STYLISTIC AND PRAGMATIC SPECIFICITIES OF COGNITIVE METAPHORS IN BULGARIAN POLITICAL SPEECHES FROM THE END OF THE 19TH CENTURY

Abstract

In this article, some stylistic and pragmatic aspects of cognitive metaphors in the speeches of renowned Bulgarian politicians from the end of the 19th century are discussed. The objects of analysis are the parliamentary speeches of Konstantin Stoilov and Stephan Stambolov, given in the same circumstances of time and culture. Both politicians are highly educated, and education is the key to the choice of metaphors. It is here that we find a paradoxical contrast to contemporary Bulgarian political speeches, which are characterized by bombastic statements, illocutionary incompetence and performative aberrations. The political speeches of today have a great stock of metaphors with cognitive content, but they are mostly a product of intuitive reflection of untamed instinct. Oratory skills, an understanding of empiricism and the successful usage of stylistic figures all make speech affective and ensure that the communicative intent is fulfilled. There is an inverse proportionality between the intelligence of the orators and the spontaneity in their choice of metaphors: the higher the former, the lower the latter. In Stoilov’s and Stambolov’s speeches, there is a strong intensity of metaphors with deep cultural meaning, which are based on high intelligence, as well as morally legitimated national identification.