Levels of Schematicity in Metaphorical Animal Nicknames: The Case Study of Koczkodan Nickname in Polish

Anna Dąbrowska

doi:10.18290/rh23716.3

Published : 2023-08-31

Vol. 71 No. 6 (2023)

Levels of Schematicity in Metaphorical Animal Nicknames: The Case Study of Koczkodan Nickname in Polish

Anna Dąbrowska

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7170-4070

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rh23716.3

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to recognise the contemporary meaning of the nickname koczkodan in Polish [English: hag, frump; literally: a vervet monkey], based on extracts of real discurse taken from the Polish Corpus. This meaning has been obtained by examining the metaphors underlying the nickname, which are motivated by various contextual factors, e.g. the speaker’s gender and discourse registers in which the phrase is pronounced. Accordingly, the working CMT-CMA hybrid model is applied for the purpose of the study, which derives both from the extended view of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and from the discursive and critical view of metaphor within Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA). The results obtained in the study reveal that the meaning of the koczkodan nickname is based on six metaphorical dynamic structures organised hierarchically, from the most schematic image schema that emerges at the very moment when the speaker needs to use the nickname, through more detailed metaphors at the levels of domains and frames, until the level of mental spaces is reached. This level is of great importance for the new meaning of the koczkodan nickname, as the integration of two incompatible input spaces (animal and human characteristics) are blended to form one single space. This results in the generation of a novel meaning of koczkodan in Polish, which makes reference not only to one’s physical ugliness but also to one’s evil character traits.

Keywords:

animal, metaphor, mental spaces, discourse, corpus study, koczkodan

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