The Database of Russian Metaphorical Terminology: A Term Description Model

The aim of the article is to present a model for describing a metaphorical term in a database to identify and systematize universal metaphorical structures in the term systems of various disciplines, as well as to solve a number of theoretical and applied problems related to the description of epistemological processes. Special theoretical perspectives are seen in the use of terminological databases for studying semantic derivation in terminology. To solve this research problem, a metaphorical terminology database was created that includes 5,058 metaphorical terms in 10 scientific areas, 1,273 reference lexemes and their definitions from terminological and explanatory dictionaries. The study applied a synthesis of methodological approaches: (1) cognitive terminology studies, (2) the theory of conceptual metaphor, (3) the conceptual design of relational databases. Based on the central problem associated with the definition and description of a system of epistemological universals, i.e. stable metaphorical models involved in terminological processes, a system of particular problems was formed. At the first stage, a sampling of metaphorical terms was made from terminological dictionaries and entered into databases. The term was linked to the motivating lexical unit of the national language. The task of describing universal linguistic-cognitive epistemological structures has led to the need to fully include in the field of analysis a word-building chain to refer to the original unit. In this case, the concept of the internal form of the word is actualized, and the unit of analysis is the system of lexical units, the external and internal form of which is correlated with a single conceptual, frame structure represented by the original derivational unit. In cases when the semantics of the term is motivated by different conceptual structures, or is due to the meanings of derivational affixes, both units were entered into the table as different. At the second stage, the solution of the problem associated with the identification of conceptual areas and frame structures involved in the metaphorical term formation required the attribution of input units in all tables: the definition of the initial conceptual domain and frame structure of the reference lexeme. On the basis of the primary analysis, a set of initial conceptual areas was identified: ARTEFACT, BASIC CATEGORY, SUBSTANCE, PERCEPTION, TIME, LIVING ORGANISM, ANIMAL, NATUREFACT, OBJECT, SPACE, PLANT, PHYSICAL PHENOMENON, PERSON. The article provides a detailed description of the procedure for determining the initial conceptual domain and frame structure for a metaphorical term. At the third stage, the formation of requests for solving the above information tasks was carried out. This system made it possible to get an answer to the previously formed information tasks and to carry out a quantitative analysis of the data on the parameters studied.

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