Death, enemies, and illness: How English and Russian metaphorically conceptualise boredom

Abstract This study seeks to develop quantified methods for the description of conceptual metaphors. The study examines the target concept of boredom in contemporary English and Russian. It aims to not only identify which metaphors are used in the two languages, but also how they are used. Using the qualitative-quantitative approach of ‘behavioural profiles’, the study examines comparable informal and personal written language in both cultures, revealing that the most frequent metaphoric conceptualisations of boredom are as death, as an enemy or as an illness. Moreover, the study also shows quantitatively that, despite shared metaphor structures across the languages, there is some difference in how they are used. Through these results, the study highlights that the description of conceptual metaphors needs to pay more attention to their use but also demonstrates the importance of quantitative tools for those usage descriptions.