ON SIMILES WITH BEAUTIFUL / PRETTY TERTIUM COMPARATIONIS (A STUDY OF THE BULGARIAN LANGUAGE)

Abstract

The current article’s object of study are similes containing the beautiful/pretty tertium comparationis in their structure. Comparisons known to linguistics as sustainable rather than figurative seem to be the easiest way to understand the contemporary environment and new cultural idioms. Such constructions reveal individuals’ associative thinking, which suggests that the comparisons can be viewed as both language facts and speech facts. The article introduces the lexico-grammatical characteristics of the components under scrutiny, framed by comparative constructions. The goal is to analyze their connotative quality, anthropocentric intentionality, and so on. Bulgarians have a rich associative thinking process that is evident from their use of similes or realia that take up the role of tertium comparationis. This type of thinking is subjected to the development of language, as well as society (introducing of new technologies, realia, appearance of new actors, popular among the contemporary generation, etc.). The research explores one of the main qualities of similes – their idiomatic nature, the possibility of reconsidering the elements that similes consist of. This quality becomes progressively unstable since it comprises the components to which the quality of beautiful/pretty is assigned – i.e. tears, Aphrodite, roses, princesses, the sun, paintings, etc. At the same time, there are many similes that use an illogical image in the role of a comparatum – i.e. worms, goblins, Quasimodo, etc. The current research will show that people focus both on the bad and imperfect qualities of those around them, and also on what is beautiful in their surroundings.