Miejsce metafor w badaniach nad komunikacją

In: Folia philosophica, Heft 25, S. 171-180

Abstract

The purpose of the present paper is to discuss several metaphorical conceptualizations of the
phenomenon of communication from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. Apart from the
purely linguistic and philosophical issues, the article touches upon the questions that concern the
process of teaching and learning a foreign language (especially the so called "radically different
one"). The thesis about our essentially metaphorical understanding of the phenomenon of
communication, widely acknowledged in cognitive linguistics, is supported by empirical data
drawn from Arabic and several Indo-European languages. Subsequently, the thesis is taken as a
point of departure for discussing such issues as the problem of cross-linguistic variation of
metaphors and their biological motivation. The paper consists of three sections: the first one
examines the metaphor of communication as transfer, the second considers the metaphor of
communication as enlightening, whereas the third presents some philosophical observations. The
most important conclusion that is drawn here has it that the potential universality of various
metaphorical conceptualizations is a very useful heuristic and didactic tool, for the existence of a
common ground between languages that are genetically unrelated makes it possible not only to
account for the ease with which certain elements of the target language can be translated into the
source language, but also to hypothesize about the general mechanisms that are responsible for
understanding and acquiring the (radically) different target language. Needless to say, such
hypotheses are of paramount importance for the process of teaching and learning a foreign
(especially radically different) language.