what is direct and figurative meaning words?
- What is the literal and figurative meaning of a word?
These are two terms from word formation - the science of replenishing the vocabulary of a language at its own expense, and not by borrowing from other languages.
According to tradition, some words of a language can distinguish two or more lexical meanings related to each other in some way. This relationship is described, for example, in the book by V.V. Vinogradov “Russian language. The grammatical doctrine of the word”, as well as in academic grammars, according to which school textbooks are compiled.
It is believed that a word with one - direct - meaning is capable in some cases, due to semantic transfer by the similarity of phenomena (metaphor) or by the contiguity of the functions of phenomena (metonymy), to receive an additional - figurative meaning.
Thus, the verb "to hurt" can have direct meaning“to injure, damage, destroy the tissues of the human body” (The soldier was wounded by police with a pistol) and figurative meaning “to hurt a person’s feelings, offend, insult” (E was hurt by the words of a classmate).
In a similar way, we can talk about the direct and figurative meanings of many words: “go, poisonous, transparent, shell” and so on.
It is believed that all figurative meanings of a word arise on the basis of one thing - the direct one, that is, the direct meaning is the initial one for all figurative ones, and figurative ones are always secondary.
It must be said that the issue of figurative meanings is quite controversial: sometimes it is not possible to determine what is primary and what is secondary in the same “word”. Or the mechanism of transfer is unclear (why is a person sometimes called the word “goat”?). Or there is no semantic connection at all between words that sound the same (a person is walking / a dress is walking for her). In such cases, we no longer talk about literal and figurative meaning (together they are defined by the term “polysemy”), but about homonyms.
This is a problem of modern linguistics that has yet to be clearly resolved. - Well, yes
- this is when the words don’t add up, for example, eat like a bear, this is an overvalued meaning
- The direct meaning of the word is its specific wording, that is, what does it mean in literally words, but figurative, that is, used with a slightly different meaning, not natural for the surrounding world, for example, the word tail... The direct meaning is the tail of a dog - the tail of a creature... and the figurative tail is, for example, correcting tails - that is, correcting twos) something like this)
- ambiguous and ambiguous words. Direct and figurative meanings of the word Zhdanova L. A. A word can have one lexical meaning, then it is unambiguous or several (two or more) meanings; such a word is called polysemantic. Single meaning words there is enough in the language a large number of, but the most frequent, commonly used words are usually ambiguous. There are many unambiguous words among terms, names of tools, professions, animals, plants, etc. Unambiguous, for example, are the words dualism, plane, neuropathologist, roe deer, poplar, tulle, trolleybus, wattle fence. Polysemantic words can have from two to more than two dozen meanings (for example, the word go has 26 meanings in Ozhegov’s Dictionary). If a word is polysemous, there is a semantic connection between its meanings (not necessarily all at once). For example, for the word road in Ozhegov’s Dictionary the following meanings are highlighted: 1. A strip of land intended for movement. Asphalt road. 2. A place through which one must pass or drive, a route to follow. On the way to the house. 3. Travel, being on the road. Tired from the road. 4. Course of action, direction of activity. The road to success. The first three meanings have a common component of movement in space, the fourth meaning is connected with the second: both contain the meaning of direction (in the second meaning the direction of movement in space, and in the fourth in activity, in development). In a polysemantic word, the direct (main) meaning of the word and figurative (derived) meanings are distinguished. The figurative meaning is the result of the transfer of the name (sound-letter means) to other phenomena of reality, which begin to be designated by the same word. There are two types of name transfer: metaphor and metonymy. It should be noted that the question of which meaning is direct and which is figurative should be resolved on the modern linguistic cross-section, and not transferred to the field of language history. For example, the word cling in Ozhegov’s Dictionary is interpreted as follows...
- line and bend
- making an elephant out of moss is a figurative meaning, for example, we can’t make an elephant out of a moss, but the direct meaning is to confuse everything, transform the real into something else
With polysemy, one of the meanings of a word is direct, and all the others are figurative.The direct meaning of a word is its basic lexical meaning. It is directly directed to the designated object, phenomenon, action, sign, immediately evokes an idea of them and is least dependent on the context. Words most often appear in their literal meaning.
The figurative meaning of a word is its secondary meaning, which arose on the basis of the direct one.
Toy, -i, f. 1. A thing used for playing. Kids toys. 2. transfer One who blindly acts according to someone else's will is an obedient instrument of someone else's will (disapproved). To be a toy in someone's hands.
The essence of the transfer of meaning is that the meaning is transferred to another object, another phenomenon, and then one word is used as the name of several objects at the same time. In this way, the polysemy of the word is formed.Depending on the basis on which the value transfer occurs, there are three main types of value transfer:
metaphor,
metonymy,
synecdoche.
Metaphor (from the Greek metaphora transfer) is the transfer of a name by similarity:
ripe apple eyeball (shape);
a person's nose a ship's nose (by location);
chocolate bar chocolate tan (by color);
bird wing airplane wing (by function);
the dog howled; the wind howled (according to the nature of the sound);
and etc.
Metonymy (from the Greek metonymia renaming) is the transfer of a name from one object to another based on their contiguity:
the water boils, the kettle boils;
porcelain dish tasty dish;
native gold Scythian gold
and etc.
Synecdoche (from the Greek synekdoche co-impliation) is the transfer of the name of a whole to its part and vice versa:
thick currants; ripe currants;
beautiful mouth extra mouth (about an extra person in the family);
big head smart head
and etc.
In the process of developing figurative meanings, a word can be enriched with new meanings as a result of narrowing or expanding the basic meaning. Over time, figurative meanings can become direct.It is possible to determine in what meaning a word is used only in context.
We sat on the CORNER of the bastion, so we could see everything in both directions. In Tarakanovo, as in the most remote corner of the bear, there was no place for secrets.
In the first sentence, the word ANGLE is used in its literal meaning: the place where two sides of something meet or intersect. And in stable combinations in a blind corner, bearish corner, the meaning of the word will be figurative: in a blind corner in a remote area, bearish corner is a blind place.IN explanatory dictionaries the direct meaning of the word is given first, and the figurative meanings are numbered starting from 2. The meaning recorded as figurative recently comes with the mark transfer. :
Wooden, oh, oh. 1. Made from wood. 2. transfer Motionless, unexpressive. Wooden facial expression. #9830;Wood oil is a cheap grade of olive oil - direct when words have their own meaning, and figuratively another, for example, golden hands, in the literal sense, hands of gold, and figuratively, hardworking hands.
- The direct meaning of a word is basic and reflects the direct correlation of the word with the called object, attribute, action, phenomenon.
The portable meaning of a word arises on the basis of the direct result of transferring the name of one object (sign, action, etc.) to another, in some way similar to it. Thus, the figurative meaning of a word reflects the connection between the word and the called phenomenon of reality not directly, but through comparison with other words. For example, the direct meaning of the word rain precipitation in the form of drops, but a portable stream of small particles of something, falling in abundance.
One word can have several figurative meanings. So, the word burn has the following figurative meanings: 1) to be in the heat, in a feverish state (the patient is burning); 2) blush from a rush of blood (cheeks burn); 3) sparkle, shine (eyes glow); 4) experience something strong feeling(burn with love for poetry).
Over time, figurative meanings can become direct. For example, the word nose is now used in its literal meaning if we're talking about and about the organ of smell, located on the face of a person or on the muzzle of animals, and about the front of the vessel.
It is possible to determine in what meaning a word is used only in context: a drop of water, a drop of pity; insatiable insatiable animal, insatiable ambition; gold golden ring, Golden autumn. The figurative meaning is one of the meanings of a polysemantic word and is given in explanatory dictionaries with the mark transfer. .
1. Here, where the vault of heaven looks so sluggishly at the skinny earth, - here, plunged into an iron sleep, tired nature sleeps (F. Tyutchev). 2. The sun is golden. Buttercup is single. The river is silver and playful with its water (K. Balmont).
- to step on a rake, in a figurative sense - to get a negative experience.
- prick up your ears - become very attentive,
- reel in fishing rods - leave, and not necessarily from fishing,
- a heart of stone is an insensitive person,
- sour face - dissatisfied facial expression.
- work hard - work hard
- sharp tongue - the ability to formulate accurate, accurate and even caustic information.
Examples of words and expressions with figurative meaning:
As we see, words acquire a figurative meaning when they are used together with certain words (which do not have such a quality in the literal sense). For example, nerves cannot literally be made of iron, so this is a figurative meaning, but iron ore it just consists of iron (the phrase has a direct meaning).
Any word in Russian initially has one or more direct meanings. That is, the word Key can mean something like what we use to close the lock on front door and can mean water gushing out of the ground. In both cases, this is the direct meaning of a polysemantic word. But almost every word in the Russian language can also be given a figurative meaning. For example in the expression key to all doors, not a word key, not a word doors are not used in their direct meaning. The key here is the possibility of solving the problem, and the doors are this very problem. The figurative meaning of words is often used by poets, for example in Pushkin’s famous poem, every word has a figurative meaning:
Or here is the famous young man from Bryusov, who had a burning gaze, of course, burning in a figurative sense.
The direct meaning of the word strictly correlates with a certain thing, attribute, action, quality, etc. A word can have a figurative meaning based on points of contact, similarity with another object in form, function, color, purpose, etc.
Examples of the meaning of words:
table (furniture) - address table, table 9 (diet);
black color - back door (auxiliary), black thoughts (dreary);
bright room - bright mind, bright head;
dirty rag - dirty thoughts;
cold wind - cold heart;
golden cross - golden hands, golden heart;
heavy burden - heavy look;
heart valve - heart valve;
gray mouse - gray man.
A large number of words and figures of speech in the Russian language can be used both in a literal and figurative (figurative) sense.
The direct meaning usually completely coincides with the original meaning; the narrator means exactly what he says.
We use words in a figurative meaning in order to give our speech figurativeness, to especially emphasize some quality or action.
The examples below will help you feel the difference:
The language is in constant development, those words that a few decades ago were used only in a literal meaning can begin to be used in a figurative sense - birdhouse - starling house, birdhouse - traffic police post, zebra - animal, zebra - pedestrian crossing.
Direct is the primary meaning of a word, figurative is secondary. Let me give you examples:
Gold earrings - direct meaning.
My husband's gold hands - figurative meaning.
Rain worm- direct.
Book worm- portable.
Silver ring - straight.
Silver century - figurative.
The sky is burning star- direct.
Star screen - portable.
Icy sculpture - straight.
Icy smile - figurative.
Sugar buns - straight.
Mouth sugar- portable.
Woolen blanket- direct.
Winter covered everything around with snow blanket- portable.
Mink fur coat- direct.
Herring under fur coat- portable.
Marble plate - straight.
Marble cupcake - portable.
Black suit - straight.
Leave on black day - portable.
Sweet tea - sweet kitty, sweet music.
Crying in pain - the prison is crying (for someone).
Soft plasticine - soft light, soft heart.
Sunny day - sunny soul, sunny smile.
Plastic bag - social package (vacation, sick leave).
Wolverine skin is a sellable skin.
Garden flowers are flowers of life (about children).
Green fruits - green generation.
Woodpecker (bird) - woodpecker (informer).
To poison with pills is to poison with moral violence.
The direct meaning of a word is when the word is used in its original sense. For example: sweet porridge.
The figurative meaning of a word is when the word is used in a non-literal sense, such as sweet deception.
In Russian, words can have both direct and figurative meanings. Under direct meaning understand words naming an object of reality or its property. Moreover, the meaning of such words does not depend on the context; we immediately imagine what they mean. For example:
Based on the direct meaning of a word, additional lexical meanings may arise, which are called portable. The figurative meaning is based on the similarity of objects or phenomena in appearance, properties or actions performed.
Compare: stone house and stone face. In the phrase stone house, the adjective stone is used in the literal meaning (solid, motionless, strong), and in the phrase stone face, the same adjective is used in a figurative meaning (insensitive, unfriendly, stern).
Here are some examples of the literal and figurative meaning of words:
Many are built on the basis of figurative meaning. stylistic figures or literary tropes(metonymy, personification, metaphor, synecdoche, allegory, epithet, hyperbole).
There are a lot of words with direct and figurative meanings in the Russian language. And as a rule, all these meanings are reflected in dictionaries. It is very useful to look there from time to time.
Examples of words and phrases with figurative meaning:
Now, I remember.
But in fact, a very interesting fact is that words can have not only a direct meaning, but also a figurative one.
If we talk about the direct meaning, then in the text we mean the lexical meaning specific word. But figurative meaning means transferring the meaning of the lexical original as a consequence of comparison
And here are some examples:
Summary of a Russian language lesson in 6th grade
(teacher: Nesvat L.N., teacher of Russian language and literature MKOU OOSH village.
Ershovka, Vyatskopolyansky district, Kirov region)
LESSON TOPIC:
Direct and figurative meaning of words.
Goals: 1)
To introduce students to the literal and figurative lexical meaning of a word
2)
To develop the ability to find words with a figurative meaning in the text,
4)
Develop skills in working with spelling and punctuation.
During the classes:
Motivation.
1) Teacher's word:
Friends, before announcing the topic of today's lesson, I want to ask you a question,
related to literature, do you know who Ilya Muromets is?
(People's hero, hero of many epics)
In one of the epics about Ilya Muromets there are the following words: “The word is like an apple: from one
green on one side, ruddy on the other, you know how to turn it, girl...”
Think about the meaning of this sentence: The word, if we consider it from different sides,
miscellaneous - “Green on one side”, “Ruddy on the other”. And most importantly: "You know how to do it, girl
turn over", i.e. know how to use your words, as a word can have more than one meaning
It turns out that a word, in addition to its direct meaning, can also have another meaning,
portable. This is the topic of the lesson: “Direct and figurative meaning of the word”
(write in notebooks).
2) Write on the board:
iron nails, iron health.
Teacher's explanation: In the phrase iron nails the adjective means
What is the meaning of the word green? (Unripe,
unripe)
11)
Information on the use of figurative words in fiction
works. (Information from the textbook).
Vocabulary work: personification, metaphor
13) Execute exercise 339
Teacher:
Words with a figurative meaning make it bright and expressive not only
poetic speech, but also prose.
15) Let's turn to exercise 342.
a) Reading the text.
b) Determination of speech style, type of speech.
c) Determining the title of the text.
d) Vocabulary work: azure, coral, sapphire.
16) Recording text, explaining spelling.
: I hope you will be able to determine the literal and figurative meaning of a word. A
When you were very little, you probably didn’t understand a lot. Famous
children's writer K.I. Chukovsky recorded several statements of children who did not know
Reading the following statements by role and explaining the words used in
figurative meaning:
“I won’t go to school,” said fifth-grader Seryozha. - There on exams
cutting.
b) - Here In winter it will snow and frost will hit
-And then I won’t go outside.
- Why?
- So that the frost doesn’t hit me.
V) The boy is asked about his sister
- What does your sister Irinka lie down with the roosters?
She doesn’t lie down with the roosters - they peck: she goes to bed alone in her crib.
Mom washed the shirt and asked Petya to hang it to dry in the sun.
Petya left, but soon returned with the shirt.
- Why didn't you hang it up to dry?
- I don't “reached the sun,” answered Petya.
19)
Teacher:
Children, you have heard funny stories. No less fun, I think
will seem to you ex. 340.
20) Exercise: In each pair of sentences, indicate the words used directly
figurative meaning.
The wind howls and whistles in the chimney. The dog howls.
The tired day turned to night. The tired boy bowed his head to
mother's shoulder.
Dad came home from work. The long-awaited day of departure has finally arrived.
The hostess warmed the water. A cheerful song warmed us on the way.
21) Let's summarize the lesson.
a) How does a figurative meaning differ from a direct one?
b) Why are words with figurative meanings used in speech?
) Homework:
Theoretical information on pp. 132-133, exercise 338
Language is a multifaceted and multifunctional concept. Determining its essence requires careful consideration of many issues. For example, the structure of language and the relationship between the elements of its system, influence from external factors and functions in human society.
Defining figurative values
Already from junior classes In school, everyone knows that the same words can be used differently in speech. Direct (main, basic) meaning is one that is correlated with objective reality. It does not depend on the context or allegory. An example of this is the word “collapse”. In medicine it means a sharp and sudden drop in blood pressure, and in astronomy it means the rapid compression of stars under the influence of gravitational forces.
The figurative meaning of words is their second meaning. It arises when the name of a phenomenon is consciously transferred to another due to the similarity of their functions, characteristics, etc. For example, the same “collapse” was received. Examples relate to social life. Thus, in a figurative sense, “collapse” means destruction, the collapse of the unification of people as a result of the onset of a systemic crisis.
Scientific definition
In linguistics, the figurative meaning of words is their secondary derivative, associated with the main meaning by metaphorical, metonymic dependence or any associative features. At the same time, it arises on the basis of logical, spatial, temporal and other correlations of concepts.
Application in speech
Words with a figurative meaning are used when naming those phenomena that are not the usual and permanent object of designation. They come close to other concepts through emerging associations that are obvious to speakers.
Words used figuratively can retain imagery. For example, dirty insinuations or dirty thoughts. Such figurative meanings are given in explanatory dictionaries. These words are different from the metaphors invented by writers.
However, in most cases, when a transfer of meaning occurs, the imagery is lost. An example of this is such expressions as the spout of a teapot and the elbow of a pipe, the passage of a clock and the tail of a carrot. In such cases, there is a fading of imagery in
Changing the essence of a concept
The figurative meaning of words can be assigned to any action, sign or object. As a result, it moves into the category of main or basic. For example, the spine of a book or a door handle.
Polysemy
The figurative meaning of words is often a phenomenon caused by their polysemy. In scientific language it is called “Polysemy”. Often one word has more than one stable meaning. In addition, people who use language often have a need to name a new phenomenon that does not yet have a lexical designation. In this case, they use words that are already familiar to them.
Questions of polysemy are, as a rule, questions of nomination. In other words, the movement of things with the existing identity of the word. However, not all scientists agree with this. Some of them do not allow more than one meaning for a word. There is another opinion. Many scientists support the idea that the figurative meaning of words is their lexical meaning, realized in various variants.
For example, we say “red tomato”. The adjective used here is the direct meaning. “Red” can also be said about a person. In this case, it means that he blushed or blushed. Thus, a figurative meaning can always be explained through a direct one. But linguistics cannot give an explanation. That's just the name of this color.
In polysemy, there is also the phenomenon of unequal meanings. For example, the word “flare up” can mean that an object suddenly caught fire, or that a person blushed with shame, or that a quarrel suddenly arose, etc. Some of these expressions are more common in the language. They immediately come to mind when given word mentioned. Others are used only in special situations and special combinations.
There are semantic connections between some meanings of a word, which make understandable the phenomenon when different properties and objects are called the same.
Trails
The use of a word in a figurative meaning can be not only a stable fact of language. Such use is sometimes limited, fleeting and within the context of only one utterance. In this case, the goal of exaggeration and special expressiveness of what is said is achieved.
Thus, there is an unstable figurative meaning of the word. There are examples of this use in poetry and literature. For these genres, this is an effective artistic technique. For example, in Blok one can recall “the deserted eyes of the carriages” or “the dust swallowed the rain in pills.” What is the figurative meaning of the word in this case? This is evidence of his unlimited ability to explain new concepts.
The emergence of figurative meanings of words of a literary-stylistic type are tropes. In other words,
Metaphor
In philology, a number of different types of name transfer are distinguished. One of the most important among them is metaphor. With its help, the name of one phenomenon is transferred to another. Moreover, this is only possible if certain characteristics are similar. Similarity can be external (in color, size, character, shape and movements), as well as internal (in assessment, sensations and impressions). So, with the help of metaphor they talk about dark thoughts and a sour face, a calming storm and a cold reception. In this case, the thing is replaced, but the attribute of the concept remains unchanged.
The figurative meaning of words with the help of metaphor occurs with varying degrees of similarity. An example of this is a duck (a device in medicine) and a tractor caterpillar. The transfer using similar forms is used here. The names given to a person can also carry a metaphorical meaning. For example, Hope, Love, Faith. Sometimes meanings are transferred based on similarity to sounds. So, the horn was called a siren.
Metonymy
This is also one of the most important types of title transfers. However, when using it, the similarities between internal and external signs. Here there is a contiguity of cause-and-effect relationships or, in other words, the contact of things in time or space.
The metonymic figurative meaning of words is a change not only of the subject, but also of the concept itself. When this phenomenon occurs, only the connections of neighboring links of the lexical chain can be explained.
The figurative meanings of words can be based on associations with the material from which the object is made. For example, earth (soil), table (food), etc.
Synecdoche
This concept means the transfer of any part to the whole. An example of this is the expression “a child follows his mother’s skirt”, “a hundred head of cattle”, etc.
Homonyms
This concept in philology means identical sounds of two or more different words. Homonymy is a sound coincidence of lexical units that are not semantically related to each other.
There are phonetic and grammatical homonyms. The first case concerns those words that are in the accusative or sound the same, but at the same time have a different composition of phonemes. For example, “twig” and “pond”. Grammatical homonyms arise in cases where both the phoneme and pronunciation of the words are the same, but the individual words are different. For example, the number “three” and the verb “three”. If the pronunciations of such words change, they will not be the same. For example, “rub”, “three”, etc.
Synonyms
This concept refers to words of the same part of speech, identical or similar in their lexical meaning. The origins of synonymy are foreign language and its own lexical meanings, general literary and dialect. Such figurative meanings of words also arise thanks to jargon (“to burst” - “to eat”).
Synonyms are divided into types. Among them:
- absolute, when the meanings of words completely coincide (“octopus” - “octopus”);
- conceptual, differing in shades of lexical meanings (“reflect” - “think”);
- stylistic, which have differences in stylistic coloring (“sleep” - “sleep”).
Antonyms
This concept refers to words that belong to the same part of speech, but have opposite concepts. This type of figurative meaning may have a difference in structure (“to take out” - “to bring in”) and different roots (“white” - “black”).
Antonymy is observed in those words that express the opposing orientation of characteristics, states, actions and properties. The purpose of their use is to convey contrasts. This technique is often used in poetic and
The main means of giving a word imagery is the use of it figuratively. The play of direct and figurative meaning gives rise to both aesthetic and expressive effects of a literary text, making this text figurative and expressive.
Based on the nominative (nominal) function of a word and its connection with the subject in the process of cognition of reality, a distinction is made between direct (basic, main, primary, initial) and figurative (derived, secondary, indirect) meanings.
In the derivative meaning, the main, direct meaning and the new, indirect meaning, which appeared as a result of the transfer of the name from one object to another, are combined and coexist. If the word is in direct meaning directly (directly) indicates this or that object, action, property, etc., naming them, then the words in portable meaning, an object is no longer named directly, but through certain comparisons and associations that arise in the minds of native speakers.
AIR– 1) ‘adj. To air (air jet)’;
2) ‘light, weightless ( airy dress)’.
The appearance of figurative meanings in a word makes it possible to save the lexical means of the language without endlessly expanding the vocabulary to denote new phenomena and concepts. If there are some common features between two objects, the name from one, already known, is transferred to another object, newly created, invented or known, which did not have a name before:
DIM– 1) ‘opaque, cloudy ( dim glass)’;
2) ‘matte, not shiny ( dull hairspray, dull hair)’;
3) ‘weak, not bright ( dim light, dull colors)’;
4) ‘lifeless, expressionless ( dull look, dull style)’.
D.N. Shmelev believes that the direct, basic meaning is the one that is not determined by the context (most determined paradigmatically and least syntagmatically):
ROAD– 1) ‘a route of communication, a strip of land intended for movement’;
2) ‘travel, trip’;
3) ‘route’;
4) ‘means achievements of some kind. goals'.
All secondary, figurative meanings depend on the context, on compatibility with other words: to pack('trip'), direct road to success, road to Moscow.
Historically, the relationship between direct, primary and figurative, secondary meaning may change. Thus, in modern Russian the primary meanings for words have not been preserved consume(‘eat, eat’), dense('dormant'), vale('valley'). Word thirst in our time, it has the main direct meaning of ‘need to drink’ and figurative ‘strong, passionate desire’, but ancient Russian texts indicate the primacy of the second, more abstract meaning, since the adjective is often used next to it water.
Paths for transferring values
The transfer of meaning can be carried out in two main ways: metaphorical and metonymic.
Metaphor- this is the transfer of names based on the similarity of features and concepts (metaphor - unexpressed comparison): pin stars; what comb won't you comb your head?
Signs of metaphorical transfer:
- by color similarity ( gold leaves);
- by similarity of shape ( ring boulevards);
- by similarity of object location ( nose boats, sleeve rivers);
- by similarity of actions ( rain drums, wrinkles plow face);
- by similarity of sensations, emotional associations ( gold character, velvet voice);
- by similarity of functions ( electric candle in the lamp extinguish/ignite light, wipers in car).
This classification is quite arbitrary. The proof is a transfer based on several criteria: leg chair(form, place); ladle excavator(function, form).
There are other classifications. For example, prof. Galina Al-dr. Cherkasova considers metaphorical transfer in connection with the category of animateness/inanimateness:
- the action of an inanimate object is transferred to another inanimate object ( fireplace– ‘room stove’ and ‘electric heating device’; wing– ‘birds’, ‘airplane blade, mill’, ‘side extension’);
- animate - also on an animate object, but of a different group ( bear, snake);
- inanimate - to animate ( she blossomed );
- animate - to inanimate ( guard– ‘guard ship’).
The main trends in metaphorical transfer: figurative meanings appear in words that are socially significant in given time. During the Great Patriotic War everyday words were used as metaphors to define military concepts: comb forest, get into boiler . Subsequently, on the contrary, military terms were transferred to other concepts: front work, take on weapons . Sports vocabulary gives many figurative meanings: finish, start, knight's move. With the development of astronautics, metaphors appeared finest hour, escape velocity, dock. Currently big number metaphors associated with the computer sphere: mouse, archive, maternal pay etc.
There are models of metaphorical transfer in language: certain groups of words form certain metaphors.
- professional characteristics of a person ( artist, craftsman, philosopher, shoemaker, clown, chemist);
- names associated with the disease ( ulcer, plague, cholera, delirium);
- names of natural phenomena when they are transferred to human life ( spring life, hail tears);
- names of household items ( rag, mattress etc.);
- transfer of names of animal actions to humans ( bark, moo).
Metonymy(Greek ‘renaming’) is a transfer of name that is based on the contiguity of the characteristics of two or more concepts: paper– ‘document’.
Types of metonymic transfer:
- transfer along spatial contiguity ( audience- 'People', Class– ‘children’): (a) transfer of the name containing to the content ( all village came out city I was all worried embankment, ate plate, read Pushkin ); (b) the name of the material from which the item is made is transferred to the item ( To go to silks, V gold; V scarlet And gold clad woods; dancing gold );
- transfer by adjacency O th – transferring the name of the action to the result ( dictation, essay, cookies, jam, embroidery);
- synecdoche(a) transferring the name of a part of a whole to a whole ( one hundred goals livestock; behind him eye Yes eye needed; he's seven mouths feeds; he is mine right hand ; heart heart gives the news) – often found in proverbs; (b) whole to part ( jasmine– ‘bush’ and ‘flowers’; plum– ‘tree’ and ‘fruit’.
This classification does not cover the entire variety of metonymic transfers that exist in the language.
Sometimes when transferring, the grammatical features of a word are used, for example, plural. number: workers hands, relax on yugas, To go to silks . It is believed that the basis of metonymic transfer is nouns.
In addition to common language figurative values, in language fiction portable ones are also observed use words that are characteristic of the work of a particular writer and are one of the means of artistic representation. For example, from L. Tolstoy: fair And Kind sky("War and Peace"); at A.P. Chekhov: crumbly ("The Last Mohican") cozy lady(“From the Memoirs of an Idealist”), faded aunties("Hopeless"); in the works of K.G. Paustovsky: shy sky(“Mikhailovskaya Grove”), sleepy dawn("Third Date") molten noon("Romantics") sleepy day("Sea Habit") white-blooded bulb(“Book of Wanderings”); from V. Nabokov: cloudy tense day(“Luzhin’s Defense”), etc.
Like metaphor, metonymy can be individually authored - contextual, i.e. conditioned by the contextual use of the word, it does not exist outside of this context: – You’re so stupid, brother! - she said reproachfully handset (E. Meek); Redheads trousers sigh and think(A.P. Chekhov); Short fur coats, sheepskin coats crowded...(M. Sholokhov).
Such figurative meanings, as a rule, are not reflected in dictionary interpretations. Dictionaries reflect only regular, productive, generally accepted hyphens fixed by language practice, which continue to arise, playing a large role in enriching the lexical reserves of the language.