The article presents a linguosynergetic approach to the study of metaphors. Having an inherent interdisciplinary character synergetics opens new perspectives for the research of various linguistic phenomena. The synergetic methodology is applied to the object of the current study -a metaphor. The metaphorization is not regarded as a unidirectional linear projection of meanings; it is a synergetic interaction of two or more input domains. The authors observe a non-linear interaction of order parameters (meanings and connotations that characterize the concepts of source and target domains). That interaction results in the formation of a new conceptual unit that has its own identity -a completely new set of meanings. The authors apply the synergetic methodology to study metaphors with the target-domain "death" in the literary discourse by Terry Pratchett. It is worth mentioning that at the level of discourse the concept "death" unfolds along the tree-like trajectory, which explicated a logical, gradual meaning cohesion and the dual nature of the concept. In the beginning, the death is primarily associated with the conventional personification of death -Grim Reaper. Gradually the image of Grim Reaper transforms into the image of a positive character Kind Reaper who has to perform his duty.
The research aims at establishing which of the communicants plays the main role in determining the ecology of communication: the speaker or the listener. The work is novel in that it is the first to put forward and confirm the thesis that the role of the listener is more important than that of the speaker. In other words, when assessing the ecology of communication, the impact on the listener prevails over the intention of the speaker, which was mostly emphasised in the previous studies on this topic. To confirm this thesis, two studies were conducted: a survey of first-year students of the Ufa University of Science and Technology and an analysis of an English-language literary text. After analysing the obtained results, it was confirmed that the role of the listener is more important. Indeed, the positive intention of the speaker does not guarantee the success of communication, since the impact on the listener in some cases can be negative. Communication can be considered ecological if no (moral) harm has been inflicted on the listener as a result of it. Since the findings of both studies coincided, this makes it possible to assert with greater confidence the correctness of the thesis put forward.
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