Metaphorical models «Sleep» and «Conscience» in the poetic work «To Sleep» by J. Keats

Abstract

The article discusses the results of the research of conceptual metaphorical models representing a fragment of the author’s worldview. The fact that conceptual metaphorical models are an integral component of human consciousness and are a tool of cognition, categorization and conceptualization of knowledge about the surrounding reality, substantiates the importance of the performed research of conceptual metaphorical models in a poetic work, since they accumulate the intellectual and emotional experience of the author. Poetic works are sources of author’s metaphors, which act as a means of forming unique, vivid images expressing the author’s language and poetic worldview. In the process of analyzing the poem «To Sleep» by J. Keats the combination of descriptive and conceptual methods is applied within the identified conceptual metaphorical model «sleep» to determine the semantic parameters of the concept «sleep». The metaphorical model «conscience» was differentiated and its features were described; the semantic potential of the concepts «sleep» and «conscience» was investigated. The use of methods of conceptual and semantic analysis allowed us to establish the presence of the opposite semantic features of the metaphorical models «sleep» and «conscience». The creation of contradictory images is a signal of internal contradictions experienced by the poet, a reflection of his worldview, a way of personal perception, comprehension and interpretation of events. In the process of linguistic and stylistic analysis there are metaphors verbalizing the concepts of «sleep» and «conscience», reflecting the author’s worldview; poetic archaic words that give the work solemnity, create the flavor of the era. Phonostylistic means give expressiveness to the work, and the language of symbols creates additional hidden meanings. The identified linguistic means organize the artistic and semantic space of the poetic work, reflect the author’s unique way of conceptualization of reality. It is proved that the ground of the basic mental model is the conceptual metaphorical model «sleep», incorporating a conceptual matrix characterized by certain semantic features. The research results enhance understanding of the metaphorical modeling mechanism in poetic texts at the microsystem level, the role of conceptual metaphor in the representation of individual knowledge about the world.