AGNĖ ALEKSAITĖ

Institute of the Lithuanian Language

LOVE CONCEPT AND ITS SYNONYMS IN THE LITHUANIAN WORLDVIEW

KEYWORDS: the concept LOVE, cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor, the Lithuanian worldview.

Love is not a relationship. Love connects, but that is not a relationship. A relationship is a finished thing. It is a noun. The honeymoon is over, the relationship has come to a standstill. There is no joy, no enthusiasm; it is all over. You can continue the relationship only to keep the promises you made. You can continue the relationship because it is convenient, cozy, pleasant. Because you cannot do otherwise. Because if you ended the relationship, you would create a lot of trouble for yourself... A relationship is a finished, closed, exhausted thing.

Love is in no way a relationship. Love is communication. Love is always like a river; it flows and has no end. It is not a romance that begins here and ends there. Love never comes to a complete stop—the honeymoon begins, but does not end. It is a process. Lovers end their relationship, but love continues because it is uninterrupted. Love is a verb, not a noun.

(Osho Love, Freedom, Solitude. Vilnius: The Path of Love. 2013; p. 63)

INTRODUCTION

The object of this article is 108 examples of the use of the word Corpus of Contemporary Lithuanian Language (hereinafter DLKT), drawn from its fiction and journalism sections, featuring the word love and its synonyms. The Dictionary of Synonyms (hereinafter SŽ) indicates that the synonyms of the word love are the following lexemes: falling in love, coming to love, attachment, passion (strong, ardent love). In the author's opinion, the word sus' may also be used as a synonym for the concept LOVE.

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to discern some emerging tendencies, especially since the concept of LOVE had not previously been studied in Lithuanian linguistics. Admittedly, there are numerous individual articles examining other concepts—PATH (Cibulskienė 2005: 51–64), GOOD and BEAUTY (Aliūkaitė, Sideravičiūtė-Mickienė 2006: 16–22), EARTH (Aliūkaitė, Šorochova 2006: 4–7; Ruškys 2011: 120–140), DISEASE (Kvašytė, Papaurelyté-Klovienė 2013: 107–117), and many others¹—so it is worthwhile to examine the content, national specificity, and metaphorization tendencies of the concept LOVE and its synonyms. It may be hypothesized that a small fragment of the Lithuanian linguistic worldview would reveal the main Lithuanian value orientations (associated with feelings). Abroad, by contrast, various studies analyzing the concept of LOVE are published (Lv, Zhang 2012: 355–359; Киреенко 2013: 286–291, among others²); even undergraduate and graduate students at universities investigate metaphorization tendencies of this concept in songs by famous performers such as Mariah Carey and Kylie Minogue (Gavelin 2015; Harpela 2015).

The aim of this article is to systematize the conceptual metaphors selected from the fiction and journalism sections of DLKT and to identify the metaphorization tendencies of the concept LOVE and its synonyms in the Lithuanian linguistic worldview. Conceptual analysis is applied to examine the concept LOVE and its synonyms. According to Professor Aloyzas Gudavičius (2006: 47), the analysis of conceptual metaphors should be regarded as the principal tool for revealing the content and national specificity of abstract concepts (e.g., LOVE) (see also Rutkovska, Smetona, Smetonienė 2017: 7). A conceptual metaphor consists of a connection between a s o u r c e (English source domain) and a t a r g e t (English target domain) d o m a i n (concept). The t a r g e t d o m a i n is what a nation thinks and talks about, while the s o u r c e d o m a i n is what it draws on, the concept it uses to imagine, model, and structure the content under consideration more clearly (Gudavičius et al. 2014: 18). This article draws on the refined version of Tomasz Paweł Krzeszowski’s Conceptual Metaphors in Public Discourse, presented in the dictionary of conceptual metaphors, of the great

¹ A significant collective monograph published in 2017, Values in the Lithuanian Worldview, whose authors—Kristina Rutkovska, Marius Smetona, and Irena Smetonienė—were perhaps the first in Lithuania to undertake an in-depth and systematic analysis of concepts. The volume presents an analysis of as many as eight concepts—FIRE, WATER, HOME, FAMILY, WORK, EUROPE, FREEDOM, and HONOR—together in one publication rather than dispersed across separate articles.

² The metaphorization tendencies of the concept LOVE are examined in depth in George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s book (1980), Metaphors We Live By (Metaphors We Live By): LOVE IS A PHYSICAL FORCE (English LOVE IS A PHYSICAL FORCE), LOVE IS MADNESS (English LOVE IS MADNESS), LOVE IS MAGIC (English LOVE IS MAGIC), LOVE IS WAR (English LOVE IS WAR), and so on. Admittedly, this article is limited to examining a part of the Lithuanian linguistic worldview. It would, of course, be worthwhile to compare metaphorization tendencies of the concept LOVE in Lithuanian and English worldviews, but this is a subject requiring a separate, comprehensive study.

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the chain of being (Latin scala naturae), the schema [inanimate objects – plants – animals – humans – gods] (Gudavičius et al. 2014: 43). The descriptive and comparative methods are used to describe the results obtained and compare them with the definitions in the Dictionary of Contemporary Lithuanian (hereafter DŽ₇) and the Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language (hereafter LKŽ_e).

A NEW APPROACH TO LANGUAGE IN COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS

Cognitive linguistics, a new branch of linguistics, emerged in the late 1970s (Dirvenas 2009: 11–12). During this period, an important shift in the scientific paradigm took place—a transition from structuralist (objective) to cognitive (subjective) linguistics (Gudavičius 2000: 5, 65; Mikulskas 2009: 39). Unlike structuralists, representatives of cognitive linguistics study language not as a self-contained (closed) system, but as an ensemble of language and human cognitive abilities, such as sensory perception, memory, attention, emotions, thinking, and so forth (Dirvenas 2009: 11–12; Mikulskas 2009: 39). In seeking connections between language and the world of human consciousness, society, and culture; exploring the place of language in thought processes; and analyzing information activated in the act of communication (Gudavičius 2000: 6; 2007: 9; see also Jakaitienė 2010: 45; Gudavičius 2011: 109), cognitive linguists rejected “the structural approach to the notion of meaning, in which syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations between words and the meaning conveyed by them are analyzed” (Maumevičienė 2010: 11; see also Mikulskas 2009: 40). A shift was made from “immanent” linguistics, which studies language only “in and for itself,” to anthropological, human-oriented linguistics (Gudavičius 2007: 17). This branch of linguistics has two main concerns: “1) what influence humans have on language and 2) what influence language has on humans, their thinking, and culture” (Rol 1988: 91, cited in Gudavičius 2000: 6).

“Although the meaning of a word seems self-evident to the speaker, its conception in linguistics varies greatly and depends on the general linguistic conception” (Gudavičius 2003: 61); consequently, there is a difference between the conception of meaning held by structuralists and that held by cognitivists. During an act of communication, participants with entirely different kinds of encyclopedic knowledge (owing to age, experience, and education) are nevertheless able to communicate in various everyday situations (Gudavičius 2000: 47), which makes it clear that most of meaning is shared by all speakers (Gudavičius 2003: 61). Nevertheless, cognitivists tend to emphasize

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the subjective meaning determined by individuals’ experience, education, the circumstances of the communicative act, and other factors (Gudavičius 2003: 61; see also Maumevičienė 2010: 17–18). In explaining the concept of subjective meaning, it is noted that “lexical meaning is meaning for one person. Since all the knowledge of the communicants participates in linguistic communication—both shared and situational, specifically related to this communication context and concrete experience—and no distinction is recognized between linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge, it is clear that language users have their own, individual meanings for words” (Gudavičius 2007: 20–21). Of course, speakers’ stable lexical stock also includes words whose “meaning reflects not only reality itself, but also an evaluation of that reality—the speaker’s emotional attitude toward the object or phenomenon being named” (Gudavičius 2007: 83).

According to cognitivists, through language an individual not only expresses a positive or negative emotional attitude, as a speaker, toward the thing being named, but also comes to know the world (Gudavičius 2000: 126). It is emphasized that “a word denotes a meaning that is first and foremost the result of cognitive activity, and this activity, in turn, can be defined both as mental apprehension and as a process of thought. The essence of cognition is the division of the world around us into categories, or categorization” (Mikulkas 2009: 40; cf. Gudavičius 2003: 62). Cognitivists understand human cognitive activity as a process of categorization, in which cognitive categories, or concepts, represent the natural division of the world surrounding individuals, rather than an artificial classification of worldly phenomena (Mikulkas 2009: 42). Of course, the world is categorized differently in every language (for more, see Gudavičius 2003: 62), “and therefore the worldview of every nation is somewhat different” (Gudavičius 1992: 3).

CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS

Metaphor has received considerable attention since antiquity. Aristotle and representatives of other classical linguistic schools treated metaphor as a rhetorical figure, a kind of textual ornament, which for a long time remained on the margins of linguistics. Cf. the definition of Tarptautinių žodžių žodyną (hereafter TŽŽ), which includes the definition of metaforos: metãfora (Greek metaphora—“transfer”)—“one of the types of trope (the other best-known types are metonymy, synecdoche, irony, and hyperbole): the juxtaposition of unrelated phenomena on the basis of a similarity in some of their properties; in metaphor, what is compared (little faces, little hands) is evident from the context, while that with which it is compared is expressed

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by a concrete image (little roses, little lilies), e.g.: little roses bloom / upon my little cheeks; / little white lilies / upon my little hands; / little blossoms gleam / upon my little fingers. (Folklore).” The defining features of such poetic metaphors are their individuality, novelty, and unexpectedness—qualities that create an emotional-expressive charge (Gudavičius et al. 2014: 15). In fact, metaphor is a concealed comparison, which should be regarded as one of the essential ways of knowing, since we learn a great deal by comparing (Gudavičius 2000: 87). Cognitive linguistics emphasizes precisely this feature of metaphor, treating it not as a textual ornament, but as “a means of understanding and conveying a nation’s mentality” (Vaivadaitė-Kaidi 2011: 9).

Published in 1980, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s book Metaphors We Live By (Metaforos, su kuriomis gyvename) significantly broadened the concept of metaphor (Gudavičius et al. 2014: 14). Traditionally understood metaphor is merely a linguistic phenomenon, whereas cognitivists viewed conceptual metaphor as a strategy of thought, a way of thinking and knowing, realized in language through metaphorical expressions (Gudavičius et al. 2014: 14)³. Cognitive linguists emphasize that conceptual metaphors make cognitive processes comprehensible to all language users, since many important concepts are abstract and difficult to pin down in language users’ experience (e.g., love); therefore, to establish them in consciousness, speakers must make use of more salient concepts (e.g., a natural phenomenon) (Lakoff, Johnson 1980: 115, cited in Gudavičius et al. 2014: 14). Thus, “conceptual metaphors facilitate communication because they make it possible to talk about what is more difficult to understand” (Kvašytė, Papaurelytė-Klovienė 2013: 108); that is, by assigning concrete, perceptible properties to abstractions (e.g., the feeling of love), language users make those abstractions clearer (Gudavičius et al. 2014: 14). Conceptual metaphors not only facilitate communication but also reveal a nation’s worldview, mentality, and values, because “[t]he language of every nation preserves an intriguing history of people’s efforts over many centuries to know, understand, and bring under their control the world around them” (Копыленко 1995: 19, cited in Gudavičius 2000: 8)⁴.

³ Metaphor is such a familiar tool that we use it unconsciously, almost automatically, with virtually no effort, without even noticing it (Lakoff, Turner 1989: xi).

⁴ Cf. Edward Sapir’s famous observation: “Language [is] a symbolic guide to culture. Vocabulary is a very sensitive index of the culture of a people” (Wierzbicka 1997). “[Language is the key to a nation’s culture. It is precisely in the most dynamic stratum of the lexicon that the nation’s continual change can be seen”—translator’s translation.]

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ANALYSIS OF THE CONCEPT OF LOVE AND ITS SYNONYMS IN THE LITHUANIAN WORLDVIEW

LKŽ_e lists five meanings of the word love, of which the following are relevant to the present study: 1. “a feeling of attachment and devotion to someone”; 2. “a feeling of strong attraction to a person of the opposite sex.” DŽ7 gives definitions for four meanings of this word, the first two of which are the same as in LKŽe: 1. “a feeling of attachment and devotion”; 2. “a feeling of strong attraction to a person of the opposite sex.” The definitions in LKŽ_e and DŽ⁷ show that three lexemes are most important in describing the feeling of love: attachment, devotion, and (strong) attraction.

In the study, 62 examples of the use of the concept LOVE were collected from the fiction and journalism sections of DLKT (1682 instances of the use of the nominative singular form meilė in fiction and 1044 in journalism were reviewed). The empirical material gathered showed that the most productive source domain is THE INANIMATE WORLD (NATURE) (29%). Analysis of the NATURE source domain makes it possible to identify three dominant conceptual metaphors: LOVE IS PHENOMENA (FIRE) (12.9%), LOVE IS CELESTIAL BODIES (THE SUN) (6.5%), and LOVE IS WATER (4.8%). The DLKT examples show that love is compared with fire and water—the most important elements of the universe, which constitute sacred zones (Čepienė 2014: 57, 58). The conceptual metaphor LOVE IS FIRE is represented by usage examples encompassing the main stages in the development of unrequited love:

(1) <...> and in my breast kindled⁵ love [S. T. Kondrotas. Meilė pagal Juozapą; 2004];

(2) Then everything fell into place, and his love flared up⁶ even more [I. Buivydaitė. Telefoninis romanas; 2001];

(3) <...> everything ended, everything passed, only love still smolders⁷ in the deepest corner of the heart [L. Gutauskas. Sapnų teologija; 2006];

(4) Gailė pajuto, kaip blėsta⁸ meilė Karminui [R. Kundrotas, A. Lyva. Oro pilis; 2002].

⁵ LKŽ_e žiebti: 1. “to kindle (a fire), to light”; ⁶ LKŽ_e suliepsnoti: 4. “figuratively, to begin or arise and proceed intensely, actively”; ⁷ LKŽ_e rusenti: 1. “to burn slowly, to smolder”; ⁸ LKŽ_e blėsti: 1. “to die down, for the fire to diminish and turn to ash (of embers)”; 2. “figuratively, to weaken, fade.”

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One example of the conceptual metaphor LOVE IS WATER shows that, in the Lithuanian worldview, the power of love is likened to one of the world’s fundamental elements—water, which “permeates and connects the basic layers of the world’s structure (the sky, the earth, and the underworld), marks the beginning and end of the world (the world’s emergence from the bottom of the primordial ocean and its submergence in the depths of the flood), and accompanies essential moments in human life (water in the customs of baptism, weddings, funerals, etc.)” (Būgienė 1999: 13), for example:

(5) Love swept Evita away like the ninth wave⁹ [J. Ivanauskaitė Swept Away by Dreams; 2000].

Drauge su kitais gamtos objektais lietuviai garbino vandens telkinius (Būgienė 1999: 17), manė, kad tik tyras ir tekantis šaltinių bei upių vanduo teigiamai veikia žmogų (Būgienė 1999: 58). DLKT randami du konceptualiąją metaforą MEILĖ YRA VANDUO (UPĖ) reprezentuojantys vartosenos pavyzdžiai:

(6) He realized that his love also did not overflow¹⁰ at the edges [Z. Čepaitė. A Woman’s Story; 2003];

(7) “No,” she objects, “love does not run dry¹¹; true love cannot be exhausted [A. Markevičius. The Green-Eyed Snake; 1996].

Tekantis vanduo lietuvių tikėjimuose sietas su saule (Būgienė 1999: 65), manyta, kad abu objektus jungia apvali forma (pvz., vandens telkinio), blizgesys, spindesys ir judėjimas, nusakomas bendru abiem objektams žodžiu tekėti (Būgienė 1999: 64). Be to, lietuviai saulę garbino, kartais laikė net dievybe, į kurią buvo nevalia rodyti pirštu ir nuodėmių sutepam žiūrėti nepridengta akimi į ją (Razauskas 2012: 16, 18). Per konceptualiosios metaforos MEILĖ YRA SAULĖ vartosenos pavyzdžius atskleidžiama, kad meilės, įprasminančios žmogaus būtį, nenuslėpsi:

(8) Love radiates, after all [Artuma; 2003];

(9) Love is the world’s only sun, giving life [XXI amžius; 1997].

⁹ The first association that comes to the article author’s mind is the painting The Ninth Wave by the renowned marine painter Ivan Aivazovsky (Иван Константинович Айвазовский).¹⁰ In LKŽe, lieti: 4. “refl. to flow abundantly; to stream”; 5. “refl. to flow over the top, to overflow its banks”.¹¹ In LKŽe, išsekti: 1. “to subside, dry up”; 3. “fig. to come to an end, be exhausted”.

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The conceptual metaphors LOVE IS FIRE, LOVE IS THE SUN, and LOVE IS WATER recorded in DLKT show that, in the Lithuanian worldview, love is a pure feeling because it is compared with sacred elements of Baltic beliefs—fire, the sun, and water.

Within the source domain of natural phenomena, three more individual conceptual metaphors can be identified: LOVE IS AIR, LOVE IS WIND, and LOVE IS COLOR (4.8%), which describe the stages in the development of love—its beginning and end, for example:

(10) His love had not weakened or cooled [Artuma; 2003];

(11) I feel that her love comes wafting from some depths like warm gusts of wind [J. Ivanauskaitė. The Year of the Lily of the Valley; 2003];

(12) But as time went by, love fades like the colors of an old painting [N. Pečiūra. Vilnius Cyberpoem; 2004].

The source domain of metals in nature is revealed by the conceptual metaphor LOVE IS IRON:

(13) In short, the saying that old love does not rust¹² proved true this time [A. Tamaliūnas. Crime Stories 1; 1995];

(14) “Old love does not rust [P. Treinys. The Actress; 2001].

These examples show that a widespread belief in the Lithuanian worldview is that warm feelings that arose many years ago cannot be forgotten. This view is also supported by studies of Lithuanian folklore, which show that love has always been regarded as a lasting, deep, and undying feeling (Mačianskas 1972: 50).

The third source domain in terms of productivity is the INANIMATE WORLD (OBJECTS) (19.4%). Examples of the conceptual metaphor LOVE IS OBJECTS in use show that love is a fragile feeling requiring considerable effort and devotion from those in love. Love that is not nurtured is compared to broken, shattered objects, of which only a heap of worthless shards and fragments remains, e.g.:

¹² LKŽₑ rūdyti: 1. “to become rusty”; 5. “figuratively, to gradually fade, perish.”

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(15) “What if love broke, and what if it had never existed?” you ask, giggling [B. Jonuškaitė. Didžioji sala, Part II; 1999];

(16) Then my love would have shattered, like a plate dropped from someone’s hands [A. Markevičius. Žaliakė gyvatė; 1996].

In the nature source domain, the sacredness of love is emphasized, whereas in the domain of objects there is a tendency to devalue love by objectifying it, comparing it with unwanted material things—even those insistently forced upon someone:

(17) Love is being forced¹³upon us today [bernardinai.lt; 2006 02 17].

The objects source domain contains isolated examples representing the conceptual metaphors LOVE IS FOOD and LOVE IS TRANSPORT (1.6%):

(18) <...> just intoxicating¹⁴ love gradually subsides, research data confirmed [Verslo žinios; 2005 11 14];

(19) Love breaks through the shell of loneliness [I. Kanišauskaitė, N. Servinikaitė, S. Žukas. Literatūros vadovėlis 9 klasei; 2006].

In usage example 18, one can recognize the motif of alcoholic drinks, from which (as from love) one’s head spins and becomes intoxicated; in example 19, the motif is that of an icebreaker. The warm feelings born in the heart are so powerful (like a ship breaking through ice) that a person becomes helpless before them. Indeed, sentence 19 can be understood as invoking not only an icebreaker but also a tool: an ordinary implement would be quite sufficient to break through a thin shell. Nevertheless, the primary association—the icebreaker—cannot be ruled out, since texts about intense feelings show a tendency to hyperbolize.

Isolated examples of the conceptual metaphor LOVE IS PLANTS (4.8%) show that love is like a delicate plant that needs special conditions to thrive and bloom, while warm feelings that are not nurtured disappear just as neglected plants wither:

¹³ Cf. Lithuanian Neologism Database (hereafter ND), which records the neologism brukalas: 1. “an unwanted (usually) electronic message, spam”; 2. “something insistently forced upon someone.”

¹⁴ LKŽe apsvaigti: 1. “to feel dizzy, giddy; to become drunk, get tipsy.”

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(20) Blossoming love is like an omnipotent force [Artuma; 2003];

(21) Could it be that our love will wither like a flower, fade away like these forgotten palaces? [R. Kundrotas, A. Lyva. Oro pilis; 2002].

Examples of usage representing the source domains of inanimate-world objects and plants show that love is an uncontrollable feeling that requires great effort and devotion from those in love.

In terms of productivity, the second source domain is HUMAN AS A PHYSICAL BEING (27.4%). The conceptual metaphor LOVE IS ACTIONS is abundantly illustrated by usage examples:

(22) <...> love overtook us against our will [P. Treinys. Aktoriaus Anupro meilė; 2000];

(23) <...> Anupras was overjoyed and realized that true love had entered his life forever [P. Treinys. Aktoriaus Anupro meilė; 2000];

(24) His love will roll away the stone that keeps us shut inside the tomb [bernardinai.lt; 2007 04 08].

In the Lithuanian linguistic worldview, love is not a passive observer of events; it actively determines how events unfold.

DLKT contains half as many usage examples representing the source domain HUMAN AS A PSYCHOLOGICAL BEING (12.9%):

(25) Love desires that He alone should possess them and be <...> [Artuma; 2002];

(26) No, I will not start telling you that love wishes only the very best, because <...> [A. Zurba. Upokšnis: moksleivių kūrybos almanachas; 2003];

(27) But love always believes in miracles [bernardinai.lt; 2007 04 08];

(28) <...> notices his son before he has even come near, because love recognizes no distances [bernardinai.lt; 2007 09 16].

These DLKT examples show that personified love is pure and devoted.

The source domain HUMAN AS A SOCIAL BEING is represented by only a few usage examples (4.8%); among them, the examples illustrating the conceptual metaphors LOVE IS WAR and LOVE IS RELIGION merit fuller discussion:

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(29) Once he said: love is like a sword¹⁵, if you do not polish it constantly, it will begin to rust [A. Markevičius. Žaliakalė gyvatė; 1996];

(30) I saw how love descends¹⁶ upon Magdalena [XXI amžius; 1997].

In example 29, by comparing love to a weapon of war made of iron—a sword—the author seeks to emphasize that love that is not nurtured becomes worthless, like a rusted sword, while in usage example 30 one can discern the motif of an angel, emphasizing the purity of love.

To sum up the concept of LOVE in the Lithuanian linguistic worldview, it can be argued that the DLKT is dominated by conceptual metaphors with a positive emotional connotation, showing that in the Lithuanian linguistic worldview love is a pure, strong, uncontrollable feeling that requires much effort and devotion from those in love.

From the fiction and journalism sections of the DLKT, 17 examples of usage in fiction and 72 in journalism were examined in which the concept FALLING IN LOVE is mentioned, and only one conceptual metaphor belonging to the source domain of natural phenomena was found: FALLING IN LOVE IS FIRE:

(31) But when infatuation dies out, everyday life sets in, and the woman notices that <...> [Artuma; 2002].

Only 3 examples of usage of the concept ATTACHMENT were collected from the fiction and journalism sections of the DLKT (40 instances of use in fiction and 130 in journalism were examined); they represent the conceptual metaphors ATTACHMENT IS WATER, ATTACHMENT IS A BODY, and ATTACHMENT IS ACTIONS:

(32) <...> precisely in this gloomy month and precisely on this day, my Attachment overflowed into this Openhearted letter to you! [V. Beitnaras. Mongoliškos glamones; 1995];

(33) Gradually, attachment to my native land grew within me [J. Kačinskas. Gyvenimas ir muzikinė veikla; 1997];

¹⁵ Although, in the view of cognitivists, metaphor and simile are not the same thing, one or another simile has nevertheless been included in this article, because “nominal metaphors can be paraphrased as similes—figurative (having a transferred meaning—S. V.) X is like Y similes, grammatically identical to statements in literal language. Thus, we can say both Time is a river and Time is like a river” (Gentner, Bowdle 2008: 119, quoted in Vasiliauskas 2014: 24–25).

¹⁶ LKŽ_e nuleisti: 5. “refl. to approach the ground, or something situated low, from above.”

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(34) Attachment tore in different directions [J. Ivanauskaitė. Cast Away by Dreams; 2000].

Example 33 deserves closer examination, because it can be interpreted in two ways. Although plants can also grow, this example has nevertheless been assigned not to the source domain of PLANTS, but to HUMAN AS A PHYSICAL BEING, since the pronoun within me hints at the mother’s womb, making it possible to discern a connection with the physiological changes that occur in a woman’s body during pregnancy.

Only one occurrence of the concept FALLING IN LOVE is included in DLKT, and that in its literal sense, while 5 usage examples of the concept INFATUATION were selected (76 occurrences in fiction and 129 in journalistic writing were reviewed). The only source domain found is THE INANIMATE WORLD (NATURE). The conceptual metaphor INFATUATION IS CELESTIAL BODIES is illustrated by the following examples:

(35) Only in Aurimas’s eyes did infatuation shine, while in Augustinas’s there was wild fury. [P. Treinys. The Actress; 2001];

(36) <...> however, incomparable as it was, his infatuation did not warm them both for long [M. Sluckis. The Return of the Beauty; 1998].

In example 35 one can discern the motif of a star, and in 36 that of the sun, although it is not only a celestial body—the sun—that can warm; a stove can do so too, for example.

The conceptual metaphor INFATUATION IS WATER is likewise represented by two examples:

(37) It seems that the infatuation with flying machines did not subside [Menotyra; 2003];

(38) <...> reality will differ from what was imagined, and the infatuation will evaporate, and communication will cease [bernardinai.lt; 2008 10 21].

It is true that example 38 can be interpreted in various ways: not only water can evaporate, but also hot food and earth; however, neither food nor earth can evaporate completely.

Within the source domain of natural phenomena, one can distinguish the conceptual metaphor INFATUATION IS FIRE:

(39) However, the first strong infatuation with them quickly fades [Šiaurės Atėnai; 1996].

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To sum up, the tendencies in the metaphorization of the concept LOVE and its synonyms are similar, as illustrated by the few examples (falling in love, attachment, and infatuation). Among source domains drawn from natural phenomena, the conceptual metaphor FALLING IN LOVE, INFATUATION IS FIRE and the conceptual metaphor ATTACHMENT, INFATUATION IS WATER predominate.

The Corpus of the Contemporary Lithuanian Language (DLKT) contains numerous examples of the use of passion, a synonym of the concept LOVE. From the fiction and journalism sections of DLKT, 37 examples of the use of the concept PASSION were collected (465 instances in fiction and 342 in journalism were examined). LKŽₑ defines passion as 1. “a strong attraction to something, desire, lust.” Cf. DŽ₇: 1. “a strong attraction, desire.” The key lexeme in the definition of passion is (strong) attraction, desire; hence, passion can be described as intense, ardent love (SŽ), in which, unlike in the definition of love, elements such as attachment and devotion are not essential.

The most productive source domain is the INANIMATE WORLD (NATURE) (40.5%). Within the source domain of natural phenomena, the following conceptual metaphors, illustrated by individual usage examples, can be identified: PASSION IS WIND (2.7%), PASSION IS AIR (5.4%), and PASSION IS COLOR (2.7%):

(40) <...> that talk about gambling with dice simply wafts¹⁷ passion [Ji; 1996];

(41) <...> and the millstone of time separated us, before even cooling¹⁸ our passion [L. Gutauskas. Letters from Viešvilė; 2000];

(42) Calm down, And you, pale¹⁹ passion, Come, come, cleanse your heart [J. Ivanauskaitė. The Tibetan Mandala; 2004].

A particularly productive conceptual metaphor within the source domain of natural phenomena is PASSION IS FIRE (24.9%):

(43) This simply blazed²⁰ passion. Everything, it seemed, happened in the blink of an eye [R. Lonskis. The Road to Nowhere; 1999];

¹⁷ LKŽₑ dvelkti: “to blow gently; for a smell to waft.”

¹⁸ LKŽₑ atšalti: 1. “to become colder, to cool down (of the weather).”

¹⁹ LKŽₑ blyškus: “pale, faded, having a light hue.”

²⁰ LKŽₑ liepsnoti: 1. “to burn with a flame”; 2. “figuratively to be overcome by some intense feeling.”

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(44) <...> at any moment may flare up²¹ passion [Cosmopolitan; 2004];

(45) Destructive, burning, a passion that turns everything to ashes [Nemunas; 2004].

Although in ancient times Lithuanians worshipped the fire goddess Gabija, praying to her for the well-being of their homes (to protect them from fire) and for a plentiful harvest, and the Balts thanked Gabija for warmth, even making a bed for her (Zavjalova 1998: 6), these examples of the use of the concept PASSION nevertheless show that the sacred meaning of fire has disappeared; on the contrary, it is identified with a destructive force. The conceptual metaphor PASSION IS FIRE reveals a negative emotional evaluation of passion. It is shown that passion flares up suddenly like fire, yet a person overcome by intense, ardent love experiences discomfort, e.g.:

(46) I laughed at myself; at night, with a living passion, I scorched²² Vytenis [N. Kepenienė. Loneliness for Two; 2000].

The DLKT contains isolated examples of usage representing the conceptual metaphors PASSION IS THE SUN (2.7%) and PASSION IS WATER (8.1%); that is, passion (like love) is compared with sacred elements of Baltic beliefs—fire, the sun, and water—although here it is difficult to discern any surviving sacred meaning:

(47) Passion lights up²³ on the face: one passion unexpectedly meets another [Baltos lankos; 1996];

(48) Gal ir komiškai skamba, bet kai užplūsta²⁴ aistra, visos technikos ir Kama Sutros pozos tampa <...> [Cosmopolitan; 2004].

An exceptionally unproductive source domain is THE INANIMATE WORLD (OBJECTS) (10.8%), yet even the isolated examples of usage that reveal the conceptual metaphors PASSION IS OBJECTS and PASSION IS FOOD show a negative emotional evaluation of passion:

(49) My body begins to tingle with passion again; heat floods my face [V. Blažytė. Searches; 2007];

²¹ LKŽė plykstelėti: 1. “to suddenly catch fire, to flare up”; 2. “to flash, to flicker.” Incidentally, not only fire but also lightning can flare up.

²² LKŽė svilinti: 1. “to burn, to roast”; 3. “to heat strongly, to warm a surface, to scorch”; 6. “figuratively to cause discomfort.”

²³ LKŽė nušvisti: 3. “to begin to shine, to glow, to light up.”

²⁴ LKŽė užplūsti: 1. “intransitive to rise, to flood”; 2. “intransitive to be afloat, inundated, submerged”; 3. “transitive, intransitive to inundate, to flood, to submerge.”

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(50) Longing, leaping with passion, the tenor gurgled in cascades of lascivious languor [P. Andriušis. Ano j pusėj ežero; 1997].

Example 49 may evoke the motif of a sharp, piercing, stabbing object, such as a needle; in other words, it is meant to show that a person overcome by passion is tormented by unpleasant sensations.

Although the source domain ANIMALS is represented by only three usage examples of the conceptual metaphor PASSION IS WILD ANIMALS (8.1 percent), even the limited data reveal a negative emotional evaluation of passion:

(51) Everything there reeked of mutilated passion, lifeless lust <...> [J. Ivanauskaitė. Placebas; 2003];

(52) Her lower lip is slightly protruding, but when passion attacks, who can keep looking at those lips?! [V. Rožukas. Aš myliu jus, aš myliu jus, aš myliu jus; 1998];

(53) <...> though thunder rumbles in the heart and passion or hatred tears at the chest and belly [G. Aleksa. Adomo broliai ir moterys; 2001].

Passion can be compared to dead, stinking beasts or dangerous wild animals, an encounter with which may cause a person unpleasant sensations, injury, or even death. Example 51 seeks to belittle and disparage passion completely, while the other examples, in which the motif of wild animals can be discerned (although a dog or cat can also attack or scratch), seek to emphasize the negative impact of this intense, burning feeling on a person in love.

The second most productive source domain is THE HUMAN BEING AS A PHYSICAL ENTITY (43.8 percent). The metaphors belonging to this domain are ranked by productivity as follows: PASSION IS ACTIONS (28.1 percent), PASSION IS THE BODY (9.4 percent), and the less frequent PASSION IS ILLNESS and PASSION IS DISABILITY (2.7 percent). The most productive conceptual metaphor, PASSION IS ACTIONS, shows that passion (like love) actively drives the course of events; passion, however, has an all-destroying force, for example:

(54) <...> if this is only a short-lived love affair, passion should not destroy [J. Ivanauskaitė. Sapnų nublokšti; 2000];

(55) <...> passion and anger will shatter the Balance you long for [J. Ivanauskaitė. Sapnų nublokšti; 2000];

(56) I wouldn’t be afraid to burn in the flames of passion, either. – That passion will destroy you. Is that love? [N. Raižytė. Moterys ir sraigės; 2003].

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In summary, examining examples of the use of the synonym love passion, it can be said that the metaphorization tendencies of the LOVE concept and its synonym are similar. Among source domains drawn from natural phenomena, the conceptual metaphor LOVE, PASSION IS FIRE predominates, while among source domains drawn from humans as physical beings, the conceptual metaphor LOVE, PASSION IS ACTIONS predominates. However, the emotional evaluations of the concepts LOVE and PASSION are entirely different. Love is evaluated in the Lithuanian linguistic worldview as a pure, strong, and eternal feeling, associated with sacred elements of Baltic beliefs, whereas passion is described as a strong yet temporary feeling characterized by a destructive element. It may be thought that for Lithuanians, love is a value, but not passion.

CONCLUSIONS

1. The scope of the data in this study does not allow for broad generalizations; however, even the limited empirical material reveals some emerging tendencies—the metaphorization tendencies of the concept LOVE and its synonyms (falling in love, coming to love, attachment, passion, and fascination) in one fragment of the Lithuanian linguistic worldview, namely, in the fiction and journalism sections of DLKT. Even this limited empirical material reveals the principal value orientations of Lithuanians (those associated with feelings).

2. The most productive source domain for the concept LOVE is THE INANIMATE WORLD (NATURE) (29 percent). The conceptual metaphors LOVE IS FIRE (12.9 percent), LOVE IS THE SUN (6.5 percent), and LOVE IS WATER (4.8 percent) reveal that, in the Lithuanian linguistic worldview, love is a pure feeling, since it is compared with sacred elements of Baltic beliefs—fire, the sun, and water.

3. In terms of productivity, the second source domain is THE HUMAN BEING AS A PHYSICAL ENTITY (27.4 percent). Through the conceptual metaphor LOVE IS ACTIONS, it is shown that, in the Lithuanian linguistic worldview, love is not a passive observer of events but an active determinant of the course of action.

4. Examples of usage representing the source domains of INANIMATE WORLD OBJECTS (19.4 percent) and PLANTS (4.8 percent) show that love is an uncontrollable feeling that demands considerable effort and devotion from lovers.

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5. The tendencies in the metaphorization of the concept LOVE and its synonyms (falling in love, attachment, and admiration) are similar. Among the source domains of NATURAL PHENOMENA, the conceptual metaphor FALLING IN LOVE, ADMIRATION IS FIRE and the conceptual metaphor ATTACHMENT, ADMIRATION IS WATER predominate.

6. The most productive source domain for the concept PASSION is the INANIMATE WORLD (NATURE) (40.5 percent). The main conceptual metaphors PASSION IS FIRE (24.9 percent), PASSION IS THE SUN (2.7 percent), and PASSION IS WATER (8.1 percent) show that passion (like love) is compared with sacred elements of Baltic beliefs—fire, the sun, and water—except that the sacred significance has disappeared; passion is identified with a destructive force.

7. Examples of usage representing the conceptual metaphors PASSION IS OBJECTS, PASSION IS FOOD, PASSION IS WILD ANIMALS, and PASSION IS ACTIONS show that the Lithuanian linguistic worldview is dominated by a negative emotional evaluation of passion.

8. The metaphorization tendencies of the concept LOVE and its synonym passion are similar. Among the source domains of NATURAL PHENOMENA, the conceptual metaphor LOVE, PASSION IS FIRE predominates, while among the source domains of HUMAN BEINGS AS PHYSICAL ENTITIES, the conceptual metaphor LOVE, PASSION IS ACTIONS predominates. Love in the Lithuanian worldview is valued as a pure, strong, and eternal feeling, associated with sacred elements of Baltic beliefs, whereas passion is described as a strong yet temporary feeling characterized by a destructive element. This allows us to assert that for Lithuanians, love is a value, not passion.

ŠALTINIAI

DLKT – Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos tekstynas. Prieiga internete: http://tekstynas.vdu.lt/tekstynas/ [žiūrėta 2018 m. birželio–liepos mėn.].

DŽ₇ 2017 – Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos žodynas. Vyr. red. S. Keinys, Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos institutas. Prieiga internete: http://lkiis.lki.lt/dabartinis [žiūrėta 2018 m. birželio–liepos mėn.].

LKŽ_e 2017 – Lietuvių kalbos žodynas. Vyr. red. G. Naktinienė, Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos institutas. Prieiga internete: www.lkz.lt [žiūrėta 2018 m. birželio–liepos mėn.].

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ND – Lietuvių kalbos naujažodžių duomenynas. [Tęstinis internetinis žinynas nuo 2011 m.] Sudarytoja R. Miliūnaitė. Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos institutas. Prieiga internete: http://naujažodžiai.lki.lt [žiūrėta 2018 m. birželio mėn.].

SŽ 2015 – Sinonimų žodynas. A. Lyberis. Antrasis pataisytas leidimas. Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos institutas. Prieiga internete: http://lkiis.lki.lt/sinonimu [žiūrėta 2018 m. birželio mėn.].

TŽŽ 2007 – Tarptautinių žodžių žodynas. Sud. V. Vaitkevičiūtė. Ketvirtasis pataisytas ir papildytas leidimas, Vilnius: Žodynas.

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THE CONCEPT OF LOVE AND ITS SYNONYMS IN THE WORLD-VIEW OF THE LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE

S u m m a r y

The subject of this article is 108 cases of the usage of the word love (Lith. meilė) and its synonyms (crush, fondness, affection, passion, infatuation) found in the fiction and publicistics sections of the Corpus of the Contemporary Lithuanian Language. The tendencies of metaphorisation of the concept LOVE and its synonyms in the world-view of the Lithuanian language were established by structuring the conceptual metaphors:

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2. The most productive source domain of the concept LOVE is the INANIMATE WORLD (NATURE) (29%). The conceptual metaphors LOVE IS FIRE (12.9%), LOVE IS THE SUN (6.5%), and LOVE IS WATER (4.8%) show that, in the world-view of the Lithuanian language, love is a pure feeling for it is compared with sacral elements of the Baltic religions: fire, sun, and water.

3. The second most productive source domain is MAN AS A PHYSICAL BEING (27.4%). The conceptual metaphor LOVE IS ACTION shows that, when it comes to the world-view of the Lithuanian language, love is not a passive observer, but rather an active force that drives the course of action.

4. The cases of usage that represent the source domains of ITEMS OF THE INANIMATE WORLD (19.4%) and PLANTS (4.8%) indicate that love is an unchecked feeling that requires a lot of effort and dedication from those in love.

5. The metaphorisation tendencies of the concept LOVE are similar to those of its synonyms (crush, affection, infatuation). Amidst the source domain of NATURAL PHENOMENA, the conceptual metaphors CRUSH, INFATUATION IS FIRE, and AFFECTION, INFATUATION IS WATER prevail.

6. The most productive source domain of the concept PASSION is the INANIMATE WORLD (NATURE) (40.5%). The underlying conceptual metaphors PASSION IS FIRE (24.9%), PASSION IS THE SUN (2.7%) and PASSION IS WATER (8.1%) show that passion (much like love) is compared to sacral elements of the Baltic religions: fire, sun, and water, only the sacral meaning is no longer there, and passion associates with the destructive spring.

7. The cases of usage that represent the conceptual metaphors PASSION IS THINGS, PASSION IS FOOD, PASSION IS WILD ANIMALS, and PASSION IS ACTION show that there is a negative emotional attitude towards passion in the world-view of the Lithuanian language.

8. The concept LOVE and its synonym passion share similar tendencies for metaphorisation. The source domain of NATURAL PHENOMENA is dominated by the conceptual metaphor LOVE/PASSION IS FIRE, while the source domain of MAN AS A PHYSICAL BEING, by the conceptual metaphor LOVE/PASSION IS ACTION. In the world-view of the Lithuanian language, love is a pure, strong, and eternal feeling, one that is tied

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with sacral elements of Baltic religions, while passion is defined as a strong yet fleeting emotion that has a destructive source. It can be said that Lithuanians value love and not passion.

Of course, the scope of data does not facilitate making any major generalisations, yet the limited empirical material, too, can give insight into some clear tendencies, all the more as there have been not efforts to study the concept of LOVE in Lithuanian linguistics so far.

KEYWORDS: the concept LOVE, cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor, world-view of the Lithuanian language.

AGNĖ ALEKSAITĖ

Lietuvių kalbos institutas

Petro Vileišio g. 5, LT-10308 Vilnius

[email protected]

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