Personification as a special type of cognitive metaphor in economic media discourse (on the example of the german mass media)

The article focuses on the concept of personification metaphor in the economic media discourse, which is clarified and supplemented. A brief overview is given of the linguistic works devoted to the issue. The significance of the research of this type of metaphor in economic mass media discourse lies in the increasing interest of the target audience caused by the increased level of education worldwide and the increased number of economic actors, as well as the rapid development of the media space. The article considers the trends in the dynamics of a personification metaphor use on the material of the German-language mass media articles. The article aims to single out the main features of the personification metaphor and the ways in which it is actualized in the media discourse during the crisis and the economic growth. In addition, the task was also to analyse the variants of its actualization in a diachronic perspective. The illustrative material was selected by continuous sampling of analytical and informational articles from such big media portals in Germany as Berliner Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Fokus, Handelsblatt, Manager Magazin, Ökonomenstimme, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Stuttgarter Nachrichten, Welt. Methods of quantitative and contextual analysis were applied to explain the illustrative material. The total number of contexts analysed in the process of work is 225. A high frequency of the personification metaphor allows us to see the quantitative difference in the metaphorical saturation of media materials within the specified periods of the crisis and the economic growth. The pragmatic attitudes of the authors of the media texts are determined by their comments and the methods they use to express value judgments. It is also pointed out that the subjects of metaphorical mapping of that type can form the opposition ‘stable economy − economic crisis’. The article addresses the linguists speaking German and other professionals interested in the stylistic features of economic texts.

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