Modelling meaning in poetic texts, or on conceptualization of the past in Adam Asnyk’s lyrics

Urszula Sokólska

Urszula Sokólska - Uniwersytet w Białymstoku

Agnieszka Juszkiewicz

Agnieszka Juszkiewicz - Uniwersytet w Białymstoku

Abstract

The article attempts at capturing a linguistic image of the past in A. Asnyk’s texts and presenting symbolic relations between the abstract meaning and the attributes ascribed to it. The author analyzed not only the metaphors containing the lexeme past but also any synonymic notions, periphrases, phrases and terms referring to olden days. On this basis, several models of the past have been distinguished (the past is a living creature, the past is a plant, the past are different kinds of objects and containers, the past is a natural element, the past is nothingness, death and destruction, the past is a memory, the past is a herald of the future) under the condition that the applied divisions are therefore relative due to elusiveness of the described phenomenon. In reality, the past is never perceived, and therefore it cannot be conceptualized univocally.

Keywords:

the past, conceptualization, stereotypization, models of the past, valuating