МЕТАФОРИКА ЛИТОВСКОГО И СЛОВЕНСКОГО ПОЛИТИЧЕСКОГО ДИСКУРСА
METAPHORS IN LITHUANIAN AND SLOVENIAN POLITICAL DISCOURSE

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this article is to analyse and compare the metaphorical system identified in Lithuanian and Slovenian political discourse. The authors asserts that the nature of the conceptual metaphors and the way they are reflected in certain discourse can determine a value system of the society and its preferences as well as its tendencies. Furthermore, it is found that various metaphors can differently reflect national stereotypes. With a view to the target of the discourse analysis of the cognitive linguistics it is argued, that conceptual metaphors have a significant impact on society as they might implant certain images into mass consciousness. That makes them a significant tool for perceiving and/or constructing the reality, herewith manipulation. The article examines a virtual political discourse. A corpus of news articles published in 2008 that topicalise contemporary election campaign in Lithuania and Slovenia is investigated. The main theoretical approach used in the analysis is developed by A. P. Chudinov. The study reveals that Lithuanian and Slovenian political discourses make use of similar sets of the (most distinct) conceptual metaphors, namely POLITICS IS WAR, POLITICS IS SPORT and POLITICS IS JOURNEY. This confirms our predications, that being comparable in many aspects (political system, history, economic situation) both discourses should have developed analogous mental constructs. Nevertheless, while these conceptual metaphors are often represented by similar lexical units, there are significant differences within these structures. It can be suggested that the developed general political climate and degree of stability and wellbeing in the community determine variations within the same conceptual metaphor. The article argues that Lithuanian political discourse is reflecting a certain degree of the confrontation, hostility and mistrust. Slovenian, on the other hand, has a tendency to consolidation as well as more noticeable self-discipline and self-confidence. The findings indicate that differences of the analysed discourses are determined by the political realia, as well as a metaphorical structure of the basic concepts in given societies. KEY WORDS: cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor, Lithuanian political discourse, Slovenian political discourse, contrastive analysis, national stereotypes.

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