„Antropomorfizarea” timpului în imaginarul românesc (în baza elementelor discursului repetat)
The “Anthropomorphization” of Time in the Romanian Imaginary (based on elements of repeated discourse)

Author(s): Lilia Trinca
Subject(s): Social Sciences, Language and Literature Studies, Literary Texts
Published by: Biblioteca Ştiinţifică a Universităţii de Stat Alecu Russo
Keywords: cognitive metaphor; repeated discourse; temporality; linguistic imaginary; paremio-logical units
Summary/Abstract: The article examines the way time is humanized in the Romanian imaginary through elements of repeated discourse (proverbs, sayings, and phraseological expressions), which are regarded as privileged archives of collective mentalities. Within a theoretical framework that integrates cognitive linguistics (conceptual metaphor theory) and ethnolinguistics, the study shows that the personification of time is grounded in structural metaphors such as TIME IS SPACE, TIME IS MOTION, TIME IS A RESOURCE, and TIME IS A FORCE, which enable the emergence of the complex metaphor TIME IS A PERSON. An analysis of a corpus of proverbs selected from the Zanne editions of the Dictionary of Romanian Proverbs and Sayings highlights three central avatars of time as an agent: time as healer (the healing and integration of suffering), time as teacher (formation through experience and the sanctioning of delay), and time as judge (the revelation of truth and axiological reordering). The suggested conclusion is that the humanization of time configures a cultural grammar specific to Romanian temporality, thus confirming the thesis of cognitive linguistics regarding the role of metaphors in organizing abstract experience.

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