Claudia Polzin-Haumann

Sprache denken@@@Thinking language: Reflexions on the imagery of metalinguistic discourse: Überlegungen zur Bildlichkeit metasprachlicher Diskurse

Talking about language is intrinsically based on metaphor. This paper investigates and compares the metaphorical concepts used in metalinguistic discourse in a selected corpus of Portuguese, Spanish, French and German texts from the 18th/19th and the 20th/21st century. Emphasis is put on the metaphorical networks belonging to the source domain of NATURE. The cross-time comparison reveals that cognitive metaphors used to conceptualise language and communication are quite constant but, however, some relevant changes may be identified. These developments are to some extent based on conceptual change in the source domain of NATURE, partly they belong to a conceptual change in the perspective on language itself. Furthermore, it is shown that the metaphorical concepts used in the present-day public debate on metalinguistic questions are often motivated by modern technologies albeit their inherent message remains the same as in traditional metalinguistic discourse.