Abstract
The study aims to identify the universal and culture-specific parameters of imagery underlying Russian and Chinese zoomorphic metaphors that are involved in the creation of typical ideas about human appearance. The paper considers the lexical representation of the metaphorical understanding of human appearance through animalistic images in a comparative aspect. Within the framework of the basic metaphorical model “Animal appearance – human appearance”, the following frames were identified and analysed: “General assessment of appearance”, “Physique and height”, “Shape of body parts and organs”, “Physical condition” and “Age”. The study is novel in that it is the first to describe and systematise a segment of zoomorphic metaphorics formed on the basis of the source domain “External characteristics of an animal” using the material of the Russian and Chinese languages. As a result of the study, it has been found that the process of development of metaphorical meanings in the zoomorphisms characterising human appearance in the languages under consideration is generally based on similar prototypical ideas about the anthropomorphic properties of an animal. At the same time, an emotional and evaluative rethinking of their meanings occurs under the influence of national consciousness stereotypes, which results in the same zoonyms receiving unequal metaphorical development and evaluative interpretation within the framework of the linguistic cultures under consideration.
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