Metaphorical modeling of the concept of EUROPE in Ukrainian media discourse

Abstract

The aim of the study was to analyze metaphorical models which objectify the concept of Europe in modern Ukrainian media. The relevance of this study is confirmed by the fact that in the last decade of the 20th century, the idea of “Europe” has taken on characteristics of a media-concept and a mental prototype of the future, which has taken a leading role in Ukrainian media discourse. The source of materials for this study became publications of “Ukrainian Youth”, “The Voice of Ukraine”, “Day”, “Mirror of the Week”, “Veche”, and others, which are presented in electronic corpuses of Ukrainian texts GRAK and MovaInfo (years 2012–2020). The total amount of analyzed lexical units is 101 (50 lexemes from the corpus MovaInfo and 51 lexemes from the corpus GRAK). The concept of Europe is a culturally-generalized, value-heavy entity, a deep, abstract category, which for a long time built its own multidimensional spheres of concepts. At the same time, the concept of Europe is a national, specific fragment of the nation’s worldview. Analysis of metaphorical models, which found their place in Ukrainian mass media, showed that systematic, multidimensional dismantling of the concept of Europe is happening gradually, which is leading to the loss of a stable, geographical definition of the referential space of the lexeme. As a result, this leads to correlating changes in its semantic structure. For the designation of the named concept, the following conceptual metaphors are predominantly used: fort, babushka, mentor, dream, spirit, supermarket, road, and others, predominantly with positive connotation. The inspected material displays that the past decade of the 20th century significantly gave relevance to the concept of Europe, declaring it as an important, modern ideologeme, like a mental prototype of Ukraine’s future. Comprehension of the concept of Europe as a myth is gradually turning into its realization as a major goal.