Kampf der Sprachen – Die Sprachsituation und ihre bildliche Konzeptuali­sierung in Weißrussland

Abstract

Abstract Language discourse frequently uses metaphors. Since the “iconic turn”, it has become increasingly common to analyze culture also by using distinctive imagery and signs. Sign-formation as a semiotic process is intensified in small, peripheral and often mixed spaces, which, from a linguistic viewpoint, are often functionally limited. On the one hand, cultural monologisation (including language) occurs where culture becomes a text monument. On the other hand, culture often attempts to go beyond the scope of the small. This paper investigates and compares the metaphorical and figurative concepts used in metalinguistic discourse in a selected corpus of contemporary Belorussian texts. By using the example of fighting as a metaphor, this article shows how language and bilingual situations are conceptualized, and questions the universals and representativeness of this concept within the boundaries of the cultural linguistics discipline.