Figurative language in talking about the loss of a father. The example of Americans and Poles

The subject of this paper is loss and grief described by different people from two language groups: Americans and Poles. The analyzed data comes from the responses to two online questionnaires, and belongs to a larger PhD research project. In looking for examples of conceptual metaphors (Lakoff and Johnson 1980, Kövecses 2005) and conceptual blends (Fauconnier and Turner 1996, Dancygier and Sweetser 2014), we present various cases of conceptualization of loss and grief. Given the limited size of this paper, we selected examples referring to loss of a father. The aim is to compare different ways of talking about apparently the same type of loss, highlighting the fact that grief is very subjective and personal. It is also a way to present differences and a variety in viewpoint when talking about this type of loss.

Simile in Joachim Lelewel’s Scientific Idiolect

The subject-matter of this paper is the investigation of similes in Joachim Lelewel’s scientific idiolect, which were collected upon the basis of this scholar’s selected writings. The objective of the analyses is to determine the repertoire of the connection indicators introducing this figure of thought in the selected scientific texts of this historian, the grammatical structure of similes, and first and foremost, to indicate their functions and this scientist's idiolective properties within the scope of using the stylistic device in question.

Prototype semantics: syntaphor in polysemy and beyond

The paper shows how a recently introduced concept of syntaphor, which blends synecdoche with metaphor, may be used to represent semantic extensions of polysemous lexemes like paint or pin. The network semantic representations using syntaphor are both more descriptively adequate and precise. They also account for the fact that the word meanings differ in their use from vague general senses to rather specific, and yet entrenched senses. Finally, it is demonstrated that syntaphor is one of the crucial cognitive processes resulting in lexical differences between languages.

The German Concept of AIR in Emotional Processes. A comparative Analysis German-Polish

The subject of the article is the metaphorical conceptualization of emotional processes on the basis of the general conceptual domain (German) LUFT (Polish: POWIETRZE) and detailed source domains. These domains constitute the experiential basis of our understanding and conceptualization of abstract emotional processes. The aim of the analysis is to identify German metaphorical expressions referring to the concept of AIR (LUFT) and compare them with expressions in Polish. The analysis is based on the theory of the metaphor of G. Lakoff and M. Johnson, according to which the analyzed expressions are transferred to the target domains.

The Phraseological Expression of the Emotional Concept “Fear” in German and Russian

The study is dedicated to the research of the emotional concept “fear” from the linguocultural perspective, which is verbalized by the phraseological units of the Russian and German languages. The subject of the research is the universal and specific characteristics of language units that realize the meaning of the concepts “fear”. The sources of the linguistic material are Russian and German phraseological dictionaries, proverb and associative dictionaries. In the article it is shown that “fear” counts as one of the basic emotions in both cultures and has a wide range of expressions.

German Schlussfolgerung – about genesis and development of a noun in scientific language

With the keywords Schluss and Schlussfolgerung ‘conclusion’, the following collocations can be found in the last part of German scientific texts (under the title Zusammenfassung/Fazit/Resümee ‘summary, conclusion, résumé’): zu dem Schluss/der Schlussfolgerung kommen ‘to arrive at the conclusion’, der Schluss/die Schlussfolgerung liegt nahe/etwas legt den Schluss nahe ‘it can be concluded/something suggests the conclusion’, zu dem Schluss/der Schlussfolgerung führen ‘to lead to the conclusion’, den Schluss/die Schlussfolgerung erlauben/zulassen ‘to allow the conclusion’ and – particularly frequently den Schluss/die Schlussfolgerung ziehen ‘to draw the conclusion’. In contrast, the collocation der Schluss folgt ‘the conclusion follows’, on which the noun Schlussfolgerung ‘conclusion’ is based, is not found. This raises the question of the genesis and the development of this word, which is presented here in detail.

Language use in socialist context by the example of description of the 1st May – Labour Day

The present paper aims to analyze journalistic texts, that were published in the German GDR-newspaper Neues Deutschland on Labour Day 1st May 1949. The texts serve the political authority as an instrument of legitimation of its own ideology and as an instrument to control and influence the crowd of people. The enhancement of socialist worldview and the denigration of others thinking are processed and conveyed by means of language; the media content and the language use are ordered and controlled by the political authority.

The impact of Turkish on the English language – An overview of borrowing in the manifold lexical domains influenced by Turkish over the centuries

The present article sets out to shed light on the Turkish influence on the English vocabulary over the centuries. The results provided by this study rely on a close analysis of a comprehensive lexicographical sample of Turkish borrowings listed in the Oxford English Dictionary Online. This study will provide an overview of the diversity of subject areas and spheres of life influenced by Turkish down the ages, which has as yet been considered little in existing investigations. On the basis of their meanings, the various Turkish-derived items have been grouped into several different semantic domains, ranging from the natural sciences, gastronomy, people and everyday life to faith and religion. A number of typical examples of borrowings will be given, in order to illustrate the impact of Turkish on the English lexicon from a historical point of view.

The Linguistic Means at the Service of Religious Hip-hop

The present article concerns interpretations of religious issues through the medium of rap music. Rappers are conventionally young people, most commonly laymen, but in Poland, among this group of artists, are young theologians, endeavouring to convey a religious message to other young people in a language they can understand and identify with. The article has its theoretical basis in the fields of cognitive linguistics and theolinguistics, and its main focus is on authentic language material which strikingly illustrates the way the linguistic picture of the world can walk a tightrope between sacrum and profanum. The language of hip-hop compositions is often raw, forthright, and emotional, and can be explicit to the point of vulgarity, yet without being offensive or disparaging of either people or religion. On the contrary, it clearly accords with minds of (young) people, inspiring them to have faith in God, Jesus and the Church.

Metaphorisation of terminology in research papers. Corpus analysis of selected terms in microelectronics, telecommunication and computer science (MTCS)

Figurative expressions play an important role in scientific prose since they allow for the mental visualisations of the existing notions to enhance the comprehension of new ideas in the mind of the message addressee. Initially, however, terminology was subject to normalisation to facilitate precise exchange of the scientific thought, which later was considered ‘an extremely idealised vision of specialised communication (Faber Benitez 2009: 112)’. As a result, metaphors started to be acknowledged in specialised communication. This study attempts to determine the metaphoric patterns of selected scientific terms used in the fields of microelectronics, telecommunication and computer science by exploring a comparable specialised corpus of 320 research articles in Polish and English (about 923,000 words) of which 103 articles are in Polish and 217 articles are in English. The analysis is to determine whether term variants are equally metaphorical in English and Polish as well as to show whether the pragmatic meanings of metaphorical terms equal the standardised or dictionary definitions.