Metaforyzacja wartości w dawnej polszczyźnie – konwencjonalność ujęć na przykładzie metafory POJĘCIE TO UBRANIE

Abstract

In this article, the object of analysis is the metaphorical representation of concepts-values from the mental sphere in the Old Polish and Middle Polish periods. In Old Polish and Middle Polish texts, abstract concepts are approached in a metaphorical manner, and some source domains recur relatively frequently. Such metaphors are used in reference to concepts which belong to various spheres. The analysis takes into con-sideration metaphors which are clearly discernible in short fragments, metaphors which are linguistically marked by words semantically associated with the source domain, metaphors which are at the same time in the close vicinity of the lexeme representing a given value, and metaphors which recur in texts by various authors. The present article is devoted to metaphorical representations of concepts-values in the Old Polish and Middle Polish periods in the category of clothing, a source domain which is drawn from the world of culture, e.g. Bo ieszcze ten kazdy jest wzdy dobrey nadzieie / Kto nad insze vbiory cznotą sie odzieie (RejJoz G2; SXVI); Znamienity ubior cnota./ Lepszy niźli bryla zlota (Petr.Ek.18; L). In the early Polish language, concepts belonging to various spheres of life were expressed by the means of the category of clothing: ethical and social values, as well as anti-values (negatively marked concepts which have to do especially with the sphere of morality) therefore the metaphor A CONCEPT IS CLOTHING was used to represent concepts regardless of their evaluation presented in a text. The choice of clothing as the source domain to represent concepts from the mental sphere is justified biologically by basic human need and culturally by its presence in the Bible and its social function. It seems that it is a conceptual metaphor in the sense of cognitive linguistics, one that is deeply rooted in the human way of thinking and culturally corroborated. Its use in the representation of concepts which are not very clearly defined in the Old Polish and Middle Polish periods was supposed to portray these concepts and to popularize them, especially in the case when such language was used in moralistic writings. The article is an attempt to answer the question about the connection between metaphorisation and the axiological dimension of concepts.