Philology: scientific researches

Abstract: The article presents analysis of the archetypical concept LIGHT represented by the means of metaphorical projection as part of the contemporary modern discourse of the USA featured by mass media. In the course of creating an ideal cognitive model of the aforesaid concept, the author has defined several classification features that allow to create an integral image of the methods of metaphorical actualization of this concept in the political discourse. One of such features is the semantic coherence described by Semenova in this article. Within the framework of the aforesaid discourse, this feature is analyzed from the point of view of four cognitive features, attractive, explanatory, imperative and emotive. The methodology of the research is based on the cognitive-discursive approach and includes the following methods: interpretration, semantic analysis, contextual analysis, conceptual analysis, and discourse analysis. The scientific novelty of the research is caused by the fact that this research is the first attempt to create an ideal cognitive model of the archetypical concept based on the analysis of the political discourse having combined the 'eternal' topic of archetype to a relatively new linguo-cognitive approach that has found applicatino in Russian language studies just recently. The results of the research demonstrate that in metaphorical contexts the semantic coherence classification feature of the LIGHT concept is actualized through such cognitive features as attractiveness (attraction of attention to the topic), explanatory nature (clarification in a situation of communication), imperativeness (encouragement for active efforts), and affectability (description of emotional response of discourse participants). Noteworthy, that semantic coherence is presented through actualization of the conceptual components of the LIGHT concept in terms of their metaphoric representation by discourse participants.