Interpretations of noun-focused metaphors in Russian are examined, with the argument that the syntactic structure of the metaphor serves as a rough guide to its understanding. An outline of previous research on metaphors is followed by a description of the data, drawn from literary works. Based on the cognitive hypothesis that grammatical constructions have meanings that can be formulated explicitly, five metaphorical constructions in Russian are compared. The syntax and semantics of each example construction are detailed and it is concluded that though many metaphors allow several interpretations, the range of possible understandings is always constrained by the syntax of their constructions. (Copyright 1996, Sociological Abstracts, Inc., all rights reserved.) (LLBA 1996, vol. 30, n. 4)