Cultural Conceptualizations in Language and Communication

Book excerpt: The book comprises a selection of papers concerning the general theme of cultural conceptualizations in language. The focus of Part 1, which includes four papers, is on Metaphor and Culture, discussing general as well as language-specific metaphoricity. Part 2, which also includes three papers, is on Cultural Models, dealing with phenomena relating to family and home, nation and kinship, blood, and death in different cultures. Six papers in Part 3, which refers to questions of Identity and Cultural Stereotypes, both in general language and in literature, discuss identity in native and migration contexts and take up motifs of journey and migration, as well as social and cultural stereotypes and prejudice in transforming contexts. Three papers in the last Part 4 of the book, Linguistic Concepts, Meanings, and Interaction, focus on the semantic interpretation of the changes and differences which occur in their intra- as well as inter-linguistic contexts.