Phraseological similes in Spanish, Russian and English

The article deals with the functioning of Spanish figurative similes as units of the phraseological fund of the language. The problem is acute due to the fact that Spanish stable similes are not thoroughly studied; their structural peculiarities, semantics and pragmatics are not comprehensively described. In Russian linguistics folk similes are considered to be phraseological units thanks to the Grand Dictionary of Russian Folk Similes written by outstanding Russian lexicographers V. M. Mokienko and T. G. Nikitina. The Dictionary contains more than 45 thousand stable figurative similes. It is notable that in many sources of material stable figurative similes are viewed as free figurative expressions, not phraseological units. In modern English language linguistics there is a tendency to study simile as a trope, especially if it is analyzed in the connection with metaphor. Similes in English language linguistics are divided into literary comparisons and stable figurative similes. In the Spanish language there is no precise distinction between comparisons and similes. Moreover, despite of the fact that terms denoting comparisons and similes in Spanish and in English are alike, the distinctive feature is fundamentally different in Spanish. The author of the present article studies some stable figurative similes of the Spanish language, brings out the most typical reference images in these similes and carries out a comparative analysis of some of the reference images, represented in similes and proverbs in the same verbal form. The aim of this analysis is to bring out linguocultural specificity in the studied similes and proverbs.