Bird as an Example, an Image, and a Symbol

Abstract

In the following article, we analyze the semantic and pragmatic potential of the lexeme птица ‘bird’ and, more broadly, of the so-called ornithological lexis, which includes derivates of the word птица ‘bird’ and nominations of attributes and actions typical for birds. Our empirical base is further enriched by idioms (phraseological units, speech formulae, and precedent expressions), which form a broad associative field related to our mental concepts of birds. On the basis of various linguistic and speech facts, it is possible to confirm the presence of a universal cognitive mechanism which equates certain anthropological traits (appearances, behavior, movement, transition, emotions, intellect, speech, social status) with ornithological ones. This is marked by metaphorical and idiomatic meanings of lexemes belonging to the functional-semantic cluster птица ‘bird’. Because metaphors based on ornithological lexis are regularly used and reproduced, we can confirm the cultural and aesthetic value and relevance of the concept ПТИЦА ‘bird’ in various types of modern Russian discourse. However, the image of the ПТИЦА ‘bird’ is ambivalent, because its systematic and contextual evaluations are also ambivalent or polarized, which means that this concept can be further researched, as well as the means of its verbalization in various aspects (derivative and semantic).