Cultural models and motivation of idioms with the component ‘heart’ in croatian

Abstract

Idioms as lexical constructions are from cognitive linguistic view motivated by conceptual metaphors, metonymies and cultural models [1]. I have chosen to look closely at the motivation of idioms in Croatian that contain the lexeme srce (eng. heart). The aim of this study is to show that all the ‘heart idioms’ are systematically motivated by the above mentioned cognitive mechanisms, primarily by cultural models which are a direct result of symbolic meaning of the heart in western civilization. My results show that all idioms are motivated by three cultural models: (1) heart as a site for emotion (2) physical model of the heart and (3) intellectual model of the heart. I will argue that the three cultural models overlap, that is, that they have fuzzy borders and that they are elaborated by conceptual metaphors. On the other hand, most conceptual metaphors are based on conceptual metonymies. I will also raise the point that cultural models, when it comes to emotions, are not completely cognitively independent.