Cultural conceptualisations of karma in American, Indian, and Hong Kong varieties of English

Abstract

Karma is commonly understood as the belief that morally relevant actions lead to proportionate consequences. By adopting a corpus-based approach, this study examines cultural conceptualisations of karma in American, Indian, and Hong Kong varieties of English from the perspective of Cultural Linguistics. It has been found that cultural schemas of karma mainly involve four themes: creation, operation, effect, and transformation/removal. In American English, karma typically arises from bad secular actions, results in negative secular outcomes, and is transformed or removed through secular practices. In contrast, in Indian and Hong Kong Englishes, karma often links spiritual actions to commensurate outcomes, operates through reincarnation, and is addressed through dharmic practices. Cultural metaphors of karma conceptualise it in both non-agentive and agentive terms. While non-agentive metaphors conceptualise karma in terms of causation, accounting, journey, and contagion, demonstrating cross-varietal similarities and differences, the agentive metaphor – karma is a supernatural agent – is almost exclusively found in American English. A diagram has been proposed to illustrate the interrelationships among the cultural schemas and metaphors of karma, highlighting its multifaceted, procedural, and dynamic nature. This study demonstrates the viability of a cultural-linguistic approach to studying English varieties by focusing on a specific cultural concept.