Idiomatic Space of Anthroposemic Substantival Bahuvrihi with a Zoonym Component and its Semantic Modelling in Modern English

Abstract

The article considers the versatility in perception of a person’s appearance and streaks of character through the phenomenon of bakhuvrihi with a zoonym component according to conceptual pattern: OBJECT (ZOONYM) → HUMAN / PART OF THE HUMAN BODY, where ZOONYM acts as a conception referred to by a word, and HUMAN / PART OF THE HUMAN BODY – a conception recognized as a target. This study focuses upon the new integrated approach to the anthroposemic substantival bahuvrihi with a zoonym component in the cognitive and semantic perspectives. The choice of such bahuvrihi is justified by the fact that the "zoonym-words" are perhaps the most proliferous lexical source of the items with positive / negative connotation, firmly based on traditions in specific cultural contexts and are traces of mythical thinking. Idiomatic space of anthroposemic substantival bahuvrihi with a zoonym component appears to be a complex structure of knowledge about humankind in biological, mental and social dimensions.