Diritti Annegati - Il Mediterraneo è un cimitero: Origini e modificazioni di una metafora

Within the framework of the theory of Lakoff and Johnson (1980) we investigate the conceptual metaphor “the Mediterranean Sea is a cemetery” from two points of view, diachronic and synchronic. In a diachronic perspective, we look into the origin of this metaphor in the Italian language through a lexicographical study of the most important Italian etymological and historical dictionaries, as well as the Opera del Vocabolario Italiano (OVI), a web-database of early Italian vernacular texts. Furthermore, we show that the metaphor possibly dates back to the XIIth century, as it can be found in an old Italian folktale (La leggenda di Colapesce). In a synchronic perspective we study the semantic-grammatical modifications that the source metaphor has undergone recently as well as the mental representations and associations that the metaphor evokes in Italian. In particular, we show that the source metaphor has been modified through a process of conceptual contiguity that emphasizes the constitutive trait PLACE OF DEATH, bringing about a conceptual association between MEDITERRANEAN SEA and CEMETERY.