Author: Anderson R.

Title: O krosskul’turnom skhodstve v metaforicheskom predstavlenii politicheskoi vlasti

Journal: Politicheskaia lingvistika.

Year: 2007

Volume: 21

Pages: 6-13

Language of publication: Russian

 

 

ANDERSON R.

 

ON A CROSS-CULTURAL RESEMBLANCE AMONG CERTAIN METAPHORS FOR POLITICAL POWER

 

 

The body supplies the basis for a wide variety of metaphors that humans use to commu­nicate the meaning of political power If a set of these metaphors drawn from widely scattered languages is sub­jected to close examination, they display a common feature. Their source domain is the bodily experience of seeing, which proceeds by distinguish­ing a figure against the ground composed of all other objects and then compiling the various figures into a com­posite that humans experience slightly later as a holistic visual image. In the case of each member of the set of metaphors to be examined, the original etymological form is a figure-ground meta­phor in which the wielders of politi­cal power are represented by some kind of figure visible against a ground constituted by those denied political power. Terminology to be discussed is drawn from Russian, English, Chinese, Arabic, Javanese and Wolof.