Зоонимы в образном пространстве языка: метафора, сравнение, фразеологизм

Abstract

This article discusses linguistic units which actualize the figurative potential of zoonyms (animalisms, animal names) – metaphors, comparisons, phraseological units. The purpose of this research is to establish the lexical and semantic features of the units included in the figurative field of zoonyms. The nuclear zone of the field includes the names of animals, birds, fish, insects, spiders and microorganisms; the circumnuclear zone contains the names of prehistoric animals, mythical and fabulous creatures; the peripheral zone includes the names of animal dwellings, premises for their keeping and breeding, names of objects for catching animals and restricting their movements, actions, designations of sounds made by animals, their movements. The analysis of the material made it possible to establish that in the overwhelming majority of cases, zoonyms in their figurative use serve to characterize a person (his appearance, character traits, behavioral characteristics, social status). Animalistic metaphor expands its space by means of derivative vocabulary, which includes words that acquire the meaning of the derivational base, derivatives with comparative semantics and word-formation metaphors. Constituting the core of the figurative field, animalistic metaphors, however, have less figurative potential than comparisons, since they name an object, feature or action directly, actualizing certain semes. Zoonyms usually have one or two metaphorical meanings, less often three. Comparisons, in many cases, point to very different aspects of the compared objects, so they are in many cases occasional.