LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC MEANS OF METAPHORIZING THE "DECLINE OF EUROPE"

Abstract

Aim. To study the landmark work of the 20th century "The Decline of Europe" by Oswald Spengler, which is certainly a kind of milestone in the development of domestic and foreign philosophy and cultural studies, the lexical and semantic characteristics of which, in our opinion, still have not been adequately reflected in modern linguistics.

Methodology. In the course of considering the features of lexical and semantic means of metaphorization in Oswald Spengler's work "The Decline of Europe", an interdisciplinary approach was used, providing for the possibility of using a set of methods and research techniques to analyze texts with rich political science content, such as contextual and comparative translation analysis, as well as component analysis based on dictionary definitions.

Results. As the result of the investigation done, the author makes the conclusion that in his work Oswald Spengler, using the most diverse set of vivid metaphors (including politically colored ones), tried to figuratively prove the inevitability of the cyclical extinction of all great creations and forms of religion, social political structure and related culture, art, science and management, which arise, live their age and die in all their manifestations.

Research implications. The results of the scientific research contribute to the further development of the theory of the linguistic worldview (especially its metaphorical component) on the example of the linguistic personality of the outstanding German philosopher and thinker, whose ideas and reflections have a special sound in the modern world and form figurative and symbolic thinking, largely lost by the modern human.