Conceptual Personification of Abstract Notions in the English-Language News Discourse
Author: Marina Sazonova (Moscow State Linguistic University, Russia)
Speaker: Marina Sazonova
Topic: Anthropological Linguistics
The (SCOPUS / ISI) SOAS GLOCAL COMELA 2022 General Session
Abstract
This research is devoted to the study of the personification of abstract concepts in the English-language news discourse. News discourse was investigated from different points of view by different scientists: van Dijk, Kovalchukova, Dobrosklonskaya, Negryshev, Krotova, Panchenko, Vorotnikova and Spodarets. However, the personification of abstract notions in English-language news discourse is considered for the first time, which determines the relevance of the work. Of the hypothetical 11 human qualities: the ability to have physical activity, to own property, to have speech activity, mental activity, sight, hearing, the ability to feel the touch, the ability to smell, to taste, to experience emotions and other human characteristics, geographical objects, we discovered only 8: the ability to see, the ability to have physical activity, the ability to think, the ability to own property, human characteristics, the ability to have speech activity, the ability to experience emotions and the ability to feel the touch. In this sample, the ability of abstract notions to hear, to smell, and to taste was not found.
Keywords: personification, abstract notions, conceptualization, news discourse, embodiment, brief news items, English-language press, mass media