earticle

영어

The paper examines the metaphorical structure of the heart in Mongolian, within the framework of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), formulated by Lakoff and Jonhson (1980). The study presents a case in which an abstract concept (courage and soul) is understood in part via a conceptual metaphor grounded in the body, but shaped by a culture-specific metaphorical understanding of an internal organ (heart) inside the body. Although the human body is a potentially universal source domain for metaphors structuring abstract concepts, cultural models set up specific perspectives from which certain aspects of bodily experience or certain parts of the body are viewed as especially salient and meaningful in the understanding of those abstract concepts. Metaphor is an essential cognitive tool in that it structures many concepts, especially abstract ones, in our conceptual systems. Metaphorical mappings from source domains to target domains emerge largely from the interplay between body and culture. Our mind is embodied in the profound sense that the very structure of our thoughts comes from the nature of our body (Lakoff & Johnson, 1999). The cultural experience and knowledge we gain while submerged in our culture inevitably shape our worldview, making our mind enculturated. The interaction between common bodily experiences and varied cultural experiences determines the extent to which conceptual metaphors are universal, widespread, or culture-specific. At the same time, the same basic embodied experiences, in which many conceptual metaphors are grounded, may be defined differently by different cultural beliefs and values (Gibbs, 1999). Also, our cultural models may be constructed metaphorically, thus framing our worldview metaphorically. As such, the relation between metaphor, body, and culture is extremely intricate, with all of them mingled together, and each of them penetrating the others, giving rise to a colorful spectrum of cognition. In this article, I attempt to present a Mongolian case of such intricate relation. The conceptual metaphor has the human body as its source domain, but the selection of this source domain depends on a culture-specific metaphorical understanding of an internal organ, the heart, inside the body, namely “HEART IS CONTAINER OF COURAGE, HEART IS CONTAINER OF SOUL” Linguistic evidence suggests that both of these conceptual metaphors exist in the core of the Mongolian cultural model for the concept of heart.

한국어

본 연구는 ‘마음’의 개념과 문화적 맥락에서의 적용에 대하여 연구한다. 이를 위하여 본 연구는 개념적 은유 이론 (Conceptual Metaphor Theory: CMT)를 몽골의 사례에 적용하고 분석하였다. ‘마음’은 용기가 담기는 그릇이며, 마음 은 영혼의 안식처로 몸 내부에 존재하는 유기적인 존재로서 정의할 수 있다. 언어측면의 증거들은 이런 개념적 은유 가 몽골의 문화적 맥락에서도 잘 나타나고 있음을 보여준다.