Figurative potential of the lexeme month (based on poetic works of the 19th – 21st centuries)

Abstract

   The article explores the figurativeness of the month lexeme within the framework of the problem of language aesthetics, a promising trend of linguistics.

   This lexical unit has not yet been the object of a comprehensive analysis in terms of its figurative potential, which determines the relevance of our topic.

   The purpose of the study is a comprehensive analysis of the figurative possibilities of the word month, functioning in the poetic works of the 19^th – 21^st centuries.

   Our research into the figurative potential was carried out with a focus on the concept of N. V. Pavlovich, who justified the idea of the image paradigmaticity. The study is based on the poetic texts contained in the “Russian National Corpus”. We mainly used the descriptive-analytical, semantic-stylistic and quantitative methods in our study and analyzed the poetic texts, in which the polysemous word month is used in the meaning of ‘the disk of the moon or part of it’. Sixteen paradigms have been identified, in which the noun month appears in the position of the left element, or the subject of a comparison. This article presents and describes ten of the most voluminous models, in which the lexeme month is intentionally close to the words related to the concepts of “a living object”, “an organ”, “a tool”, “substance”, “precious”, “light”, “transport”, “a plant”, “food” and “an object”. We have come to the conclusion that the greatest productivity and, consequently, stability is characteristic of the paradigm “month → a living object”. The remaining nine paradigms, considered by us, are less, although highly, productive and stable.