Construcciones esquemáticas metafóricas en inglés y alemán actuales.

Abstract

Embodiment is the key point in Cognitive Linguistics´ view of metaphor. With this term, meaning is understood as being grounded on the nature of our bodies and our perception, on our interaction with the physical, social, and cultural environment that surrounds us. The main experience of every human being is the perception of its body, since we are well-aware of its parts, of the functions they carry out, of its position in relation with the world, etc. The body constitutes the essential thing of our being and we communicate and interact with the world through it. According to Johnson (1987: xv), metaphors are grounded on our bodily experience with the world, experience that is translated into schemata. In this article, the Cognitive Metaphor Theory is placed within the more general frame of Cognitive Linguistics and this one within the Cognitive Science in general, focusing on the main elements that constitute it. We will pay special attention to image schemas as the basic structures of cognition, followed by the more complex structures of Idealized Cognitive Models (ICM). For this purpose, we will take English and German examples whose metaphoric basis is formed by the noun heart/herz.