Original scientific paper

Cognitive theory of metaphor and idiom analysis

Dmitrij Dobrovol’skij orcid.org/0000-0003-4531-6968 ; Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Russian Language, Department of Experimental Lexicography, Moscow
Elisabeth Piirainen

Abstract

We wish to establish to what extent the methods of analysis developed within the
framework of the Cognitive Theory of Metaphor (CTM) can be applied to idiom
analysis. Conventionalised figurative metaphors, and hence idioms, have a different
function and a different cognitive and communicative value, as compared to
novel metaphors. Idioms contribute much less to the structuring of unstructured
situations, but they rather convey different kinds of knowledge that they have accumulated
in the course of their functioning in the language. What is needed in
addition to CTM is a theory specially designed to describe the irregularities of
idioms. To develop such a theory is the main aim of modern idiom research. This
paper should be viewed as a contribution to developing such a theory.

Keywords

idiom analysis; Conventional Figurative Language Theory; Cognitive Theory of Metaphor; conceptual metaphor, cultural semiotics; cultural knowledge; image component; symbolic meaning

Hrčak ID:

30876

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/30876

Publication date:

15.9.2005.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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