Vishnyakova N.M. Somatic Topos Code: Specificity of the Metaphorical Model "Space ↔ Body" Implementation in Modern Russian Poetic Texts

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu2.2026.3.8

Nadezhda M. Vishnyakova

Postgraduate Student, Department of Russian Philology and Journalism, Volgograd State University, Volgograd, Russia

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https://orcid.org/0009-0003-3408-0395

Abstract. The article examines the characteristics of metaphors formed through the processes of body topologicalization and space somatization. The aim of the research is to identify common and distinctive properties of the compared objects in order to clarify the essentials of their similarity, their relation to reality, and their functional component. The analysis is based on a corpus of spatial metaphors with a somatic component, extracted from contemporary Russian poetic texts (2020–2025) written by the authors from the Southern Federal District, the Siberian Federal District, and the new regions of the Russian Federation. The study employs linguo-cognitive and structural-and-semantic approaches to metaphor analysis. A number of specific spatial-bodily correspondences are examined (e.g., road surface ← skin, cosmos ↔ abdomen, river ↔ veins, burnt-out structure ← bones etc.), and the peculiarities of realizing the metaphorical model in contemporary poetic text are determined. It is revealed in traditional techniques of Space ↔ Body sacredness and aesthetics actualizing, the foregrounding of urban and military contexts, as well as in the compensatory role of zoomorphic correspondences. A high degree of reversibility, or potential for it, is found in the studied constructions. This is explained by the inherent potential of bodily and spatial nominations, which is linked to the archetypal, cultural, functional, and orientational properties of the respective concepts.

Key words: Russian language, modern Russian poetry, somatic metaphor, spatial metaphor, reversible metaphors, metaphorical model.

Citation. Vishnyakova N.M. Somatic Topos Code: Specificity of the Metaphorical Model "Space ↔ Body" Implementation in Modern Russian Poetic Texts. Vestnik Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya 2. Yazykoznanie [Science Journal of Volgograd State University. Linguistics], 2026, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 95-105. (in Russian). DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu2.2026.3.8

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