Metaphorical verbalization of the concept domestic politics in the United Kingdom parliamentary debates

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Cherkasy National Bohdan Khmelnytsky University

Theory and practice of translation department

Metaphorical verbalization of the concept domestic politics in the United Kingdom parliamentary debates

PhD in Linguistics, Senior Lecturer

Oksana Ivanivna

Annotation

This article focuses on the basic metaphorical representation used to verbalize the concept DOMESTIC POLITICS in the political discourse of the parliamentary debates in the UK. In general political sphere is characterized by high metaphoricity that gives more significance to the information and intensifies its importance. The research demonstrates how the British MPs use the universal metaphorical representation of politics as a plant and way / road to represent the domestic politics. It also deals with the metaphors ' influence on their day-to-day parliamentary work and the procedure of the debates. The formation of these metaphors is studied with the help of propositional and metaphoric modeling, as well as contextual-interpretational and componential analysis. The propositional modeling aims to define the structure of propositions in the source domains PLANT, WAY/ROAD and in the target domain POLITICS. The metaphoric modeling helps to explain the mechanism of source and target domains ' integration and the peculiarities of source domain and the target domain realization in the UK parliamentary debates. It determines cognitive background and extralinguistic factors influencing the usage of the metaphoric models in the British parliamentary debates. It deals with the Hansards that represent the events and phenomena of the post-Thatcher period discussed during the debates in the UK parliament.

Key words: concept, metaphor, parliamentary debates, source domain, target domain, propositional structure, metaphorical meaning.

Modern linguistics concentrates on different discursive practices, among which constant focus of scholars' attention is given to the political discourse. This type of discourse is characterized by the high role of metaphorical representations as is formed by the number of metaphorical concepts. G. Lakoff and M. Johnson propose the concept of metaphor, stating that our ordinary conceptual system is fundamentally metaphorical in nature [1, 3]. These linguists determine the essential role of concepts of metaphor proving it by the idea that a large proportion of people's most commonplace thoughts make use of an extensive, but unconscious, system of metaphorical concepts that are reflected in everyday language. As our social and political reasoning makes use of this system, any adequate appreciation of social and political thought requires an understanding of this system of metaphorical concepts [2, 178]. Co-existance of the universal, ethnical, group and individual concepts, their combination in the collective or individual consciousness enable the understanding of every individual on the basis of a certain sign system and socially and culturally marked activity [3, 296-7]. The result of the constant knowledge interchange between humans is turning concept from individual, personal formation into collective knowledge that brings some corrections to the content of the personal knowledge [4, 8]. Understanding such basic concepts and getting into their language representation via language signs provide better insight into the other culture, traditions and ethnos.

Overview of the last researches. The mechanism and processes of the reality conceptualization are topical issues for the linguistic studies. The definition of concept as a cognitive structure and the main means of reality conceptualization is considered in the works by N. Arutynova, O. Vorobyova, O. Kubryakova, M. Minskyi, O. Selivanova, Ed. Sapir, J. Stemin, B. Whorf, Ch. Fillmore etc. The analysis of metaphors as a way of concepts' verbalization in the political sphere, their peculiarities and functions are provided in the works of many famous linguists, such as J. Lakoff, M. Johnson, C. Kennedy, A. Mussolff, G. Pocheptsov, H. Ortega-and-Gasset, J. Zinken etc. At the same time the metaphors served for concepts' verbalization in the political discourse of the UK parliamentary debates in terms of cognitive modeling have never been the subject matter of linguistic investigations. This fact determines the novelty of the article, the topicality of which is specified by the general direction of modern linguistics towards studying the language processes projection into the ethnic consciousness' ontology and cognition.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the basic political metaphors used for the verbal representation of the macro concept DOMESTIC POLITICS in the political discourse of the UK parliamentary debates. It fulfills such tasks as defining metaphors, their analysis on the language material and characteristics of the factors influencing their peculiarities in the political interactions during the parliamentary debates. The basic methods used in this paper are the metaphoric modelling that helps to better understand the mechanism of source and target domains' integration and the propositional modelling that helps to define the structures of propositions in the domains. One more method is the contextual-interpretational analysis used to interpret the text fragments that contain metaphoric lexemes.

Presentation of the basic material. The notion of concept is in the constant focus of linguistic attention. Linguists state that the concept is the generalized sense existing in a certain spiritual culture and it can have various language representations [5, 27]. Some scientists consider the complete verbalization of concepts, but O.S. Kubryakova thinks that the most important concepts are represented in the language signs but the part of the information is realized in the mentality completely differently, i.e. via other mental representations - images, pictures, schemes [6]. Thus, concept is defined as a quant of experience that has image-like representation [7], it can correlate with visual images, mental models and propositional structures [8,144].

Here, according to the definition provided by O. O. Selivanova, the concept is determined as an informational structure of consciousness, it is an organized unit of memory that possesses the number of verbal and non-verbal knowledge about the object of cognition and is based on five psychic functions of the consciousness in their interaction with the unconscious [3].

In general, the ways of the concept's language representation are determined by the language system that provides for conceptualization. However, conceptualization is a dynamic and less stable process than language changes. Every historical stage in the development of any ethnos brings changes to the processes of conceptualization due to the modifications in ideology, moral norms, evaluations and values. But cultural traditions of the material and spiritual levels of ethnos' existence are unchangeable [3, 296].

The basic concepts in the political sphere are predetermined by the peculiarities of the ideology, moral, norms, evaluations and values accepted by the society as well as the political, economic and social situation on a certain stage of the ethnos' development. Thus, the basic macro concept DOMESTIC POLITICS is verbalized in the political discourse of the UK parliamentary debates by a set of metaphorical representations, the most widespread of which are the politics as plant and as way / road. These metaphors reflect the urgent problems concerning the whole nation and discussed during the debates in the UK parliament.

The development of the economic policy is typically associated with growth. Thus, metaphorical model POLITICS as PLANT is definitely one of the basic in the political discourse of the UK parliamentary debates. It is widespread both during the Conservative and Labour lead in the parliament. Usually growth is compared to the economic development of the country. For example, in the analyzed fragment of the debates the noun growth correlates with various semantic roles in the propositional structure of the target domain POLITICS:

The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Mrs Theresa Villiers): A The Government's priority is to return the UK economy to sustainable, balanced growth. В To achieve that we are tackling the deficit and creating the conditions for private sector investment and growth. C Such investment and growth is critically needed to rebalance the Northern Ireland economy, and we shall work in close partnership with the Northern Ireland Executive to achieve it (24 Oct 2012 : Column 911).

In the first communicative move A this lexeme is a representative of resultative as the consequence of the taken measures and actions for the development of the UK economy. In the second communicative move B it is the representative of the object towards which an action is directed, i.e. several conditions specially created for the country's development. In the third communicative move C this language sign correlates with the term of meditative as a certain indirect instrument that serves as a basis for the purposeful actions to balance the economy of Northern Ireland. The process of metaphor creation is based on the analogy between improvement in the economic sphere and plants' growth. This analogy has positive evaluation in both source and target domain.

Metaphorical representation of politics as plant implemented by the lexical unit growth is typical for the political discourse of the UK parliamentary debates. As a result, the growth of the regional infrastructure presupposes tremendous “growth of the political initiatives”:

Chris Ruane: Less consensually, the chief economist of the Northern Bank last week said:

“Ed Balls and Vernon Coaker were correct this week in asserting that Northern Ireland requires strong growth initiatives now, not later. As well as government investment on infrastructure, Northern Ireland needs demand stimulating policies such a VAT reduction and tax breaks for local companies taking on more workers. These are the initiatives that are needed to create jobs”. Does the Secretary of State agree? (24 Oct 2012 : Column 910 - 911).

The language sign growth is determined as the level of quality in the propositional structure of the target domain POLITICS. Its usage helps to emphasize the necessity to increase the political and financial initiatives for the development of Northern Ireland. The intensification of its meaning is provided on the basis of the expressive adjective strong in the meaning “effective; of a good quality or level and likely to be successful” [9]. This metaphor serves to strengthen the argumentation for unity of the participants' thoughts in the political communication.

Metaphor of politics as plant intensifies the meaning of communicants' replies. So, the idiom root and branch is formed due to the borrowing of the lexical units root, branch from the source domain PLANT. It receives the metaphorical meaning “utterly, entirely” [10] within the political sphere to focus on the complete rejection of the oppositional Labour party from the suggested political programme. This idiom corresponds to the level of quality in the propositional structure of the target domain POLITICS:

Mr. Howard: My hon. Friend is entirely right. I know that he will be particularly pleased to learn that the first contract for a secure training unit was signed on 3 March this year. We can now implement that policy, which, as my hon. Friend rightly said, was opposed root and branch by the Opposition parties.

Metaphorical representation of politics as way / road is reflected in different fragments of participants' interactions during the debates. For instance, discussion of the national health care system suggests working out the ways out from the existing crisis. The communicant proposes to “pave the way” for changes, i.e. to announce the reforms in the health care system. The idiom pave the way expresses the possibility to implement or realize something planned before (if something paves the way for / to something else, it makes the other thing possible [9]) and correlates with the predicate of action and mediative in the proposition of the target domain POLITICS:

Heidi Alexander (Lewisham East) (Lab): The Minister is an intelligent man, and I know he will be talking to the same senior NHS leaders I talk to. Deep down, he knows that this contract has nothing to do with seven-day services and everything to do with setting a precedent to save money on the NHS pay bill-change the definition of unsociable hours in this contract and pave the way for changing it for nurses, porters and a whole host of other NHS staff. Am I wrong, Minister? (24 Mar 2016 : Column 1755)

During the other discussion this metaphor widens via the borrowing of the language sign wander away to the target domain POLITICS. This representation is caused by the association between the attempt to avoid discussing a political hot potato and the attempt to quickly escape, run away from a certain place:

Bill Esterson: I think we are in danger of wandering away from the subject-- [Interruption.] I have no idea why Conservative Members find that funny, but there we are. Obviously, the hon. Gentleman and the Democratic Unionist party are particularly exercised by that matter, among others, but I dare say that this is something that the Minister can pick up on, perhaps on another day (HC Deb 3 September 2014 : Column 256).

Within the source domain WAY / ROAD the phrasal verb wander away denotes “move slowly away from a fixed point or place ” [11] and during the process of its borrowing into the target domain POLITICS this word gets contextual meaning “avoid doing something” and starts to correlate with the resulting predicate in the propositional structure of this domain. In this case the usage of the metaphor of politics as way / road attracts attention and returns to the topic under discussion.

Attention-getting is provided by the implementation of the phrase in danger of used in the metaphorical meaning “in a situation when something unexpected undesirable is possible” (in the contrast with the direct meaning “in a situation in which loss of life or serious harm is possible” [12]) to intensify the meaning of the phrase. This phrase in the political sphere causes the analogy between the situation when a person is in a real danger and the possible threat to avoid solving the discussed issue in the parliament.

Discussion of the stages in the protection and development of the UK culture after Brexit is compared with the steps on the way to the development. The participants of the debates argue about the steps on the way to get rid of discrimination in sports where male prevail:

Maria Eagle (Garston and Halewood) (Lab) : What steps she is taking to protect the interests of cultural industries after the UK exits the EU (HC Deb 14 September 2017 Column 628)

Vicky Foxcroft (Lewisham, Deptford) (Lab): What steps her Department is taking to tackle discrimination in sport (HC Deb 21 September 2017 : Column 920)

Lexeme steps that has a direct meaning “an act or movement of putting one leg in front of the other in walking or running” [11], is taken from the source domain WAY / ROAD to the political sphere in its new metaphorical meaning “a measure or action, especially one of a series taken in order to deal with or achieve a particular thing” [11]. It is a correlator of predicate of action in the propositional structure of this domain.

metaphorical political discourse parliamentary

Conclusions

Detailed analysis of the metaphorical representation of politics as plant and way / road demonstrates that they can contextually bear both positive and negative evaluation. These metaphors are primarily used by the opponents in the political communication for positive self-representation and critical remarks towards the others. The perspective of the further investigations is in the detailed description of other metaphorical models, their peculiarities and extralinguistic factors influencing their functioning in the UK parliamentary debates.

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