About a Range of Metaphorical Meanings in the Representation
 of the Phenomenon of «Language» in the Book «Herausmit der Sprache» by A. Thalmayr

Abstract

The article examines the metaphorical models used by the famous German writer, poet, translator Andreas Thalmayr when describing the German language in his book «Heraus mit der Sprache. Ein bisschen Deutsch für Deutsche, Österreicher, Schweizer und andere Aus- und Inländer». Attention to language as an object of research has increased within the framework of cognitive linguistics, which considers natural human language that reflects all the diversity of the world, on the one hand, as an optimal means of storage, creative interpretation and transmission of human knowledge about the surrounding reality. On the other hand, language is an object of scientific linguistic study. The optimal tool for exploring this most complex phenomenon of human culture is a cognitive metaphor,
 which allows us to comprehend this abstract concept in a more concrete and structured way. In the process of analysis, we identified the following most frequent metaphorical models: language is a person, language is an object of nature,
 language is an object of human activity, language is a treasury, language is a system, language is chaos. The metaphorical representation of language turns out to be associated with various semantic images, which indicates the complexity,
 inconsistency and dynamism of the object of research, the versatility of which can be accounted for by the complexity of its carrier – the man.