Linguistic Image of Death (LID): The Representation of President Emil Hácha’s Death in the Czech Press of the Period

Abstract

This paper explores the linguistic image of death (LID) of President Emil Hácha in selected Czech newspapers published in June and July 1945 (in Rudé právo and Svobodné slovo). The author verifies certain methods of cognitive linguistics studying the linguistic image of the world in articles thematically related to the passing of this representative of Czech national politics and his funeral. The following aspects are considered to be important: conceptual metaphors, the opposition of I versus the other, and the study of stereotypes and political ethics (conservative versus progressive: the model of the strict father morality versus the model of a caretaker). Before analysing president Hácha's LID, the author tries to place the president's death in a broader context, summarizing characteristic features of LID of imminent Czechoslovak presidents who governed the country in politically critical periods of its history: of T. G. Masaryk and E. Beneš.