Russian and Italian entomological metaphors in comparison with zoomorphic metaphors: their distinctive features

The article examines the mechanisms of metaphorization of Russian and Italian names of insects in comparison with zoomorphic vocabulary of these languages. For modeling the language world picture it is important to note that the speaker refers to thematic areas or spheres of the surrounding world (plants, flowers, animals, urban space, etc.) for the interpretation of an object or a phenomenon. Entomological metaphors constitute a fragment of broader paradigms - the metaphorical field of zoomorphisms, which is one of the most popular models of metaphorical nomination. Mechanisms of formation of figuratively reinterpreted characteristics expressed by the thematic group of names of insects inherit mechanisms of metaphor creation of zoomorphisms, which detect and fix in a linguistic sign the similarity of animal and human, the resulting denotative content is associated with a particular emotive-evaluative component. In the process of semantic derivation of both Russian and Italian entomonyms there is a general zoomorphic metaphor for the mechanism of replacement of the integral seme 'animal' by the seme 'man' with preservation of the differential characteristics related to appearance, behavior, etc. of an insect and human. In the scientific literature devoted to the study of metaphor, entomological metaphor was considered along with other zoomorphisms, usually remaining on the periphery of research attention (with the exception of the most common metaphors of the type an ant, a dragonfly, a bug). The aim of this article is to establish the relationship between the metaphorical fields of zoomorphisms and "entomorphisms", to determine the characteristics that are expressed through entomological metaphor, to reveal the functional specificity of entomological metaphors in the interpretation of reality by the speaker. To reach the aim the author uses the following methods: definitional, componential, contextual and cognitive analyses, the method of field structuring and modeling, comparative methods of analysis of lexical systems of different languages. Data received as a result of semasiological discourse analysis are interpreted in a cognitive way. The author obtained the following results: it was found that these two metaphorical fields are in a relationship of complementarity and differentiation of meanings; the following aspects of semantic and functional specificity of entomological metaphors are identified: 1) metaphorization of the names of insects is bidirectional in nature; 2) subject metaphors are actively formed; 3) they are designed to characterize a small, insignificant person. The allocation of entomological metaphors in the off-center position in the metaphorical field of zoomorphisms and, therefore, their nonentity in the Russian language picture of the world is the main conclusion of the study.

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