LINGUOMETAPHOROLOGY AS A BRANCH OF MODERN LINGUISTICS: MAIN DIRECTIONS, PROBLEMS, AND METHODS OF RESEARCH

The paper presents the characteristic of a new integrative area of linguistics – linguometaphorology, in which a theoretical and methodological base as well as a categorical and terminological apparatus are gradually being formed, empirical material is accumulating. However, many theoretical provisions require scientific rethinking, generalization, and systematization, while terminology needs clarification and unification. Based on the analysis of the main linguometaphorological works, the leading directions and current problems of linguometaphorology, basic methods of studying metaphorics are described, and dynamics of this branch of linguistics development is predicted. The analysis of linguometaphorological researchs of the late 20th–21st centuries shows that the study of metaphors is most productively carried out in the semantic and cognitive directions. The author of this paper develops a semantic-cognitive approach to the study of metaphors, the relevance of which is due to the objective necessity of its theoretical understanding as a single mental-verbal construct. The current problems of linguometaphorology are as follows: defining the essence of metaphor; establishing the principles of modelling metaphorization and the parameters of metaphorical models; clarifying the specifics of the metaphorical picture of the world; identifying the features of metaphorical conceptualization; developing methods and techniques for the complex analysis of metaphorics; developing the principles of the lexicographic description of metaphors and compiling metaphorical dictionaries. The methodology of linguometaphorology, which is developing in various directions, is based on such linguistic methods as componential analysis, contextual analysis, linguistic (semantic, cognitive, semantic-cognitive) modelling. It is promising to continue linguometaphorological research in semantic, cognitive, semantic-cognitive and lexicographic aspects. Further development of linguometaphorology will allow to get a deeper understanding of the nature and mechanisms of figurative-metaphorical thinking