The project investigates how conventionalised idioms shape the press discourse on COVID-19 in Polish, German, and English. Grounded in cognitive linguistics, and in particular Zoltán Kövecses’s Extended Conceptual Metaphor Theory (ECMT), it integrates elements of cultural linguistics to capture the most abstract patterns underlying idiomatic expression. The study focuses on the argumentative and persuasive functions of idioms, their stylistic modification in discourse, and their role in constructing images of pandemic reality. By analysing idioms typical of crisis communication and comparing them across three languages, the project highlights cultural conditioning in idiomatic conceptualisation and contributes to contrastive discourse analysis and research on discursive worldviews.

Funded by the National Science Centre Poland (NCN, project no. 2023/51/D/HS2/00232).

For more information, please contact: Joanna Woźniak, PhD, Adam Mickiewicz, University, Poznań, woa@amu.edu.pl