Euphemistic metaphors in english and spanish epitaphs. A comparative study
Following the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory, it is the aim of this paper to analyse the conceptual organization underlying death-related metaphorical expressions in English and Spanish. With this in mind, this paper explores the similarities and differences in metaphors on a sample of epit...
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2013 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha |
| Repositorio: | RUIdeRA. Repositorio Institucional de la UCLM |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ruidera.uclm.es:10578/6691 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://www.atlantisjournal.org/index.php/atlantis/article/view/16 https://hdl.handle.net/10578/6691 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Eufemismo Metáfora conceptual Tabú a la muerte Epitafios Conceptual metaphor Cross-cultural conceptualisations Epitaph Euphemism Taboo of death |
| Sumario: | Following the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory, it is the aim of this paper to analyse the conceptual organization underlying death-related metaphorical expressions in English and Spanish. With this in mind, this paper explores the similarities and differences in metaphors on a sample of epitaphs from Highgate Cemetery (London, UK) and from the Cemetery of Albacete (Albacete, Spain). As epitaphs are a breeding ground for death-related euphemism, this cross-linguistic study focuses on the different euphemistic conceptual metaphors aiming at substituting the notions of death and dying upon the gravestones in both cemeteries. The results obtained reveal that the processes of conceptualization of the topic of death are very similar in nature in both languages. Indeed, in most of the epitaphs the conceptualizations used imply a positive value-judgment of human mortality, whereas source domains with negative connotations are less frequent. The metaphorical models of death in English and Spanish also exhibit some differences: while the English epitaphs are relatively optimistic towards death, the Spanish ones bear a profound burden of political meaning and are more strongly influenced by the Christian tradition. |
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