Metaphor as a means of creating a humorous effect in Bulgarian media texts

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the questions of metaphor as a linguistic means and cognitive mechanism for creating a humorous effect in Bulgarian media texts. There is a similarity between the nature of metaphors and the humor, the ability of perception which refers to the evolutionary acquisition. The relationship of metaphor and humor is manifested in the comparison of the contradictory and the combination of the disproportionate. The humorous effect created by the metaphor in the media discourse is included in the general context and is the result of deliberate efforts, in accordance with pragmatic, linguistic and cultural settings. Despite the universality of humor and metaphor, the interpretation of knowledge, modeled by a comic metaphor, is governed by the sociocultural factor. The implicit functions of the metaphor fit into the functional and pragmatic parameters of media discourse, making the metaphor an integral part of media speech. The collected material allows us to conclude that there are single comic metaphors in Bulgarian media texts, or metaphors create the humorous effect of a fragment / whole media text based on one or more metaphorical models. Increasingly, in a modern Bulgarian media discourse, a metaphor is implemented as a construct script for the semantic development of the text.