The roles of «author’ and «reader» in the communicative act modelled by metaphors with «text» as a source domain

Altukhova O. I.

The article focuses on the mapping of conceptual slots «author» and «reader» in English poetic metaphors with TEXT as a source domain. First registered in religious works of the XVI century, the metaphors under analysis gradually extend into secular poetry, the range of possible metaphorical «authors» expanding accordingly. The «reader» slot, on the other hand, undergoes little change up to the present day. The linguistic means used to verbalize the slots in secular texts become equally diversified over time as «author» and «reader» begin to share or exchange their functions in unconventional combinations.

Keywords:English, cognitive poetics, conceptual metaphor, source domain, slot