatic expressions which involve consumption verbs in Written Mongolian. A large proportion of such calques are from political texts and literary works (cf. Wu, 2019, pp. 201–203, 206–208 for a detailed analysis).

Calques of Chinese idioms relating to EAT verbs are common in Khorchin Mongolian. For example, xurim id- ‘eat a wedding banquet/ feast at a wedding’ (< xurim ‘wedding’ + id- ‘eat’) is a calque idiom derived from chī hūnyàn ‘eat a wedding banquet’ (< chī ‘eat’ + hūnyàn ‘wedding banquet’); bayar id- ‘eat a banquet’ (< bayar ‘joy’ + id- ‘eat’) derives from chī xǐyàn ‘eat a wedding banquet’ (< chī ‘eat’ + xǐyàn ‘wedding banquet’) (own knowledge).

6.3. Idioms or proverbs?

Note that there is not always a clear-cut borderline between idioms and proverbs, when the overall meaning of an expression is metaphorical. However, proverbs generally give advice to people to guide their actions and their meanings can be rather transparent. Note the following examples:

Proverbs in (70) and (71) are rather descriptive and transparent in meaning. However, some proverbs can be metaphorical in their meaning as shown below. Note the following example:

In (72), the American proverbial expression ‘when life gives you lemons, make lemonade’ is used as a calque in Mongolian. Here ‘lemons’ refer to ‘sourness or difficulty in life’, while ‘lemonade’ stands for something positive or desirable. Thus, this expression is used to encourage optimism and a positive can-do attitude in the face of adversity or misfortune.

Our focus in this paper is to analyze idioms, so proverbs are not discussed in any detail here and only several examples from Written Mongolian are listed in Table 13 for comparison (see MT and WaC for a wider range of usages of eating and drinking proverbs in Mongolian).

Table 13. Modern Written Mongolian proverbs containing consumption verbs with literal meanings (cited and translated from Bürintegüs, 2001)

Note. According to Bürintegüs (2001, p. 1195), the original expression for example 3 in Written Mongolian is deger-e ni saγu-n-a uu šoron deger-e, degeǰi yi ni ide-n-eüü qoron deger-e. Sodobilig (2006, p. 730) lists a variation of this idiom which has the same meaning, namely degeǰi idebel qoor iden_e, deger_e saγubal šoro deger_e saγun_a.

Note the following example which denotes the same meaning as example 2 in Table 13.

The wording of this proverb is almost the same with that of example 2 in Table 13, where but ‘bush’ replaces dob ‘knoll’, and urg- ‘grow’ replaces xöxr- ‘turn green’. This reveals the formal variability of proverbs to some extent.

7. Conclusions

The current study has investigated both metaphorical extensions of id- ‘eat’ and uu- ‘drink’ and culturally unique idioms of eating and drinking in Khalkha Mongolian. Culturally unique idioms, proverbs and relevant calque expressions in Modern Written Mongolian are also given some attention to deepen our understanding of the complex nature of idioms in Mongolian.

Metaphorical extensions of the verbs id- ‘eat’ and uu- ‘drink’ in Mongolian are analysed on the basis of Conceptual Metaphor Theory. The study supports Newman’s (1997) experiential view that two sources are related to eating and drinking metaphors cross-linguistically, namely, the consumer’s sensation and the destruction of the consumed entity. Based on the Mongolian Web Corpus (mnWac16) and an extensive online dictionary (MT), the metaphorical extensions of id- and uu- were categorized into three subtypes, namely (a) agent-oriented extensions; (b) patient-oriented extensions and (c) equally agent- and patient-oriented expressions.

It was found that the majority of extensions of ‘eating’ in Mongolian are patient-oriented, covering such meanings as ‘kill or loot’, ‘abuse or criticize someone’, ‘eat away at’, ‘spend (money) and ‘(for iron etc. to) rust; corrode; eat into’, whereas the majority of extensions of ‘drinking’ are agent-oriented, meaning ‘inhale, smoke’, ‘earn/make/receive (money)’ and ‘absorb (ink)’. The commonly used agent-oriented extensions of ‘eating’ in Mongolian are ‘embezzle (e.g., state property, tax money)’, ‘consume (feed, fuel, power, curse, etc.); take up (computer memory)’ and ‘undergo (wildfires, etc.)’. It is noteworthy that both verbs share similar meanings in terms of both agent and patient-oriented extensions, meaning ‘live on’ and ‘exploit’. Occasionally, both verbs are used to denote the meaning of ‘absorption’ in agent-oriented extensions, with different patients involved (‘ink; oil’ for uu- and ‘fuel; feed’ for id-). Moreover, ‘eating’ denotes both agent and patient-oriented extensions of ‘go back on one’s words; break one’s promise’ and ‘conquer or defeat opponents in a game’ and ‘inherit’ (one’s inheritance/property) which are not expressed by extensions of ‘drinking’. Overall, id- denotes a wider range of meaning than that of uu- in Mongolian. Some cross-linguistic similarities can be observed in terms of metaphorical extensions of consumption verbs. EAT verbs tend to denote the meaning of ‘conquer/overcome’ in languages like Hausa and Manipuri. As Jagger and Buba (2009, p. 229) suggested, in Hausa ci ‘eat’ metaphors prototypically encode ‘overcoming’ of a patient by an animate agent, for example, in mun cii sù ‘we beat (ate) them’; the nuance lies in the fact that Mongolian id- ‘eat’ denotes the meaning of ‘take; eliminate’ mostly in chess games, with an inanimate agent or a personified agent. Likewise, in Manipuri, an animate or inanimate agent functioning as the subject ‘overcomes’ a patient or a theme in eating metaphors (cf. Pramodini, 2010). In addition, as in Mongolian, in Akan, dí ‘eat’ is used in the extensions of psychological destruction and enjoying inheritance, while nóḿ ‘drink’ is used for the senses of ‘absorption of oil’ and ‘smoking’ (cf. Agyepong et al., 2017).

Several points regarding general grammatical and semantic properties of consumption verbs in Mongolian are summarized here. In terms of lexicalization, a few languages only have a unitary concept of eating and drinking, for example, in Manambu (Aikhenvald, 2009), but Mongolian possesses separate lexemes for both notions. Also, Mongolian ingestive verbs cannot be grammaticalized, unlike in Chepang (cf. Caughley, 1982). In contrast to a number of languages in which ingestive verbs are atypical transitive predicates (Næss, 2009), Mongolian ingestive verbs are typically used as transitive predicates, although intransitive uses of id- and uu- are also allowed after nominalization (cf. Wu, 2019, pp. 153–158). Similar to Japanese (Yamaguchi, 2009), certain Mongolian ingestive verbs denote either respectful or pejorative meanings, while we focused on honorifically neutral verbs in this paper. Mongolian ingestive verbs are relatively restricted in scale in terms of their metaphorical extensions, in comparison to other languages which demonstrated a vast range of metaphoricity. In addition, there are some culturally unique idioms of eating and drinking in Mongolian, which lie on a continuum in terms of noncompositionality and fixedness, that is, some idioms are more transparent in meaning and semi-fixed in form, while others are semantically less transparent and formally fixed. The explanations of these idioms involve sociocultural factors and world knowledge. Sometimes it is hard to draw a clear-cut boundary between idioms and proverbs. Proverbs pertaining to Mongolian consumption verbs and calque idioms borrowed from Chinese deserve further attention in future studies.

In summary, our current research furthers our understanding of the semantics and functions of ingestive verbs cross-culturally; in particular, the fact that patient-oriented extensions tend to be more connected with EAT verbs, while agent-oriented extensions are more likely to concern DRINK verbs in Mongolian seems to be a potentially important contribution to the field. The current study is not exhaustive in its investigation of metaphorical concepts of consumption verbs in Mongolian, since a wide range of separate lexemes which are used to denote aspects of ‘consuming’ in the language remain unexplored. Meanwhile, it would be interesting to explore how consumption verbs are used differently in different Mongolian dialects in future studies.

Our findings illustrated that Conceptual Metaphor Theory is useful for interpreting the metaphorical processing of a majority of eating and drinking metaphors in Mongolian. As in many other languages, the experiential reality related to the act of eating and drinking functions as a source for various metaphorical extensions. However, culturally specific expressions tend to go beyond the explanatory power of CMT.