"Pride and prejude" : a cognitive analysis

Abstract

The present paper attempts to provide the potential reader with a new viewpoint of the novel entitled Pride and Prejudice. We would like to postulate that an analysis along the lines provided by Cognitive Linguistics sheds new light on the explanation of the relationships that hold between the main characters. Such cognitive constructs as metaphors and image-schemas (see Johnson, 1987; Lakoff, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1996; Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, and Lakoff and Turner, 1989 for discussion) are so engraved in our mind that Jane Austen has made use of them unconsciously. Furthermore, we put forward that the whole novel is likely to be summarized by means of the LOVE IS A JOURNEY metaphor, as postulated by Lakoff (1993).