Frame architecture of the key textual metaphor in ''White Fang'' and ''The Call of the Wild'' by J. London

The article is devoted to the study of functioning of metaphor in the text of a work of fiction. Two works of Jack London are analyzed with the aim of bringing forth the frame system structuring the key textual metaphor. The study is conducted in the framework of lingual-cognitive approach to language. The paper makes use of the following terms: conceptual metaphor, construed as an association of two conceptual domains, one of which is structured in terms of the other; lexical metaphor, understood as a lexical unit resulting from the transfer of the name of one notion onto another, based on their likeness; key textual metaphor, which is the metaphor that unites the whole text of a work of literature, provides it with semantic and imagery coherence and organizes it on the derivational level. The key textual metaphor is essentially conceptual, and is implemented via a system of linguistic metaphorical models. A metaphorical model is both a linguistic and conceptual phenomenon. It is a unity of a mental scheme and the system of its linguistic representations, i.e. lexical metaphors. In order to represent the cognitive structure of metaphorical models, the format of frame structures (frames) is chosen. Frames are viewed as data structures for representing stereotypical situations. They are presented as networks of terminals or slots that can be filled with information. A scenario is a frame that allows to represent a certain situation as a succession of actions, processes and relations. At the core of a scenario are dynamic relations expressed with verbs that determine the possible terminals: subjects, objects and additional parts. For the purpose of describing scenarios we use the terminology of logical semantics. We introduce the notions of source frame and target frame of a metaphorical model. The source frame is a cognitive entity and its function is to structure a more abstract or absent target frame in the process of metaphorization. The terminals of source frame are filled on the basis of lexical implementations of the key textual metaphor on the surface level of the text. In the works analysed, we define the three basic frames of the key anthropomorphic metaphor: the emotions frame, the mental activity frame and the social relations frame. Each of these frames can be presented as a system of interconnected subframes. A special emphasis is placed on the social relations frame. We outline its internal subframe architecture and demonstrate its relations to other frames of the analyzed works. The social relations frame is found to include the following subframes: friendship/comradeship, working relations, law and morals, power, schooling, talking and religious relations. The cognitive framework discovered in the research supposedly functions in other works by J. London that have dogs as their protagonists. This being true, certain domains of key textual metaphor implementation on the surface level may vary in terms of quantity or structure.

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