Metaphorical modelling in scientific historical text (on the material of The Complete Course of Russian Historyby S.F. Platonov)

The paperprovides analysis of functions of the metaphor in scientific historical texts. The system of metaphorical models actualised in the systemof image nominations in the text of The Complete Course of Russian History by S.F. Platonov. The relevance of investigation of systemsof metaphorical nominations of scientific texts is determined firstly by the interest of modern linguistics in studying deep cognitivemechanisms and their language representations in textual structures of various discourses. Cognitive linguistics begins a new stage ofstudying the character of speech and intellectual activity. The language itself is not considered as a separate isolated system but rather asa part of a whole, a part of a linguamental mechanism. The analysis of cognitive processes, which lie in the basis of generation of linguisticunits of various levels as well as in the basis of speech generation processes, is one of the main objectives of modern cognitivelinguistics. Researches in this field develop the concept that there is a mutual dependence between cognitive and language structures,moreover, the language form does not merely reflect cognitive mechanisms, but rather takes an active part in their organization. Themetaphor plays an important role among language forms of representation of cognitive processes. One of the main aspects of metaphor,which is in the focus of latest scientific researches, is its semantic modelling capability. Secondly, the relevance of the subject of researchrepresented in this paper is determined by the fact that development of cognitive science in the end of the 20th again raised theproblem of scientific thinking patterns in relation to the opposition of patterns of reflection of reality for mathematics, humanities andnatural sciences, as well as in relation to the role of certain scientific thinking pattern in cognition. The problem of scientific cognitionpatterns in turn brings up the problem of language marking, which is solved using the theory of conceptual metaphor. This paper is focusedon studying functions of conceptual metaphors represented in the system of image lexical nominations in scientific historicaltexts. The subject of the research in this paper is the metaphorical modelling of the process of historical reality, represented in the scientifictext. The objective of the research is to analyse the metaphorical representation of historical process by a Russian historian S.F.Platonov represented in The Complete Course of Russian History, as well as to determine the ways of metaphorical reflection of specificinterpretation of the historical process by this author, particularly, his image of the stages of political, economic and cultural developmentof his country, his attitude to authorities and people, their living conditions and response to important events in their country.

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