Lexicographic Fixation Of The Semantics Of Metaphors: A Problem Statement

Abstract

The article studies the problem of lexicographic fixation of the semantics of metaphors in linguistic dictionaries. A brief overview of dictionaries of Russian metaphors is presented: Dictionary of metaphors and comparisons of Russian literature of the XIX–XX centuries, Dictionary of poetic images, Dictionary of Russian political metaphors, Dictionary of Russian food metaphor, Dictionary of word-formation metaphors of the Russian language, Dictionary of figurative words and expressions of Siberian dialect, etc. The main sources of lexicographic fixation of the semantics of metaphorical units are explanatory dictionaries, media texts, programs. Some dictionaries use literary texts as sources. Corpuses are used as well (the National Corpus of the Russian Language is used in the Dictionary of Russian Food Metaphor). Some shortcomings of description of the semantics of metaphors based on explanatory dictionaries are revealed (incompleteness of a description of semantic properties and differential features of the semantics of metaphors, weak relations of the components identified by lexicographers with the linguistic consciousness of native speakers). The need for using the following methods is emphasized: the systemic methods (the method of unification of dictionary definitions), the experimental (psycholinguistic) methods (associative experiment, test phrase supplementation). The integrated approach is used to comprehensively describe the semantics of metaphors, to identify a set of semantic components and differential parameters of metaphors (the relationship of meanings with age, gender, ethnocultural, social characteristics of native speakers (generators and interpreters of metaphors)), to identify relevant semantic components of metaphors, etc.