Comparative characterization of the figurative fields “poplar - human” and “maple - human” in Russian poetry

The article studies the dendronyms poplar and maple as parts of comparative tropes in the poetic texts of the XIX and XX centuries from the figurative field perspective. This is the first-of-its-kind comparative multi-aspect characterization of the figurative fields “poplar - human” and “maple - human” based on such criteria as the composition of figurative paradigms, field areas, and actualized semantic features. When systematizing the figurative means of language, the author adheres to the semantic field principle, ideographic principle, and the theory of reproducibility and paradigmatism of poetic images. The composition of figurative paradigms in the structure of the studied fields is revealed through the similarity of the vehicles: 1) “poplar / maple - human behavior”; 2) “poplar / maple - social features of a human”; 3) “poplar / maple - external features and internal qualities and properties of a human”; 4) “poplar / maple -human body parts”; 5) “poplar / maple - biblical or mythological creatures, etc.”; 6) “maple - groups of people”. The structure of the studied fields is described by the field areas (core, center, periphery) on the basis of the total number of vehicles, the number of repeated vehicles, and the frequency of their reproduction in poetic contexts. The semantic features actualized by the stable, repeated vehicles characterizing the said dendronyms are identified: 1) general features (‘sound’ (whisper), ‘activity’ (watch, listen, walk), ‘state’ (sleep), ‘shape’ and ‘location’ (head)); 2) specific features of the dendronym poplar (‘sound’ (sing), ‘activity’ (run), ‘characteristic’ (lonely, lazy), ‘age’ (young), ‘shape’ (high, slender), ‘shape’ and ‘location’ (eyes, hands)); 3) specific features of the dendronym maple (‘action’ (bow), ‘age’ (old), ‘shape’ (curly), ‘shape’ (heart), ‘color’ (crimson)). The developed methodology of structuring the figurative fields of the dendronyms poplar and maple in Russian poetry can be applied to the study of the figurative potential of other groups of words within the semantic field “Plants”.