Cliched Metaphors in News Media as Semiotic Compression Tool

Resumen

The paper investigates the distinctive features of clichéd metaphorical expressions with the somatic component hand (arm) / рука in English-language news discourse and their borrowed counterparts in the Russian media. The study’s relevance and novelty are determined by the growing interest in media discourse within the context of the semiotic, hermeneutic, and linguistic-cognitive processes occurring in the digital sphere. A key feature of this type of humanistic inquiry is the application of an interdisciplinary approach within the anthropocentric paradigm, which relies on functional-pragmatic and discursive approaches, the method of metaphorical modeling, and contextual and semantic-semiotic analysis. The findings describe the universality of the body code as a cognitive basis for the semantic-semiotic transition “hand” → “power.” The study reveals the mechanisms for adapting borrowed images and creating graduated evaluative statements in both the English- and Russian-language digital environments. The clichés borrowed from English into Russian such as Kremlin’s Hand / the hand of the Kremlin / the Russia hand / the hand of Moscow, the long arm of the Kremlin / Moscow, and their Russian equivalents (рука Кремля / Москвы / Путина, длинная рука Кремля / Москвы) are analyzed. The graduated pattern of cognitive metaphors representing the concept of power are also examined (firm hand, strong hand, heavy hand, iron hand; сильная рука, твердая рука, жёсткая рука, железная рука). Scales of the qualitative attribute “the quality and degree of political power” have been developed for the English and Russian metaphorical clichés with the somatic component hand(arm) / рука. The study identifies the pragmatics of clichéd metaphorical expressions in news media and describes the variability and additivity of their components.