GENUINE METAPHOR AS A WAY OF REPRESENTING RUSSIA’S IMAGE IN MODERN OPPOSITION MASS MEDIA

Abstract

The article explores cognitive and linguistic aspects of genuine metaphors used in the modern political mass media subdiscourse. The author has analyzed 375 metaphorical uses, not recorded in lexicographic sources, singled out by means of continuous sampling of 120 publications (75,000 words), dealing with the characteristics of the socio - political and socio - economic situation in Russia and its position in the world as described in various materials published in 2017 in online editions of oppositional social and political newspapers of communist, national - patriotic and liberal orientation. The methodological basis of the study rests on the idea of the metaphor as a cognitive and modeled phenomenon playing an important role in the representation of the linguistic worldview and in the declaration and promotion of views corresponding to the ideological preferences of communication subjects. The purpose of the article is to identify the pragmatic functions of genuine metaphors and the cognitive principles of their formation in relation to language models of metaphorization. The analysis uses a complex method of systemic contextual, semantic and cognitive analysis of language phenomena. The paper establishes the types of genuine metaphors according to their creativity; reveals the system of linguistic conceptual models of genuine transfer of meaning; analyzes the role of genuine metaphors in the representation of the linguistic worldviews of the publication authors. It is noted that in all mass media under analysis, preference is given to relatively creative transfers, thus preferring the accessibility and comprehensibility of the text by the addressee rather than its exclusivity. It is emphasized that genuine metaphors in most cases extend the scope of such linguistic conceptual models of metaphorization as horizontal spatial, material, biological and artifact ones. A characteristic feature of the formation of genuine metaphors is the combination within one context and one meaning of several conceptual models, thereby increasing the expressiveness and the manipulative function of the transfer of meaning. There is a certain consistency in this kind of contamination. For the same purpose, actualization of the inner form / direct meaning in a metaphorical usage is regularly used. It is emphasized that conceptually, productivity marks those parts of cognitive models of metaphorization, which are associated with a negative characteristic of the socio - economic, political, or moral situation in Russia and its position in the world community. In conclusion, it is argued that in general, the functioning of genuine metaphors in the opposition press adequately reflects the ideology of the authors of publications and their understanding of the development of Russia in 2017.