Kognitive Metapherntheorie und die Semantik der idiomatischen Mehrwortverbindungen

Abstract

There are numerous points of intersection between Cognitive Linguistics and phraseology. Of particular relevance is Cognitive Theory of Metaphor, which forms a generally accepted and indispensable approach to the description of metaphors and metonymies, which in turn constitute the most important mechanism of semantic irregularity formation. Nevertheless, Cognitive Theory of Metaphor is often criticised in German phraseology: it is considered too general for understanding the meanings of idiomatic multi-word units and too unspecific for taking cultural specifics into account in phraseology. This article argues that the postulated shortcomings of Cognitive Metaphor Theory result from two circumstances: (i) On the one hand, Cognitive Metaphor Theory in phraseological research is still fundamentally limited to its early standard version, without reference to more recent developments in metaphor theory in cognitive research and the diversity of phenomena referred to as metaphors. (ii) Secondly, previous theories explaining the processes of meaning constitution in phraseology are based on an a priori assumption that the meanings of idiomatic multi-word combinations arise from a single metaphorical or metonymic shift in meaning. In contrast, cognitive linguistics, in particular Langacker's Cognitive Grammar (2008), provides convincing evidence that meanings (conceptualisations) arise in a complex structure of different domains of knowledge and experience and are understood as mental routines. Accordingly, the meanings of idiomatic multi-word combinations also arise fundamentally from several metaphorical or metonymic models. The aim of this article is to present a proposal for a multifactorial modelling of the meaning constitution and motivation processes of figurative idioms from a cognitive perspective. Using the example of the idiom money slips through someone's fingers, it is shown how conceptual metonymies and metaphors of varying degrees of generality and schematicity, together with the mental images evoke, constitute and motivate the meaning of a figurative multi-word unit at the system level.