Meilės konceptas ir jo sinonimai lietuvių kalbos pasaulėvaizdyje
The concept of love and its synonyms in the world-view of the Lithuanian language

Summary/Abstract: The subject of this article is 108 cases of the usage of the word love (Lith. meilė) and its synonyms (crush, fondness, affection, passion, infatuation) found in the fiction and publicistics sections of the Corpus of the Contemporary Lithuanian Language. The tendencies of metaphorisation of the concept LOVE and its synonyms in the world-view of the Lithuanian language were established by structuring the conceptual metaphors: 1. The most productive source domain of the concept LOVE is the INANIMATE WORLD (NATURE) (29%). The conceptual metaphors LOVE IS FIRE (12.9%), LOVE IS THE SUN (6.5%), and LOVE IS WATER (4.8%) show that, in the world-view of the Lithuanian language, love is a pure feeling for it is compared with sacral elements of the Baltic religions: fire, sun, and water. 2. The second most productive source domain is MAN AS A PHYSICAL BEING (27.4%). The conceptual metaphor LOVE IS ACTION shows that, when it comes to the worldview of the Lithuanian language, love is not a passive observer, but rather an active force that drives the course of action. 3. The cases of usage that represent the source domains of ITEMS OF THE INANIMATE WORLD (19.4%) and PLANTS (4.8%) indicate that love is an unchecked feeling that requires a lot of effort and dedication from those in love. 4. The metaphorisation tendencies of the concept LOVE are similar to those of its synonyms (crush, affection, infatuation). Amidst the source domain of NATURAL PHENOMENA, the conceptual metaphors CRUSH, INFATUATION IS FIRE, and AFFECTION, INFATUATION IS WATER prevail. 5. The most productive source domain of the concept PASSION is the INANIMATE WORLD (NATURE) (40.5%). The underlying conceptual metaphors PASSION IS FIRE (24.9%), PASSION IS THE SUN (2.7%) and PASSION IS WATER (8.1%) show that passion (much like love) is compared to sacral elements of the Baltic religions: fire, sun, and water, only the sacral meaning is no longer there, and passion associates with the destructive spring. 6. The cases of usage that represent the conceptual metaphors PASSION IS THINGS, PASSION IS FOOD, PASSION IS WILD ANIMALS, and PASSION IS ACTION show that there is a negative emotional attitude towards passion in the world-view of the Lithuanian language. 7. The concept LOVE and its synonym passion share similar tendencies for metaphorisation. The source domain of NATURAL PHENOMENA is dominated by the conceptual metaphor LOVE/PASSION IS FIRE, while the source domain of MAN AS A PHYSICAL BEING, by the conceptual metaphor LOVE/PASSION IS ACTION. In the worldview of the Lithuanian language, love is a pure, strong, and eternal feeling, one that is tied with sacral elements of Baltic religions, while passion is defined as a strong yet fleeting emotion that has a destructive source. It can be said that Lithuanians value love and not passion. Of course, the scope of data does not facilitate making any major generalisations, yet the limited empirical material, too, can give insight into some clear tendencies, all the more as there have been not efforts to study the concept of LOVE in Lithuanian linguistics so far.

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