CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS WITH THE MEANING OF “CONSTRUCTION” IN RUSSIAN AND CHINESE POLITICAL DISCOURSE

Abstract

The article is devoted to a problem of conceptual metaphor with the meaning of “construction” in Russian and Chinese political discourse. The article provides examples of typical metaphors in different frames that are found in Russian-Chinese political discourse. According to the theory of conceptual metaphor and the theory of metaphorical modeling, a person can categorize fragments of a certain reality in the conceptual sphere of “construction” to reflect certain political realities. In the metaphorical model of “construction”, the source sphere contains everyday human ideas about “construction”, which are the source of metaphorical expansion; the target sphere is the goal of metaphorical expansion, that is, various difficult-to-understand political concepts. The human cognitive mechanism establishes correspondences between these two areas – metaphor allows conceptualizing and structuring the political sphere, highlighting the characteristics or relationships of certain political realities and giving emotional assessments. In the process of metaphorization, the processing of ideas of a naive picture of the world of a person in the sphere of “construction” is reflected, and thanks to metaphors, difficult to understand political concepts are perceived and acquired through direct experience and familiar everyday knowledge of a person.