METAPHORS ON DEATH AND DYING IN SPANISH AND SERBIAN LANGUAGE
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Abstract
The aim of this paper is to highlight the phenomenon of death in Spanish and Serbian traditions and cultures by comparing metaphors on death and dying. The author aims to identify metaphorical mappings in these two languages, as well as to detect the ways of metaphorical conceptualization of the phenomenon of death. We proceeded from the assumption that a common Christian tradition (Orthodox in Serbian and Catholic in Spanish case) had influenced the way of Serbian and Spanish conceptualization of death. The same or similar religious traditions could reveal certain similarities in the contrastive analysis of the metaphors on death and dying.
The paper relies on the postulates of cognitive linguistics and the theory of conceptual metaphor. A metaphor represents the main mechanism in cognitive linguistics which allows us to understand abstract concepts and phenomenons we cannot see or touch. When the topic of death is concerned, it finds its place in cognitive linguistics because death is one of the biggest concerns of peope, seen as the biggest mystery of all, although, at the same time, we do not want to think too much about it.
The analysis suggests that metaphorical mapping for death are based on the Christian religious belief system (beliefs about immortality, eternal life, existence of Paradise and Hell, Judgment Day, God as the Creator...). These beliefs provide the basis for a series of metaphorical expressions that are common in both languages and cultures. These beliefs are form the basis of the metaphors: 'DEATH IS THE ETERNAL LIFE', 'DEATH IS A UNION / A MEETING WITH GOD', DEATH IS A DREAM / A REST', 'DEATH IS A TRAVEL / A DEPARTURE' and 'DEATH IS THE END'. These results do not surprise us bearing in mind that both nations belong to the European context and Christian traditions and cultures, nevertheless the question of the existence of the universal character of metaphorical mapping, that we found in both languages, still remains. The guidelines for some future research on this subject could be contrastive studies that would compare these languages with other languages that do not belong to the Jewish-Christian tradition.
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