engleski

Commutation of Cognitive Source Domains as a Semiotic Tool for Paradigmatic Analysis

The current research of metaphor, originally developed within the framework of cognitive linguistics, has mostly been focused on either semasiological or onomasiological analyses based on various corpora in an attempt to categorize the conceptual systems of particular languages or cultures. Such findings have inevitably been the prerequisite for this study of conceptual domains. The focus of the research is primarily based on the process of diversification of metaphorical concepts, which refers to the existence of various conceptual source domains leading to one target domain (‘conceptual synonymy’). In semiotic terms, the objective of the paper is to examine the alterations of various, in the database already registered, source domain signifiers for the ‘same’ conceptual signified and the consequences of the procedure. Such a paradigmatic analysis will verify or reject the possibility of replacing some presumably ideologically-loaded metaphors with alternative ones, as suggested by some authors with reference to the Whorfian language determinism and our cognition of reality affected by the choice of metaphorical concepts we live by. The advocated possibility of ‘conceptual correctness’ will be examined through a number of commutation tests in the same context, with emphasis on political discourse.

conceptual metaphor ; diversification ; paradigmatic analysis ; commutation test ; cognitive semiotics

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