La concettualizzazione di alcuni stati di coscienza alterata nella lingua italiana : analisi linguistico-cognitiva

Abstract

The subject of the monograph is the conceptualization of selected altered states of consciousness (e.g. sleep, dream, meditation and hypnosis) in the Italian language. Research done, and thus presented in the monograph is based predominantly on cognitive theories that recognize the embodied character of thought, which is reflected in the first part of the book as it depicts such issues as a development of the concept and a role of image schemas, cognitive theory of the metaphor by George Lakoff and Marc Johnson (1980, 1999), enhanced by its critical revision by Christa Baldauf (1997) and Olaf Jäkel (2003), as well as Lakoff’s classification of idealized cognitive models. Nevertheless, to acknowledge the role of the pioneers of cognitive studies, its first chapter compares the idea of the mind in cognitive theories by both the first and the second generation of cognitive scientists. The chapter 2.4., due to the related subject area and chosen analytical methods, presents the works by Iwona Nowakowska-Kempna on the conceptualization of feelings and emotions (1986, 1995, 2000) and a study by Bogusław Bierwiaczonek on the concept of love (2002) as the examples of the analysis in which the formerly described conceptual models were applied. A theoretical part of the monograph ends with a sketch of issues concerning the multifariousness of terms, approaches and criteria of classification of thematic roles, concluded with a choice of the thematic proto-roles theory by David Dowty (1991) as an auxiliary tool in the analysis of verbs that express the change of a state of consciousness. A thorough description of the conceptualization of selected states, presented in part two, is preceded with consideration of the definitions of altered states of consciousness, as well as a selection of a term, among many of such in Italian, that would render them in most accurate way. Owing to the linguistic character of the book, dictionary definitions were of greater importance than specialist ones from the fields of psychology or psychiatry. To provide the reader with amplitude of conceptualization of the selected altered states of consciousness, the research was based on a divergent corpus of 430 texts, one-third of which are statements and comments placed on blogs as well as in the Internet fora. Specialist and popular science articles concerning health issues, and the human brain and mind functioning are numerous in the book. Other examples aim to illustrate altered states of consciousness from the perspectives of philosophy, religion, folklore, or literature. The rendering presented in the book reflects contemporary conceptualizations, for the analyzed material consists of texts published on the Internet in the last fifteen years in the main; to a lesser extent it includes print or electronic publications from the 1980s and 1990s. Each analysis juxtaposes a dictionary definition of a state, its characteristics, its links with other states of consciousness, as well as metaphorical models of a given state that are classified according to a degree of complexity of metaphorical projection, and mutual correlations between conceptualizations. The analysis is enriched with a delineation of the thematic proto-roles under the conditions of persistence or a change of a particular state of consciousness. Owing to this fact, it is possible to determine whether a person going through such experience is able to control it, is subject to it in a conscious way and with no external force, or has no influence on it. Each analysis ends with a conclusion of the research which is presented in a form of a list of selected conceptualizations, where the frequency of emergence of certain metaphors can be found. The first part of the concluding chapter discusses all the models of the analyzed states of consciousness as presented in patterns that illustrate relations between particular conceptualizations of a certain state. Conclusions include a juxtaposition of similarities and differences among the conceptualizations of states of consciousness as well as a degree of complexity of the source domain structure projected on each of the analyzed concepts. The analysis presented in the book on the basis of which the conceptualizations of sleep, dream, meditation and hypnosis have been depicted and compared, paves the way for further comparative research. Also, it invokes reflection on the nature of the relationship between the concepts of sleep and death in the Italian language in the light of the unidirectionality hypothesis of metaphorical mapping.