The Models of Metaphorization in the Formation of Phraseological Units in Chinese: Language System vs Discourse

Abstract

This article discusses the metaphorical concepts that underlie the formation of phraseological units of the Chinese language, their systematization and determination of their activity in the language system and cinematic discourse. Since the boundaries of the volume of phraseology in the Chinese language are blurred, one of the objectives of the study is to clarify the classification of the phraseological fund of the Chinese language, as well as the principles of the selection of stable phrases, which serve as the basis for the differentiation of phraseological units in the Chinese linguistic tradition. The research proves that Chinese linguists strive to combine the structural and semantic bases of phraseological classification. An attempt is made to analyze the models of metaphorization and the most frequent metaphorical concepts forming phraseological images in the Chinese language. One of the important results of this study is the conclusion that the directions of metaphorization registered in the cinematic discourse are significantly more diverse than the metaphorical bases of phraseological images of Chinese phraseological units, which are the most frequent according to lexicographic sources. At the same time, it was revealed that phraseological units are more often implemented in the cinematic discourse, the imagery of which is based on the activation of two (or even more) metaphorical concepts acting together. The data obtained allowed the authors to formulate a hypothesis that the activity of metaphorical concepts, on the basis of which imagery is formed in Chinese cinematic discourse, may be related to the genre of cinematic discourse.