Zoometaphors of multiple: substantive and adverbial semantics

Abstract

The article describes semantic, pragmatic, and derivational characteristics of zoonyms denoting sets: выводок, гурт, караван, косяк, отара, помёт, рой, свора, стадо, стая, табун (11 lexemes). In the existing explanatory dictionaries, their secondary meanings are presented inconsistently and incompletely. In particular, adverbial uses of metaphorical meanings that actually function in the modern Russian language are not noted. Such metaphors mainly denote the movement and movement of large masses of objects, most often people. Based on the material of explanatory dictionaries and the Russian National Corpus, methods and formulas are proposed for correcting and unifying the lexicographic description of Russian lexemes with the meaning of ‘many animals,’ as well as introducing special pragmatic labels to differentiate their use. A multidimensional analysis of the units of the microgroup “Animal Groups” clearly demonstrates the process of complex interaction between semantics and grammar in the processes of metaphorization and adverbial conversion. The sample size includes 638 contexts with set metaphors associated with the class of counter words in the grammatical aspect and the thematic field of zoonyms in the lexical aspect.