Антропоморфные метафоры звезд в литовской и русской поэзии

ENThis article belongs to the ongoing series of articles exploring metaphors of natural phenomena in the Lithuanian and Russian poetic language. The material is categorised into two groups: substantive and verbal metaphorical expressions. Within the substantive group, the following semantic subgroups are identified: (1) a star (constellation) as a close relative; (2) a star as an individual with high social status; (3) a star (constellation) as a representative of a specific profession or social class; (4) a star as an individual of a certain age; (5) a star as a part of the body/physiological emissions of a living being (human). Another subgroup found only in the Russian poetic language is: (6) a star as a human being performing a specific action, playing a certain role; an individual with certain external or internal characteristics. In specific examples within the subgroups, both similarities and differences are identified in the two poetic systems (e.g., similarities include instances, such as a star-sister, a star-bride, a star-princess, and the face of a star; while differences include the presence of the metaphor of a star-daughter in Lithuanian poetry and a star-granddaughter in Russian poetry; or the metaphor of a star-mother in Lithuanian and its absence in Russian). These differences are also linked to the frequency of a particular model. Both traditions share the use of dead metaphors (e.g., stars as eyes; a star as a tear), which is widespread in poetic language.Folk names for stars and folklore data confirm the commonality of associations in the national consciousness related to the specific metaphorical transmissions (e.g., Russian: Volosia, Bratki ‘brothers’; Lithuanian: Septyni broliai ‘seven brothers’; representations of stars as children of the Sun in Lithuanian and Russian folklore). Several similarities and differences are found in verbal metaphors associated with substantive metaphors, where variations may be influenced by frequency or the author’s reinterpretation of basic metaphors. Anthropomorphic metaphors of stars in both poetic systems are grounded in the human- perceived characteristics of stars which are distant celestial objects that change their positions in the sky, influencing human vision differently based on weather conditions, possessing specific colours, etc. Moreover, the physical characteristics of astronomical objects in national poetry form a specific poetic metaphorical system that reflects the peculiarities of the linguistic picture of the world. Keywords: metaphors of atmospheric phenomena anthropomorphic metaphors, metaphors of stars, Lithuanian poetry, Russian poetry, comparison of poetic metaphors in the two languages, metaphorical model.

• Kalbotyra / Linguistics
• Literatūrologija / Literary Studies