Abstract

The main goal of this paper is a semantic and quantitative analysis of the linguistic picture of the world of Russian and Slovak metaphorical riddles about the sun and the moon. We analysed 200 riddles (138 Russian and 62 Slovak) from folk and author's anthologies. In total, our documentary material contained 374 metaphorical transmissions (of which 241 were Russian and 133 were Slovak). Based on the analysis of the texts of the riddles, we found that the mentioned celestial bodies are interpreted in a similar way by Slovak and Russian speakers. Their metaphorical coding in both languages is most often realized on the basis of personification, through which they are perceived as people or human activities or states are attributed to them. Since the Slovak and Russian languages belong to the same group of Slavic languages, the motifs of the moon and the sun appear in their riddles, which are completely identical. In addition to personification, metaphorical coding is often realised in them using the names of animals and their parts, objects from everyday life and food. In most cases, these metaphorical transfers are based on similarity of form and colour.

Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call