Article

Name: Actional sentences in the Khanty and Nenets languages: semantics and metaphorization ways

Authors: N. B. Koshkareva

Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation; Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

In the section Linguistics

Abstract:

The semantic core of actional sentences is the relationship of purposeful influence on the ob- ject by the active, controlling subject. The impact is carried out in the physical sphere and repre- sents the causation of the existence or non-existence of the object, as well as the causation of the transition from one state to another. Hence, there are two semantic types of actional sentences ‒ creative and destructive action, on the one hand, and the transformation of the object, on the oth- er. The complex of causal-aspectual relations is superimposed on the elementary meanings of existence and state. The following lines of metaphorical transfers are identified, with the physical sphere being the starting point:

1) figurative values, resulting in a system of polysemants ‒ elementary simple sentences with semantics derived from the original one ‒ based on actional typical syntactic structure:

2) the transfer of meaning from the physical sphere to the mental and intellectual ones, with syntactic homonyms being formed ‒ non-elementary simple and polypredicative constructions with modus-dictum relations (constructions with sentential predicates). The position of the object is replaced either by the names of abstract semantics, or by words representing the reduced propo- sitions, or by predicative actants. The criterion for classifying these sentences as homonyms is their non-elementary semantics.

Keywords: Khanty language, Nenets language, elementary simple sentence, syntax of the model structure, actional sentences, the subject-object relationship, syntactic metaphor, synony- my, polysemy, homonymy

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