Economic Crisis as a Supernatural Being in Public Discourse

The aim of the research was to reveal and compare the peculiarities of economic crisis conceptualization in Lithuanian and German public discourse. The research was focused on conceptual metaphors that are characteristic for the source domain SUPERNATURAL BEING. The main research method is the analysis of conceptual metaphors based on the Contemporary Theory of Metaphor. The metaphor is understood not as a linguistic phenomenon, but as a thinking strategy, mapping from a source domain to a target domain. In this context, the significance of research into conceptual metaphors in linguistics is obvious, because metaphors are a linguistic reflection of thinking processes. Thus, by revealing the mode of conceptual metaphors as well as the ways they are realized, we partially reveal the thinking and behavioral strategies that are characteristic for a given nation. Both linguistic communities explain the crisis by the names of supernatural beings. Metaphorical expressions present the crisis as a phenomenon beyond human control and an inevitable necessity caused by supernatural beings. These features are reflected by universal conceptual metaphors in both languages, but their linguistic expression in German and Lithuanian is partly unique. Collected metaphorical expressions and research results were applied compiling the first of its kind Conceptual Metaphors Dictionary of Lithuanian Public Discourse