The paper discusses ontological metaphors in a sample of verb and abstract noun collocations in Serbian, in order to explore lexical patterning as a realization of conceptual metaphor. We examine the ideas a) that we conceptualize abstract entities as persons, containers, concrete physical objects or substances for which our experiences with physical objects provide the basis (Lakoff and Johnson 1980), and b) that the collocations selected reflect the metaphorical mapping of a concrete domain onto an abstract one. The sample selected includes collocations, the content of which indicates that the process of mapping involves the domains of negative experience in the world of matter. More specifically, the domains of painful or injurious physical experience are mapped onto negative emotions and states of mind, which suggests that the experiential basis, on which the speakers rely in forming the collocations is negative.