Are (Polish) Politicians Out of this World? 65Image-schematic structuring accounts for the central position of a political
party, an influential politician, or a political union within a script which
suggests implications such as the force of gravity.
The force of gravity
The PROGRESS IS A FORWARD MOVEMENT metaphor structured by the PATH
and FORCE image schemas underlies the following uses of grawitacja
(gravity):
(15) “Prof. Zdzisáaw KrasnodĊbski latami grawitowaá ku PiS, aĪ
zostaá „jedynką” warszawskiej listy tej partii”
(Prof. Z. K. spent years gravitating towards PiS until he
became no. 1 on their Warsaw list).The ATTRACTION IS A PHYSICAL FORCE and EMOTION IS A PHYSICAL FORCE
(Gibbs 2008:184) mappings account for the following:
(16) “NajwiĊkszym báĊdem polskiej polityki jest nikáa grawitacja
partyjna. Przyciąga niewielu ludzi z autorytetem”
(The biggest mistake of Polish politics is its weak political
gravity. It does not attract people of authority).Location on the moon (or other celestial bodies)
A geocentric perspective and the SPACE image schema result in:
(17) “Mam nadziejĊ, Īe niebawem zobaczĊ je w Sejmie, jak samego
Tuska Ğciągają z ksiĊĪyca na ZiemiĊ”
(I hope to see Tusk being pulled down from the moon in the Sejm),
(18) “Premier sprawia wraĪenie jakby spadá z ksiĊĪyca”
(The Prime Minister makes the impression of someone who has
fallen down from the moon),that is, the conception that the moon is up and the Earth is down. The
CONTAINMENT schema structures the scene in terms IN versus OUT and the
ground evokes a positive evaluation of stability. Turner (1993) points out
to the fact that “our construction of rationality as our ability to stand is
dependent on a firm base.” The phrase spaĞü z ksiĊĪyca (literally, to fall
down from the moon, refers to irrational behaviour, harmless yet foolish
activity, an equivalent of the English live in cloud-cuckoo land, is a lexical
exponent for this combination of conceptualisations, however the verb fall