Distinctive features of the key textual metaphor in the novel Jerry of the Island by J. London and its translation into Russian

The article is devoted to the study of functioning of metaphor in the text of a work of fiction. Two works of Jack London are analysed with the aim of bringing forth the frame system structuring the key textual metaphor. The study is conducted in the framework of the lingual-cognitive approach to language. The paper makes use of the following terms: conceptual metaphor, construed as an association of two conceptual domains, one of which is structured in terms of the other; lexical metaphor, understood as a lexical unit resulting from the transfer of the name of one notion onto another, based on their likeness; key textual metaphor, which is the metaphor that unites the whole text of a work of literature, provides it with semantic and imagery coherence and organises it on the derivational level. The key textual metaphor is essentially conceptual, and is implemented via a system of linguistic metaphorical models. A metaphorical model is both a linguistic and conceptual phenomenon. It is a unity of a mental scheme and the system of its linguistic representations, i.e. lexical metaphors. In order to represent the cognitive structure of metaphorical models, the format of frame structures (frames) is chosen. We introduce the notions of source frame and target frame of a metaphorical model. The source frame is a cognitive entity and its function is to structure a more abstract or absent target frame in the process of metaphorisation. The terminals (nods in a semantic network) of the source frame are filled on the basis of lexical implementations of the key textual metaphor on the surface level of the text. Our research focuses on discovering the frame structure of the key textual metaphor DOG is MAN in the novel Jerry of the Islands and outlining its specificity as compared to other works by J. London featuring dogs as protagonists. We discover three basic frames of the key anthropomorphic metaphor: the emotions frame, the mental activity frame and the social relations frame. A special emphasis is placed on the change in the interrelations among various subframes in the social relations frame, following the writer's intention. Among these is the increased significance of the talking subframe, the actualisation of the family subframe, the change in the slot fillers in the power sub-fame, and the rise or fall in the quantity of representations of certain metaphorical models on the textual level. The English text of the novel is compared to its Russian translation in terms of the frame structure of the key textual metaphor and its representation as a system of lexical metaphors. We draw the conclusion by stating the high variability of lexical representations of the key textual metaphor in accordance with the writer's intention and by highlighting the fact that the key textual metaphor is based on the conceptual metaphor universal for Indo-European languages.

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