Metaphor as a productive means of verbalizing emotions in the political discourse of Germany

The aim of the study is to determine the productivity of metaphor as a means of verbalizing emotions in the political discourse of Germany. The paper presents examples of the linguistic representation of emotional states in German-language political texts. Special attention is given to the analysis of metaphorical models used to verbalize emotions, reflected in the statements of German politicians, articles by political commentators and journalists addressing various issues in German political life, as well as the global community as a whole. The work briefly covers the existing definitions in modern science of the terms “political discourse”, “metaphor”, and “emotive”, which are fundamental to this study. The study is novel in that it is the first to identify and analyze the following metaphorical models used to represent various emotions in the political discourse of Germany: the image of “flowing emotions”, the image of emotions as fire, the image of the elements / destructive forces of nature, the image of emotions as a living being, the image of emotions as an illness/poison, the image of emotions as light. As a result, the study reveals that metaphor in Germany’s political discourse is a productive means of verbalizing emotional states, with negative emotions prevailing over positive ones.