Figurative Representation Research Articles

Representations of Jewelry as a Source of Metaphorization in the Modern Russian Linguistic Picture of the World

Purpose. The article describes the linguocultural specifics of metaphorization of general representations of jewelry in the Russian linguistic picture of the world. The relevance of the topic is related to the use of lexemes with the root jewel- in various contexts based on metaphorization and figurative representation of heterogeneous phenomena. The purpose of the research is to determine main directions of metaphorization in the semantic field «Jewelry» based on lexicographic data and contexts from the «National Corpus of the Russian Language». The sample consists of 144 examples with metaphorical meaning of the lexemes jeweler, jeweled and jewelry selected from the National Corpus of the Russian Language.Results. Contextual analysis and analysis of conceptual metaphor identified 6 main slots representing the basis for metaphorization.Conclusion. The metaphorization with the source jewel- in the Russian linguistic picture of the world describes not only qualities of a jeweler, but also the process and the result of jewelry work. The signs associated with the process and the results of jewelry work are the basis for metaphorization in most cases. Metaphorical contexts of «General representations of jewelry» predominantly reflect a positive evaluation, even while describing a criminal act, the emphasis is on accuracy and invisibility taken as positive aspects of this activity.

Creativity and the linguistic features of argumentative and narrative written task performance

This study investigated the relationship between creativity and the linguistic quality of the output in L2 written argumentative and narrative essays produced by 95 Hungarian secondary school students at intermediate to advanced level of proficiency. Participants also completed a figural creativity test which was standardized and validated for the target sample. The creativity test assessed creative fluency and elaboration, the abstractness of title and resistance to premature closure of the figurative representations. The lexical sophistication and diversity, syntactic complexity and elaboration, and cohesion and coherence of the students’ writing was analyzed with automated natural language processing tools. The interrelationship of creativity and the linguistic features of the argumentative and narrative texts was examined using correlational analyses. The results reveal a complex interplay of the role of different facets of creativity in L2 written task performance that varies across the two types of tasks.

Rävjägaren och pärlemor

Theme: Motherhood and Mothering. Ill. ©Stina Wirsén The Fox Hunter and the Mother of Pearl: Motherhood and Biology in the Works of Kitty Crowther This article examines the biological aspect of motherhood in Kitty Crowther’s writing, in particular L’enfant racine (2003; The Root Child) and Mère Méduse (2014; Mother Medusa). By paying attention to the intertextual relations and the metaphorical aspects ​​of the images, the analysis demonstrates how Crowther’s iconotext relates to a conflict-filled discourse about mothering and biology. The two works in focus activate dissimilar intertexts, which share references to fertility and pregnancy. L’enfant racine is based on folklore, such as the Czech fairy tale “Otesánek” and Queen Mab. In Mère Méduse the story of Poseidon’s/Neptune’s rape of Medusa in Roman-Greek mythology constitutes an implicit prehistory to the narrative. The two books build up different kinds of symbolism, where a common point is the depiction of parenthood as a more or less organic relationship. In L’enfant racine, it is a hen-chasing fox who lures the soon-to-be adoptive mother into a mysterious forest, and once she finds the child Root, he is literally bereft of his roots. In Mère Méduse, the central symbol is the mother’s living hair, forging an organic bond with the child. Added to this is a play with literal and figurative representations based on the properties of the jellyfish and the mussel’s defence against pebbles through the creation and enclosing of a pearl – in mother of pearl. Crowther’s iconotexts transform conventional symbolism, thus calling for a reflection on the words and images which are used in our culture to speak of motherhood.

MEANS OF EXPRESSION REPRESENTING THE CONCEPT “PATRIOTISM”

This article is devoted to the representation of the concept “patriotism” by artistic expressive means the novel “War and Peace” by L.N. Tolstoy. To achieve this goal, the most frequent means of expression in the novel were analyzed, such as epithet, metaphor, phraseology, comparison, etc. It was found that context is required to represent patriotism through epithets. The use of metaphors allows the author to verbally express the content of the concept “patriotism” in the novel. One of the main means of representing the concept “patriotism” in the novel “War and Peace” is phraseological units. Comparisons do not openly express the feeling of patriotism, however, they reveal new properties in the object of comparison for their figurative representation, for which context is also necessary. As a result, we can say that the means of expression in the novel “War and Peace” represent the concept “patriotism”, reveal its national peculiarities, show the heroism and courage of the Russian people.

Engineered ‘landmarks’ associated with Late Paleolithic engraved shelters

Although more than 2000 shelters with non-figurative carvings ascribed to a Mesolithic style are known within the quartzitic sandstone megaclast lag deposits in the southern Paris area, only three shelters with figurative representations of Late Paleolithic style have been recognized. Upright megaclasts are rare in the regional lag deposits but two upright quartzitic sandstone megaclasts occur close to two of these Late Paleolithic shelters. Detailed morphological surveys of these megaclasts allow us to suggest that they were erected by humans. The fortuitous conjunction of finding an upright megaclast close to two Late Paleolithic shelters is infinitesimally small in term of probabilistic considerations. Thus, the Late Paleolithic engraved shelter – upright megaclast pairs are not likely to be independent but are probably linked by culture, and so the megaclasts are expected to date from the Late Paleolithic. We suggest that they were ‘engineered landmarks’ erected to mark places that had cultural significance for Late Paleolithic hunter-gatherer people. The energy dedicated to erect the megaliths is an indication that shelter - megalith pairs probably had important spiritual and symbolic significance. We suggest that both contributed to locate and anchor stories to landscape features. Indeed, these shelter-megalith pairs were in the hinterland of the large open-air camps settled on fords on game migratory routes crossing the Seine River. These specific markers could have encompassed a storyline about landscapes as the support for learning routes through them. One possibility is that they had a timed relationship with herd migration.

The Regular Polyhedra: Drawing and Computing in Euclid’s day

Can we compute what we cannot draw? How must we draw to produce measurable representations, or visual ones? This research inquires into the relationship between mathematics and figurative representation, and more precisely between drawing and computation. The scientific imagery studied here is the representation of the five platonic solids, discussing various representation techniques from classical antiquity to modern times, and their efficacy to help calculate sizes and proportional ratios. Scholars in history of architectural drawing have too often limited their observations to the very few preserved plans and front views dating back to classical antiquity, without enlarging their investigation to other scientific fields that also rely on drawing as a research tool and communication device. Among these other fields stands the mathematical research, especially solid geometry which deals with objects and entities that have shapes that needs to be somehow drawn in 3D to be studied.

Figurative Representations in the North European Neolithic—Are They There?

This article offers a comprehensive survey of figurative finds from Neolithic northern Europe. The survey shows that the immediate absence of figurative representation in the region is real and that the almost complete lack of figuration stands out from the previous Mesolithic and the contemporary northern and northeastern European Neolithic hunter-gatherer groups. Furthermore, the absence of figurative representations contrasts strongly with the thousands of clay figurines that characterize the southeastern European and Anatolian Neolithic. The survey provides a well-documented basis for discussing the significant differences between a figurative southeastern European Neolithic and an imageless northwestern European Neolithic. We suggest that the absence of figurative representations indicates that severe socio-cultural and religious/ideological changes took place within the Neolithic communities as agriculture spread from southeastern Europe via central Europe to northern and western Europe.

Wounded Animals and Where to Find Them. The Symbolism of Hunting in Palaeolithic Art

Representations of wounded animals and humans in European Upper Palaeolithic art have traditionally been conceived as figures related to the hunting activities of hunter-gatherer societies. In this paper, we propose an analysis of Franco-Cantabrian figurative representations showing signs of violence between 35,000 and 13,000 cal. bp to qualify the interpretations of hunting and death in Palaeolithic art. To this end, both multivariate statistical analyses and hypothesis tests have been used to highlight the formal, thematic, chronological and regional similarities and differences in these types of artistic representations. The results show that wounded graphic units are mythograms coded by different variables that do not seem to reflect the actual hunting of the animal, but rather a more complex meaning. It was also discovered that, in early times, the artist preferred to wound secondary or less frequent animals, like deer. This changed in more recent times, when the main animals, such as bison, are wounded under greater normativity and homogeneity in the Pyrenees or the Cantabrian region.

Excavations at the Umayyad and Early Abbasid Reservoir-Enclosure of ‘Ayn Sawda (Azraq Oasis, Jordan)

In the centre of the Azraq oasis in the Eastern Desert of Jordan, there is a long wall previously interpreted as a huge water reservoir that was fed by the ‘Ayn Sawda spring. The site, seen as belonging to the category of the Umayyad “desert castles,” is best known through the many basalt blocks with mortise and tenon joints that were found there, several being carved with figurative representations in bas and high relief. These form an exceptional archaeological collection with no known iconographic parallel. Given the uncertainty of both the function and dating of the structure, between 2013 and 2016, the Azraq ‘Ayn Sawda Reservoir Project (Ifpo) made a topographical plan of the site and an inventory of the carved blocks, and carried out excavations, an architectural study and an assessment of the state of preservation. The results suggest an enclosure delimiting an agricultural area to the west and a water reservoir to the east. It was built in the Umayyad period, somewhere between 664 and 690 AD, and probably reconfigured in early Abbasid times, somewhere between 768 and 900 AD. Excavation also revealed unusual and various building techniques designed for very specific environments. This monument exploited all the possibilities of this rich oasis to enhance the landscape.

Archeometrical Characterization of Rock Art Pigments from Puerto Roque Open-Air Rock Art Shelter (Valencia De Alcantara, Extremadura, Spain)

The study seeks to unravel the intricate operational sequence involved in preparing prehistoric pigments for rock art within the Puerto Roque rock art shelter. Sixteen pigment samples were meticulously collected from specific figurative representations. Additionally, three ochre samples were sourced from the shelter’s soil. Employing a comprehensive multi-analytical approach, including Raman microspectroscopy, X-ray microfluorescence (EDxrf), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDS), all nineteen samples underwent thorough analysis. Notably, darker pigments revealed a composition of hematite with the added presence of carbon. Meanwhile, one sample exhibited an orange hue primarily composed of goethite and bright red pigments predominantly characterised by hematite, as confirmed by Raman analysis. EDxrf analysis demonstrated an elemental composition akin to the three ochre pieces examined. Furthermore, ATR-FTIR spectroscopy suggested the potential influence of a heating process in enhancing red coloration, corroborated by spectral results from specific samples. This finding aligns with prior research, underscoring the technological sophistication embedded in early artistic endeavours.

Peculiarities of Sergei Yesenin’s Worldview, Reflected in His Poetic Language

The article examines the features of creating epithets based on mixing semantic fields in the Sergei Yesenin’s poetic language. The author makes an attempt to look at poetic creativity from the inside: to systematize the words chosen by the poet, analyze the patterns of their use, identify the basis of compatibility, and trace the ways of the origin of the author’s tropes. The research is in line with the description of the idiostyle of artists of the Russian word, and the study of the language of the poetic works of Yesenin seems relevant and promising. The work is aimed at studying the functioning and compatibility of lexemes in the language of a particular writer. The article outlines the prospects for lexicalsemantic research, which involves selection, classification, and analysis of the compatibility of lexemes in order to determine their place in the poet’s linguistic picture of the world. In the article, depending on the tasks being solved, the following methods are used: continuous sampling, description, comparison, contextual, semantic and stylistic analysis of the linguistic structure of a literary text using specific techniques of linguostylistic analysis. A feature of Yesenin’s lyrics is the unexpectedness of the images created in violation of the laws of lexical compatibility. The author have identified and described three groups of epithets that give rise to a unique idiostyle: synesthetic (all senses are actively involved in perception), oxymoronic (incompatible extremes of human feelings are combined) and paradoxical (similarity is only in the eyes of the poet). A poetic picture of the Yesenin’s world is almost always distinguished by a multifaceted characteristic, expressed in a combination of several levels of perception. The poet sees the surrounding reality differently than his contemporaries, and wants the reader to penetrate into his figurative representation, achieve a combination of various sensory sensations, combine extremely incompatible human feelings, and be able to find similarities in completely different objects. The results of the study are in line with the identification, description and analysis of lexical and thematic groups of Yesenin’s lyrics and lay down the prospects for compiling materials for a thematic dictionary.

Study of images in French as a foreign language class: Between fixed image and moving image

We were interested in the image. The latter, visual and figurative representation, has always been part of the means used in the teaching-learning of languages, we note that this support is always present in the language class, because in addition to its aspect of humor, the image is capable of explaining the linguistic code, by referring to another code. Thus, the image as a teaching aid could also have a considerable impact on the comprehension of writing among learners in the 7th and 8th years of basic education. This article is particularly interested in the teachers responsible for the information and communication technology course and the designers of programs and manuals. The main objective of the article is to give attention to this support likely to facilitate the teaching/learning of the French language. It first presents two types of images: a still image medium, namely a comic strip and an animated image medium, namely a video extract and scriptural and intercultural skills and Then, he focuses on to descriptive data taken from questionnaires intended for students concerning these aforementioned skills. The article also examines the relationships between the use of images in the teaching-learning process and the two skills.

Русская пищевая метафора как объект идеографической лексикографии

The article presents the stages of the development of domestic ideographic lexicography associated with the emergence of dictionaries of different types, organized in accordance with the semantic connections and thematic commonality of interpreted units. The dictionary description of figurative words and expressions of the Russian language, motivated by names of objects and phenomena in the sphere “Food”, is based on the existing experience of an ideographic representation of the material, taking into account its conceptual relevance and discursive nature. Dictionaries compiled under the guidance of Dr. Elena Yurina demonstrate two approaches to the ideographic description of the figurative lexical and phraseological field “Food”. The three-volume Dictionary of Russian Food Metaphor (Tomsk, 2015-2019) is built according to the nesting principle: the arrangement of dictionary entries reflects the structural and semantic connections of linguistic units and the semantic unity of the original motivating images; the distribution of lexical-phraseological nests corresponds to the logical-conceptual division of the sphere “Food” into the thematic areas “Dishes and Products”, “Gastronomic Activities”, “Properties of Food”, “Subject of Gastronomic Activities”, “Kitchen and Kitchen Utensils”, “Routine and Organization of Nutrition”. The macrostructure of the World in the Mirror of Food Metaphor dictionary is built on an ideographic principle: the names of sections and subsections into which dictionary entries are grouped designate the spheres of extra-linguistic reality whose objects and phenomena are figuratively characterized through food metaphor. The formation of the classification scheme of the ideographic dictionary was carried out by an inductive method through a semantic and cognitive analysis of figurative words and expressions included in the dictionary; denotative areas of application of metaphorical names were determined. The synoptic scheme of the dictionary includes five sections, within which subsections are distinguished: (1) Person: Appearance, Gender and Age Characteristics, Organism, Physical Actions, Psyche, Thinking, Character and Behavior, Speech, Social Status, Professional Activity; (2) Society: Politics and Armed Conflicts, Economy, Culture, Interpersonal Relations, Social Activities, Life Experience, Social Communication; (3) Material World: Living Nature, Natural Facts, Artifacts, Physical Phenomena and Processes, Properties of Material Objects, Sound, Smell and Taste; (4) Abstract Concepts: Space, Time, Measure, Value, Existence; (5) Communicatemes. The order of the sections in the dictionary is determined by the quantitative criterion. Most of the figurative units characterize phenomena in the spheres of “Person” (40%) and “Society” (37%); the remaining categories are represented by a smaller number of figurative nominations: “Material World” (14%), “Abstract Concepts” (7%), “Communicatemes” (2%). A distinctive feature of the dictionaries discussed in the article is the explanation of figurative representations typical for Russian linguistic culture, demonstrating analogies between certain phenomena of reality and various culinary objects realized in a complex of figurative words and expressions. Such formulations are placed in a separate dictionary area, which completes the presentation of each word family of the thematic dictionary and each subsection of the ideographic dictionary. The interpretation of a typical figurative representation in the ideographic dictionary includes the name of the object of figurative signification, the name of the gastronomic phenomenon associated with it, the basis of metaphorical assimilation, as well as examples of figurative units expressing this representation. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

Values and symbolization of success in modern cinema

The subject of the study is the figurative and symbolic reflection and transformation of the dynamic reality of life in the cinematic space of modern culture. The purpose of the work is to identify and substantiate trends in the development of cinematographic cultural texts based on the figurative and symbolic representation of the phenomenon of success in the existential space of human existence. The scientific novelty of the work is represented by the evidence base of the study, which determines the figurative correspondence of the philosophical and sociological representation of cinematic texts to the phenomenon of success as a value-symbolic aspect of personal activity. Based on the analysis of cinema screen products created at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries and devoted to the characterization of the image of a subject whose existential level of being is characterized in the symbols of success/ failure, several trends in the development of cinematic culture can be identified. Firstly, the characteristic of the "sunset" of the previously dominant ideological trend of symbolization of the actual phenomenology of success. Secondly, the stage of axiological instability and ambivalence in the evaluation of the symbols of success, unevenly implemented in the scenario and staging part. And, thirdly, the formation and consolidation of new cinematic paradigms through the constant convergence of private symbols of success, manifested in different ways both in reality and on the cinema screen, and accompanied by constant attempts at their non-contextual universalization.

Лирический герой и образная картина мира Екатерины Боярских по данным языка

The research analyzes the poetry of Ekaterina Boyarskikh, a contemporary poet from Irkutsk. The aim is to identify and describe the persona and the figurative picture of the world she creates. The method applied is linguistic data analysis. It is the poetic grammar, vocabulary, and the means of creating imagery that are the focus of the study. Consideration is given to lexical and grammatical features contributing to the creation of a persona and the world around it, such as the substantivization of adjectives and participles and the omission of syntactic subjects, finite verb forms, and primary nominatives. The syntactic specificity of Boyarskikh’s poetry manifests itself when compared to the conventional usage of the structures under investigation that were retrieved from the Russian National Corpus. The frequent use of the linguistic means involved is found to indicate a reflection on the cognized reality. This reflection proves to be an essential linguistic strategy for creating a fictional world. The analysis of comparative tropes unveils the striking parallels between the main images found in Boyarskikh’s poetry and the significant features of her figurative representation of the world. The research identifies nature as a common source of imagery, with natural objects regularly undergoing personification. The persona created by Boyarskikh is found to be strongly connected with the surrounding world being repeatedly cognized, as evidenced by the renunciation of conventional nominations and the search for new nominations of the objects of this world.

К вопросу о дихотомии образа змеи в южнославянской традиции

An appeal to figurative representations preserved by folk tradition is an attempt to study mentality, understanding the world of a particular culture. Immersion in the world of mythological and fairy-tale formations makes it possible to reveal social representations, the specifics of intercultural interaction at the level of folk tradition. The relevance of this article lies in the possibility of identifying supra-ethnic processes of intercultural interaction in the South Slavic realm, as well as their social, cultural and ideological aspects. The symbolism of the snake in the cultures of various samples is known from Paleolithic times. According to a biological point of view, this is one of the most common groups of animals, neighboring in the past and today to humans all around the globe. Emotional perception of the quality of a snake (danger, secrecy, unusual appearance) and its mythological derivatives, make it possible to identify alternative, but common types of the snake image reflection that take place in Western and especially Eastern Slavic, Romanesque, Albanian, Germanic, Indo-Iranian, Greco-Roman and other mythological traditions. Their correct understanding of the ethical and aesthetic cultural paths of development of modern Slavic peoples, who have entered into a regulated dynamic cultural convergence with the whole world, is an urgent scientific and social task. The main sources of the article are songs, fairy tales, descriptions of the rituals of the Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Bulgarians, Macedonians. Perception of the image of a snake and giving it fabulous and mythological features in historical times revealing the inconsistency of Slavic ideas about the objects present, their natural, emotional coloring of images and detection with a person.

Figurative representations of the Pali Aike volcanic field (Santa Cruz, Argentina - Magallanes, Chile) in comparative perspective with the southern extreme of Patagonia

This paper aims to make a comparison of the figurative representations of the Pali Aike volcanic field (province of Santa Cruz, Argentina – province of Magallanes, Chile) with those registered in other sectors of southern Patagonia, such as the southern shore margin of Lake Argentino (Argentina), the Morros area and the Cerro Benítez-Lago Sofía locality (Chile) during the middle and late Holocene. This analysis was based on integrating background and new information related to different areas. The goal is to evaluate the existence of diverse patterns of representation, considering the morphologies, technical treatment, frequencies, relative abundance of types of motifs in each area, distribution within the space, and temporality of figurative motifs. From this, it is expected to advance the discussion of information exchange among hunter-gatherer groups through figurative representationson a macroregional scale.

Cosmologic Representations on the Late Antique Mosaics from Bulgaria

The article traces the cosmologic structure and its separate components, reflected on the Late Antique mosaic pavements from the ancient provinces of present-day Bulgaria. Distinguished are three basic historical periods of development. The observations reveal that these lands were receiving ready cosmogonic structure’s schemes after the act of cosmogony from the big artistic centers of Italy, Greece, Asia Minor and North Africa. For several reasons, the cosmologic structure and the components of the Late Antique mosaic pavements from Bulgaria are not full, but limited and adapted, with many missing figural representations in the mosaic pavements and the tomb wall paintings, differently to the Western and the Eastern Mediterranean. This is considered a kind of proto-iconoclasm, due to the influence of heresies and the concrete historical, religious and artistic development. The joyful picture of the Christian Universe changes and disintegrates after the Justinianic period, and the previous Order and Harmony, including the place of each sphere and cosmologic element, is already not fixed, but in free mixture with other figural and symbolic images. The old cosmologic picture comes to its logical end and is replaced by a new one after the beginning of 7th century.

FUNCTIONS AND MESSAGES OF TOKENS & COUNTERS, SEALS, SEALINGS & RELIEFS OF ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA AS REPRESENTATIONS OF NON - LINGUISTIC COMMUNICATION - A SURVEY

There are many ways to communicate non-verbally. Artefacts like tokens/counters, bullae, seals, sealings, figurative representations, reliefs, etc., are as many parts and symbols of non-verbal communication as art, laughter, drumbeats, smoke signals, facial expressions, body postures, appearance, etc. It is a fact that semantic artefacts – objects carrying a meaning – contain no single information since the amount of information that can be obtained from them increases significantly with time. For example, an ear of wheat with a herringbone pattern that stood for cereal communicates information on economy, administration, society, and cognition. This paper identifies and analyses the multi-faceted information communicated by a collection of tokens and counters, seals, sealings and reliefs of Ancient Mesopotamia and surveys them as representations of non-linguistic communication. The functions and messages conveyed by these artefacts are analysed considering their aspects of enumeration, recording, suggestion and symbol for imparting, recording, revealing, demonstrating, or bestowing facts and information in Ancient Mesopotamia.

Multimodal Representations of Lithuanian Brands: The Case of “Džiugas”, “Rūta” and “Pieno žvaigždės”

Figurative representations of brand images have not been thoroughly studied in Lithuanian linguistics. The present research aims to investigate the multimodal metaphors and metonymies explored by the famous Lithuanian corporate brands Džiugas, Rūta and Pieno žvaigždės. The work examines how the multimodal metaphors and metonymies of the brands are cognitively structured from the perspective of illustrations, logos and layout. The interaction of verbal and visual elements in corporate discourse is particularly important when expressed using graphics, logos and layout for the corporate mission statements, descriptions of the brand history and other materials available on their websites. The analysis reveals that the most frequent source domains for brand imaging are PERSON/LIVING ORGANISM, SUCCESS, TRADITIONS and CAUSE FOR EFFECT, PART FOR WHOLE, PRODUCT FOR PRODUCER metonymies, among others. In the case of personification, the brand is defined as an individual who possesses the qualities highly valued in corporate discourse: growth, positivity, adaptability, dynamism and collaboration. These metaphors facilitate a better understanding of the brand and contribute to the formation of a persuasive brand image that resonates with consumers. The analysis of the multimodal manifestations of brand identity in the cases of Džiugas, Rūta and Pieno žvaigždės reveals the intricate interplay of metaphor and metonymy in constructing and conveying meaning across various modes of representation. Each brand’s illustrations, logo and layout incorporate visual elements, typography, and colour palettes that contribute to their unique identities and evoke specific associations.