Proposal for compiling a comparative linguo-cultural dictionary of food metaphors in Russian and Italian languages

This paper is devoted to investigating the principles for compiling a comparative dictionary of Russian and Italian languages, which records figurative lexicon and phraseology metaphorically embodying the semantics of food. While in the last two decades culinary metaphorical models in relation to the Russian language have been examined and lexicographically described in detail, the analysis of food metaphor with a comparative approach, i.e. on the material of two or more languages and food traditions other than Russian, represents a new subject of study. In this paper the function of a Russian-Italian linguo-cultural dictionary of food metaphor, its status within dictionary typology and criteria for the organization of linguistic data, its subject, purpose, macro- and microstruc-ture are discussed. The lexicographical repertoire presented in the dictionary consists of linguistic metaphors (Rus. persik [peach] 'young and attractive girl'; Ital. pasticcio [casserole] 'hash, trouble'), fixed figurative comparisons (Rus. kak tykva [like a pumpkin] 'about a person's head'; Ital. come il latte [like milk] 'about something white'), idiomatic expressions (Rus. razveshivat' klyukvu [hang the canberr^es] 'deceive'; Ital. averegli occhifoderati diprosciutto [to have one's eyes covered with ham] 'to be blinkered'), proverbs (Rus. yabloko ot yabloni nedaleko padaet [the apple does not fall far from the apple tree] 'the sons inherit the character of the fathers'; Ital. chi dorme nonpigliapesci [the one who sleeps does not catch fish] 'you snooze, you lose'), and precedent words and expressions (Rus. khleba i zrelishch! and Ital. pane e circensi! [bread and circuses]) which verbalize food images in Russian and Italian languages. The dictionary aims to present the figurative systems laying at the basis of Russian and Italian languages: it will show how food represents a source-sphere of metaphorization of different phenomena; the lexical and phraseological units at issue will point out the features of Russian and Italian languages in the verbalization of the culinary code of the respective cultures. The dictionary presents a macrostructure that is ideographic in nature. It consists of sections which are related to different typologies of foodstuff, whose denominations are used figuratively. Within each section the linguistic material is organized in what the author called "lexico-phraseological nests". This means that each vocabulary entry includes the headword, the indication of the figurative category it belongs to, the definition and an illustrative quotation. At the end of the paper, a sample of the dictionary is given. For this purpose, the "lexico-phraseological nest" with the top Rus. ZERNO and Ital. GRANO has been selected.

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