Metaphorically Redefined Vocabulary: Categorization and Systematization of Reality

The present paper aimed to determine the necessity to study principles of metaphorical representation of objective reality to reveal common and differential nationally specific features of the cognitive consciousness of native speakers with different languages. This research was conducted in a semantic and cognitive approach helping to identify an ordered set of concepts in the public minds and their concept spheres through the investigation of semantics of linguistic signs. The main methods included the component analysis, the conceptual analysis, the contextual analysis, the etymological analysis, the cognitive analysis, and the metaphorical analysis. The analysis of problems indicated that the metaphorically redefined vocabulary of the semantic field of construction vocabulary formed a vast area of the conceptual worldview of speakers with English and Russian languages. Anthroposphere is the most frequent and productive cognitive goal of the metaphorical shift with construction vocabulary ‒ 91, 81%. We identified areas of regular and irregular metaphorical shifts indicating the potential of construction vocabulary in forming a fragment of the conceptual worldview of English and Russian speakers. Quantitative indices indicated the predominance of ontological and structural metaphors over orientational ones. The obtained results of research on the semantic field of construction vocabulary reflected an ordered and evident prototypical basis in the cognitive consciousness of native speakers. The method of investigating metaphorical shifts in this paper can be also based on materials of other concept spheres and semantic fields that represent them.