Source domain of cognitive metaphor: status quo and prospects of research
The paper is devoted to the problem of studying а source domain of cognitive metaphors in linguistics. The authors analyze in detail the data on а source domain of metaphor, which G. Lakoff and M. Johnson set forth in the book “Metaphors We Live By.” G. Lakoff and M. Johnson emphasize the target domain because it is the result of a metaphorical process. This fact has largely determined that in modern Russian metaphorology, only the target domain is the object of research. The authors of this works use the data on the source domain as self-evident that do not need to be studied. In addition, these data are given only to reveal the results of the metaphor, that is, to describe the target domain. The researchers tend to provide the characteristic of the source domain as a by-product, not the object of the study. Knowledge of the source domain is fundamental and thus extremely important for a full and adequate characterization of the cognitive process. Identifying the composition and content of basic knowledge will allow verifying the conclusions about the target domains that linguists have already made; establishing the characteristics of individual objects and integral fragments of reality that are most important for this culture; revealing how they are conceptualized. These results should be taken into account in the study of language meanings and language picture of the world.