Metaphor in the context of creating the comic effect in media text

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the metaphor in the context of creating a comic effect. There is a similarity between the nature of metaphors and the comical, the ability of perception of which refers to the evolutionary acquisition. The correlation of a metaphor and the comical is manifested in the comparison of the contradictory and the combination of the disproportionate. Despite the universality of the comical and a metaphor, the interpretation of knowledge modelled by the comic metaphor is governed by the sociocultural factor. The collected material allows us to conclude that there are separate comic metaphors, or metaphors that create a comic effect of a fragment / whole media text based on one or more metaphorical models. Based on the material of Bulgarian media texts, several groups of metaphors are identified which fulfil a comic effect. Among them, there is a lively relevant metaphor based on the distance of the frames, while the conceptual interaction is accompanied by the obligatory implicit appraisal. The second group is the creation of a comic effect by the metaphorization of linguistic and cultural signs, including precedent phenomena, with non-standard syntagmatics, characterized by the unpredictability and violation of stereotypical attitudes. The third group includes updated, occasional metaphors as a means of expressing and realizing the pragmatic potential in the media language. The fourth group includes scenario metaphors, the comic effect of which is based on a complex of pragmatic and linguistic-stylistic signs of a metaphor. The presence of a lively and updated (occasional) metaphor in media discourse provides it with originality and criticality, disguises and smooths out — in a word, contributes to the implementation of its main pragmatic tasks — influencing the consciousness of a mass audience or addressee. The activity of a metaphor as a construct-script serves the organization and semantic development of a text.