Ein gutes Gewissen ist ein sanftes Ruhekissen... Bemerkungen über Phraseologismen mit dem Potenzial zum ethischen Bewerten

Abstract

This article examines the linguistic expression of moral values in selectedGerman phrasemes which have the potential for formulating judgements concerning humanattitudes based on ethical criteria. An attempt was made to identify factors affecting therobustness of that potential, the ways in which that potential is manifested, and the type ofrelationships between the analyzed phrasemes and moral values. The moral convictions oflanguage users that are embedded in the German language were also analyzed. The studydemonstrated that in colloquial German, morality is portrayed in an intellectual and emotivecontext as the essence of subjective human experience. Linguistic data confirm that moralnorms are perceived by language users as an objective truth that should be respected. Thepotential of phrasemes for passing ethical judgements stems from the relationship betweenphrasemes and their characteristic formal attributes, including their figurative and expressivemeaning. This potential is manifested explicitly or implicitly, and its perlocutionary strength isoften determined by the metaphorical motivation of a given phraseme. The analysis confirmedthat the potential of phrasemes is also influenced by the connotative dimension of the lexicon n specific phrasemes. In the most general and broadest sense, the potential of phrasemes forformulating ethical judgements about human attitudes is conditioned by the anthropocentricinterpretation of reality. The study revealed that phrasemes with a potential for making ethicaljudgements are bound by three types of relationships with morality: they should be regarded asa tool for assessing human attitudes, as a source of knowledge about moral values preferred by language users, and as carriers of moral values that are co-responsible for embedding thesevalues in collective memory. The results of this study have practical implications for researchin axiological linguistics and applied ethics.