METAPHOR AND FIGURAL COMPARISON AS THE WAYS OF REPRESENTATION OF THE CONCEPT “DEATH”

Abstract

In Russian the concept “death” is represented by a large number of nominative, verbal and adjective (indicative, characterizing and evaluative) metaphors. Russian linguistic consciousness transfers anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, ornithological, vital and other signs to the concept “death”. Among the objectifications of the concept that is analyzed in the work both parallel constructions (metaphors and figurative comparisons) are noted, and such constructions turned out to be less represented quantitatively, and are only metaphors that, from the point of view of logic, can be transformed into constructions of figurative comparison, but such constructions are not used in speech at all or are found as single representations. The absence of obligatory parallel constructions (metaphorical and comparative) allows saying that metaphor and figurative comparison are independent logical operations, that with varying degrees of frequency, generating means of representing an abstract concept in the language.