Abstract
In this article we will analyze, in a delimited corpus of narrative production, how the notion of time is organized in complex interaction with our cognitive conceptual system. The analyzed corpus belongs to the novel Der Zauberberg by Thomas Mann, which is a masterpiece of this author. The aim is to map the metaphorical network that projects the concept TIME in Der Zauberberg. A metaphorical system refers to the network of metaphors that looms over a concept to co-create it. Different authors have studied the organization of these metaphorical systems, especially in the domain of emotions (Barcelona, 1986; Lakoff & Kövecses, 1987). In order to bring to light the metaphorical system of Der Zauberberg, we have extracted the complete set of metaphorical expressions of TIME from the German original version of Der Zauberberg. These expressions have been located and systematized according to the conceptual metaphor to which they belong. We have been categorizing the linguistic expressions of the corpus of study, following the typology of Lakoff and Johnson (1980) and their developments. This study builds on relevant research questions and findings on how metaphorical networks work and also how they co-create a concept, which is, in this case, the concept of TIME (Zeit).
Highlights
1) As we can observe in the diagram (C), in the analyzed corpus of Der Zauberberg, we clearly see that all metaphorical expressions describing time are based on conceptual metaphors
As we can see in the previous diagram all the metaphors studied refer to a particular conceptual metaphor, including those metaphors we have considered to be “creative metaphors”
19Figure 2—The corpus studied in our thesis was both from the original novel in German, as well as from the Spanish translation, as the thesis was written in Spanish, this allowed us a further comparative perspective of the conceptual metaphors in both languages which will be published in a separate article. (See references in Bibliography)
Summary
We agree with Koopman’s view in the sense that surely Mann’s philosophical reflections and responses can only be seen in the referential framework of the time he lived; but the reflections he makes about the nature of time in particular cannot be matched to a given time, quite the opposite, they are still a subject of study today, and in addition, his way of artfully configuring time in narratives, defined the Modernist novel On this matter, Thomas Mann creates a novel about time, taking into consideration time from these two points of view: on the one hand, the time in which the story takes place, and on the other hand, the time that the characters “feel”. From Cognitive Linguistics and Cognitive Poetics, and especially diagramming the metaphorical analysis of the concept time in the novel, we intend to answer this question: “Which unconscious mechanism is used to create the illusion that time has stopped in Davos Platz, the illusion of non-time?”
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