Article

Name: Functioning of Evaluative Substantive Metaphors and Similes in Modern Russian Prose

Authors: Natalia A. Nikolina, Zoya Yu. Petrova, Natalya A. Fateeva

Moscow State Pedagogical University, Moscow, Russian Federation,V. V. Vinogradov Russian Language Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russian Federation

Abstract:

The article discusses functioning of evaluative comparative tropes in the texts of modern Russian prose. The works of Yu. Buyda, E. Vodolazkin, A. Ivanov, A. Ilichevsky, A. Matveeva, D. Rubina, O. Slavnikova, E. Chizhova, G. Yakhina and other writers are analyzed. Contexts extracted from the Russian National Corpus are also involved. It is shown that modern Russian prose is characterized by the active use of evaluative metaphors and similes. The research confirms the conclusion about the dominance of negative evaluation in modern literature. The article highlights the most productive semantic classes of images of comparison that express evaluation: zoonyms and names of artifacts, food products. The evolution of the composition of evaluative images of comparison in the language of Russian literature is noted. It is shown that in the texts of modern Russian prose various types of specific evaluation are used, which interact with each other in the context. It is concluded that the formation and strengthening of evaluativeness is largely facilitated by the context, the units of which extend the axiological potential to the components of the tropes. It is noted that in modern Russian prose there are both commonly used evaluative metaphors and similes, as well as individual author’s comparative tropes, which, like the author's choice of certain semantic groups of evaluative images of comparison, participate in the formation of the author’s world image. The role of comparative constructions in the structure of the narrative is considered. It is shown that in modern prose texts, evaluative tropes regularly reflect the point of view of the characters, while interference of various subjective speech plans is observed. There is a tendency to use stylistically low comparison images in modern prose.

Keywords: metaphor, simile, modern Russian prose, general evaluation, specific evaluation, narrative structure

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