Lexemes with temperature characteristics in the Russian language and in the language of Twi (Ghana): semantic peculiarities and usage

The article is devoted to the comparative analysis of the Russian adjectives goryachyy, zharkyy, teplyy, kholodnyy, prokhladnyy and adverbs goryacho, zharko, teplo, kholodno, prokhladno with the lexemes in the Twi language of Ghana that also possess temperature characteristics. Firstly, the basic semantic constituency of the lexical units is described as characteristics of degree and state of heating / coldness of things, items, phenomena; secondly, the metaphoric usage is considered with the aim to denote states, activities, conduct, happenings, time in the Russian and Twi language mentality, and also to depict a person, representing character features and mode of behavior, state of relations with other people and the environment. The author reveals gradation of temperature characteristics of things, items, objects in the Russian language, which is differently conceptualized in the Twi language, in particular, “sharp” temperature transition type from high to low is registered, objects and things are depicted with two main kinds of features - hot and cold. In both languages metaphoric usage of the words under analysis represents many semantic similarities in the way they characterize activities and situations, personal features, in the opposition to evaluation marks; incompatibility is viewed in color depiction (Russian), in description of situations with higher degree of strain (both intellectual and physical) or their opposites (language of Twi).