Simile: cognitive and semiotic perspective
Abstract
The article reveals linguistic, cognitive and semiotic characteristics of simile in English poetic texts of Canadian poetry. Cognitive peculiarities of simile are defined via cognitive and semiotic operation of comparison and reconstruction of concepts and conceptual metaphors which underlie it, while semiotic peculiarities are clarified via identification of cultural codes and word-symbols which are represented in subjective and objective parts of similes. Thus, I view simile as a multifunctional linguistic and semiotic construal representing verbal patterns of form and semantic function. Linguistic and semiotic analysis of similes enables their classification into iconic, indexical and symbolic ones. The semiotic classification of similes is premised on the type of semiotic relation that exists between a “sign vehicle” and its meaning. Iconic similes are based on similarity between a sign and its referent, while indexical similes show relations of contiguity. Symbolic similes are differentiated on the basis of conventional pairing of a signified and a signifier within a simile.
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