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SEMANTIC SHIFTS OF TRADITIONAL SOMATIC IDIOMS IN POST-
MILLENNIAL GERMAN NOVELS
Bakbergenov Aybek Esbergenovich
1st year master's student of Linguistics: German
language specialty, Karakalpak State University
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16809780
Abstract.
This article examines how traditional somatic idioms —
expressions that encode bodily experience such as einen kühlen Kopf bewahren,
Schmetterlinge im Bauch haben, or auf den Magen schlagen — undergo semantic
realignment in German novels published since ca. 2000. By combining insights
from cognitive metaphor theory, historical semantics, and close literary reading,
I
trace
several
recurrent
tendencies:
semantic
bleaching
and
conventionalization, ironic literalization, medicalization and biopolitical re-
signification, and pragmatic redeployment as discourse markers. The analysis
argues that these changes are not accidental but systematic responses to shifting
cultural contexts (biomedicine, digital embodiment, migration, and the aesthetic
strategies of contemporary narrators).
Keywords
: somatic idioms, german literature, post-millennial novels,
semantic shift, idiomatic bleaching, literalization, medicalization, irony and
parody, pragmaticization.
Introduction.
Somatic idioms are among the most persistent and most
revealing resources in language. Because they map bodily states onto social,
moral, and epistemic domains, idioms such as das Herz brechen (to break the
heart) or aus dem Bauch heraus entscheiden (decide from the gut)
simultaneously encode cultural models of emotion and attributions of agency.
Consequently, when these idioms shift semantically, they disclose changes not
only in lexis but also in cultural models of the div and subjectivity [4].
In the novels written by German-language authors since the turn of the
millennium, we frequently encounter subtle but systematic transformations in
how somatic idioms function. On the one hand, many idioms become lighter,
more conventional — that is, semantically bleached — and thereby serve as
pragmatic markers rather than vivid embodiments. On the other hand, novelists
often stage the div explicitly so that the idiom oscillates between metaphor
and literal description, producing irony, estrangement, or intensified pathos.
This article develops an integrated account of these shifts through theoretical
framing, close reading patterns, and suggestions for empirical follow-up.
To make sense of the semantic trajectories of somatic idioms, two
intersecting strands of theory are useful. First, cognitive metaphor theory
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frames idioms as conventionalized mappings: EMOTIONS ARE CONTAINERS or
MIND IS A CONTAINER/HEAD undergird many somatic expressions. Thus,
changes in idiom usage can be read as shifts in the salience of particular
conceptual metaphors.
Second, historical/functional semantic models — including notions of
semantic bleaching, grammaticalization, and pragmaticization — explain how
figurative expressions lose imagistic force and become discourse devices. In
addition, sociolinguistic and cultural-historical perspectives remind us that
language change is embedded in shifting institutions: the rise of biomedical
discourse, changes in media and digital communication, and the increased
circulation of multilingual speakers all provide pressures that alter idiomatic
meaning [1].
Bringing these frameworks together allows us to see idioms both as
cognitive artifacts and as responsive cultural signs: they can be re-used by
narrators for stylistic effects, recalibrated by speakers who draw on biomedical
vocabularies, or reshaped by contact with other languages and modalities.
One dominant tendency is semantic bleaching: idioms lose their vivid
bodily imagery and function increasingly as general evaluative or discourse
markers. For example, einen kühlen Kopf bewahren in many recent novels
functions less as a prompt to imagine physical cooling and more as a
conventional idiom for measured comportment. Consequently, the phrase can be
used even in absurd contexts where literal cooling would be impossible, and
readers therefore process it almost automatically.
Moreover, as idioms become more frequent in rapid dialogue or telegraphic
narration, their imagistic load diminishes. Thus, the idiom performs a pragmatic
job — marking an attitude, smoothing conversational transitions, or signaling
narrator judgment — rather than inviting a sensory simulation. This process
mirrors well-known pathways of semantic change whereby metaphors lexicalize
and then bleach, but it matters aesthetically because anemic idioms can function
ironically when juxtaposed with intense bodily description. The next section
shows precisely how writers exploit that contrast.
Contrasting with bleaching, novelists often deliberately literalize somatic
idioms to produce estrangement or to foreground embodied trauma. That is, a
phrase that has become conventional in everyday speech is re-embodied in
fiction: Schmetterlinge im Bauch can be staged not as a metonym for nervous
love but as a palpable, almost clinical sensation that the narrator scrutinizes. By
doing so, authors force readers to re-imagine the idiom’s referent: the
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"butterflies" become symptoms, signs, or even objects of medical attention
within the storyline.
This literalization is frequently linked to themes of trauma, migration, or
biopolitical monitoring. When a character’s Herz (heart) is described in
physiological detail immediately after a conventional idiom, the text collapses
the metaphorical and literal registers, producing an aesthetic effect of hyper-
embodiment. Hence, literalization functions rhetorically: it recharges worn-out
idioms and redirects attention toward material vulnerability.
A third pattern is the medicalization of idiomatic language. As biomedical
vocabularies become more pervasive in everyday discourse, somatic idioms are
increasingly reinterpreted against diagnostic categories and technologies (e.g.,
heart rate monitors, psychosomatic diagnosis, psychopharmacology).
Consequently, expressions that once indexed folk-psychological states — etwas
sitzt einem im Magen (something sits in one’s stomach) — are now sometimes
framed in terms of psychosomatic illness or stress physiology [3].
Furthermore, novels that engage with institutions (hospitals, clinics,
forensic settings) often show characters translating idiomatic language into
clinical registers, thereby exposing the tension between lay metaphors and
expert discourse. This shift has ideological consequences: bodily idioms become
nodes where power and knowledge meet, revealing how subjectivity is shaped
by medical categories. In short, what used to be colloquial emotional talk can be
subsumed into diagnostic narratives, which both destabilizes older metaphorical
meanings and creates new, often ambiguous readings.
Closely connected to the previous tendencies is the strategic use of irony
and parody. Contemporary narrators frequently use somatic idioms self-
consciously, invoking them only to undercut them immediately. For instance, a
character who says Hand aufs Herz (hand on heart; truthfully) might be shown
acting deceitfully seconds later; consequently the idiom itself becomes suspect.
This reflexive stance has two effects. First, it makes the idiom index not
sincerity but performative mask-wearing; second, it invites meta-linguistic
awareness: readers are asked to notice idiom use as a cultural script rather than
to accept its pretence of transparent interiority. Thus, irony often operates
through the gap between idiom-as-convention and idiom-as-felt, and in doing so
contemporary novels stage a skeptical modernity toward ready-made somatic
metaphors.
In many novels, somatic idioms migrate from the lexicon of affect to the
toolkit of discourse management. That is, phraseological items are repurposed
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to organize speech, signal stance, or cue narrative transitions. Examples include
using aus dem Bauch heraus not to denote instinctual decision-making per se,
but to preface a digression or to mark a character’s claim to authenticity.
This redeployment is consequential because it changes how idioms are
processed: they become procedural rather than imagistic. Consequently,
listeners/readers use them to orient themselves conversationally. In turn,
authors exploit this function to manipulate reader expectations — for instance,
by placing a supposedly authenticity-signifying idiom before a patently
contrived exposition, thereby producing dramatic irony.
Two broader cultural currents condition these semantic shifts. First, the
digitalization of social life transforms how bodies are imagined: online avatars,
quantified self-technologies, and the disemdiving affordances of screens
complicate traditional somatic metaphors. In digital contexts, Herz may be
reduced to an icon (a heart emoji) whose pragmatic load differs radically from
embodied heart metaphors.
Second, increased migration and multilingualism lead to calquing,
borrowing, and hybrid idiomatic formations. Authors who depict multilingual
protagonists often place German somatic idioms alongside translated or
transferred idioms from other languages, thereby showing how bodily
metaphors migrate across cultural frames. The result is frequently a layered
semantics in which the same somatic phrase oscillates between local,
translingual, and globalized meanings.
Finally, the fate of idioms depends on narratorial stance and stylistic design.
Realist narrators may embed idioms as markers of colloquial speech, producing
verisimilitude; experimental or post-realist narrators, by contrast, will play with
idioms' opacity, sometimes fracturing them syntactically or distributing their
parts across clauses to produce defamiliarization.
Moreover, first-person confessional voices often rely on somatic idioms to
create intimacy, but contemporary authors complicate this intimacy by making
the idioms unreliable narrators of feeling. Thus, the same idiom can produce
warmth in one novel and estrangement in another, depending on the voice’s
reliability and the surrounding contextual cues.
Conclusion
. To summarize, somatic idioms in post-millennial German
novels exhibit several intersecting tendencies: bleaching and functionalization,
deliberate literalization, medicalization, ironic redeployment, and pragmatic
redistribution in discourse. These tendencies are driven by broader
sociocultural shifts — the rising authority of biomedical narratives, digital
SCIENCE AND INNOVATION IN THE
EDUCATION SYSTEM
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modes of embodiment, and increased linguistic contact — and by aesthetic
choices that reflect contemporary narrators’ skepticism toward ready-made
models of interiority.
References:
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and cross-linguistic perspectives (Vol. 350). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.
2. Kövecses, Z. (2005). Metaphor in culture: Universality and variation.
Cambridge university press.
3. Musolff, A. (2004). Metaphor and political discourse: Analogical reasoning in
debates about Europe (Vol. 14). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
4. Wray, A. (2002). Formulaic language and the lexicon. Cambridge University
Press, 110 Midland Ave., Port Chester, NY 10573-4930 (45 British pounds).
