| Abstract [eng] |
The present semantic cognitive research is meant to compose and evaluate the image of the cherry in blossom in Lithuanian poetry. The article discusses direct meanings and metonymies of language units, followed by metaphorical (associative) expression of contents. The fragments of 159 poems have been analysed. In poetry most often visual features of the cherry are emphasized, tactile and olfactory features are less frequent: non-static position of a tree, white colour of petals, decorative form of separate blossoms or the spread of blossoms in space and their abundance, their location above the branches or the ground, non-resistance to wind and dizzying smell. These features are the basis of metaphors that are used in the meaning of ‘cherry tree’ and ‘cherry petals’. Cherry is a very close tree for a Lithuanian. It grows close to the window, the gate, the well and thus indicates the junction of two different planes of human activity: own (home) and alien (the world). The time of cherry blooming is perceived as the step of a cyclical time, the moment of a certain important event. Cherries are depicted as young unmarried women. Cherry petals are associated with little animals of expressive form, upper parts of human body, things made by people and materials necessary to produce articles, solid, liquid and gas form of water (usually snow), also fire. In poetry it is mostly talked about the most impressive stages of the time of cherry blooming: spreading of all the blossoms on the branches and falling of the petals. Cherry blooming gains the value of a symbol for a person. It is a visual metaphor of light, chastity, purity, innocence, love, in general, of beauty. |
