Metaphorical Representation of Visual Perception in the Modern Russian Language (“Movement – Perception” Model)

Abstract

The article focuses on metaphorical representation of the process of visual perception in the language. The verbal-nominal word groups formed by the verbs with the semantics of movement and the nouns glaz (eye) / vzgljad (glance) / vzor (gaze) constitute the object of the study. The research material was selected from the lexicographic sources and the Russian National Corpus, which reflect both the current state of the language system and the functioning of verbal-nominal word groups. The study was carried out within a comprehensive approach that was based on a descriptive method united with contextual, stylistic, and component analysis procedures. The correspondence between the processes of movement and visual perception is verified as enabling the usage of the verbs with the direct meaning of movement in space for metaphorical reflection of perception in the language. The characteristics of visual perception process are determined. They are explicitly represented in the verbs with non- perceptual semantics and the nouns that denote realia associated with perception. The functional potential of the studied combinations is described. An assumption has been made about the factors that determined their appearance in the language and the use in the texts with certain stylistic reference. The results obtained are significant for further study of the verbal metaphor in general and the metaphorical representation of perception in the language in particular.

Keywords

• visual perception
• metaphor
• verbal-nominal word groups
• lexical semantics
• semantic changes
• functioning
• modern russian language