دانشگاه رازی مطالعات زبان‌ها و گویش‌های غرب ایران 2345-2579 14 2 2026 06 22 Hopefulness and Hopelessness Conceptualization in Iranian Society: A Cognitive View Hopefulness and Hopelessness Conceptualization in Iranian Society: A Cognitive View 61 80 4252 10.22126/jlw.2026.13509.1877 FA Mehrdad Meshkinfam Assistant Professor, Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran. 0000-0002-4854-9970 Mehrdad Naghzguy-Kohan Professor, Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran. 0000-0002-3451-745X Journal Article 2026 01 07 This paper seeks to demonstrate the rate and cognitive model of hopelessness and hopefulness in Iranian society over five decades, from the 1970s to the 2010s. It also responds to the view that Iranians are currently experiencing greater hopelessness than in the past. Emotions prevalent in a society, including hopelessness and hopefulness, can be reflected in language. In fact, these emotions, like others, are encoded in language through cognitive mechanisms such as conceptual metaphor and linguistic construction. The study used a written and spoken corpus encompassing films, novels, news broadcasts, and official speeches, as well as the models employed—namely, Kövecses (2020) and findings from Construction Grammar. It was observed that hopefulness and hopelessness exhibited a fluctuating pattern across all subsets of the corpus over the five decades examined. The results indicated that hopelessness increased significantly and steadily in Iranian society over this fifty-year period, in line with global trends showing an increase in hopelessness. Moreover, regarding the cognitive model of hope, it is worth noting that Iranians conceptualize ‘‘hopelessness’’ as ‘inability’ and contrast it with ‘‘hopefulness’’ which is conceptualized in terms of an ‘object’ and ‘reliance on another entity. This paper seeks to demonstrate the rate and cognitive model of hopelessness and hopefulness in Iranian society over five decades, from the 1970s to the 2010s. It also responds to the view that Iranians are currently experiencing greater hopelessness than in the past. Emotions prevalent in a society, including hopelessness and hopefulness, can be reflected in language. In fact, these emotions, like others, are encoded in language through cognitive mechanisms such as conceptual metaphor and linguistic construction. The study used a written and spoken corpus encompassing films, novels, news broadcasts, and official speeches, as well as the models employed—namely, Kövecses (2020) and findings from Construction Grammar. It was observed that hopefulness and hopelessness exhibited a fluctuating pattern across all subsets of the corpus over the five decades examined. The results indicated that hopelessness increased significantly and steadily in Iranian society over this fifty-year period, in line with global trends showing an increase in hopelessness. Moreover, regarding the cognitive model of hope, it is worth noting that Iranians conceptualize ‘‘hopelessness’’ as ‘inability’ and contrast it with ‘‘hopefulness’’ which is conceptualized in terms of an ‘object’ and ‘reliance on another entity. https://jlw.razi.ac.ir/article_4252_5182830170c77955f90991018dc0c4fe.pdf