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18PHILOLOGICAL SCIENCES
PROBLEMS OF METAPHOR RESEARCH IN GERMAN STUDIES
Mehdiyeva A.
Lankaran State University, Department of Foreign Languages and Translation,
Lankaran, Azerbaijan DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6532879
ABSTRACT
The main result of metaphorization is a metaphor. Metaphors can be studied from different angles. Metaphors can serve as a means of description and explanation in all areas. Wherever metaphor is used, it always enriches the understanding of human action, activity, knowledge, and language. The ubiquity of the metaphor is a key factor in confirming its relevance to various discourses. The conceptual approach to reality, its objects, and events have also given rise to the conceptual theory of metaphor. Within the conceptual theory of metaphor, man perceives the world in which he lives with the help of metaphor. Because metaphor reflects the interaction of thought and language, and because metaphor and metaphorization are studied from a discourse plan, the study of metaphor event and metaphorization in language has always been relevant. Research on metaphor dates back to antiquity and is one of the most widely studied problems today. Undoubtedly, this problem has not gone unnoticed in German studies, and a lot of research has been devoted to the issue of metaphor in German. In general, the theory of metaphor was created and developed in German studies. If the first idea of phraseology was put forward by a French linguist, and his theory was created by Russian linguists, the basis of the theory of metaphor was laid in German studies and developed mainly in German studies. Research shows that there are more primary scientific studies and works on metaphor in German studies than in other languages, and the study of metaphor from a theoretical and practical point of view is currently underway.
Keywords: metaphors, German studies, conceptual metaphor, dead metaphor, metaphorical resonance, figurative meaning, context.
Introduction. Research on metaphor dates back to antiquity and is one of the most widely studied problems today. Undoubtedly, this problem has not gone unnoticed in German studies, and a lot of research has been devoted to the issue of metaphor in German.
The metaphor has been initially the focus of the metaphorical system, and two types of metaphor and metaphor have been distinguished. An association between two units (images) belonging to different classes is a figurative association. Direct and figurative connections are revealed in the context. In some cases, the context may be a combination of two words.
The general meaning of the word is called "semantic invariant". It is through this common meaning that the different meanings are connected. The general meaning of the word is the core of the word.
Some of the meanings of polysemous words are formed based on semantic associations (metaphor, metonymy, functional transfer). In this case, the connection with the "common sense" or the main meaning is broken. Figurative meanings cannot act as semantic variants of general meaning.
Metaphor is created by humans, and in this way the relationship and connections between different fields of knowledge are compared in the human mind, creating a transition from one sphere to another. Two poles are used to create metaphor models. The unit of the semantic field standing at one of these poles is in its original, ie non-metaphorical sense, and at the other pole, it forms the field of metaphorical meaning. The issue of spatial metaphor can be approached in three ways. The first is the metaphorical representation of words that do not have a spatial meaning, the second is
the creation of spatial metaphors through the metapho-rization of spatial units, and the third is the metaphorical loss of a spatial lexeme.
Research study. The first fundamental study of the theory of metaphor in German studies belongs to Ernest Cassirer. The essence of metaphor is clarified in the chapter "The Power of Metaphor" in his "Philosophy of Symbolic Forms". The author emphasizes that the first important condition in the metaphor is the transfer of meaning from one object to another. In this case, the metaphorically meaningful object acquires mythological, sacred, religious value. The second factor for the metaphor is that it is a condition for the emergence of language and myth. According to Cassirer, language and myth are inextricably linked from the beginning. The main feature of the mythological metaphor is that it allows us to determine the essence and function of the metaphorical function of language. Still, Quantilian showed that this function is not part of the language that completely covers human speech. The metaphor should be seen not as a definition of a speech phenomenon, but as a form of its existence. In order to understand it, it is necessary to return to the process of creating concepts in language. The concentration of sensory experience creates the basis for the formation of every concept of language. It is not just a matter of transferring meaning from one object to another, of changing gender. E. Cas-sirer comes to the conclusion that in the ancient metaphor we are talking about the source of the concept and the verbalization of this concept. In the metaphor, the imagination does not expand, it is compressed and concentrated at one point. In this process, meanings are fil-
tered and collected in the focus of meaning. Out of focus, language and mythological concepts become invisible. [10, pp. 33-36]
In general, the theory of metaphor has been created and developed in German studies. If the first idea of phraseology was put forward by a French linguist, and his theory was developed by Russian linguists, the basis of the theory of metaphor was laid in German studies and developed mainly in German studies. Russian linguistics in this field has been actively involved in the development of various aspects of metaphor in different languages (Russian, German, English).
Since the middle of the twentieth century, the research of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson has extensively revealed the meaning, development, function, and role of metaphor, proving that metaphors are comprehensive, necessary, and can be used anywhere in our everyday language. Researchers write that metaphor is, for most people, a poetic (artistic) imagination and linguistic development, or rather a matter of language rather than ordinary language. In addition, metaphor is studied only as a feature of the language, that is, it is more a matter of words than thoughts or actions. For this reason, most people think that they can pass without a metaphor. But in our opinion, on the contrary, metaphor is widespread in our daily lives not only in language but also in thoughts and actions. Our ordinary system of perception is essentially metaphorical in nature in terms of our ability to think and act.
The concepts that control our thinking are not just a matter of our intellect. They also direct our daily activities to the most mundane details. Our perceptions shape what we perceive, how we find our way in the world, and how we interact with other people. Our system of understanding plays a central role in determining our daily realities. If we are right in thinking that our system of perceptions is metaphorical, then our way of thinking, living, and doing every day is more a matter of metaphor. [5, p. 3] According to them, our ordinary system of perception is metaphorical in nature, and metaphors are a cognitive structure that organizes how we perceive, think, and do.
Lakoff and Johnson exemplify the concept of argument - "dispute" and the conceptual metaphor "Argument is war" to give the impression that the concept is metaphorical and a concept that constitutes everyday activity, and note that this metaphor is reflected in our everyday language in various expressions:
Argument is war.
Your claims are indefensible.
He attacked every weak point in my argument.
His criticisms were right on target.
I demolished his argument.
I have never won an argument with him.
If you use that strategy, he'll wipe you out.
He shot down all of my arguments.
It is important to understand that we do not approach the argument as a term of war. Many of the things we do when we argue are partly in line with the concept of war. Although there is no physical battle, there is a verbal battle, the structure of the dispute, that is, attack, defense, counter-attack, and so on reflects this. This means that the metaphor of "argument is war"
is one of the things we live in this culture, it is the actions we take when we argue. [5, p.4] The essence of metaphor here is to understand and test one thing over another.
George Lakoff and Mark Johnson later write: The most important claim we have made so far is that metaphor is not just a matter of language. On the contrary, they claim that human thought processes are broadly metaphorical. By this, they mean that the conceptual system of man has a metaphorical structure and is defined as such. Metaphors, like linguistic expressions, are possible precisely because there are metaphors in the human system of understanding. [5, p.6]
Thus, for the first time, a new view of metaphor, which changed all aspects of a strong traditional theory coherently and systematically, was introduced in 1980 by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in his research Metaphors we live by. [5]Their concept is known as the cognitive linguistic theory of metaphor. Lakoff and Johnson were convinced that metaphor had a profound effect on both our thinking and our everyday language. In the theory of cognitive linguistics, metaphor is defined as the understanding of one conceptual field in terms of another conceptual field.
Richards' views on metaphor formed the basis of the theory of interaction, which was later developed by M. Blake. According to Richards, the metaphor is based on the acquisition of ideas and the interaction of ideas. He introduced the concepts of tenor (content) and vehicle (shell, cover) into the theory of metaphor. The first is the main subject of the metaphor, the second is the object to which the main subject is compared [7, pp. 48-50].
With the development of methodology and lexicology, systematization and grouping of knowledge about metaphors as metaphors and speech figures have been carried out p.3. Research in these areas has revealed the heterophonic nature of the metaphor, and stylistically classified the metaphor. Individual (occasional), general (longitudinal) and dead metaphors have been identified [11].
The issue of dead metaphors is reflected in the research of V. Gak and S. Balli. They showed three stages of the series of images. In the initial stage, the transfer retains the expression images. It is a concrete image of feeling, enlivens the imagination, clarifies the picture. After that, an emotional image is formed. As a result, the concrete content is deleted, leaving only the emotional tone. Finally, "dead" distorted images appear. The origin of this image by copying its meaning is revealed only by etymological analysis [2, p. 109].
The terms "metaphorical resonance" are used to group metaphors according to their stylistic significance [9, p. 12]. Metaphorical resonance is a phenomenon of changing the semantic amplitude of a word against the background of weakening the distributive power of words that make up a certain class. The semantic amplitude of a word is considered to be the expansion of its meaning depending on its distribution. The distributive power of a word is determined by the ability of the word to be expressed in other words in the syntactic order [9, p. 120].
The less metaphor is used, the stronger the metaphorical resonance and the weaker the destructive power is. Disturbed (dead) metaphors are characterized by a lack of novelty, notation in the dictionary, the magnitude of the destructive power.
Metaphors are structurally divided into short (knappe), medium and extended (ausgebaute) forms [8].
Resume. It should be noted that for about 2,500 years since the time of Aristotle, most scholars have approached metaphor as a linguistic phenomenon in which a word that has only one meaning can have a second meaning. However, from the middle of the 20th century, a new approach to the issue was reflected in the research of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. [5;6] The empirical study of metaphor became known as the conceptual metaphor theory and formed the basis of the study of metaphor. An influential anthology of recent empirical research is related to cognitive science, neurology, linguistics, psychology, philosophy, literary and cultural theories. At present, several modern linguists, such as Zoltan Koveczes [4], Raymond Gibbs [3], Gilles Fokonye, and M. Turner, have conceptually studied and continue to study various problems of metaphor-based on the ideas of Lakoff and Johnson.
Numerous concepts of metaphor and metaphoriza-tion have appeared in Russian German studies and the philology of other foreign countries. Attention is paid to the study of metaphor as a linguistic phenomenon based on the materials of works of art. In this work, several aspects and aspects of metaphor have been identified. The results of the analysis prove that metaphor and metaphorization are multifaceted phenomena and should be studied from different (formal, semantic, pragmatic, ethnocultural, psycholinguistic) aspects. The formal aspect of metaphor and metaphor is to replace the real meaning of the subject of speech with a figurative meaning.
The psychological side is that the substitution of the name allows the author to focus on certain features of the referent, which often serves to reveal the imagery, the inner world of the characters.
The nature of language is such that events take place within certain patterns. These events are associated with language systems - phonetic, grammatical, and lexical-semantic levels. One of the most important and interesting events in language related to the last level is the phenomenon of metaphorization. One of the main features of metaphorization is the ability of any
lexical unit to be used figuratively. The meaning created by the metaphor is new.
Metaphors and metaphors give words and expressions new meanings, semantic compression, expansion, and symbolism in language. This situation also occurs in connection with the change of denotation in the process of metaphor.
The process of metaphorization creates strong expressiveness. Expressiveness - manifests itself in attractive, effective, emotional, and expressive forms. Expressive speech has a strong effect on the reader's feelings and emotions, attracts attention, helps to better understand the content of the ideas and thoughts put forward. Strong logic, coherent words, and expressions, sentences always make the human mind effective, emotional, and expressive. In this case, the cognitive basis of metaphorization is determined.
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