THE USAGE OF METAPHOR IN MODERN ENGLISH (CASE STUDY OF THE ECONOMIC TEXTS OF THE ANGLO-AMERICAN PRESS)

Abstract

It’s common knowledge that metaphor is one of the widely-used expressive means of the English Language. Metaphor is described as the transfer of the name from one object or person to another based on the supposed likeness of some feature of the two. In Modern Linguistics metaphor is considered to be not only a stylistic device (a feature of a language) but also a mode of thinking defining to some extent our perception of the world. So, metaphor in modern linguistics is a much more intricate and mysterious phenomenon than it was thought to be before. In most cases the research of metaphor is based on a fundamental idea of Aristotle – the idea of the transfer of the name based on the likeness of the two compared objects or things. The article under consideration seeks to present the usage of metaphor in special texts. The number of research studies on metaphor is enormous. And it presents some difficulties in the exploration of this linguistic phenomenon. The given article studies the peculiarities and specific characteristics of the metaphor used in economic texts of Anglo-American press. It should be noted that metaphor is permeable in everyday life and plays an indispensible role in defining the way people perceive the world and the way we react to the world. As Lakoff and Johnson (1993) observe, metaphor is now a concept with multidisciplinary implications and its use has been found “in virtually every aspect of human thought: physical science, biological science, economics, law, political theory, psychology, art, philosophy, business and morality”. Thus, the study aims at investigating the use of metaphor in anglo-american periodicals with some special emphasis on the science of economy in which the examples of metaphor can often be found.