Metaphorical Subject Nomination of Non-spatial Spheres (based on the English language)

Abstract

-The article presents the results of the spatial metaphor as a way of understanding and nomination of objects and phenomena of directly not observed social, mental and intellectual spheres study. The authors regard the status and the functional importance of nouns denoting limited space for these processes. In the article, the set of English polysemantic spatial nouns denoting limited space are described, semantic multipliers in their basic meaning are revealed, the metaphorical and axiological meanings of polysemants are defined. The authors consider semantic modifications of spatial nouns and describe the models of metaphorical transfers on the basis of re-thinking spatial features. As it is realized, the study results show that in most regular metaphorical models, the metaphorical transfer of spatial characteristics onto the events and phenomena of social sphere is the most frequent. The metaphorical transfer of spatial characteristics onto the mental phenomena is marked by lower frequency, and as a result it is realized in a smaller number of metaphorical models. The metaphorical transfer of spatial characteristics onto intellectual sphere is marked by the lowest frequency. The authors reveal the spatial features which prove to be essential in the evaluation process. The article shows that from a great number of semantic multipliers which characterize limited fragment of space, the following spatial features are actualized: 'size', 'border', 'coordination parameters', 'configuration', 'filling', 'functional characteristics', 'constituents', and 'structural characteristics', 'functional characteristics'. Examples illustrating the functioning of the studied lexical units in the contexts are given.