A multilevel methodology for studying sound-symbolic synaesthetic metaphors in the poetic texts of Ukrainian and Greek poets (late 19th – early 20th centuries)

The article focuses on developing and testing a comprehensive, multilevel methodology for comparative research of sound-symbolic synesthetic metaphors in Ukrainian and Greek poetic texts from the late 19th to early 20th centuries. It thoroughly examines the theoretical foundations and methodological approaches to studying poetic language in general and sound-symbolic synesthetic metaphors as components of poetic texts, in particular. The idea of the idiolect of poetic speech is substantiated as a system of linguistic means determined by context, mechanisms of conceptual integration, and cognitive and metapragmatic features of creation. Special attention is paid to identifying stylistically marked and dominant means in individual poetic idiolects that shape the poet’s linguistic worldview. This study has developed and tested a multilevel methodology for comparative analysis of sound-symbolic synesthetic metaphors involving the study of metaphors at different levels, with an emphasis on the interaction of phonetic and semantic means of creating metaphorical constructions. The research is conducted primarily at the lexical-semantic level, mainly through componential analysis, to optimize understanding of the meanings of various semantic fields of sensory modalities and their combinatorial possibilities. It includes metapragmatic analysisconsidering socio-cultural and historical contexts of metaphor creation and perception. Special attention is paid to cognitive mechanisms underlying the creation of such metaphors. An experimental method of computer lexicography using the Lexonomy resource based on the Sketch Engine corpus manager is introduced to create a corpus of synesthetic metaphors. The article proposes and describes the stages of creating a dictionary of synesthetic metaphor meanings based on the applied analysis methodology. It is concluded that applying a multilevel approach to the comparative study of sound-symbolic metaphors in texts of two cultural traditions allows for tracing the relationship between language and culture in the context of poetic speech and reveals deep connections between linguistic structures and artistic features. The obtained results can be used for further research on creating synesthetic metaphorical models in Ukrainian and Greek poetic speech.