Примењена лингвистика у част Ранку Бугарском - Језик у

Zoltán Kövecses: IDIOMS, METAPHORS, AND MOTIVATION IN FOREIGN ...
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He was spitting fire.
The fire between them finally went out.
The painting set fire to the composer’s imagination.
The killing sparked off riots in the major cities.
He was burning the candle at both ends.
The bank robber snuffed out Sam’s life.
The speaker fanned the flames of the crowd’s enthusiasm.
The idioms in the examples all have to do with fire in its various aspects: the initial
stage of fire (set fire to), the final stage of fire (snuff out), the use of an energy
source (burn the candle at both ends), the maintenance of the intensity of fire
(fan the flames), the danger of the high intensity of fire (spit fire), etc. As we can
see, in addition to the word fire the idioms employ a number of other words from
the domain of fire (flame, set fire to, snuff out, burn, etc.). We can conclude from
this that it is not particular words but the entire conceptual domain of fire that
participates in the creation of such idioms.
In the examples above, we use the domain of fire for the understanding
of several distinct abstract concepts. For example, the idiom spit fire is used to
understand the concept of anger; hence the ‘conceptual metaphor’ anger is fire.
Other examples point to other conceptual metaphors:
The fire between them finally went out. – love is fire
The painting set fire to the composer’s imagination. – imagination is fire
The killing sparked off riots in the major cities. – conflict is fire
He was burning the candle at both ends. – energy is fire
The bank robber snuffed out Sam’s life. – life is fire
The speaker fanned the flames of the crowd’s enthusiasm. – enthusiasm is fire
Such fire-related idioms are not single, distinct expressions but form a part of
conceptual metaphors, each manifested by additional linguistic examples. Below
are some other instances of linguistic metaphors (though not necessarily idioms)
that belong to the conceptual metaphors:
anger is fire
After the row, he was spitting fire.
Smoke was coming out of his ears.
He is smoldering with anger.
She was fuming.
Boy, am I burned up!
love is fire
The fire between them finally went out.