Cultural Conceptualizations in

Language and Communication Barbara

Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://textbookfull.com/product/cultural-conceptualizations-in-language-and-communi
cation-barbara-lewandowska-tomaszczyk/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Contacts and Contrasts in Educational Contexts and

Translation Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk

https://textbookfull.com/product/contacts-and-contrasts-in-
educational-contexts-and-translation-barbara-lewandowska-
tomaszczyk/

Nature Metaphor Culture Cultural Conceptualizations in

Hungarian Folksongs 1st Edition Judit Baranyiné Kóczy
(Auth.)

https://textbookfull.com/product/nature-metaphor-culture-
cultural-conceptualizations-in-hungarian-folksongs-1st-edition-
judit-baranyine-koczy-auth/

Complexity Applications in Language and Communication

Sciences Àngels Massip-Bonet

https://textbookfull.com/product/complexity-applications-in-
language-and-communication-sciences-angels-massip-bonet/

Applying Language Technology in Humanities Research:

Design, Application, and the Underlying Logic Barbara
Mcgillivray

https://textbookfull.com/product/applying-language-technology-in-
humanities-research-design-application-and-the-underlying-logic-
barbara-mcgillivray/
Cognition and communication in the evolution of
language 1st Edition Reboul

https://textbookfull.com/product/cognition-and-communication-in-
the-evolution-of-language-1st-edition-reboul/

Japanese Contractors in Overseas Markets Bridging

Cultural and Communication Gaps Kazuhito Suzuki

https://textbookfull.com/product/japanese-contractors-in-
overseas-markets-bridging-cultural-and-communication-gaps-
kazuhito-suzuki/

Elastic Language in Persuasion and Comforting A Cross

Cultural Perspective Grace Zhang

https://textbookfull.com/product/elastic-language-in-persuasion-
and-comforting-a-cross-cultural-perspective-grace-zhang/

Communication cultural and media studies Fifth Edition

John Hartley

https://textbookfull.com/product/communication-cultural-and-
media-studies-fifth-edition-john-hartley/

Studies in Ethnopragmatics Cultural Semantics and

Intercultural Communication Ethnopragmatics and
Semantic Analysis Kerry Mullan

https://textbookfull.com/product/studies-in-ethnopragmatics-
cultural-semantics-and-intercultural-communication-
ethnopragmatics-and-semantic-analysis-kerry-mullan/
Second Language Learning and Teaching

Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk Editor

Cultural
Conceptualizations
in Language and
Communication
Second Language Learning and Teaching

Series Editor
Mirosław Pawlak, Faculty of Pedagogy and Fine Arts, Adam Mickiewicz
University, Kalisz, Poland
The series brings together volumes dealing with different aspects of learning and
teaching second and foreign languages. The titles included are both monographs
and edited collections focusing on a variety of topics ranging from the processes
underlying second language acquisition, through various aspects of language
learning in instructed and non-instructed settings, to different facets of the teaching
process, including syllabus choice, materials design, classroom practices and
evaluation. The publications reflect state-of-the-art developments in those areas,
they adopt a wide range of theoretical perspectives and follow diverse research
paradigms. The intended audience are all those who are interested in naturalistic
and classroom second language acquisition, including researchers, methodologists,
curriculum and materials designers, teachers and undergraduate and graduate
students undertaking empirical investigations of how second languages are learnt
and taught.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/10129

Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk
Editor

Cultural Conceptualizations
in Language
and Communication

123
Editor
Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk
Faculty of Philology
State University of Applied Sciences
in Konin
Konin, Poland

ISSN 2193-7648 ISSN 2193-7656 (electronic)

Second Language Learning and Teaching
ISBN 978-3-030-42733-7 ISBN 978-3-030-42734-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42734-4
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part
of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission
or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar
methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from
the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the
authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained
herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard
to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Introduction

The present volume includes a survey of topics which combine the rapidly
developing field of cultural linguistics, dealing with the perception of the world by
different ethnic groups, and incorporating the main assumptions of cognitive lin-
guistics, which elaborates on major aspects of human mental activities, i.e., con-
ceptualization. Cultural conceptualizations are formed during the interaction of
members of particular cultural groups, sharing the overlapping systems of patterned
thinking, behavior, and language, including its metaphoricity and conceptual sys-
tem. Humans perceive the world, communicate, and express their thoughts in a
variety of ways, which are conditioned both by the dynamic communication sys-
tems, contexts and by particular cultural conventions, which are the topics of the
present studies.
The volume is a collection of selected studies, presented at the international
Contacts & Contrasts 2019 conference, which focused on Cultural
Conceptualizations in Language, Literature, and Translation, and was organized
on April 1–3, 2019, by the Department of Research in Language, Literature, and
Translation of the State University of Applied Sciences in Konin, Poland. The
organizers wish to express their appreciation both to the conference participants and
to the Rector of the State University of Applied Sciences; Prof. Dr. habil. Mirosław
Pawlak, for his support and encouragement; and to the referees of the submitted
papers, Prof. Katarzyna Szmigiero of Jan Kochanowski University in Piotrków
Trybunalski and Prof. Jacek Tadeusz Waliński of the University of Łódź.
The volume comprises 18 chapters concerning the general theme of Cultural
Conceptualizations in Language and Communication. The chapters are thematically
ordered. The first part Metaphor, Iconicity, and Culture, which includes five
chapters, concerns culturally motivated metaphors and iconicity, as well as some
iconic principles between language and visual mode. The first chapter “Metaphors
for the Nation: Conceptualization of Its BODY and/or PERSON” by Andreas
Musolff discusses the metaphorical conceptualizations of nation as body (part) or
person, in which the author categorizes the results into five coherent scenarios that
emerge from the collected data across different nations. The chapter “Why Would
We Rather Peg Out Than Simply Die?—How Do GAME Metaphors Help Us Deal

v
vi Introduction

with Death Across Languages and Cultures?” by Wojciech Wachowski and Karen
Sullivan focuses on the experience of death in figurative expressions across various,
often unrelated, languages and cultures. The metaphoric blend, as the authors
demonstrate, makes it possible for people to think and talk about the negative
human experience, dying, in terms of one of a positive experience, playing a game.
In his study “On Patterns of Conceptual Construal in Tok Pisin” Krzysztof Kosecki
discusses the patterns of conceptual construal in this creolized variety of Pidgin
English spoken in Papua New Guinea, particularly its metaphoric, metonymic,
and metaphtonymic systems. Małgorzata Wasniewska’s chapter “The Red Pill,
Unicorns and White Knights: Cultural Symbolism and Conceptual Metaphor in the
Slang of Online Incel Communities” is a study concerning the use of symbols,
conceptual metaphors, metonymies, and other cultural conceptualizations by the
members of the online incel community, an informal group of mostly male indi-
viduals identifying as “involuntarily celibate”. The author discusses the, often
controversial, language the group uses in online discussions, which is a rarely
researched topic in cultural cognitive linguistics. The last chapter in the first part
of the volume, by Kamila Zielińska-Nowak, “Iconic Nature of Board Game Rules
and Instructions”, focuses on two levels of iconicity in instructions included with
board games and takes into consideration both the graphic elements and the lan-
guage itself. The author takes a cognitive linguistic perspective of iconicity to
uncover the basic structure of the board game instruction manuals.
The second part of the volume, Cultural Models and Communication, comprises
four chapters. The first two chapters are centered around the cultural conceptual-
izations of the concept of family. The first one by Barbara Lewandowska-
Tomaszczyk and Bibigul Burkhanovna Utegaliyeva “Kazakh Cultural Models of
Family and Home in Contrast” discusses a fairly unchartered domain of Kazakh
cultural conceptualizations of family and home against the relevant cultural back-
ground. This paper presents a cluster of concepts of family and home from a
cross-linguistic perspective of Kazakh cultural conceptualizations, which are dis-
cussed with reference to British English culture. The article reviews also certain
relevant cultural dimensions distinguished by Hofstede 1980, which can be ascribed
to some of the properties that emerge from the analysis.
Agnieszka Stępkowska’s chapter “Family Networking of Bilingual Couples:
Reactions to Otherness” is a report on the experiences of bilingual couples who
construct their family networks, with a particular focus on the reactions demon-
strated by the extended families of either partner. The next two contributions in this
part introduce the question of stereotypes. Anna Bączkowska’s chapter “Framing
the Conceptualization of Obesity in Online Chinese and British Quality
Newspapers: A Corpus-Assisted Study” focuses on the conceptual framing of
obesity in two online newspapers, Chinese and British, using the corpus-assisted
discourse studies approach. The author observes that while the Chinese corpus data
indicate rather the causes of obesity, the British corpus data attend to its remedies
and treatment. The final chapter in the second part, Katarzyna Krakowian-Płoszka’s
“From the Theatre-in-the-Round to the Theatre of the Oppressed—A Process of
Forming Interaction”, is a survey of the techniques of the theatre as the techniques
Introduction vii

of communication and looks at the way interaction and expression become part
of the spectator’s experience, expanding their self-awareness.
The third part of the volume Identity and Cultural Stereotypes takes up the
notion of stereotypes introduced in the second part and extends it in terms of the
concept of identity, prejudices, and cultures both in general language and in liter-
ature. Six chapters in this part discuss identity in native and migration contexts and
consider the motifs of journey and migration, as well as social and cultural
stereotypes and prejudice in transforming contexts. Kamila Ciepiela and Anna
Ciepiela’s chapter “Changes in the Stereotype of Italians in Polish Students of
Italian Philology” discusses the dynamics of knowledge and perception of Italian
culture with Polish students of Italian, exposed to broadening experience with
Italian people and culture.
The chapter “The Trope of the Wanderer in “Post” Era German (Migration?)
Literature” by Anna Stolarczyk-Gembiak offers a review of the trope of the
“wanderer” in German literature, which seems to be especially valid in this day and
age when migration has become one of the most important issues in the European
and global social reality. Ewa Rybicka-Urbaniak’s contribution “Trans(de)
formations—Migrant Traumas in Aga Maksimowska’s Giant” continues in the
vein of migration literature by discussing the notion of migrant traumas in the novel
by Aga Maksimowska.
The next chapter in the volume is Katarzyna Wójcik’s “The Ethnos of Volhynian
Germans—From the Study of Language Islands to National Socialist Propaganda”,
The author focuses on the ethnos of the Volhynian Germans in German historical
prose from the 1920s to the 1940s. The topics of German and Austrian identity in
the Croatian town of Osijek in its present and past periods are further discussed in
the chapter “German and Austrian Identity in Modern Slavic Osijek” by Michał
Kucharski, and the final chapter in third part of the volume, “Can the Social
Ecological Model Help Overcome Prejudices?” by Michael B. Hinner, demon-
strates details of a social ecological model originally proposed by Urie
Bronfenbrenner as an overall framework to analyze complex social issues and help
overcome prejudices.
Three chapters in the final, fourth part of the volume, Linguistic Concepts,
Meanings, and Interaction, focus on the semantic interpretation of the changes and
differences which occur in their intra- and inter-linguistic contexts. The first two
chapters focus on the questions of grammar and modality. The first chapter “The
Verb Wollen “To Want”—Its Formal Development and Grammaticalization
Processes”, by Marta Woźnicka, discusses the processes of development and
grammaticalization of the German verb wollen “to want” on the basis of corpora
of the Old, Middle, and Early New High German. The chapter by Agnieszka Kaleta
“Conceptualizing Modality: A Case Study of Polish Modal Verbs” offers a new
interpretation of selected modal Polish verbs with Leonard Talmy’s theory of force
dynamics.
The volume is concluded with a chapter by Jakub Krzosek “Semantic
Compositionality of Compounds in the Cognitive and Construction Grammar
Frameworks: A Comparative Study of Korean and Polish Compounds”. The study
viii Introduction

is primarily devoted to major factors of meaning distribution within compositional

compounds by comparing the compounds of Polish and Korean equivalents of
“bread”, which provides an adequate point of references to identify significant
contrasts between these two languages and cultures.
The topics discussed in the studies presented in the volume concern a plethora of
cultural models and conceptualizations in terms of various culturally salient con-
cepts and contexts, in a number of, frequently unrelated, languages such as English
and its varieties, German, Polish, Italian, and Croatian on the one hand, as well as
Korean, Kazakh, Japanese, and Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese) on the other.
The volume as a whole may help to portray diverse models and systems of cultural
conceptualizations of objects, relations, and events, essential for human life and
existence.

Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk
Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

Metaphor, Iconicity, and Culture

Metaphors for the Nation: Conceptualization of Its BODY
and/or PERSON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Andreas Musolff
Why Would We Rather Peg Out Than Simply Die?—How Do GAME
Metaphors Help Us Deal with Death Across Languages
and Cultures? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Wojciech Wachowski and Karen Sullivan
On Patterns of Conceptual Construal in Tok Pisin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Krzysztof Kosecki
The Red Pill, Unicorns and White Knights: Cultural Symbolism
and Conceptual Metaphor in the Slang of Online Incel
Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Małgorzata Waśniewska
Iconic Nature of Board Game Rules and Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Kamila Zielińska-Nowak

Cultural Models and Communication

Kazakh Cultural Models of Family and Home in Contrast . . . . . . . . . . 97
Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk
and Bibigul Burkhanovna Utegaliyeva
Family Networking of Bilingual Couples: Reactions to Otherness . . . . . 115
Agnieszka Stępkowska

ix
x Contents

Framing the Conceptualization of Obesity in Online Chinese

and British Quality Newspapers: A Corpus-Assisted Study . . . . . . . . . . 129
Anna Bączkowska
From the Theatre-in-the-Round to the Theatre of the Oppressed—A
Process of Forming Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Katarzyna Krakowian-Płoszka

Identity and Cultural Stereotypes

Changes in the Stereotype of Italians in Polish Students
of Italian Philology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Kamila Ciepiela and Anna Ciepiela
The Trope of the Wanderer in “Post” Era German (Migration?)
Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Anna Stolarczyk-Gembiak
Trans(de)formations—Migrant Traumas in Aga
Maksimowska’s Giant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Ewa Urbaniak-Rybicka
The Ethnos of Volhynian Germans—From the Study of Language
Islands to National Socialist Propaganda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Katarzyna Wójcik
German and Austrian Identity in Modern Slavic Osijek . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Michal Kucharski
Can the Social Ecological Model Help Overcome Prejudices? . . . . . . . . 239
Michael B. Hinner

Linguistic Concepts, Meanings, and Interaction

The Verb wollen ‘to want’—Its Formal Development
and Grammaticalization Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Marta Woźnicka
Conceptualizing Modality: A Case Study of Polish Modal Verbs . . . . . . 275
Agnieszka Kaleta
Semantic Compositionality of Compounds in the Cognitive
and Construction Grammar Frameworks: A Comparative Study
of Korean and Polish Compounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Jakub Krzosek
Metaphor, Iconicity, and Culture
Metaphors for the Nation:
Conceptualization of Its BODY
and/or PERSON

Andreas Musolff

Abstract One of the key-complexes for conceptualizing national identity is that of

the metaphor of the nation as a body or a person. Such nation-embodiment and -
personalization have a long conceptual history in English-speaking cultures and still
figure in present-day political discourse. However, do metaphor users from differ-
ent cultures understand such metaphors in the same way as English-L1-speakers?
Empirical evidence from an intercultural metaphor interpretation survey conducted in
English-as-lingua franca provides evidence of variation in Nation-embodiment and-
personalization on the reception-side. Five scenarios of interpretive conceptualization
can be identified, which are variably distributed across different national/linguistic
cohorts: nation as body, as geobody, as part of a larger body, as part
of ego’s body and as a person. This chapter focuses on comparing such sce-
narios across the English-L1 and Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese)-L1 cohorts.
The results show differences in scenario distribution, as well as in the use of irony
and humor and of topical references to socio-economic and political developments
or national stereotypes. In conclusion, we discuss how these differences are related
to culture-specific discourse traditions.

Keywords Embodiment · English-L1 · English as lingua franca · Metaphor ·

National identity · Scenario · Survey

1 Introduction

According to Conceptual Metaphor Theory, the metaphors nation-as-body and

nation-as-person are grounded in the immediate body-experience (Gibbs, 2005;
Johnson, 1987; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, 1999; Ziemke et al., 2007)—after all, what
could be more familiar to us than our own bodies and personalities? However, the
familiarity of the body as a source domain is not necessarily a sufficient reason to

A. Musolff (B)
School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies,
University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, NR4 7TJ Norwich, UK
e-mail: a.musolff@ue.a.ac.uk

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 3

B. Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk (ed.), Cultural Conceptualizations in Language and
Communication, Second Language Learning and Teaching,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42734-4_1
4 A. Musolff

assume an experiential universality of these metaphors beyond a very general level.

After all, body and person concepts are themselves cultural concepts (Maalej &
Yu, 2011; Sharifian et al., 2008; Yu, 2003, 2008). Hence, different cultural traditions
may still vary substantially in highlighting specific body and personality aspects
as sources for nation conceptualizations. The present chapter aims to find out if
empirical evidence can be found for such variation and what it means for the concept
of “culture” in cognitive metaphor theory.

2 Cultural Influences on Metaphor Interpretation

Traditionally, arguments about cultural specificity of conceptual metaphors concern

their production-side (Kövecses, 1995, 2005, 2017; Musolff et al., 2014; Yu, 2003,
2008), but more recently their learning by English as L2-speakers and their reception
by hearers or readers has also become the focus of research (Littlemore & Low,
2006; Littlemore et al., 2011; MacArthur & Littlemore, 2011; Nacey 2013; Philip,
2010; Piquer-Piriz, 2010; Wang & Dowker, 2010). Metaphors of public discourse,
however, may conceivably be understood uniformly across various languages and
cultures, due to their high conventionality. The lexicalized English metaphors body
politic, head of state, head of government, for instance, are nowadays learnt as part
of English political vocabulary and, if unclear or not known, can easily be looked
up in a dictionary (Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1999, p. 149; Deignan,
1995, p. 2; Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 2002, p. 258). Nevertheless, there
is still the possibility that learners of English or other recipients with a different L1
than English may all identify these metaphors correctly but work out meanings that
they think are the correct ones but which are different from those intended by the
speakers.
This assumption is not as far-fetched as it may sound. When teaching on a course
for international MA students with good English L2 competence at the University
of East Anglia in 2011, I ran a class test to make sure that the recently mentioned
term body politic had been correctly understood by the students. 50% of them were
Chinese; the rest was made up of British, US-American, European, Kurdish and
Arab students. All of them were asked to explain the meaning of body politic with
reference to their own nations. Here follow eight exemplary responses from the class
exercise:
(1) Student A: “The head of the body represents the Queen of England, as she is in charge
of the whole country and she is royalty. The features of the head (eyes, nose, mouth and
ears) represent the different official people, such as politicians, the Prime Minister, the
Government”.

(2) Student B: “If one organ or part of the national body suffers, the whole body would
suffer from fever. In other words, having a healthy body requires healthy parts. As a nation,
a problem in one area of a country should attract the attention of the whole people in that
country”.
Metaphors for the Nation: Conceptualization of Its BODY … 5

(3) Student C: “2 Heads: Head of state is the king?—Not sure anymore! Head of government
are [Prime Minister] Rajoy and the big banks’ presidents”.

(4) Student D: “The face: president and government; the brain: oligarchs, members of par-
liament (make all decisions in essence); the hands: official and unofficial local authorities
(including mafia groups); the mouth: the media—controlled by the oligarchs/MPs (dictate
political ideology)”.

(5) Student E: “Beijing: Heart and Brain, Shanghai: Face (economic center); Hong Kong
and Taiwan: Feet; Tianjin: Hands (=army close to Beijing); Shenzhen: Eyes (=the first place
open to the world)”.

(6) Student F: “Beijing is the heart of China. […] The railway is the throat of China. Shanghai
is the economic backbone of China. Tsingtao is the skeleton of Shandong province. Shenzhen
is the liver of China; Tiananmen is the eye of Beijing. Nanjing is the face of Jiangsu; Szechuan
is the hair of China; Xiangyang is the heel of China”.

(7) Student G: “Beijing: brain (government); Shanghai: hug/arm (welcome to foreign

people); Guangzhou: feet (keep China going); Hong Kong: face (familiar to everyone,
representative); Taiwan: hair (we can live without hair but it is necessary for beauty)”.

(8) Student H: “[…] Taiwan: potential disease (maybe one time we have to fight against it and
occupy it); Tibet: stomach (sometimes you feel uncomfortable); The head of the government:
hair (if one goes down, always some other one will grow up)”.

Example (1) was produced by a British student, examples (2)–(4) by a Saudi

Arabian, a Spanish and a Ukrainian student, respectively, and students E, F, G, and H
were Chinese. Whilst all answers are correct in the sense that they fulfilled the task,
the responses fall into two distinct groups. The first four responses describe a nation’s
political system in terms of a body’s anatomy, physiology and health. Responses (5)–
(8), on the other hand, identify geographical places in China, including the politically
separate state of Taiwan, and link them to parts of the human anatomy on the basis
of functional correspondences between them and political institutions or activities in
the respective cities/provinces and give further descriptive or evaluative explanations.
These explanations often also serve to personalize the characterizations in the sense
that they present the Chinese nation as presenting a face to the outside world, hugging
those who are friendly towards it, or actively fighting diseases.
The first four responses differ in the national target referents but share the con-
ceptualization of the nation state and its institutions through functionally motivated
analogies to the human body. The analogies are not particularly precise but they
are sufficient to indicate two main organizing principles, i.e., that of a hierarchical
ordering (head/brain = superior to rest of body) and that of the interdependence of
all parts of the body. These two notions can be related to the body politic metaphor
tradition in European/Western culture. The view of monarchs or other state leaders
as heads of nations, of institutions as organs, and of the whole state as suffering
if one part suffers illness or injury, which these answers articulate, is compatible
with formulations of the nation-as-body concept by Western thinkers and poets
since the Middle Ages, which have been reconstructed as a continuous tradition by
historians of ideas (Charbonnel, 2010; Harvey, 2007; Kantorowicz, 1997; Musolff,
2010). This tradition need not be consciously known by present-day users but its
6 A. Musolff

sedimented terminological traces, such as head of state, head of government, long

arm (of the law), organ (of a party), heart (of the nation), and prominent uses by
present-day politicians and media provide evidence for its continuity to this day. It
thus seems not unreasonable to conclude that the British student’s answers as well as
the Arab, Spanish, and Ukrainian students’ responses (all of whom had majored in
English language and literature in their first degrees) stand in a loose but still tangible
connection to that tradition.
In the Chinese students’ responses, by contrast, a basic metonymy place-for-
political institution/function (e.g., Beijing—seat of government, Shanghai,
Shenzen, Hong Kong –economic centers, Taiwan—politically separate island state,
Tibet—province with outlawed independence movement) is used to motivate the
metaphor geographical shape of a nation as anatomy of a human
body, which in turn leads to analogical sub-mappings, e.g., brain or heart as con-
trolling the rest of the body; face, eyes, arms as oriented to the outside world; hair as
a variable physical property. These second-order analogies are loaded with specific
evaluative interpretations, e.g., in the depictions of Taiwan as one of China’s feet (i.e.,
as an essential part of the nation’s body), or as hair (beautiful but not necessary for
survival), or as disease (to be combated) in examples (5), (7), and (8), respectively.
The Chinese students’ interpretations cannot be linked to the Western conceptual
tradition in the same way as the non-Chinese responses but of course that does not
mean that they are without history. One possible link to historical traditions and col-
lective experience may be the role of China’s publicly imagined “geobody” as part
of its national identity. The political scientist W. A. Callahan contends that visual-
izations of China’s borders in maps are characteristic of a “Cartography of National
Humiliation” (Callahan, 2009). Based on the historical experience of having been a
victim of colonialist attacks by foreign powers up until the mid-twentieth century,
Chinese cartography has served to articulate fears of future territorial “dismember-
ment”, e.g., in a map from 1999 that purports to show an “international conspiracy to
divide up the PRC [People’s Republic of China] into a clutch of independent states”
(Callahan, 2009, p. 143). More recently, however, the goal of geopolitical maps in
China is “no longer primarily to recover lost territory” but to achieve “symbolic
recognition, acceptance and respect” (2009, p. 171). If geographical contours and
locations are of such prominence in the public sphere of China, the grounding of
conceptualizations of its state organs and body parts in geo-political metonymies,
which we observed in the Chinese students’ answers, makes good sense.

3 Scenarios of Metaphor Interpretation

The two metaphor versions—nation as (anatomical/organic) body and

nation as geobody—are based on the same source domain but are conceptu-
ally different and include more than just propositional content—their conceptual
material is selected so as to form specific argumentative and narrative wholes, i.e.,
they suggest certain evaluative conclusions, e.g., that in a healthy body all organs
Metaphors for the Nation: Conceptualization of Its BODY … 7

must ‘work together’ or that an ‘illness’ needs to be ‘treated’ and eradicated. Such
a selection of source-domain elements is what has been referred to as a “scenario”
(Deignan, 2010, pp. 360–362; Musolff, 2006, 2016b; Sinding, 2015). The narrative
and argumentative perspectives of scenarios make them highly attractive for drawing
strong pragmatic, evaluative inferences and thus, for use in political discourse.
When used metaphorically, scenarios suggest an evaluative perspective on the
target topic by suggesting inferences about it and hiding others. Their ‘dramatic’
story lines and default outcomes, as well as ethical evaluations are connected to social
attitudes and emotional stances prevalent in the respective discourse communities.
Hence, preference for one scenario over another in a discourse community may be
indicative of attitudinal and ideological tendencies.
However, it clearly needs a larger database than eight answers in a class test to
gauge culturally ‘characteristic’ scenario preferences in interpretive conceptualiza-
tions of one’s nation. To widen the empirical evidence, the students and I devised a
questionnaire-based survey that asked informants to describe their “home nation in
terms of a human body” and in addition elicited information on first language, nation-
ality, age and gender (Musolff, 2016a). With the generous help of colleagues and
students in language/linguistics departments this survey was administered in other
UEA seminars and in further Higher Education institutions in 23 different countries
and yielded more than 1200 returned questionnaires, which are still being analyzed
(Musolff, 2016a, 2016b, 2020 forthcoming). The survey was not set up as a statisti-
cally valid psycholinguistic experiment; instead, it aimed at a qualitative pilot-study
of conceptual variation in metaphor interpretation.
In addition to the above-mentioned two scenarios of nation as body and
nation as geobody, which appeared in the first cohort’s responses, the survey
revealed three further scenarios. The first two of these are still body-focused. One
of them viewed the nation as part/organ of a larger body:
(9) England is like an appendix, not very significant anymore but can still cause trouble and
make you realise its [sic] there if it wants to.

An alternative ‘nation-as-part-of X’ scenario is that of the nation as part of

one’s own (=ego’s) body, which is often sourced from the notions of heart and
blood as the center/medium of the speaker’s identity:
(10) Motherland likes [sic, probably intended: ‘is like’] my blood. Blood is a part of my body
so that I can’t live without blood, and I also can’t live if I lost my motherland. What’s more,
motherland likes my blood [sic], because I feel its warmth and at the same time it provides
me the ‘oxygen’ and ‘nutrition’.

Other examples of this type conceptualize the nation as the speaker’s own feet/legs
(for “standing up and going forward in the world”), hands (for “creating the people”)
or eyes (for “noticing the democracy and equality enjoyed by general citizens as well
as the corruptions and irresponsibility of some government parasites”).
Whilst this last group of interpretations use body aspects to give an ego char-
acterization of the nation, about a fifth of all responses use the person concept as
the source (in response to a task that only asked for “body”-conceptualization!). The
8 A. Musolff

Chinese data include not only lexical references to the home nation as “motherland”
(example 10) but also detailed depictions of “motherly” character/behavior (exam-
ple 11), and we also found male-gendered examples, e.g., in the English-L1 cohorts
(example 12):
(11) Our nation is like a mother, who covers her children under her protection.

(12) Britain is an easily likeable friend, […] [He] is ancient but is experiencing revitalization
[…].

Together, these five scenarios (nation as body, geobody, part of larger

body, part of ego, person) account for all responses; sometimes one response
only includes one scenario, sometimes two or three; in rare cases four or even all five.
In the following sections, we will provide an overview over the corpus data for the
English and Chinese L1-cohorts, as part of an analysis-in-progress. (From here on,
the examples include also information about nationality, age, gender, in abbreviated
form.)

4 The English-L1 Cohort

The sample of responses from informants with English as First Language was col-
lected at nine universities across Britain, USA and New Zealand and various Euro-
pean universities; it amounts to 120 scripts (49 British, 26 US, 42 New Zealand, 2
Australian and 1 Canadian). It would of course have been desirable to have more
balanced national sub-samples but this has so far not been possible due to practical
problems in the diverse national environments. Hence, the English-L1 responses are
treated here as one unitary sample, except for a few outstanding cases that seem to
be indicative of specific national tendencies in conceptualizing one’s own nation as
a body.
The social make-up of this sample is characterized by a preponderance of 18–
25 year old female informants (Table 1).
According to the scenario categorization outlined above, the sample generated
143 scenario instantiations, which show the following distribution (Table 2).

Table 1 Social Indicators:

Gender Female 69 58%
English-L1
Male 51 42%
Age group 18–25 103 86%
26–30 6 5%
31–40 5 4%
41+ 6 5%
Metaphors for the Nation: Conceptualization of Its BODY … 9

Table 2 Scenario distribution: English-L1

Scenarios Body Geobody Body part Part of ego Person
Scenario tokens (total: 143) 68 29 14 2 32
Percentages (%) 48 20 9 1 22

4.1 The Nation as Whole BODY

The BODY-based scenario type clearly dominates the English L1 sample, with 43 dis-
tinct body and a further 9 health/illness-related sub-concepts underlying the 251
instances of relevant lexical items. They include the body-whole as well as separate
limbs and organs, taboo body areas (anus, armpit, hard to see places) and medical
conditions and their treatment. The most frequent lexical fields are (in descend-
ing order) body-organism, brain-head, heart, blood-veins-arteries, limbs-
organs, hands and feet. The most prominent usage pattern, which is also evident
in examples (1) and (2) above, is the ‘classic’ hierarchical top-down model of polit-
ical anatomy that bears a striking resemblance to famous formulations in the history
of English-language literature and philosophy:
(13) England is an organism. Its head is the Queen, its torso and limbs are the state and
government. Its heart is culture and history, its brain is parliament. Its feet is [sic] the
economy. (UK, 25, M)
(14) If New Zealand was a body, the Prime Minister would be the head in control and at
the top. The Queen would be the hair, technically higher, but with no real power. The feet
would be our farms, covered in mud but helps us [sic] trudge along, the main source of our
momentum. The hands would be our vineyards, full of fruit ripe for the picking, useful and
helpful. (NZ, 19, F)
(15) The United States of America is like a human body. In fact, we often refer to it as the
body politic. The government of the U.S. is the head, or the brain. It is (supposed to be) in
control of the country’s functions. The states are the various parts of the body, functioning
independently, but under the control of the ‘brain’. (US, 48, F)

Whilst the target referents at the ‘top’ of the state/body hierarchy change for the
simple reason that there are different government structures in the respective polities,
the function of the head/brain source is always the same, i.e., that of control of the
rest of the body. However, this control-function may be put in question, as indicated
in the “(supposed to be)” hedge in example (15). More explicit criticism can be found
in the US sample:
(16) It’s [sic] brain is bipolar and completely disjointed in the middle (US, 25, M)
(17) […] like Frankenstein [sic; correctly: Frankenstein’s monster], we have an abnor-
mal brain commanding the body, which is causing our country to act and react with more
negativity and distastefulness (US, 48, F)

In the British and New Zealand samples, such criticism of the brain is rare but in
some cases the metaphorical dichotomy heart versus brain (reason versus emotion)
is employed to signal a split personality:
10 A. Musolff

(18) The brain and heart don’t always agree with one another, and this conflict is normal
(UK, 22, F)
(19) New Zealand listens to its heart more than its brain. (NZ, 19, M)

It would be wrong, however, to conclude from the latter examples that the heart
concept is always or predominantly used in the conventionally metaphorical ‘seat
of emotions’ meaning. The majority of target concepts of heart in our corpus are
either central political institutions (monarchy, parliament) or the people.
An alternative source for the ‘people’ concept is blood, due to its ubiquity and
continuous movement indicating liveliness/vitality. Other target concepts for blood
are the economy, public finances, business and public transport (often likened to the
veins and arteries). The concepts of arms, hands, legs, feet as well as eyes
are associated with various ‘executive’ parts and functions of state and society (mil-
itary, police, secret service, middle class, economy, workers). One British informant
mentioned that “the long arms are the reach of the empire” (UK, 21, M) but did
not specify whether this was meant as a topical or historical description. Often, the
extremities are summarized as limbs that are complementary to the central control
part (head-brain/heart), without further specification.
The collective category organs fulfils much the same function in our texts:
(20) New Zealand works as a collective body in that there are a number of different sectors
of society that work like the different organs of a body in order to function as a whole. (NZ,
20, F)
(21) […] a person can only survive if their heart/lungs/brain organs are functioning, […] A
nation—like Britain—can only function well if all its parts, the government, the monarchy,
and its inhabitants—work together. (UK, 21, F)

illness/disease and medical treatment concepts are rare in this sample,

amounting as they do to altogether just 6%. Both the summary references (sick,
ailment, scars, pain) and specific notions such as cancer, infection and trans-
plant are only represented in single figures. They are used to express criticism of
parts of the respective nation state. Another vehicle for criticism is that of taboo or
ugly body parts, which also straddles various scenarios. In the organological and
physiological hierarchy there are a few instances:
(22) The queen sits at the face of the nation, with the flabby, saggy Tory government, as the
aged, wrinkled décolletage. (UK, 19, F)
(23) […] the anus would be the actual workers. While the brain thinks it controls the anus,
the most it can do is ask or demand things to be done (NZ, M, 18)
(24) The head is the white guys in charge. They also double as the asshole. (NZ, 18, F)

Such drastic and offensive examples are few in number but they show the potential
of body part conceptualization to support strongly evaluative arguments and even
insults. Whilst the target referents are more or less arbitrarily chosen, the sources
appear to be derived from a ‘stock’ of low-prestige body concepts that are entrenched
in the everyday discourse, idioms and taboo subjects of the respective discourse
community.
Metaphors for the Nation: Conceptualization of Its BODY … 11

4.2 The Nation as a BODY PART

To view one’s own nation as a body part, e.g., a limb or an organ is a perspective
taken in 10% of scenarios in the English L1-sample. It is conceptually close to the
previous scenario but differs from it insofar as its referent is either seen as part of a
larger body (e.g., continent or world), or as a body part that is typical for a particular
socio-political function or status of the nation in question. Its applications are less
schematic or descriptive than those that view the nation as a whole body and they
almost always carry an explicit or an implicit (ironical) evaluation. The positive
evaluations highlight useful limbs/organs, such as eyes, hands, and heart (the
latter with its ‘seat of emotions/passions’ symbolism):
(25) At the heart of the modern world, GB represents the eyes of development […]. (UK,
21, F)

(26) America is like the hands of a human body; they are used for work, get dirty often, and
when backed in a corner, are used to fight. (US, 20, M)

(27) Our nation is like a beating heart, where pride and passion flow as blood (NZ, 20, M)

In more critical responses, the body part chosen to represent the nation is
typically low in the body hierarchy in terms of (lack of) importance for survival, e.g.,
appendix (see example 9 above), belly button and toe:
(28) Britain to me is the belly button. A part of previous high value involved in changing the
lives of many. Now an aesthetic part with a lesser importance than the rest of the body (UK,
22, M)

(29) New Zealand can be seen as the Middle toe of the world, while one may not acknowledge
or care for it when removed the balance of the body will simply be off (NZ, 19, M)

One US student highlighted his nation’s double-sided role in the world by

describing it as the lower back, which he judged from his own body experience
indispensable although it could be painful:
(30) Lower back. You really need it and it is a very key part. It also gives a lot of people
pain. Some people feel different ways about it. You really can’t ignore it and most things are
connected to it (like your legs to the belly) (US, 20, M)

This group of critical body part-applications also contains one of the rare cases
where the depiction of one’s own nation in body terms is followed by a matching’
characterization of another country, with an ironical slant:
(31) The first thing that came to mind for the United States was the head. The US is the sole
remaining superpower state (although its influence is declining) making it arguably the most
important nation to the rest of the world. […] back home we call Canada “America’s hat”,
where does a hat go but on the head? (US, 20, M)

Such a linkage between a body part conceptualization and a dress item is unique
in the corpus and is most probably a spur-of-the-moment invention by the writer. It
underlines the high potential for body part concepts to be exploited for humorous
and/or judgmental purposes.
12 A. Musolff

4.3 The National Territory as a GEOBODY

When the nation is viewed as a territorial or geographical body whole, the body
part concept lends itself to being applied to particular places. In the English L1-
sample, this is not the dominant scenario but still accounts for 20% of all scenario
uses. Its referents are to some extent predictable: the capital is seen as head, brain,
or heart due to its status as the seat of government/power and its concomitant con-
trol function for the rest of the national body. Hence, London, Washington, DC, or
Wellington are placed in these ‘top’ locations, often with another city (e.g., Birm-
ingham, New York, Auckland) as the complementary central organ; i.e., brain and
heart. Rural regions (e.g., Yorkshire in the UK, the Midwest in the US) are associ-
ated with hands and feet on account of agricultural activity. Some respondents also
feel encouraged to declare their allegiance to—or aversion against—specific places
and regions:
(32) I was born and bred in the north-east of England, so that’s where I picture as the heart
of my home nation. Of course, the head of state is situated in the south east of England, so
that it seems the heart is above the head—geographically speaking. (UK, 27, F)

(33) […] perhaps London is the brain as it seems to be where people go to work after study.
The real brain is Cambridge, the best university the country has to offer. Don’t talk about
Oxford, that is the fungal nail infection, which we haven’t got round to treating yet (UK, 24,
M)

(34) Washington DC is the brain/head/mouth. The legs are the producing states (It keeps the
economy going/moving). Nebraska is the heart. LA is the cancer killing the nation/body.
Florida is the wrinkles and parting lines. New York is the adrenaline. (US, 42, M)

(35) The brain is Auckland. The heart is Wellington. The liver is Dunedin. NZ needs a liver
transplant (NZ, 20, M)

In many cases, the multiple organ-assignations to national places show that no

‘exact’ anatomical analogy is attempted. But in the case of the liver conceptual-
ization of Dunedin, NZ, in example (35) a specific explanation has been proposed
by Professor Takashi Shogimen (personal communication): “Dunedin used to be a
major economic center in the 19th century […] from the early 20th century Dunedin
witnessed economic decline and transformed itself as a campus city. The city of
Dunedin is currently planning to reinvent itself over the next 10–20 years […] the
last two lines [may be] motivated by the historical understanding of Dunedin’s place
and function in NZ and also the knowledge of its possible renewal in the years to
come”.
As with the body part symbolism of the whole nation (see previous section),
body part conceptualizations of places or regions can imply notions of a hierarchy
among the body parts or organs, as well as of their respective state of health and
aesthetic value, which are exploited for humorous or polemical effects. This leads to
characterizations of regions as illnesses (cancer, nail infection as in examples
33, 34) or as ‘lower’/taboo body parts: appendix, guts, armpit, and toe.
Metaphors for the Nation: Conceptualization of Its BODY … 13

4.4 The Nation as a PERSON

The one scenario that invites the most strongly evaluative metaphorical conceptual-
izations of the nation as a (human) body is, unsurprisingly, the personification of
the nation. In spite of the fact that the questionnaire task did not explicitly mention or
ask for this variant, slightly more than one fifth of scenarios in the English L1-sample
consisted of conceptualizations of the nation as a person, sometimes as the only
characterization, i.e., without any further body/body part-related explanations.
Across the national subgroups of the English-L1 sample, there seem to be no
discernible trends or highly emotionally charged conceptualizations. age and gen-
der indications are generally rare: altogether they amount to 3 old (=all for UK),
2 young (=US, NZ) characterizations, as well as 3 male and 5 female characteri-
zations (one mention of mother status in the NZ sample). Depictions of character
traits are judgmental but not drastic: headstrong, mouthy, messy, easy going, friendly
measly, pessimistic. One New Zealand respondent (19, F) alleged, “The North hates
the south” but conceded that “Both [are] working for & against each other”; so, the
‘hatred’ cannot be that strong, one would assume. ‘National character’ stereotypes
are exploited mainly for the UK, i.e., as a person obsessed with tea-drinking,
football and queuing. In a few cases, the characterization is extended into a mini-
narrative that ‘explains’ the origins of the person-quality in question, e.g., ageing
(36), obesity (37), wishing to impress others (38), combined with an ironical
criticism.
(36) England is an ageing person, one that has been going for a long time. A small frame
with big potential. England used to have many other clothes (colonies) to dress itself in.
However, it has since given away all of it’s [sic] clothes. (UK, 18, F)

(37) My nation is fat. Lying supine, its head is in the center, as well as its feat [sic]. Its limbs
branch like a star. Its fat is a combination of future pregnancy, a bloaded [sic] past and an
uncontrollable metabolism. (US, 25, M)

(38) New Zealand is like a little brother chasing after the nations of the world and clamouring
for attention. (NZ, 18, F)

Overall, the nation conceptualizations produced by English-L1 informants show

that the body scenario is the dominant one. Its hierarchical presuppositions
(top-down orientation, functional hierarchy of life-essential versus non-essential
organs/limbs) show a high degree of congruity with classical Western ‘Nation-
as-Body’ conceptualizations (e.g., head-to-toe hierarchy, ‘fable of the belly’). The
body-part scenario also fits this overall pattern but includes extra taboo organ con-
cepts that have little to do with classical literary or philosophical models and instead
allow the authors to comment on aspects of the body politic they want to ridicule.
This judgmental stance is also characteristic for the territorial geobody-scenario, in
which the respective capitals are assigned top status (head, brain or heart) whilst
specific places or regions are relegated to the lower regions, and the person scenario,
which is characterized by ironical references of national stereotypes.
14 A. Musolff

5 The Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese) Cohort

The Chinese sample, which has more than twice the amount of scripts (N = 306)
than those from English-L1 informants, was collected from nine Higher Education
institutions: four universities in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), which make
up the bulk of the sample (N = 248), one university in Hong Kong (N = 24), plus
three smaller samples from British Universities (Aston, Birmingham, UEA) and a
German university, i.e., Heidelberg. There were no informants from Taiwan but the
politically independent island still features in the responses, as we have already seen
in examples (5), (7) and (8).
In the Social Indicator questions, the entries for both the “L1” and the “nationality”
questions were mostly (91%) “Chinese” in the PRC and Hong Kong samples; only
a few informants specified “Mandarin” or “Cantonese”. As the systemic differences
between Mandarin and Cantonese were not a parameter of our investigation, this
aspect was largely disregarded and all L1-entries counted as “Chinese”. Nevertheless,
we must take into account that nearly 10% of the Chinese responses were produced
by students in or from Hong Kong, where most respondents’ L1 is Cantonese and
where the political culture is different from that of the People’s Republic. This aspect
will be highlighted in the discussion of the geobody and person scenarios, which
are most often used for comments on the relationship between the PRC and Hong
Kong (In these cases, nationality indications for the authors of specific examples
from the Chinese cohort (“C”) will be amended to “C [HK]” in order to identify the
Hong Kong sub-group. All other “C” indications refer to the PRC).
The age distribution was concentrated almost exclusively in the 18–25 age bracket,
and the preponderance of female informants was even more pronounced than in the
English L1-sample (see Table 3 above).
In terms of scenario categorization, the Chinese sample has 341 scenario instanti-
ations, which include 601 tokens of physical body/health concepts and 289 tokens
of person concepts, totaling 890 tokens altogether.
The scenario distribution contrasts strongly with the English-L1 sample: the two
most frequent scenario variants here are person and geobody, with body only in
third place. Conceptualizations of the Nation as body part of a larger whole or as
part of the writer’s own body (part of ego) each make up about 10% of the total
(Table 4).

Table 3 Social indicators:

Gender Female 192 62%
Chinese sample
Male 115 38%
Age group 18–25 302 98%
26–30 1 0.5%
31–40 3 1%
41+ 1 0.5%
Metaphors for the Nation: Conceptualization of Its BODY … 15

Table 4 Scenario distribution: Chinese sample

Scenarios Body Geobody Body part Part of ego Person
Scenario tokens (total: 341) 65 91 33 34 118
Percentages (%) 19 27 9 10 35

In order to facilitate the comparison with the English L1 sample, we will discuss
the scenarios in the same order (body, body part, part of ego, geobody,
person). This ordering has the advantage of ending on the most frequent scenario,
person, which allows us to highlight the main characteristics of the Chinese data as
well as Hong Kong-specific findings.

5.1 The Nation as a (Whole) BODY

Except for the very first cohort of respondents who did the exercise in 2011 and
answered exclusively by way of the geobody scenario (see above), the body sce-
nario was employed by Chinese informants across all sub-cohorts in almost one fifth
of all scenario instantiations. Its most frequent sub-concepts were heart (12%),
brain (10%), blood (6%), and hand(s) (6%). Some uses of the body scenario
come close to the ones we encountered in the English L1-corpus:
(39) As for my home nation China, I think the central government is like the brain of a
body, which can use the energy to make some important decisions. And the working class,
including the business and factories [sic] are like the muscles which can provide the energy
for the moving of the whole body. Besides, the transportation system is like the blood vascular
system. (C, 19, M)

(40) Our country is like a whole human body. Many ingredients make up of it [sic]. The
government is the head and brain with all sorts of sectors just like the five sense organs on it.
The people from all trades and professions make up the hands and feet that make the country
working. Also the citizens are like the blood which all [sic] cover the body. The environment
is like the skin, we live in it, meanwhile, it protects us. With all of these can the country
(body) be complete. (C, 19, F)

Most uses of the body scenario, however, are unspecific about individual organs
and their functions. Unlike in the English L1-sample, such general conceptualiza-
tions do not highlight the inter-dependency of the whole body and all of its parts or
organs very often—the respective percentages are marginal: 3% for body-whole
and 2% for parts/organs in the Chinese sample vis-à-vis 16% (body) and 6%
(parts/organs) in the English L1-sample. Instead, the most recurrent scenario
theme is the “control” that the brain (as referring to the Chinese government, the
ruling Party or the “People’s Congress”) has over the rest of the body. brain is
used much more often than head (10%:3%), which again differs from the English
L1-sample where they show roughly equal and higher percentages (21%:20%).
16 A. Musolff

The heart concept is employed mostly refer to the people, its culture and long his-
tory; in the latter cases, the body scenario often combines with the person scenario
(examples 41–43):
(41) The people, as a whole, is like the heart. (C, 19, M)

(42) Culture is the heart of a nation. Well goes an old saying: “If you want to kill a country,
you should kill his [sic] culture at first”. (C, 18, M)

(43) And history can serve as heart, because it forms the whole country’s behavioural concept,
or spirit. (C, 19, M)

In addition to the heart, the following source concepts target the people as a
whole in the body scenario: whole body (“China is like a whole human body of a
normal person”). blood (“the citizens are like the blood which all cover the body”),
hands and feet (“people from all trades and professions make up the hands and
feet that make the country working”), cells (“our ordinary people are cells”). A
distinct sub-theme, is the role of police and army as the nation’s immune system
(less frequent variants: arms, hands, fists, bones):
(44) The police officers are our immune system. (C, 18, M)

(45) Army is the skin and immune system, keep the body in fit. (C, 19, M)

(46) Our army is like immune system that keep [sic] us away from incursion. (C, 19, M)

illness-disease and medical treatment sub-themes of the body-scenario

amount to just 5% of sub-concepts. Half of these are vague references to bad
state of health, illness, or patient-status; specific concepts (cancer, obe-
sity, weakness, blindness, deafness) all remain in single figures. One example,
however, stands out on account of its apparently radical stance against “parasites”:
(47) Our body is a fat, powerful man with a lot of minor illnesses. He can be rude and
self-conceit [sic] sometimes, but he is a kind person in most cases. Now he is taking pills to
wipe out the parasites in his body. I believe one day he will get recovered and be strong and
healthy again. (C, 19, M)

This example is unique in several ways: it combines body and person scenarios
in an individualizing way (‘occasionally rude but essentially kind, beset by illnesses,
against which he takes pills’) and focuses on the nation-person’s need to take
medication against parasites. The target-referent of this parasite-concept is not
specified but the alleged necessity to wipe out the agents of illness fits in with the
more ‘radical’, biologized version of the body v. parasite scenario that has been
used historically to justify persecution of so-called ‘enemies from within’ (Musolff,
2010). Such a use of the parasite concept is not repeated across the Chinese sample;
it may be informed by a narrative from another source.
Metaphors for the Nation: Conceptualization of Its BODY … 17

5.2 The Nation as a BODY PART

The Chinese conceptualizations of the nation as a body part, limb or organ differ
markedly from those in the English-L1 cohort in that most of them express a strongly
positive, proud assessment of one’s own national importance rather than being used
for belittlement or criticism. They do not feature ‘superfluous’, unimportant or taboo
organs (e.g., appendix, anus, armpit) but instead highlight the indispensability of
the nation for the survival of the world, seen as the respective larger body-whole:
(48) China resembles the feet of human body. It stands erect at the east of world just like the
feet on the ground. (C, 22, F)

(49) China is like vein [sic] because it connects with many countries. (C, 21, M)

(50) China is the heart of the body made up by all countries. […] Just like the heart, China
delivers blood to the body of world. (C, 18, M)

(51) Nation is like hair. It is soft and beautiful. (C, 19, F)

These conceptualizations articulate positive assessments of China’s pre-eminent

political (feet standing erect), and economic role (vein connecting countries, delivers
blood) and appearance (beautiful hair). They can, however, also be employed to
revisit the national defense theme:
(52) I’d like to think my home nation [sic] as the hands. From a long history, Chinese people
are never lack [sic] of creation and production. And as for the international affairs, China
has the power to act as a counterweight to some so-called superpower. It is just like a hand
to both assault and defend. (C, 19, M)

Overall, the main evaluative function of body part conceptualizations in the

sample is to praise the Chinese nation as a powerful, important and necessary body
part of the world.

5.3 The Nation as Part of EGO

A similarly appreciative evaluation is derived from conceptualizations that depict

the nation as part of the writer’s own body/person. Here, the positive evaluation is, if
anything, even stronger, because the writer identifies with it directly and personally,
thus intensifying the alleged praiseworthiness. Typical examples of part of ego
conceptualizations are:
(53) My nation China is like my heart. It supports me to live and study. Without it, I will be
homeless and lose my passion for life. I love my nation and cherish it. I look it [sic] as my
heart which makes me alive. (C, 18, F)

(54) I’d like to compare my nation as [sic] my hands. It gives me chances to do something I
like. (C, 19, M)
18 A. Musolff

(55) From my perspective, our motherland is just like the blood of our body. As blood is the
red liquid, I think motherland is also red, which represents the energy and passion of our
nation. (C, 21, F)

(56) China is so important to all the Chinese as eyes are important to human’s body. People
will not die if they lose their eye. But they see clearly who they are once they possess the
eyes. (C, 21, F)

heart, blood, eyes and hands are the most frequently used body part con-
cepts for the nation that are ‘incorporated’ by Chinese informants into their own phys-
iology and anatomy. As examples (53)–(56) show, the body part conceptualization
can be attributed to the speaker as an individual or as a member of the nation-body.
In the latter case, the scenario part of ego could be seen as overlapping with that of
the nation as a body/body part or as a person. The difference lies in the focus on
the nation as part of the writer’s identity, in contradistinction to its perception as the
‘other’. This scenario’s significant presence (10%) in the Chinese corpus contrasts
with its minimal occurrence in the English-L1 corpus. It may be linked to culture-
specific attitudinal preferences that have been highlighted, for instance, in research
on Anglo-based “individualism” vis-à-vis Chinese “collectivism” (Hofstede, 2001):
the latter preference evidently favors ego-nation identification.

5.4 The Nation as a GEOBODY

The geobody scenario stood out as the main (and seemingly exclusive) scenario for
the Nation-as-body metaphor complex used by Chinese students in the first class exer-
cise but it turns out to account for ‘only’ 27% in the wider Chinese-L1 sample, which
makes it the second most-frequent scenario behind person. Still, it is more frequent
than in the English-L1 cohort (20%). More significantly, it has a wider conceptual
range. Besides the two most frequent source concepts, brain and heart, which
are applied in the great majority (but not exclusively) to Beijing and Shanghai (see
examples 5-8 above), the body-source concepts applied to geographical places, i.e.,
cities, provinces, landscapes, rivers and landmarks include: artery, back, back-
bone, bone, blood, chest, face, eyes, foot/feet, ear(s), hair, hands, kidney,
leg(s), lung(s), mouth, stomach, shoulder, skin, throat, and womb. The
most recurrent of these are face and eyes, hands and arms, mouth and throat,
which are applied to border or harbor cities and provinces, such as Shanghai, Hong
Kong, Macao, Wenzhou, Guangdong and Guangzhou; these are accompanied by
explanatory motivation notes such as looking outward, embracing and connecting
with and receiving or providing nutrition from/to the outside world.
Overall, the vast majority of instantiations are of neutral or positive polarity.
Even contested or ‘exceptional’ regions such as Taiwan, Tibet or Hong Kong are
emphatically asserted to be essential, valuable and well-functioning body-parts of
the nation:
(57) Tibet is just like the eye of China. Because it is the highest place in China. (C, 19, F)
Metaphors for the Nation: Conceptualization of Its BODY … 19

(58) Taiwan and Hong Kong just like two foot of our China. As we all know, Taiwan and
Hong Kong are inalienable parts of our China. […] As economically developed regions,
both of them can drive the economic development of mainland China. In that way, China
can keep striding ahead to the world. (C, 20, F)

Explicit references highlighting a contested status of a region/place in the geo-

body scenario are limited to Taiwan and Hong Kong. When authored by mainland
Chinese (PRC) informants, they are used to emphasize those places’ indispensability
for China’s integrity (examples 59 and 60 below) or their exposed position and vul-
nerability (61). Some Hong Kong informants, however, highlight their city’s relative
independence (62):
(59) Taiwan is China’s hair which can be long or short but still is part of body. (C, 19, F)

(60) China, a cripple at present staggers to the future for the lack of Taiwan. China waits for
Taiwan to come back. (C, 21, F)

(61) Tai Wan [sic] is the elbow, it can hit others and get harm [sic] easily. (C, 21, M)

(62) Nation to me seems more of a dislocated limb (Hong Kong) and the body (the rest
of China), […] Hong Kong plays the first role in stepping/reaching out to the western
civilization—pretty similar to how one walks out of a door and/or stretches arm out in
search of new things [C[HK], 20, M]

The last example is the only one in addition to those from the first cohort that
hints at a special political status of a specific region in China by way of the geobody
scenario; the majority of critical and/or ironical conceptualizations are part of the
person scenario (see below). These findings fit in with the hypotheses formulated
above, i.e., that the geobody-scenario may be evidence of a heightened concern
among Chinese informants for their nation’s geo-political integrity, but they should
not be over-generalized, as geobody only forms the second-largest scenario for the
Chinese cohort in terms of the overall scenario distribution.

5.5 The Nation as a PERSON

The most frequently invoked scenario in the Chinese sample is that of the nation-
as-person, with just over one third (35%, i.e., 289 tokens) of all conceptualizations.
Its most salient aspect are explicit gender assignations, with male ones accounting
for 10%, female ones for 21%. Among the latter, mother assignations alone account
for 11% of the total (This count only includes attributive and predicative uses of the
term mother, i.e., not routine references to motherland). Typical examples are:
(63) China provides her people lands, food and protection, just like a selfless mother. (C, 19,
F)

(64) China is like a mother, always kind to others, turning fierce when its children are bullyed
[sic]. (C, 19, F)
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 Minä menin sanomaan hänelle jäähyväisiä.

"Miksi jo nyt menette? Odottakaa vähän, mamma tulee kohta."

"Ei, minä en voi", vastasin minä, "parasta on minun tulla toiste."

Minun kauhukseni, tosiaan suureksi kauhukseni astui Sofia juuri

silloin vakavin askelin saliin. Hänen kasvonsa olivat kalpeammat
kuin tavallisesti ja silmäluomet punaiset itkusta. Minua hän ei ollut
huomaavinaankaan.

"Tules tänne, niin saat nähdä, Sonja!" sanoi Varvara. "Tuo pikku
notaari kävelee lakkaamatta tästä ohitse."

"Se on kaiketi vakooja", huomautti Solia hyvin halveksivalla

äänellä.

Se oli minulle jo liiaksi! Minä riensin ulos enkä tosiaankaan tiedä,

mitenkä minä pääsin kotiin.

Minun mieleni oli niin raskas ja katkera, että sitä en voi

kavalakaan. Neljänkolmatta tunnin kuluessa kaksi sellaista julmaa
iskua! Minä olin saanut tietää, että Sofia rakasti toista ja että minä
olin ainiaaksi kadottanut hänen kunnioituksensa. Minä tunsin olevani
niin nöyryytetty ja kukistettu, että en edes voinut olla suutuksissani
itseenikään. Maaten sohvalla, kasvot seinään päin, antauduin
nauttimaan harmini ja toivottomuuteni ensimmäisen purkauksen
katkeruutta.

Yht'äkkiä kuulin astuntaa huoneeni lattialla. Minä nousin ylös.

Tulija oli eräs lähimpiä ystäviäni, Jakov Pasinkov.
 Minä kyllä olisin suuttunut kehen hyvänsä muuhun ihmiseen, joka
olisi sinä päivänä tullut kutsumatta minun huoneeseni, mutta
kerrassaan mahdoton oli minun suuttua Pasinkoviin. Päin vastoin
surunkin vaiheella, joka niin katkerasti minua ahdisti, minä tosiaan
ilostuin hänen tulostansa ja tervehdin häntä ystävällisesti. Vanhan
tapansa mukaan astui hän pari kertaa edes takaisin huoneessa,
puhkuen ja vetäen pitkiä jalkojaan jäljestänsä, seisoi sitte
silmänräpäyksen ajan ääneti minun edessäni ja kävi viimein yhtä
ääneti nurkkaan istumaan.
IV.

Minä olin hyvin kauan, melkein ihan lapsuudesta asti ollut hyvä tuttu
Jakov Pasinkovin kanssa. Hän oli ollut kasvatettavana samassa
yksityisessä oppilaitoksessa Moskovassa, saksalaisen Winterkellerin
luona, jossa minäkin olin viettänyt kolme vuotta.

Jakovin isä, joka oli köyhä, virasta eronnut majori ja muuten hyvin
rehellinen, mutta hiukan heikkomielinen mies, oli tullut herra
Winterkellerin luo pienen, silloin seitsenvuotisen poikansa kanssa,
maksanut hänestä vuoden maksun, mutta sitte matkustanut pois
Moskovasta ja kadonnut, antamatta enää mitään tietoa itsestään.
Tuon tuostakin kuului hämäriä kummallisia huhuja hänen
vaiheistansa. Vasta kahdeksan vuoden kuluttua saatiin varmasti
tietää hänen hukkuneen Irtish-joen tulvaan. Ei kukaan tiennyt, mikä
hänet oli vienyt Siperiaan.

Jakovilla ei ollut ketään läheisiä sukulaisia. Hänen äitinsä oli

kuollut jo hyvin kauan sitte. Sillä tavalla joutui hän jäämään
Winterkellerin taloon. Oli hänellä tosiaan yksi etäinen sukulainen,
jota hän sanoi "tädiksi", mutta hän oli niin köyhä, että alussa ei
uskaltanut tulla tervehtimään nuorta sukulaistansa, kun pelkäsi, että
poika tungettaisiin hänelle vastuksiksi.
 Vaimovanhuksen pelko oli kuitenkin turha. Hyväsydämminen
saksalainen piti Jakovin luonansa, antoi hänen opiskella ja syödä
yhdessä toisten oppilasten kanssa (mutta arkipäivinä jätettiin aina
jälkiruoka hänelle antamatta) ja teki hänelle vaatteita vanhoista
nuuskanruskeista kapoista, joita hänen äitinsä, hyvin vanha, mutta
vielä reipas ja toimelias liiviläisvaimo, oli käyttänyt.

Kaikkein näiden asianhaarain tähden ja varsinkin siitä syystä, että

Jakovin asema koulussa oli muka alhaisempi, kohtelivat kumppanit
tavallisesti häntä huolimattomasti ja halveksivasti. He katselivat
häntä yli olkansa kuin köyhää poikaa, josta ei kukaan huolinut, ja
sanoivat häntä milloin "akankapaksi", milloin "myssysankariksi",
hänen tätinsä kun aina käytti kummallista pitsimyssyä, jonka
päälaella törrötti keltainen nauhaviuhka kuin hernetukku, ja milloin
"Jermakin pojaksi", koska hänen isänsä oli kulkenut Irtishiin kuten
kuuluisa Jermak. Mutta huolimatta noista haukkumanimistä, hänen
naurettavista vaatteistaan ja köyhyydestään kaikki kuitenkin pitivät
hänestä paljon. Mahdoton tosiaan olikin olla häntä suosimatta.
Parempi sydämmistä, nöyrempää ja uhraavaisempaa ihmistä tuskin
vain on koskaan ollut maailmassa.

Kuin minä näin hänet ensi kerran, oli hän kuudentoista vuoden
ijässä ja minä olin äsken täyttänyt kolmetoista. Minä olin silloin hyvin
itserakas ja lellitelty poika, rikkaassa kodissa kasvanut. Niinpä minä
heti kouluun tultuani kiiruhdin tekemään lähempää tuttavuutta erään
ruhtinaan pojan kanssa, josta herra Winterkeller piti aivan erityistä
huolta, ja parin muun ylhäissukuisen pojan kanssa. Kaikki muut
pidätin minä kaukana itsestäni enkä Pasinkovia ottanut edes
huomioonikaan. Sitä pitkää ja hoikkaa poikaa rumassa nutussaan ja
lyhyissä housuissa, joiden alta näkyi karkeat, kuluneet puolisukat,
katselin minä köyhän työmiehen pojan tai sellaisen palveluspojan
vertaiseksi, jonka isäni oli minulle valinnut kotitilustemme maaorjain
joukosta.

Pasinkov oli hyvin kohtelias kaikille, mutta ei koskaan koettanut

tunkeutua kenenkään suosioon millään erityisillä keinoilla. Jos hänet
karkoitettiin pois, hän ei nöyrtynyt eikä myöskään pahastunut, vaan
pysyi etäämpänä ikään kuin odotellen, että toinen katuisi tylyyttänsä.
Sellainen hän oli minuakin kohtaan, mutta kaksi kokonaista
kuukautta kului, ennenkuin minun ylpeyteni lannistui ja minä käsitin,
miten paljon parempi hän oli meitä muita.

Oli kirkas, kaunis kesäpäivä. Innokkaan ja väsyttävän pallipelin

jälkeen menin minä pihasta pieneen puutarhaan, joka oli koulun
oma, ja näin Pasinkovin istuvan penkillä korkean sireenipensaan
alla.

Hän luki kirjaa. Astuessani hänen ohitsensa katsahdin kirjan

kansiin ja luin saranoista nimen "Schillers Werke". Minä pysähdyin.

"Osaatteko te saksaa, te?" kysyin minä.

Minua hävettää vielä tänäkin päivänä, kun muistan, miten kopeaa

ylpeyttä ja halveksimista oli ääneni kaiussa.

Pasinkov katsoi minuun pienillä, mutta paljon sanovilla silmillään ja

vastasi:

"Kyllä, kyllä minä osaan. Entä te?"

"Enkö minä sitä osaisi!" vastasin minä.

Minä olin melkein pahastunut tuosta hänen kysymyksestään ja

aioin astua edelleen, mutta olipa siinä kuitenkin jotain,
käsittämätöntä itsellenikin, mitä se oli, joka minua pidätti lähtemästä.

"No, mitä Schillerin teosta te luette sitte?" kysyin minä samalla

ylpeällä äänellä.

"Nyt minä luen Mielenmalttia. Se on erinomaisen kaunis kappale.

Jos tahdotte, niin luen sen teille. Käykää istumaan tähän viereeni
penkille."

Minä vitkastelin vähän, mutta kävin sentään istumaan. Pasinkov

alkoi lukea.

Hän ilmeisesti osasi saksaa paljon paremmin kuin minä ja

monessa paikassa täytyi hänen selittää, ajatusta minulle. Mutta minä
en enää hävennyt omaa taitamattomuuttani enkä hänen
taitavammuuttansa.

Siitä päivästä, siitä yhteisestä lukemisesta sireenein varjossa

rakastin minä Pasinkovia koko nuoren sydämmeni innolla, liityin
häneen ja katselin ylös häneen kaikessa, joka oli hyvää ja oikeata.

Muistanpa vielä tänäkin päivänä hyvin elävästi, minkä näköinen

hän siiloin oli. Vähänpä hänen muotonsa muuttuikin vuosien
kuluessa. Hän oli pitkä ja laiha ja jotenkin kömpelö, kapeat olkapäät
ja syvälle painunut rinta tekivät hänet sairaan näköiseksi, vaikka
hänellä ei ollut mitään syytä valitella pahoinvointia. Suuri, yläpuolelta
aivan pyöreä pää oli aina vähän kallellaan toiselle puolelle ja
pehmoinen vaalea tukka riippui ohuina kiehkuroina hänen hoikalla
kaulallansa. Kasvot eivät olleet kauniit, vaan melkein naurettavat
pitkän, paksun ja punaisen nenän tähden, joka riippui leveäin
suorien huulien päällä. Mutta erinomaisen kaunis oli hänen avoin,
kirkas otsansa, ja kun hän hymyili, loistivat hänen pienet, harmaat
silmänsä niin lempeän sydämmellisesti ja ystävällisesti, että kun vain
niihin katsoi, sydän oikein lämpeni ja ilostui.

Minä muistan myöskin varsin hyvin hänen hiljaisen ja tasaisen

äänensä, joka oli hiukan käheä, mutta ei vastenmielisesti. Hän puhui
yleensä vähän ja nähtävästi vaivalloisesti, mutta milloin hän hiukan
lämpeni ja vilkastui, sujui puhe helposti ja vapaasti, ja — varsin
kummallista katsella — hänen äänensä silloin hiljeni hiljenemistään,
katse muuttui yhä enemmin sisälliseksi ja ikään kuin sammuvaksi ja
koko muoto hiukan punastui. Sanoilla sellaisilla kuin "totuus",
"hyvyys", "elämä", "tiede", "rakkaus" ei koskaan ollut mitään väärää
kaikua Pasinkovin huulilla, lausuipa hän ne kuinka suurella
innostuksella hyvänsä. Pakotta, ponnistuksetta nousi hänen
henkensä ylös ihanteiden maailmaan. Hänen puhdas sielunsa oli
joka hetki valmis astumaan "kauneuden pyhyyteen". Se odotti vain
tulotervehdystä, sisällistä yhteyttä toisen sielun kanssa.

Pasinkov oli romantikko, viimeisiä romantikkoja kuin minä olen

kohdannut matkallani. Nykyaikaan ovat kuten tietty romantikot
melkein kokonaan kadonneet. Ainakaan niitä ei ole yhtään nykyajan
nuorisossa. Sitä pahempi tälle nykyajan nuorisolle!

Sillä tavalla vietin minä kolme vuolta paraimmassa ystävyydessä

Pasinkovin kanssa. Joka ajatuksen, jokaisen tunteen ilmoitimme me
toinen toisellemme, me olimme, kuten sanotaan, yksi sydän ja yksi
sielu. Niinpä minä sainkin eräänä päivänä tiedon hänen
ensimmäisestä rakkaudestaan, ja minä muistan vielä, miten
kiitollisen ja ihastuneen myötätuntoisesti minä kuuntelin hänen
tunnustustansa.

Hänen kainon rakkautensa esine oli herra Winterkellerin

sisarentytär, sievä, valkoverinen saksalaistyttö, jolla oli pienet
pyöreät lapsenkasvot ja lempeät uskolliset sinisilmät. Hän oli hyvin
hyvä ja tunteellinen tyttö, ihasteli Mattissonia, Ulandia ja Schilleriä ja
saneli heidän runojaan varsin viehättävästi hennolla vaan kirkkaalla
äänellä.

Pasinkovin rakkaus oli niin platoninen kuin mahdollista. Hän tapasi

lemmittyänsä ainoastaan pyhäpäivinä, jolloin hän aina tuli
panttileikkisille Winterkellerin lasten kanssa, ja silloinkin hän puhui
hyvin vähän tytön kanssa. Ja kun tyttö kerran sanoi hänelle: "rakas
herra Jakov", hän ei saanut unta koko seuraavana yönä pelkän
onnentunteen tähden. Hän ei tullut hetkeäkään ajatelleeksi, että tyttö
puhutteli kaikkia muitakin hänen kumppanejansa samalla tavalla:
"rakas herra Se tai Se."

Muistan minä myöskin hänen surunsa ja murheensa, kun eräänä

päivänä se uutinen kerrottiin koulussa, että neiti Fredrika — se oli
tytön nimi — oli mennyt suuren teurastuslaitoksen ja lihakaupan
omistajalle, herra Kniftukselle, joka oli sangen kaunis ja sivistynyt
nuori mies, ja että hän ei ollut sitä tehnyt yksistään
tottelevaisuudesta vanhempiansa kohtaan, vaan totisesta
rakkaudesta.

Se oli kova isku minun ystäväparalleni, ja varsinkin oli hänelle

katkera se päivä, jolloin nuorikot ensi kerran kävivät tervehtimässä
eno Winterkelleriä. Entinen neiti, nykyinen rouva Fredrika esitteli
miehellensä Pasinkovin, sanoen häntä nytkin "rakkaaksi herra
Jakoviksi". Herra Kniftuksessa loisti ja paistoi kaikki tyyni, silmät,
otsa ja hampaat, komeasti kammattu musta tukka, frakin
metallinapit, kultavitjat, jotka riippuivat kauniissa kaaressa liivillä,
yksinpä saappaatkin hänen suurehkoissa ja hyvin ulos päin
pyrkivissä jaloissaan.
 Pasinkov puristi hänen kättänsä ja toivotti täydestä sydämmestä
— siitä olen ihan varma — hänelle pitkää häiriytymätöntä onnea.

Se tapahtui minun läsnä ollessani. Muistanpa, miten osaaottavasti

ihmetellen minä katselin ystävääni. Hän näytti minusta oikealta
sankarilta! Ja kun sitte jäimme kahden kesken, miten surumieliset
olivatkaan kaikki meidän sanamme ja ajatuksemme!

"Etsi lohdutusta taiteesta!" sanoin minä hänelle.

"Niin", vastasi hän, "taiteesta ja runoudesta."

"Ja ystävyydestä!" virkoin minä hellästi.

"Niin, ystävyydestä!" toisti hän liikutettuna.

Mitkä viattoman, lapsellisen onnen päivät!

Ero Pasinkovista oli ensimmäinen katkera suru minun elämässäni.

Muutamia viikkoja ennen minun lähtöäni oli hän, kärsittyään paljon
huolia ja vastuksia, pitkän, monesti aivan naurettavankin
kirjeenvaihdon jälkeen monen asianomaisen viraston kanssa,
viimeinkin saanut paperinsa selville, niin että pääsi yliopistoon.
Hyväsydäminen saksalainen kustansi häntä ylioppilaanakin yhä
edelleen, mutta vanhojen sadekappanuttujen ja housujen sijaan sai
hän nyt kunnolliset vaatteet korvaukseksi monenlaisten ainetten
opetuksesta kasvatusisänsä koulun nuorille oppilaille.

Minun seurusteluni hänen kanssansa jatkui aivan samalla tavalla

kuin ennenkin aina viimeiseen hetkeen asti, kuin minä oleskelin
herra Winterkellerin luona, vaikka meidän ikämme ero nyt tuli
enemmin näkyviin kuin ennen ja vaikka minä aloin vähän kadehtia
muutamia hänen uusia ylioppilaskumppanejansa. Hänen
vaikutuksensa minuun oli aina ollut parasta lajia, mutta kovaksi
onneksi sitä ei kestänyt kauan. Minä kerron vain yhden esimerkin
siitä, minkä muutoksen parempaan päin hänen esimerkkinsä voi
saada aikaan minussa. Lapsena olin minä tottunut valehtelemaan.
Mutta Jakovin läsnä ollessa, jopa häntä vain muistellessanikin oli
minun mahdoton saada kieltäni kääntymään valheesen.

Erityinen nautinto oli minusta kävellä hänen kanssansa pitkät

matkat taikka vain astua hänen vieressään edes takaisin huoneessa
ja kuunnella, mitenkä hän minuun katsomatta saneli runoja
hiljaisella, sointuvalla äänellään. Minusta tuntui silloin, kuin me
molemmat olisimme hitaasti ja vähitellen päässeet vapaaksi kaikista
maallisista siteistä ja liidelleet kauas pois johonkin ihmeelliseen,
salaperäisestä kauneudesta säteilevään seutuun.

Erittäin muistan minä erään yön.

Me istuimme yhdessä penkillä sireenipensaan alla; se oli aina

tuosta ensikohtauksesta asti ollut meidän lempipaikkamme. Kaikki
muut makasivat ja nukkuivat. Ääneti ja hiljaa olimme me nousseet
ylös, pukeutuneet puolipimeässä ja hiipineet hiljaa ulos
haaveksimaan. Ulkona taivasalla oli sangen lämmin, mutta tuon
tuostakin tuli raitis tuulenpuuska ja me lähennyimme silloin vielä
lähemmäksi toisiamme. Me puhuimme molemmat paljon ja
innokkaasti, niin että me usein keskeytimme toisemme puhetta,
mutta emme kiistelleet koskaan. Meidän yllämme loisti lukematon
tähtijoukko. Jakov nosti silmänsä tummaa yötaivasta kohti, puristi
minun kättäni ja saneli hiljaa vapisevalla äänellä:

Ylhäällä avaruuden teillä

Täht'joukot ijät' kiertelevät —
Ja kaikki hoitaa Luojan valpas silmä.
 Harras vavistus väräytti koko minun nuorta olentoani. Vavisten
kuin vilusta kiersin minä käteni ystäväni kaulaan ja itkin. Sydämmeni
oli täynnä yli taitojensa.

Mihinkä on paennut se nuori, haaveksiva innostus? Sinne pois,

jonne nuoruuden aikakin on mennyt ja josta ei mikään enää palaa
takaisin!

*****

Kahdeksan vuoden kuluttua tapasin minä Pasinkovin Pietarissa.

Minä olin silloin vähän ennen päättänyt antautua virkamiesuralle, ja
eräs sukulainen, jolla oli jonkin verta vaikutusvaltaa, oli hankkinut
minulle pienen paikan eräästä hallintovirastosta.

Meidän jälleen yhtymisemme tuli oikeaksi ilojuhlaksi. Minä en voi

koskaan unhottaa sitä hetkeä. Eräänä päivänä keskitalvella istuen
yksin huoneessani kuulin hänen äänensä tampuurista. Miten minä
vavahdin sen rakkaan äänen kaiusta, miten sydämmeni sykki, kuin
juoksin hänelle kaulaan, antamatta hänelle aikaa riisua turkkiansa tai
edes päästää vyötäkään vyöltänsä! Miten innokkaasti minä häntä
katselin kyynelien lävitse, jotka liikutuksesta vasten tahtoani nousivat
pimittämään silmiäni!

Hän oli vähän vanhennut seitsemän viime vuoden kuluessa.

Otsassa oli koko joukko hienoja ryppyjä, posket syvälle painuneet ja
tukka harvennut, multa partaa ei ollut kasvanut ja hymy oli vielä
ennallaan. Ja hänen naurunsa, tuo omituinen minulle niin rakas
sisällinen, melkein nyyhkyttävä nauru oli myöskin sama kuin ennen.

Olipa meillä sinä päivänä puhumista, kyselemistä ja kertomista

keskenämme! Miten paljon vanhoja lempirunoelmia me luimme
toinen toisellemme!

Minä pyysin häntä muuttamaan minun luokseni asumaan, mutta

siihen hän ei suostunut. Sen sijaan lupasi hän käydä tervehtimässä
minua joka päivä ja sen lupauksensa hän myöskin piti.

Ei Pasinkov ollut sisällisestikään muuttunut. Hän oli yhä vielä

sama romantikko kuin ennenkin. Vaikka elämän halla, kokemuksen
kylmä viima oli viileksinyt hänen olemustansa sisäisimpiin
komeroihin asti, niin se kaunis kukka, joka oli jo aikaisin alkanut
juurtua hänen sydämmeensä, kuitenkin oli säilyttänyt hennon, raittiin
kauneutensa kokonaisena, ihan eheänä. Minä en voinut hänessä
huomata surua enkä huolia. Hän oli kuten ennenkin hiljainen ja
äänetön, mutta aina hyväsydämminen ja ystävällinen kaikkia kohti.

Pietarissa eli hän kuin erämaassa, ei huolehtinut vähääkään

vastaisesta elämästänsä eikä seurustellut juuri kenenkään kanssa.

Minä vein hänet Slotnitskin perheesen ja sitte kävi hän siellä

sangen usein. Hän ei ollut itserakas, ei arka eikä kaino, mutta
sielläkin, kuten kaikkialla muualla, oli hän yleensä hyvin äänetön ja
hiljainen. Kuitenkin häntä mielellään nähtiin siellä vieraana. Ei
ainoastaan Tatjana Vasiljevna, joka samoin oli hyvin hiljainen, vaan
myöskin hänen vanha miehensä, jonka kanssa ei juuri ollut helppo
seurustella, otti aina hänet ystävällisesti vastaan, ja molemmat
harvapuheiset tytöt myöskin tottuivat kohta hänen hiljaiseen,
ystävälliseen käytökseensä.

Usein oli hänellä tullessaan muutamia äsken ilmestyneitä

runoelmia pitkän aina nuuskanruskean takkinsa takataskussa.
Pitkään aikaan hän ei saa ottaneeksi esille kirjaansa, vaan istuu ja
ojentelee päätänsä joka taholle kuin lintu, katsellakseen, oliko
missään sopivaa nurkkaa, johon hän voisi vetäytyä syrjään. Hän
yleensä mielellään istuu aina nurkassa. Löydettyään viimein pikku
paikan jostakin sopukasta ottaa hän esiin kirjan ja alkaa lukea ensin
hiljaa, melkein kuiskaavalla äänellä, sille vähitellen yhä kovemmin,
keskeyttäen siiloin tällöin itseään jollakin lyhyellä huomautuksella tai
huudahduksella.

Minä panin huomiooni, että sellaisissa tapauksissa Varvara

mieluisemmin kuin hänen sisarensa lähestyi häntä ja kuunteli hänen
lukemistansa, vaikka hän tosin ei ymmärtänytkään kaikkea. Yleensä
Varvara hyvin vähän harrasti kirjallisuutta. Hän tavallisesti kävi
istumaan juuri Pasinkovin eteen, laski leukansa käsien nojaan ja
katseli häntä keskelle kasvoja eikä silmiin. Koko lukemisen aikana
hän ei lausunut sanaakaan, mutta välistä veti syvän huokauksen.

Iltasilla, varsinkin pyhä- ja juhlapäivinä me olimme panttisilla.

Silloin tuli tavallisesti lisäksi myöskin kaksi nuorta tyttöä, Slotnitskien
sisaria ja etäisempiä sukulaisia sekä pari kadettia tai muita nuoria
poikia. Tytöt olivat sievänlaiset, lyhyehköt, hyvin iloiset ja herkät
nauramaan. Pojat varsin siivot ja käytökseltään siistit, ja silloin oli
varsin iloista ja hupaista muuten niin äänettömässä ja hiljaisessa
huoneessa.

Näiden leikkien aikana istui Pasinkov aina Tatjana Vasiljevnan

vieressä. Heidän molempain tuli ajatella, "mitä sen piti tehdä, joka
tunsi pantin omakseen", eikä se ollut mikään helppo tehtävä.

Sofia ei pitänyt suuteloista eikä muista hellyyden osoituksista, joilla

pantti tavallisesti lunastetaan, ja Varvara suuttui milloin hänen piti
etsiä tai arvata jotakin.
 Molemmat nuoret sukulaiset nauroivat lakkaamatta, huolimatta
mistään. Mitä ihmettä heillä saattoi ollakaan nauraa niin
herkeämättä! Välistä minä oikein pahastuin heitä katsellessani,
mutta Pasinkov vain hymyili ystävällisesti ja nyykytti päätänsä.

Ukko Slotnitski ei ottanut osaa meidän leikkeihimme, vaan istui

huoneessaan ja katseli äreästi ja tyytymättömästi meitä avonaisesta
ovesta. Mutta kerran sattui, että hän ihan yht'äkkiä kenenkään
aavistamatta tuli ulos ja ehdotti, että se, joka tunsi pantin omakseen,
tanssisi hänen kanssansa valssin. Tietysti ehdotus hyväksyttiin.
Tatjana Vasiljevnan pantti tuli näkyviin. Hän joutui hyvin hämilleen ja
punastui kuin viisitoista vuotinen tyttö; mutta hänen miehensä käski
Sofiaa soittamaan, kumarsi rouvalleen ja tanssi hänen kanssansa
vanhaan tapaan kolmen neljäsosan tahdissa kaksi kertaa salin
ympäri.

Muistan varsin hyvin, miten hänen mustaveriset, kellertävät

kasvonsa terävine pikku silmineen, joissa ei muuten koskaan
näkynyt hymyä, milloin oli näkyvissä, milloin piilossa, hänen hitaasti
pyöriessään, unhottamatta koskaan tavallista ankaruuttansa, joka
hänen muodossansa asui. Tanssissa hän harppasi pitkiä askelia ja
vähän hypähti joka uuden tahdin alussa, mutta hänen rouvansa
liikutteli jalkojaan sukkelaan ja sievästi sekä ikään kuin pelosta
painoi kasvojaan hänen rintaansa vasten.

Valssin loputtua vei hän hänet takaisin istuinpaikalleen, kumarsi,

meni huoneesensa jälleen ja veti oven jälkeensä kiinni.

Sofia aikoi nyt nousta pois pianon edestä. Mutta Varvara pyysi
häntä soittamaan edelleen, meni Pasinkovin luo ja ojentaen hänelle
kätensä, sanoi hämillään hymyillen:
 "Tahdotteko?"

Pasinkov näytti hyvin kummastuneelta, mutta nousi heti, hän kun

aina oli erinomaisen kohtelias, ja laski kätensä Varvaran vyötäisille.
Vaan ensi askeleella hän jo lipesi ja kaatui, ja koettaessaan äkisti
irrottautua naisestaan sysäsi hän kyynyspäällään sitä, pikku pöytää,
jolla papukaijan häkki oli.

Häkki putosi lattialle, papukaija peljästyi ja alkoi huutaa: "kivääri

käteen!" Siitä syntyi yleinen nauru. Ukko Slotnitski näyttäytyi
huoneensa kynnyksellä, katsahti tyytymättömästi tuota
epäjärjestystä ja paiskasi kiivaasti oven jäljestään kiinni. Aina siitä
asti ei tarvittu muuta kuin mainita sitä tapausta Varvaran
läsnäollessa, niin hän heti alkoi nauraa ja katsoa Pasinkoviin, ikään
kuin hän olisi tahtonut sanoa, että kerrassaan mahdoton oli keksiä
mitään hauskempaa, kuin Pasinkov silloin teki.

Pasinkov rakasti suuresti musiikkia. Usein pyysi hän Sofia

Nikolajevnaa soittamaan jotakin ja istui silloin nurkassa kuunnellen ja
hiljaa hyräillen mukaan tuntehikkaimmissa paikoissa. Varsinkin
ihasteli hän Schubertin "Tähtitaivasta". Hän vakuutti, että hänestä
sitä kappaletta kuunnellessa aina tuntui, kuin yht'aikaa sävelien
kanssa pitkät siniset valosäteet ampuisivat korkeudesta suorastaan
häntä rintaan. Ja nyt minä katsellessani pilvetöntä tähtikirkasta
yötaivasta en voi olla muistelematta Pasinkovia ja Schubertin
säveliä.

Viimeksi johtuu minulle mieleen huvimatka, jonka teimme

Slotnitskin perheen kanssa Pargalaan [suuren, kaunisseutuisen
järven rannalle, joka on 1 1/2 peninkulman päässä Pietarista
Viipuriin piin].
 Me ajoimme koko seura kaksissa neljän istuttavissa ajurin
vaunuissa, joissa oli c:n muotoiset vieterit, korkeat kuskinistuimet ja
heinillä täytetyt istuintyynyt. Ruunit, kivulloiset hevoset, jotka ontuivat
jokainen eri jalkaa, veivät meidät hitaassa juoksussa perille.

Me kävelimme kauan kauneissa hongikoissa, joimme maitoa

suurista savipulloista ja söimme mansikoita sokurin kanssa. Ilma oli
ihana. Varvara yleensä ei mielellään kävellyt paljoa, hän kun pian
väsyi, mutta tällä kertaa hän ei jäänyt jäljelle meistä muista. Hän oli
ottanut hatun päästään, tukka riippui vapaana, hitaisuus oli
muuttunut elävyydeksi ja kasvoja kaunisti raitis puna. Tavattuaan
metsässä kaksi pientä talonpoikaistyttöä istahti hän heti alas
maahan, huusi tytöt luoksensa ja asetti heidät istumaan viereensä,
mutta muuten ei osoittanut heille mitään ystävyyttä.

Sofia, jolla seurakumppanina oli herra Asanov, katsahti heihin

kylmäkiskoisesti hymyillen, mutta ei huolinut heistä sen enempää.
Ukko Slotnitski huomautti, että Varvara oli oikea "pesäkana", ja
silloin Varvara heti nousi ylös ja astui edelleen. Pari kertaa tällä
kävelyretkellä metsässä meni hän Pasinkovin luo ja sanoi:

"Jakov Ivanits, minulla on jotakin sanomista teille." Mutta mitä

hänellä oli sanottavaa, Pasinkov ei saanut koskaan tietää.

Vaan jopa on aika palata keskeytyneesen kertomukseeni takaisin.

V.

Minä ilostuin hyvin Pasinkovin tulosta, mutta kun ajattelin, mitä olin
tehnyt edellisenä päivänä, jouduin niin häpeihini, että käännyin
jälleen seinään päin, sanomatta hänelle sanaakaan.

Odoteltuaan hetkisen vaiti, kysyi Pasinkov, enkö minä voinut

hyvin.

"Kyllä, kiitos kysymyksestäsi", mutisin minä hammasten välistä,

"minun vain vähän kivistää päätäni."

Jakov ei enää kysellyt mitään, vaan otti kirjan, istahti nurkkaan ja

rupesi lukemaan.

Siten kului toista tuntia. Minä jo olin ihan ryhtymässä kertomaan

hänelle kaikki tyyni, kuin äkisti tampuurin kello soi, ilmoittaen jonkun
tulevan.

Tampuurin ovi aukesi. Minä kuuntelin, Asanovin ääni kysyi minun

palvelijaltani, olinko minä kotona.

Pasinkov nousi. Hän ei pitänyt Asanovista, jonka tähden hän

minulle kuiskasi menevänsä sisähuoneesen ja käyvänsä minun
sänkyyni odottamaan, ja hän meni.

Juuri samassa astui sisään Asanov.

Jo hänen kiihkosta punaisten kasvojensa muodosta sekä lyhyestä

ja äreästä tervehdyksestään minä aavistin, että hän ei suinkaan ollut
tullut vain huviksensa. "Mitähän tästäkin nyt tulee?" ajattelin minä
itsekseni vähän levottomana.

"Hyvä herra", alkoi Asanov, käyden nojatuoliin istumaan, "minä

tulin teidän luoksenne, että te saisitte tilaisuuden haihduttaa minulta
eräitä epäilyksiä."

"Vai niin, todellako?"

"Niin, juuri niin. Minä tahdon tietää, oletteko te kunniallinen mies."

"Mitä te niillä sanoilla tarkoitatte?" kysyin minä kiivastuen.

"Niin, minä tarkoitan yhtä tosi asiaa", vastasi hän pannen eri
painoa joka sanalle. "Eilen minä näytin teille lompakkoani, jossa oli
erään henkilön kirjeitä minulle. Tänään te olette nenäkkäästi ja
sopimattomasti nuhdellen — huomatkaa tarkkaan: nenäkkäästi ja
sopimattomasti nuhdellen — maininneet samalle henkilölle
muutamia sanoja niistä kirjeistä, vaikka teillä ei ole ollut mitään
oikeuden tapaistakaan sellaiseen, lievimmiten sanoen, kömpelöön
käytökseen. Minä haluan sen tähden kuulla, miten te aiotte selittää
tuon kaikin puolin moitittavan käytöksenne."

"Ja minä haluan tietää, mikä oikeus teillä on tällä tavoin tutkistella
minua", vastasin minä, vavisten sekä häpeästä että kiukusta. "Jos te
huviksenne sopimattomasti kerskailette ylhäisistä tuttavuuksistanne
ja huvittavasta kirjeenvaihdostanne, mitä se minuun koskee? Vai
eivätkö ehkä kaikki kirjeenne teillä enää ole tallella?"

"Kirjeet minulla kyllä on tallella, mutta minä olin eilisiltana

sellaisessa tilassa, että te varsin helposti saatoitte…"

"Lyhyesti puhuen, hyvä herra", keskeytin minä ja puhuin tahallani

niin kovasti kuin mahdollista, "minä pyydän teitä jättämään minua
rauhaan, kuuletteko? Minä en tahdo mitään tietää enkä aio antaa
teille mitään selityksiä käytöksestäni. Saatattehan mennä
tiedustelemaan siltä eräältä henkilöltä, ehkä hän osaa selitellä teille
asiat."

Minä tunsin, miten suuttumus kiehui minussa, ja päätäni pyörrytti.

Asanov katsoi minuun, nähtävästi koettaen tehdä katsettaan

pilkalliseksi ja läpitunkevan teräväksi, siveli viiksiänsä ja nousi
hitaasti seisomaan.

"Minä tiedän nyt, mitä minun tulee ajatella", sanoi hän. "Teidän
muotonne todistaa kyllin selvästi teitä vastaan. Mutta minä sanon
teille, että oikea aatelismies ei tee sillä tavalla. Varkain lukea toisten
kirjeitä ja sitte mennä nuoren, ylhäis-sukuisen naisen luo
häiritsemään hänen rauhaansa…"

"Menkää hiiteen! sanon minä teille", tiuskasin ihan raivoisesti ja

jalkaa polkien. "Lähettäkää tänne sekundanttinne, minä en aio teidän
kanssanne vaihtaa enää sanaakaan."

"Te voitte säästää opetuksenne sellaiselle, joka niitä paremmin

tarvitsee", vastasi Asanov kylmästi. "Minä aioin itsestänikin lähettää
tänne sekundantit."
 Hän läksi

Uuvuksissa vaivuin minä sohvalle ja peitin kasvoni käsilläni. Joku

koski minua olkapäähän. Minä katsahdin ylös. Se oli Pasinkov.

"Mitä tämä merkitsee?" kysyi hän. "Onko se tosiaankin totta?

Oletko sinä lukenut toisten kirjeitä?"

Minulla ei ollut voimaa vastata, minä vain nyykäytin päätäni

myöntävästi.

Pasinkov meni ikkunan luo. Seisoen seljin minuun sanoi hän

hitaasti:

"Sinä olet lukenut nuoren tytön kirjeen Asanoville. Kuka se nuori

tyttö on?"

"Sofia Nikolajevna", vastasin minä sellaisella äänellä, kuin syytetty

vastaa tuomarillensa.

Pasinkov seisoi pitkän hetken vaiti ja ajatuksiin vaipuneena.

"Ainoastaan tunteiden kiihko voi olla jonkin verran

puolustuksenasi", sanoi hän viimein. "Rakastatko sinä häntä, sitä
nuorta tyttöä?"

"Rakastan."

Pasinkov oli taas vaiti pitkän ajan.

"Sitä luulinkin. Ja sinä olet tänään käynyt häntä torumassa…"

"Olen, olen, olen", keskeytin minä toivottomasti. "Sinulla on kyllin

syytä halveksia minua."