Vita Rekita
Kamianets-Podilskyi National Ivan Ohiienko university
Scientific supervisor: PhD, O. O. Barbaniuk
CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR
AS A MEANS OF CATEGORIZING THE REALITY
The article deals with one of the main notions in cognitive linguistics – conceptual metaphor as a unified cognitive structure that connects mental representations with a sensory and experiential basis.
Keywords: cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor, metaphorization, donor, recipient zone.
The emergence of cognitive linguistics as an independent discipline at the end of the XXth century was influenced by the achievements of such foreign scientists as G. Lakoff, C. Fillmore, F. Johnson-Laird. Among different terms and notions of cognitive linguistics, one distinguishes “conceptual metaphor”, which was developed by G. Lakoff. The terms “cognitive” and “conceptual” concerning metaphor entered the terminological apparatus of domestic linguists in the mid-80s. XX c., soon after the appearance of Lakoff’s “Metaphors We Live by”. As A.N. Baranov rightly notes, the book was very quickly recognized by experts as “the bible of the cognitive approach to metaphor – a kind of analogue of Saussure’s” Course of General linguistics “
Recently, plenty of scientific researches have been devoted to the multidimensional study of the theory of metaphor: P. Ricker, R. Boyd, E. McCormack, T. Kuhn, V. Telia, G. Lakoff, V. Gak. The most characteristic feature of these investigations is their cognitive orientation, their attempt to present the process of metaphorization in the form of a model, and analysis of the process of metaphorization based on reference relations. So, E. McCormack defines metaphor as a cognitive process that is naturally necessary for the implementation of informative and cognitive functions, this process is the unity of cognitive and semantic, the basis of which is the procedural processing of knowledge [1].
Conceptual metaphor is a semantic process in which a form of a language unit is transferred from one object of designation to another based on a certain similarity between these objects when reflected in the speaker’s mind. A more detailed study of the conceptual metaphor occurs at the end of the twentieth century – the beginning of the XXI century, associated with the introduction of cognitive-discoursive paradigms by modern scientists who consider this concept as a complex multifunctional phenomenon in the logical-philosophical, semiotic, semantic, stylistic, and onomasiological aspects.
Conceptual metaphor as a complex sign allows us to identify in it the initial focus on perception and influence and pragmatic orientation, which gives the metaphor the ability to act as a means of performing an addressed Speech Act. In a specific speech situation, the speaker’s attitude to the surrounding world is as follows just like the addressee’s motivation for any action, it is not always expressed directly and, however, what is expressed in a veiled form can be quite understandable for the addressee.
In any metaphor, there must be a donor and a recipient zone. The donor zone is specific and anthropocentric: for its formation, as is well known, a person is widely used, in particular, his body (cf. neck, handle, the heart of the problem, etc.), location in space and movement (cf. he was furious/enraged, she was deeply moved). Such a strategy for the donor zone formation was proposed by J. R. R. Tolkien. It is described by Lakoff and is described by the term embodiment – thus an attempt is made to comprehend some general procedures of metaphorization in natural languages.
The metaphor has two important areas of reference to the surrounding reality. The donor zone is the very element based on which the transfer is performed, i.e. the area-the source of conceptualization (source). Lakoff believes that the source area is more intuitive, more specific, and, as a rule, is associated with the immediate physical or spatially primary experience of a person, being known in more detail to both interlocutors. The second area is the recipient area, i.e., the target area of the conceptual metaphor. An extremely important aspect in the study of metaphor is precise that it is responsible for the ability of a person to capture and create similarities between different classes of objects and individuals [2].
Conceptual metaphors represent stable correspondences between the source and goal zones, fixed by the language tradition of the society. Results of analysis of available language material allow you to enrich the arsenal of high frequency conceptual metaphorical projections modern English-speaking culture, which, in particular, includes such metaphors as time is money, dispute is a war, life is a journey, universal conceptual metaphors of the visual communication channel in the system of nonverbal communication: a look (as an expression eye) – messages, eye contact – messaging, set of views – visual actions and states) – text, visual interaction (set eye contact) – nonverbal discourse, visual behavior-discursive. These metaphorical projections, in our opinion, form conceptual structures of a more global level – cognitive models of visual behavior of the speaker, which are psychological categories similar to the gestalts of cognitive psychology and conceptual psychology in the system of nonverbal communication, we identify fundamental concept spheres that unite they contain physical, psychological, and social domains that most often from the source area in the process of metaphorizing the categories of nonverbal visual signs: space, time, movement, speed, quantity, quality, ownership, value, evaluation, truth or lie, crime, emotions, social relations order, faith [3].
Cognitive linguists G. Lakoff and M. Johnson have identified three overlapping categories of conceptual metaphors:
1) An orientational metaphor is a metaphor that involves spatial relationships, such as up/down, in/out, on/off, or front/back.
2) An ontological metaphor is a metaphor in which something concrete is projected onto something abstract.
3) A structural metaphor is a metaphorical system in which one complex concept (typically abstract) is presented in terms of some other (usually more concrete) concept.
Hence, by conceptual metaphor scientists understand a schema, a unified cognitive structure that connects mental representations with a sensory and experiential basis, in the formation of which a person’s previous experience and the cultural environment in which he lives play an essential role. Understanding our experience in terms of objects and substances allows us to isolate some parts of our experience and treat them as discrete entities or substances of some single type.
References
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