The Image of Fatherhood in Metaphors: an Ethnolinguistic probe

Abstract

In the presented study, our goal was to examine the stereotypical image of fatherhood / father in the Slovak cultural-linguistic area. Using the methodology of cognitive ethnolinguistics, the author focuses on the analysis of metaphorical concepts in which the image of fatherhood and father with various axioms was established. Examining metaphorical concepts, the author works with the Slovak National Corpus. Based on the peculiarities of the acquired concepts, the author was able to define metaphorical groups in which fatherhood acts primarily as an inanimate object and a living being. In this way, this study contributes to the precise meaning identification and definition of the cognitive concept of fatherhood from an ethnolinguistic point of view, and therefore contributes to a more detailed knowledge of the concept and its specifics, present in the Slovak language and in the Slovak cultural symbolism.