Naslov
Metaphorical Construal of Happines in English and Croatian

Autori
Uremović, Marinko

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Ocjenski radovi, diplomski rad

Fakultet
Filozofski fakultet

Mjesto
Osijek

Datum
03.03

Godina
2004

Stranica
45

Mentor
Brdar, Mario

Ključne riječi
metaphor; metonymy; construal; cognitive linguistics; cognitive processes; mappings; contrastive linguistics

Sažetak
The paper compares metaphorical expressions of happiness in English and Croatian with the purpose of finding differences and similarities between them. The introductory part is concerned with a general approach to metaphor, and presenting in particular the cognitive linguistic view, as it the study of metaphors and metonymies is of central concern for this linguistic paradigm. The starting point for the paper is the assumption that metaphors and metonymies are basically conceptual in nature. Problems of translating metaphors and their universality were also discussed. In the contrastive part of the paper the goal was to check how happiness in conceptualised in English and Croatian. On the basis of the contrastive analysis of the corpus several conclusions can be drawn: 1. We can say that English and Croatian generally share all the conceptual metaphors presented in this paper. There are several reasons why this is the case. The more similar the culture and the civilisation of the users of two different languages, the greater resemblance there will be between the conceptual metaphors covered by their language. We can freely say that English and Croatian cultures have more in common, than do, say, English and Japanese. Due to these similarities we may say that Croatians and the English share the same social values. Thus, happiness is given a positive evaluation in both cultures. 2. One of the reasons for such similarities between English and Croatian metaphorical expressions is the fact that a large number of metaphorical expressions derive from behavioural and physiological responses to being happy. These responses are believed to be largely universal. Therefore, we can say that The English and Croatians will physically react similarly to emotions of happiness, i.e. they will smile, feel energetic, their eyes will be bright, etc. 3. Despite all these similarities between two languages, we can always expect find certain variations simply because no two languages are fully alike. Therefore, we can encounter differences when translating specific linguistic expressions. Sometimes we cannot provide a proper equivalent in the target language and we end up using either non-metaphorical expressions, or we use a different image that is more entrenched in the target language. This is chiefly a result of lexical differences between to languages, when one language does not have the right equivalent for the expression in the source language. Summing up, one can say that English and Croatian have, to a large extent, identical metaphorical expressions. These arise from similar experiential bases, universal physiological responses and similar social values.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Povijest

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