The Anthropomorphic Metaphor in Slovene and English Wine Tasting Discourses

Abstract

The language used to describe the tastes of various wines ranges from specific references to chemical, vegetal and mineral components to a wealth of diverse metaphorical constructions. This paper explores the use and characteristics of the anthropomorphic metaphor in wine reviews from a cross–linguistic perspective. The theoretical framework relies on the cognitive approach to metaphor, most notably on the conceptual theory of metaphor. The case study presented is focused on the conceptual metaphor WINE IS A HUMAN BEING and its linguistic realisations in a corpus of wine reviews collected from selected Slovene and English sources. A number of metaphors will be examined with respect to their level of conventionality, from metaphorically motivated terminology to novel linguistic metaphors. It will be argued that despite some variations in the way metaphors are realised in English and Slovene wine discourses, there is a large overlap in the way the two languages conceptualise the taste of wine through the anthropomorphic metaphor.