Liquid money or hard cash? Drowning into granular material

TL;DR

This paper explores the conceptual differences between 'hard cash' and 'liquid money' across languages and cultures, using comic illustrations to analyze perceptions of money's nature.

Contribution

It introduces a cross-cultural analysis of money metaphors through comic-based illustrations, highlighting linguistic and cultural differences in conceptualizing money.

Findings

Different languages associate money with distinct physical qualities.

Cultural context influences the metaphorical perception of money.

Comics effectively illustrate diverse cultural views on money.

Abstract

In British English, the term "hard cash" refers to the form of payment using coins or bill, rather than cheques or credit or money transfer. In American English, it is often prefixed by the adjective "cold". On the contrary, in Italian the equivalent expression "denaro liquido" can be literary translated as "liquid money". In French the expression is equivalent with the additional factor, with respect to the rest of this discussion, that money becomes "argent". We have therefore two very different points of view: Is money hard and cold, or rather liquid and "jingling" ("moneta sonante")? As usual, we shall investigate this topic starting from some comics about the duck family.