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Article published In:
Cognitive Linguistic Studies
Vol. 10:1 (2023) ► pp.1–32

Russian equivalents of the English over

A cognitive linguistic analysis

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The article deals with a comparative analysis of the English over and the Russian language items that serve as its approximate translation equivalents. The main attention is on such Russian equivalents of over as the prepositional phrases nad with the instrumental case, čerez with the accusative case, za with the accusative case and po with the dative case, as well as the prefixes pere- and pro-. The research is undertaken using the Cognitive linguistic framework or, more precisely, the theory of conceptual metaphor. The aim of the article is to analyse the Russian language means of coding the spatial relations that are similar to those expressed by the English over and to trace patterns of extension of spatial meanings into non-spatial domains in these languages. The study reveals that although English is an analytic language and Russian is a synthetic (fusional) language and, therefore, they use different means to express meanings, similar conceptual-metaphorical motivations of semantic extensions can be traced in both languages.

Keywords: polysemy, English, over, Russian equivalents, conceptual metaphors
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methodology
  • 3.Findings
    • 3.1Spatial meanings of the English preposition over and its Russian translation equivalents
      • 3.1.1“Up” and “above” meanings
      • 3.1.2The “onto” meaning
      • 3.1.3The “over and above” and “above and beyond” meanings
      • 3.1.4“On the other side of” meaning
      • 3.1.5The “across the surface” and “along the surface” meanings
    • 3.2Non-spatial meanings
      • 3.2.1Semantic extensions from the “Up/Above” meanings
        • 3.2.1.1The Control meaning
        • 3.2.1.2The More and preference meanings
        • 3.2.1.3Metonymic extensions
      • 3.2.2Semantic extensions from the “onto” meaning
      • 3.2.3Semantic extensions from the “above and beyond” meaning
        • 3.2.3.1The excess meaning
        • 3.2.3.2Temporal meaning
        • 3.2.3.3A Topic and a Stimulus meaning
      • 3.2.4Semantic extensions from the “across the surface” and “along the surface” meanings
        • 3.2.4.1A Means to action and an Intermediary
        • 3.2.4.2The meaning of Cause
        • 3.2.4.3The meaning of Area (an area of knowledge or skill studied or taught)
      • 3.2.5Semantic extensions from an Orientation in Different Directions and in the Same Direction
        • 3.2.5.1Compliance and Non-compliance meanings
    • 3.3Russian equivalents of the English adverbal particle over
      • 3.3.1The meaning of Transfer
      • 3.3.2The meaning of Completion
      • 3.3.3The reflexive meaning
      • 3.3.4The repetition meaning
    • 3.4Summary of patterns of semantic extensions of the English over and its Russian equivalents
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 5 October 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cogls.22008.kal
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