Ogarkova G. Verbalization of the Concept of LOVE in Modern English: Cognitive and Discourse aspects

The thesis is devoted to the study of the concept of LOVE in its cognitive aspect and in its representation in discourse. The work aims to determine and describe key characteristics of LOVE as a complex entity of notional, metaphoric and axiological aspects. The paper argues for distinguishing LOVE as a "folk" (commonsense) and "expert" (scientific) сoncept, as well as for differentiating real love, infatuation and possessive love as distinct "folk" types of love. The paper suggests that language of love is largely metaphorical. Conventional metaphoric expressions, identified in the processed data of BNC, thesauri, collections of love letters, love song lyrics made it possible to identify 36 conceptual metaphors that constitute the cultural model of love for English-speaking people. LOVE is further considered as a factor that influences the choice of a communicative strategy in the discourse of love. The proposed models of language personalities (romantic lover, possessive lover, pragmatic lover, game-playing lover, agapic lover) are shown to implement different communicative strategies