MOVEMENTS and DIRECTIONS, CONSTRUCTIONS and FORCES: Prevalent Metaphorical Source Domains in Hungarian Legal Texts

Abstract

By employing a functional cognitive frame, this paper focuses on the semantics of metaphorical technical terms in the Hungarian legal language. Although the importance of unambiguous terms in such language use is often emphasised, conceptual metaphors foster understanding of technical texts. The present research concentrates on three types of frequently occurring metaphors in the Hungarian technical texts of quality management and Hungarian laws. These metaphors and metaphorical expressions contain the source domains MOVEMENTS and DIRECTIONS, CONSTRUCTIONS and FORCES. The analysis characterises these prototypical metaphors and their functions in legal texts, employing examples from the Hungarian texts of two important laws, namely the Fundamental Law of Hungary, and Act C of 2012 the Criminal Code of Hungary.