OSTATNIA PODRÓŻ - CZYLI POLSKA I FRANCUSKA METAFORYKA ŚMIERCI
THE LAST JOURNEY: POLISH AND FRENCH METAPHORS OF DEATH

Summary/Abstract: In the paper an attempt is made to describe the various aspects of linguistic means of expressing death. Similarities and differences between Polish and French are investigated.Several semantic groupings have been discriminated in the material collected: death as a journey, falling asleep, the turning point or a change in one's mode of existence, or plunging into darkness. Death is also seen as the 'flame of life1 going out, or a mechanism symbolizing the human organism which ceases to function. The motivation behind metaphorical meanings of phraseological units is culture-based and on the whole transparent. Ali set phrases contain the common element of' ‘the end (of something)’ and belong to the category constituted by the concept of change.Similarities between Polish and French linguistic imagery of death derive from the common background of European culture and the universality of human experience. Differences stem front dissimilar intellectual attitudes towards the phenomenon. The common reference points are Christianity, Greek and Roman mythologies, a dualistic view of the human being and the knowledge about the natural world.In both languages death is portrayed as falling asleep and a journey.In French phraseology, however, one can see a more conspicuous influence of the mechanistic view of the human being, a greater stress on social and legal aspects of death as well as the presentation of death from the perspective of everyday life. It also seems that in French grotesque and drastic elements in portraying death are more frequent and pronounced.

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