Interdiscursive Character of Semantic Development of Coreferential Metaphors

The article is devoted to establishing the character of semantic development involving coreferential metaphors in interdiscursive space. The solution of this problem is aimed at determining semantic relations between different links in chains made up by a number of coreferential metaphors that share the property of variant imagery nomination. The task is implemented within the boundaries of an interdiscourse viewed as a minimum cultural associative context. Empirical data have been drawn from financial and economic texts in electronic and online versions of leading English mass media resources. The meanings of key language units that underlie metaphoric designations of economic notions are clarified with the help of general English language dictionaries and culturological reference books. The analysis of selected examples is carried out based on componential, contextual, discursive, pragmatic analyses and procedures of semantic interpretation supplemented by linguaculturological methods. The investigation allows us to draw the following conclusions: semantic development of coreferential metaphors occurs on two levels: between variant imagery nominations within metaphorical chains M1 + M2 + M3 + ... Мn and between the head metaphor and submetaphors M1 ® ma + mb + mc +... mn; it has proved the role of interdiscursive contextual relations between metaphors having the same type of reference; it has shown the participation of imagery nominations within coreferential chains in the process of sense profiling; it has demonstrated intensification of semantic tension resulting from metaphoric density in coreferential blocks signaling greater synergetic effect produced on the reader.

interdiscourse, economic metaphor, coreferential metaphors, sense, semantic development, sense profiling, synergetic effect