SEMANTICS OF PRESSURE IN PONDEROUS ADJECTIVES

Abstract

An attempt to apply the method of prototype-situational analysis to the development of adjective semantics is made in the article. It is noted that the referent points of prototype situation are the basis for the development of metaphorical values. Linguistic pressure markers in prototype and non-prototype situations have been identified.
We believe that action is the centre of situation. Ponderous situations determine the characteristics of an object by weight in situations related to a particular action. A prototype situation – a cognitive model of situation that is associated with the basic value of a language unit. For the analysis of characteristic vocabulary, the prototype is considered to be the situation related to perceptual processes, i.e. a situation that is built around a specific subject of perception – a person, a specific action – a physical act of manipulation of object, a specific object, characteristic of which becomes fundamental for the purpose of cognitive process. The analysis of verbatives, around which the ponderous feature of the object of action may develop, gives reason to distinguish 2 types of prototype situations for the weight characteristic of object: 1) PULL; 2) HOLD/CARRY. The “pressure” component will manifest itself in the situation of the second type.
The most explicit linguistic representative of the cognitive sign of “difficult / heavy” of the situation HOLD / CARRY (SHOULDER-HIGH) is the sentence “A man holds / carries a difficult object on his shoulders”. The logical reproduction of the situation HOLD / CARRY (SHOULDER-HIGH) reveals a cognitive reference point specific to that situation, which actualises the characterization of the heavy object as “pressing”. The linguistic markers of pressure in the analyzed situations are: verbalization of the component by means of lexeme token for the designation of pressure; emphasizing the physical and physiological processes that occur during the process of manipulating a heavy object; aspects of physical qualities of the subject; manifestation of the physical state of fatigue and the like.
The metaphorical situation of pressure is embodied in language in two models: “something heavy is localized to a person and presses him down” and “something heavy presses a certain organ of a person, hindering his life.” There are clear markers in the language for objectifying the sense of pressure, which include, first of all, variants of recruitment for the designation of the action
“to be localized on a person”, the prefix “on”, which affirms the localization of the object of appraisal from above the subject of description, definition of pressure objects, an indication of a change in the position of parts of a human body or body as a result of the action of a metaphorized “heavy” object. The feature “difficult / heavy” is accentuated by the comparison of the objects’ description with the subject prototypes.