Embodied Conceptual Metaphor in the German Folklore

The relationship between language and mind remains one of the most hotly debated questions in linguistics. The publication of some fundamental works by G. Lakoff, M. Johnson, R. Gibbs and other scholars gave rise to cognitive paradigm in linguistics which includes studies into language semantics and a new approach to figurative language. If we realize that mind is embodied, we'll understand the relations between mind and body. Cognitive researchers see the connection between the physical action and the mental representation by means of metaphorical formations. They assume that conceptual metaphors are grounded in bodily experience. Folklore in general and German folklore in particular is of interest because it presents an ancient form of people's creativity, phantasy, poetry, dreams and it is abundant in figurative language. The metaphorical extensions in the German folklore are based on the fairy tales collected by Grimm brothers during nearly fifty years (1812 - 1857).
Some objects have hollow space that can be filled by other objects or substances. This experience gives rise to CONTAINER schema with a boundary separating the inner side from the outer one. All the CONTAINER schemas serve as a large source domain for various conceptual metaphors. The present investigation seeks to categorize the metaphorical body containers and to provide the empirical support for the existence of the interrelation between bodily experience and mind. This book will be useful to those who start studies in cognitive science and to all those who are interested in linguistics and in German folklore.