Representation Of Theatre Metaphors In The English Linguistic Worldview

Abstract

The paper examines the role of the culture and its influence on the outer world reflection when forming metaphor terms of the theatre terminology. Moreover, connection and interaction of the language and culture was investigated. Semantic term formation of the theatre terminology of the English language is considered in relation to the English linguistic worldview. The analysis of the base words forming metaphorical terms by means of the semantic changes, was carried out. To achieve the research objectives, the current stage of the theater and theatre terminology development, namely the conditional chronological frameworks since 1990 and up to the present time, was used. The research was conducted from the standpoint of the sociolinguistics, which makes it possible to determine the time of introducing the new terms denoting the phenomena of this area more accurately. The present research proves that turning a poetic metaphor into a term is not the exception, but the rule. Characteristic types of metaphorically formed terms, namely, the primary terminological metaphor, primary interdisciplinary terminological metaphor, and secondary terminological metaphor, were identified. The paper reveals the common semantic components in the structure of a common-literary word and metaphorical term actualized in the process of the metaphorical term formation.

Keywords: English languagelinguistic worldviewmetaphorstheatre culture

Introduction

One of the contemporary problems of the theatre terminology is transferring the emotional and expressive component of the term meaning when translating the theatre literature (Korobova et al., 2017; Malushko et al., 2016).

In the linguistic literature, there are two points of view on the question of the stylistic characteristics of terms. In the middle of the 20th century, most terminology specialists (Lotte, 1982; Reformatsky, 1959) traditionally considered the term stylistically neutral. However, the majority of scientists believe that the meaning of a significant number of terminological units has an emotional and expressive component. Such scientists as Brandt and Per (2005), Zoltan (2010), Gibbs (2008) and many others recognize that it cannot be said that a term is entirely stylistically neutral. Since terms can express the speaker's attitude to the subject of speech and be expressive, therefore, the emotionality of the term cannot be excluded (Bobyreva et al., 2017; Serebryakova & Milostivaya, 2017). Turning a poetic metaphor into a scientific and term is not an exception, but the rule.

Problem Statement

Research of the modern theatre terminology system has shown that some of the terms were formed by the semantic shift of concept, that is, with the help of various types of changes in the meaning of the existing words in the language (Murugova, 2017). To achieve the research objectives, the current stage of the theatre and theatre terminology development, namely the conditional chronological frameworks since 1990 and up to the present time, was used. The research was conducted from the standpoint of the sociolinguistics, which makes it possible to determine the time of introducing the new terms denoting the phenomena of this area more accurately. The paper considers the most productive semantic type of term formation, namely, the metaphor, which amounts to 205 terminological units of the total sample.

Research Questions

The research has shown that the process of most theatrical terms’ formation is based on the mechanism of metaphorization. Furthermore, Potebnya (1976) believed that metaphorization is a general law of the language development, its constant semantic movement. "If the metaphoricity of the language," the author wrote, "means the language property, according to which any subsequent meaning (a respectful word) can be created only by means of the different previous meaning, so that an infinite number of derivatives can be created from a limited number of relatively elementary words, then metaphoricity is always the property of the language" (Potebnya, 1976, p. 434).

This paper is devoted to the presentation of the study results of the metaphorization as the main type of terms formation and to the analysis of the base words that have formed metaphorical terms through the semantic changes. As a result of the statistical analysis carried out at the inventory stage, 205 units of terms and term combinations formed by reinterpreting the borrowed lexical units’ meanings on the basis of similarity, that is, metaphorically, which is 24.1% of the total number of terms in the sample, were identified. When studying the semantic content of the described terms, the characteristic types of metaphorically formed terms, which were defined in the study by Bezzateeva (2006) as "primary terminological metaphor, primary interdisciplinary terminological metaphor, secondary terminological metaphor" were identified (p. 150).

Secondary terminological metaphor

Another phenomenon discovered in the process of studying metaphors in the theatre terminology of the English language is the formation of a new term based on the metaphor already existing in the literary language. "That is, a word or expression having a figurative meaning, having got into the theatre terminology of the English language, in turn, changed its meaning again. Thus, there was the secondary term formation by metaphor. This phenomenon is a secondary terminological metaphor" (Bezzateeva, 2006, p. 149). We consider this type of metaphorical terms to be a special case of metaphorical term formation, since, as some authors write, in the course of terminological metaphorization, in order to prevent misinterpretation of a new metaphorical terminological unit, only the nearest meaning of the base word (the word that is the basis of similarity) should be realized, while the process of forming an creative metaphor can occur on the basis of actualization of both the main and secondary meaning of the word. This is the difference between a terminological metaphor and creative one. At the same time, the similarity coefficient of the scientific metaphor referents the term was introduced by Alekseeva (1999) is high, as when creating a terminological metaphor, the rule of using only the main meaning of a word in the common-literary language should be taken into account.

As noted by Alekseeva (1999), "a creative metaphor says one thing, but implies quite another, while a scientific metaphor says one thing, but implies something similar, so it is no longer the riddle, but the answer" (p. 32). This can also be attributed to the theatre metaphor. In all the cases we have found out, only one and precisely the figurative meaning of the base word is the basis of similarity and formation of a terminological metaphor of the described type.

The examples of the so-called secondary terminological metaphor are represented in Table 3 .

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The examples given above show that individual components or whole term combinations are lexemes that have direct and figurative meanings in the literary language. When entering the theatre terminology, units with a figurative meaning again undergo semantic changes. The sampling of the terminological metaphors contains 11 units of this type, which is 5.3% of the number of all metaphorical terms. The comparatively small number of this type of terminological metaphors makes it possible to consider them as special cases. Thus, the present research on terminological metaphors has revealed three types of terminological metaphorization, namely:

• the primary terminological metaphorization,

• the interdisciplinary primary terminological metaphorization,

• the secondary terminological metaphorization.

The percentage of the metaphorical terms types in the sample is shown in Figure 1 .

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Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to carry out the analysis of the metaphorization as the most productive way of term formation in the theatre terminology of the English language as well as of the base words forming metaphorical terms by means of the semantic changes.

Research Methods

Identifying the given types of terminological metaphorization was carried out by modelling method, which is a way of the reality phenomena consciousness, in which objects or processes are studied by developing and studying their models.

A model is understood as mental or conditional images including images, descriptions, diagrams, algorithms, graphs, drawings or devices used as a substitute for an object, process or phenomenon (Girutsky, 2003, p. 269). Any model is based on a hypothesis about the possible device or the state of the original, making possible the knowledge transfer from the model to the original under study (Girutsky, 2003, p. 270). The need for modelling in linguistics (Serebryakova & Milostivaya, 2017) arises due to the fact that the object of science is inaccessible to the direct observation and the task is to establish a hidden mechanism for processing the source material into the observable results. In the given research, the source material is a base word, namely, a lexical unit of the literary language or other terminological system, while the observed result is a terminological metaphor.

Findings

The paper reveals the common semantic components in the structure of a common-literary word and metaphorical term actualized in the process of the metaphorical term formation.

Let us explain that in this paper, the semantic component of the word meaning and term definition is understood as the elementary, simple meaning contained in the language unit (Girutsky, 2003, p. 42). The relative formality in identifying the basic meanings is accepted and the epistemological point of view that the content and definitions of the term are not just a sum of elementary meanings is not denied, since within any basic sense, there are still cognitive and conceptual components.

The examples of identifying the common semantic components in the structure of a literary word and a metaphorical term actualized in the process of terminological metaphorization are the following terminological metaphors related to the different thematic fields of the theatre terminological system of the English language, namely: wagon stage, track, bone yard, noise boy, dead pan. Let us analyze each of the examples separately.

The terminological combination wagon stage in the theatre terminology has the meaning of the rolling stage. Table 4 presents the linguistic worldview analysis of the given example.

The analysis of the lexical meanings of the common-literary word and definition content of the term suggests that this terminological metaphor is a primary terminological metaphor, since the similarity is based on the semantic components of the nearest meanings of the common-literary words, in particular, a " a means of transport of heavy loads " and " scene". The similarity coefficient of the metaphor (the term of L. M. Alekseeva) is high, since only one meaning of each of the originative words involved in the formation of the term combination is participating in forming the metaphor.

The term track has the meaning of a small metal rails-like construction for smooth drawing the curtain in the theatre terminology. The linguistic worldview analysis of the given example is given in Table 5 .

Therefore, it can be concluded that this terminological unit belongs to the interdisciplinary terminological metaphor, since it was borrowed from the technical term system. The similarity coefficient is high, since only one meaning of the base word is involved in term formation, namely, the base line of metal rails .

As the next example, let us consider the term combination bone yard - a stockroom for overage scenery , meaning a storehouse, a spare warehouse of used scenery. Table 6 presents the linguistic worldview analysis of the given term combination.

It is clear from the definition of the theatre term (a stockroom for overage scenery - a storeroom, a spare warehouse of used scenery ), that the semantic content of the term corresponds to the content of the meaning of the base word. The main semantic components reflected in the definition are the following: "warehouse, storehouse" , "overage theatrical scenery" . The definitely connected by association and involved in forming the terminological metaphor are "fenced place for remains", "warehouse" and "overage theatrical scenery ” of all the semantic components in the meanings of the common-literary words bone and yard and the components in the term definition content bone yard .

Based on the above, it can be concluded that the given terminological metaphor refers to the secondary terminological metaphor, since the comparison is based on the metaphorical meaning of the word "bone yard" , which is already exists in the English language, namely, "cemetery - warehouse of remains" . The similarity coefficient of referents of the terminological metaphor is high, as only one figurative meaning of the base word is used.

Let us consider the terminological combination noise boy , which in the theatre terminology has the meaning of the sound operator of the theater. The linguistic worldview analysis of the term combination noise boy is represented in Table 7 .

Thus, of all the semantic components in the meanings of the common-literary words noise and boy and the components in the theatre term definition content noise boy related by association and participating in the forming the terminological metaphors are the following: a person who makes light work and any unwanted sound (a sound engineer removes unwanted noise). Therefore, as a result of analyzing the meanings of the common-literary words and definition semantic content, we come to the conclusion that the terminological metaphor under study belongs to the primary terminological metaphor, since the comparison is carried out entirely on the basis of the main meaning of the common-literary words noise and boy existing in the English language. The similarity coefficient of the above metaphor is considered to be high, since only one meaning of the base word is involved in the term formation.

The terminological combination dead-pan in the theatre terminology is defined as an actor who makes people laugh in an utter emotionless manner ; In the common-literary language, the mentioned terminological combination means an inexpressive face . The results of the linguistic worldview analysis of the given term combination is given in Table 8 .

In a simple adding the common-literary words dead and pan , the word combination dead pan , which is literally translated into a dead pan is obtained. But the common-literary word pan has also a metaphorical meaning in colloquial speech face. Semantic components were considered in relation to the linguistic world view and the results of the analysis are shown in Table 9 .

Based on the above, it can be concluded that the given terminological metaphor refers to the secondary terminological metaphor, since the comparison is based on the metaphorical meaning of the word combination of already existing common-literary words in the English language dead and pan. The similarity coefficient of the terminological metaphor referents is high, as only one figurative meaning of the base word is used.

In addition to defining the types of the terminological metaphors based on the source of their formation, a metaphor of each type can be classified according to the theme. In the sample of the English theatre terms, various and very heterogeneous thematic groups of metaphors were identified. The main thematic groups of terminological metaphors were found out and represented in Table 1 0.

Among the main groups of terminological metaphors identified in the research, the most numerous are the groups of "anthropometric", "expressing movement, action", and "technical" metaphors. The percentage of terms in groups is shown in Figure 2 .

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Conclusion

In conclusion, it is possible to point out that a human being having a linguistic consciousness, as a bearer of a certain culture perceives the outer world through language. In this particular case, this process is implemented through forming theatre meanings of the common words. Language is a direct expression of human culture and is closely related to it. Therefore, the specific relation to the world, nature, other human beings is formed by the worldview of the lingual-cultural community. In this regard, approximately equal numbers of the "anthropometric" and "expressing movement, action" terminological metaphors are associated with the social conditionality of the theatre terminology, the orientation to the study and reflection on the stage of human life in all its diversity.

Based on the results of the research, it can be concluded that metaphorization is the main way of forming the theatre terminology. Metaphorization as a way of formation and development of the theatre terminological system is highly developed in the theatre terminology, and further increase in the metaphorical terms formation will be inevitable.

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