Motion-related image schemas in Serbian journalistic articles

Abstract The paper explores various aspects of conceptualization based on motion-related image schemas and their combinations. It does so based on a custom-made and self-annotated linguistic corpus belonging to the journalistic register in Serbian, used for obtaining various descriptive and inferential statistical data interpreted qualitatively. It demonstrates that image schemas exhibit a marked clustering tendency and that they appear to interact with one another and with the categorical variables (newspaper, topic) in non-trivial ways. It reinterprets scale as a higher order principle (rather than an image schema per se) specifying the intensity with which other schemas occur. This, in turn, has enabled formalization of intensities of individual image schemas participating in the established image schema complexes, with important consequences for further research, including the exploration of the dynamic nature of schema interaction and meaning construction not only in language but also other semiotic domains.