Comparative constructions of similarity in Northern Samoyedic languages

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the suffixes which are used in Northern Samoyedic languages to build comparative constructions of equality. Depending on the language, the suffixes may perform three functions: word-building, form-building, and inflectional. When they mark the noun, they serve as simulative suffixes and are employed to build object comparison. In the inflectional function, these suffixes mark the verb and are a means of constructing situational comparison. In this case, they signal the formation of a special mood termed the Approximative. This paper provides a detailed description of the Approximative from paradigmatic and syntagmatic perspectives

WDG (148Â225mm) TimesM J-1534 Semiotica, 161 PMU: S(R) 12/05

Abstract The article aspires to present a systematized view on the contemporary understanding of metaphor essence and structure, reviews various classifications of metaphor, and discusses cognate 'similarity-based' phenomena in natural language. The opposing views on metaphor as a three-and twocomponent structure are reconciled in the article through the analysis of di¤erent kinds of metaphors. Three types of classifications of metaphorsemantic, structural and functional -are specified and reviewed. Finally, the article examines the cognate phenomena, viz. metaphoric personification (prosopopoeia, pathetic fallacy, apostrophe), animalification, metaphoric antonomasia, metaphoric allusion, metaphoric periphrasis, synesthesia, allegory, and metaphoric symbolism. Possibly no other complex semiotic phenomenon has received such a broad theoretic coverage as metaphor. Aristotle, Rousseau, Lomonosov, Hegel, Nietzsche, Cassirer, Ortega-y-Gasset, Ricouer and other prominent thinkers have tapped at the ontological roots of metaphor; in philology and linguistics (including theory of literature, etymology, linguistic pragmatics, and cognitive linguistics) the concept of metaphor has been developed by such deceased and living scholars as A. Despite the variety of approaches to metaphor as a phenomenon the views on its nature and structure are essentially alike. Aristotle in his On the Art of Poetry wrote that one should see similarities in order to create a good metaphor (Aristotle 1984: 669). His definition of metaphor as a Semiotic