Cognitive metaphor as means of conceptual formation

The present article deals with the analysis of the cognitive metaphor as a means of cognition and conceptual formation – the basic mental operation connecting conceptual domains. The article considers the relation of the metaphor to categorisation processes and defines the nature of the metaphor as mapping one conceptual domain onto another. As exemplified by structuring the “London-as-prison” metaphor, the article provides alternative descriptions of the metaphoric transfer in terms of distinguishing more general imageschemas than the domains juxtaposed (in particular, Fauconnier and Turner’s theory of blending). The article also elucidates the epistemological status of the metaphor – it is regarded as an explicating scheme and a means of constructing possible worlds. Singled out are a number of factors necessitating a joint study of concepts and metaphoric mechanisms: the metaphor forms the concept, while the knowledge of the conceptual system allows for new metaphoric formations; the metaphor connects various conceptual layers, levels and strata; the metaphor gives access to the latent levels of the concept and of the conceptual system as a whole; the metaphor ensures the interconnection between concepts and the distribution of knowledge from one cognitive paradigm to another; both the metaphor and the concept are of dynamic nature and defy the rules of classic logic. As the metaphor provides for the transfer of meaning and the formation of conceptual features, the article comes up with its semantic description in terms of seme actualisation / neutralisation and building isotopies. The article has been written within the scope of a broader research into the London text of the English linguistic and literary tradition and constitutes a part of its theoretical basis.