CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR AS A PRISM OF THE AFRICAN COMMUNITY CONCEPTUAL SYSTEM

Khristich Yulia Nikolaevna

The article deals with one of the ways of reflecting the conceptual system in a society, namely, conceptual and metaphorical representation of African mental models in mass media. Mass media is a multifunctional tool that contributes to the promotion of knowledge related to some social events, operating local and global structures of associative character. According to the relevant context, a certain semantic dominant is chosen and used to convey the meaning through the prism of metaphorical understanding. The study is conducted in the context of cognitive linguistics and involves analysis of the media for conceptual metaphors that best reflect the notional system of the African community. Furthermore, the priority topics for discussion should include the multicultural format of mass media, some aspects of mass communication theory, peculiarities of metaphorical structuring of thinking of the sub-Saharan African population, extralinguistic factors predetermining the national mentality.

Keywords:conceptual metaphor, mass media, conceptual system, mindset, mass communication, national mentality