Thematic and Agentive Construction of strah [Fear] in Croatian Derived from the Conceptualization of Spatial Relations Coded by Preposition u [in] Cover Image

Tematska i agentivna opojmljivanja „straha” izvedena iz unutarmjesnoga prostornog odnosa kodiranog prijedlogom „u”
Thematic and Agentive Construction of strah [Fear] in Croatian Derived from the Conceptualization of Spatial Relations Coded by Preposition u [in]

Author(s): Benedikt Perak
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics
Published by: Uniwersytet Adama Mickiewicza
Keywords: emotion; fear; spatial constructions; thematic constructions; agentive constructions; perspectivization; emergent system

Summary/Abstract: This article presents an emergent model of the conceptualization of strah (Fear) in Croatian with focus on the constructions derived from the container image schema coded by preposition u (in). the semantic and syntactic analysis of the collocations of lexeme strah demonstrates conceptual hierarchy of the activation of metonymic and metaphoric processes via syntactic organization and perspectivization. It is argued that the meaning of the lexeme strah is conceptualized by metonymic profiling sensory--motor correlates of affective states and by superimposing metaphorical mappings of objects, spatial relations, object/entities with thematic and agentive roles that are organized in an emergent system of respective ontological, spatial, thematic and agentive patterns of linguistic constructions.

  • Issue Year: 2015
  • Issue No: 09
  • Page Range: 333-352
  • Page Count: 20
  • Language: Croatian