Linguo-cognitive mechanisms of metaphorization in COVID-19 discourse (based on Russian-language media)

Abstract

The aim of the study is to prove the productivity of a military metaphor reflecting the perception of the situation of the fight against coronavirus as akin to a military battle. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that the systematization and interpretation of linguistic and conceptual metaphors in the structure and content of the COVID-19 mental frame have been carried out. As a result of the study, it was revealed that nominal metaphors provide access to the content of the frame, while verbal metaphors provide access to the frame scenario. The functionality of the frame is supported by conceptual metaphors. The most productive linguo-cognitive mechanisms of metaphorization that allow identifying the conceptual metaphors THE PANDEMIC IS WAR, THE CORONAVIRUS IS THE ENEMY are as follows: the use of military vocabulary with metaphorical meaning; substitution of the PANDEMIC, WAR, ENEMY, DISEASE concepts; the scenario “coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 poses a threat to human life” in the COVID-19 mental frame. In this mental frame, concepts are being replaced as the basis for manipulating linguistic consciousness, which suggests that the social mission for the media is to create semantic negativity of the PANDEMIC concept in the human cognitive sphere.