Ewolucja konceptu ‘twarzy’ jako nośnika ‘godności i honoru’ w polszczyźnie
The evolution of the concept of ‘face’ as a carrier of ‘dignity and honour’ in Polish

Summary/Abstract: Perceived as the most important part of human body, face is the basis for numerous metaphorical and metonymic extensions in most languages. The article aims to analyse one such metonymy in Polish, FACE FOR DIGNITY, expressed in phraseological units such as utracić/ocalić twarz ‘lose/save face’ and their semantic equivalents. Metonymy and metaphor are seen here through the prism of cognitive linguistics as primarily conceptual phenomena. The analysis is based on corpus data (NKJP, Chronopress, MONCO). There are a few studies on metaphorical and metonymic expressions with the face component in Polish, but an analysis of the metonymy FACE FOR DIGNITY in Polish in a diachronic perspective has been missing. Phraseological units such as utracić/ocalić twarz ‘lose/save face’ are relatively recent borrowings in Polish. Therefore, the concept is not universal but was assimilated into our culture only towards the end of the 20th century.

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