CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR AS A SOURCE OF STYLISTIC DEVICES IN DISCOURSE
Author:
Elena G. Beliaevskaya
Affiliation:
Moscow State Linguistic University
Abstract:
The paper introduces a three-stage cognitive model of constructing stylistically marked discursive passages. Traditionally, "figures of speech" or "stylistic devices" are viewed as structural and semantic patterns used to form expressive contexts. However, a more elaborate model is needed to give an insight into the cognitive mechanisms accounting for the choice of an adequate pattern and its adaptation to the context. The model worked out in the process of the investigation includes (1) the profiling of frames underlying the semantics of the passage to shape the content side of the context; (2) the choice of metaphoric concept(s) to form the imaginative basis of the context and to outline the salient points to be foregrounded, and (3) the choice of figures of speech to match the first two stages. The cognitive model proposed is built on the strength of contexts taken from British and American fiction which we analyze to prove that metaphoric concepts underlie not only imaginative metaphors but figures of speech of different kinds – those based on transferences of meaning as well as those based on syntactic modifications. In many cases conceptual metaphors operate to form clusters of stylistic devices. Thus, the paper shows how frame semantics and conceptual metaphors interact in discourse, and adds a cognitive aspect to the generally applied procedures of discourse analysis.
Keywords:
stylistic device, convergence (of stylistic means/devices), context, cognitive model, frame structures, metaphorical concept, profiling
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Pages:
41-48
