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In:Motivation in Language: A cognitive perspective
Edited by Grzegorz Drożdż and Barbara Taraszka-Drożdż
[Human Cognitive Processing 83] 2027
► pp. 238–254

Chapter 10
Metaphorical motivation behind the concept of animal death in English and Polish online pet memorials

A contrastive study from a cognitive-semantic perspective

 | University of Silesia in Katowice
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to compare animal death metaphors found in English and Polish online pet memorials. Pet loss can be a difficult experience for owners who have had a special relationship with the animal and treated it similarly to human relatives or friends (Lyons et al. 2022). To cope with death, we often use conceptual metaphors, which, on the one hand, allow us to address this taboo subject and, on the other, shape our conceptualization of the abstract reality of dying (Allan & Burridge 1991). This chapter investigates the types of source domains as well as the most and least common metaphorical mappings that motivate the conceptualization of pet death in English and Polish.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Metaphorical motivation behind the concepts of death and dying
  • 3.The experience of pet loss
  • 4.Metaphorical motivation behind the concept of animal death
    in English online pet memorials
  • 5.Metaphorical motivation behind the concept of animal death
    in Polish online pet memorials
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Author queries
  • Notes
  • References
References (40)
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