DIACHRONIC ANALYSIS OF THE METAPHORICAL IMAGE OF THE PRESIDENT OF GEORGIA E. SHEVARDNADZE

Abstract

The study is carried out in the framework of diachronic linguopolitical metaphorology and linguopolitical personology. Linguopolitical personology deals with verbal images of politicians, Heads of State, and historical figures. The diachronic analysis allows revealing specific features of development of the metaphorical image of a politician. The diachronic analysis of the metaphorical image of the President of Georgia E. Shevardnadze simultaneously employs the principles of incremental and focus fragmentation. Two synchronous cross-sections have been analyzed within focus fragmentation: the first focus covers the time of Shevardnadze’s office; the second - the period after his resignation. The article considers the dominant metaphorical models found in the course of the study: THE PRESIDENT OF GEORGIA IS A WARRIOR; THE PRESIDENT OF GEORGIA IS A TRAVELER, as well as some less frequent and rarely used metaphorical models, which make up the metaphorical image of the former president of Georgia. Thus, the study allows making the conclusion that the metaphorical image of Shevardnadze is changing over the periods of time frames under consideration: 1) the number of dominant metaphorical models changes; 2) there is a shift of semantic emphasis; 3) different metaphorical models can express similar meanings. The results of the study could be of interest to specialists in the field of imageology, politology, history, psychology, linguistics, etc.