Idiomatic Meaning as a Cognitive Comlex (On the Example of English Idioms)

The idiomatic meaning of phraseological units is a complex informative unity, which causes difficulties in its study. Traditional linguistics considers this meaning to be unmotivated by its structural elements, but the cognitive approach allows us to reveal its cognitive motivation. In cognitive linguistics idiomaticity can be represented as a cognitive complex. It consists of interaction between source-concepts (B) and target-concepts (A), which can be metaphoric (model A IS B) or metonymic (model B FOR A), or even metaphtonymic in cases when it is difficult to distinguish between metaphor or metonymy. The third element of the cognitive complex is our conventional knowledge of the world based on our perception, encyclopaedic knowledge or cultural preferences. It helps to prove the correctness of the analysis and the interpretation of the results. In this article we apply the cognitive analysis to two English idioms with lexemes denoting parts of the body. Such idioms better illustrate the cognitive hypothesis of the embodied mind. The aim of the conducted research is to show the idiomatic meanings of the two idioms as cognitive complexes which consist of metaphor, metonymy and our empirical knowledge. The result of the research is: in the cognitive complex of the first idiom to have a finger in every pie we can single out 5 models of metaphor and 4 models of metonymy as the cognitive interaction between the source-concepts FINGER, PIE, EVERY and the target-concepts INVOLVEMENT, ACTIVITIES. The cognitive complex of the idiom to keep one’s nose clean consists of the interaction between the source-concepts KEEP, NOSE, CLEAN and the target-concepts TO BEHAVE WELL, TO STAY OUT OF TROUBLE, which results in 2 models of metaphor and 5 models of metonymy. So, the cognitive analysis gives deep and overall understanding of the complex structure of idiomatic meaning. We use our empirical knowledge to interpret the interaction between concepts.