Abstract
The purpose of this study was to identify the manifestation of metaphorical asymmetries in the expression of joy and sadness across English, Kazakh, and Chinese and how these asymmetries reflect cultural, cognitive, and sociolinguistic frameworks. Emotions like joy and sadness are frequently challenging to convey explicitly, and metaphors function as vital instruments for expressing these intricate experiences. This study delineates universal and culture-specific metaphorical constructs, illustrating that joy and sadness often utilise identical source domains (light / darkness, rise / fall, burden / release), yet manifest asymmetrically regarding intensity, prominence, and symbolic elaboration. The research utilises cognitive linguistics, psycholinguistics methodology, and conceptual metaphor theory to analyse a multilingual corpus comprising literary texts, journalistic discourse, conversational speech, and digital communication. A statistical analysis of over 1,000 metaphorical expressions revealed that spatial metaphors were the most prevalent across all languages (30.2%), succeeded by temporal metaphors (20.1%) and emotion-as- sensation metaphors (16.7%). Significant cross-linguistic variation was identified. English data indicated a pronounced inclination towards metaphors of brightness and verticality (p=0.021), Kazakh texts revealed a statistically significant prevalence of burden metaphors (U=112.5, p=0.008), and Chinese metaphors for sadness demonstrated strong correlations with weather and imbalance imagery. Correlation analysis indicated that in Kazakh, the metaphor “sadness is a burden” frequently co-occurred with intensifiers (r=0.61, p=0.013), illustrating that metaphors are pragmatically reinforced in discourse. These findings validate the claim that metaphors convey emotions and represent socio-cultural perspectives. Kazakh metaphors illustrate a profound relationship with nature and kinship, and Chinese metaphors highlight harmony and balance, whereas English metaphors prioritise individuality and psychological conditions. The research shows that metaphorical asymmetry serves as an effective framework for comprehending the conceptualisation of emotions across languages. In addition to cultural influence, metaphors serve as semiotic evidence that facilitates the reconstruction of cultural orientations and cognitive preferences. These findings are pertinent to cognitive linguistics, translation studies, and intercultural communication, underscoring the necessity of including metaphorical asymmetry into language instruction and cross- cultural study.