Fall up

Irina Levontina

It has long been noticed that when talking with a foreigner, a person often distorts his own native language. A foreigner doesn’t speak Russian well, right? Well, if I also start speaking with stupid grammar and a funny accent, then maybe it will be clearer to him? Not that the person directly reasoned like that. He simply involuntarily adapts to his interlocutor, like Mironov’s hero in the famous comedy: “Shjort poberi!”

This is the best thing! I remembered the other day when I heard President Medvedev express himself in the course of his foreign policy activities. There was, for example, something like this: Don’t push through the initiative, but take a period to study it.

I was especially impressed by the wording: Has the peak of the decline been reached? Hello Zinoviev with his “Yawning Heights”. The peak of the fall is what is called an oxymoron, a combination of the incongruous. It's like bittersweetness. No, of course, if you really want to, you can see a bright artistic device here. Well, like we are plunging into the abyss of chaos and at the same time rising to the heights - what? Well, let's say experience. Or there - social tension increases synchronously with the decline of the economy, so that the economic bottom from a political point of view turns out to be the highest point (we will refrain from the words boiling or turning point, so as not to confuse the matter with another metaphor).

In reality, most likely, nothing of the kind was meant. Two incompatible metaphors simply collided. In general, we usually do not realize how many metaphors we use in speech. Abstract, metaphysical meanings are very often expressed through metaphorical rethinking of very specific words. Take, for example, human intellectual activity. We call the mind sharp, the views (which is itself a metaphor) broad, the thoughts deep, the judgments brilliant, we grab thoughts on the fly and then throw them out of our heads. We share some thoughts , and some we don’t accept. Of course, all these metaphors have long been erased (oh, also a metaphor), and in many cases they are no longer traceable (also, too). For example, in the word impression you won’t immediately see the stamp, the word influence and only a few would guess to associate (wow, another one) with infusion.

But sometimes it happens that long- dead metaphors come to life (needless to say, the death and resurrection of a metaphor is a metaphor). This is the basis of a simple literary anecdote about one of the “amusement jesters” of the 18th century:

“Pedrillo’s wife’s brother, having given his daughter away in marriage, asked Pedrillo to accept his new relative kindly.

Pedrillo asked Gustav Biron for two hours for the fire pipe of the Izmailovsky regiment and, installing it just opposite the door through which the new relative was supposed to enter, filled the filler hose with water.

As soon as the guest appeared at the door, Pedrillo personally turned off all the valves of the filler hose and doused the guest from head to toe.

“Tell your father-in-law that I fulfilled his wish and received you, as you can see, not coldly” (I quote from the book “Russian Literary Anecdote.” M, 2003).

The internal form of metaphors often comes to life unexpectedly for the speaker himself - when the metaphor falls into an inappropriate context. My favorite example of such an inopportunely come to life metaphor is taking a bite of the oil pie. I don’t remember which politician said this, but it’s strange how he didn’t choke. Most often this happens when different metaphors collide. In English books on rhetoric, they usually give a classic example - comparing a country to a ship that stands firmly on its feet. And even funnier is what everyone knows: In 1917, Russia faced an abyss, and since then it has taken a decisive step forward.

But let's return to our peak of decline. On the one hand, upward movement in a variety of cultures and languages ​​is associated with good, and downward movement with bad. Especially if it is not immersion in water (options are possible here), but rolling or falling. This fully applies to the economy: falls production , markets collapse , if the value of the currency decreases, they will say that it has decreased, and if sharply, then that the currency has collapsed. On the other hand, a greater degree of attribute, the intensity of the process, is naturally denoted through the metaphor of increase. If the scale of destruction is maximum, it is natural to call it a peak. These are all, as Lakoff and Johnson put it, “metaphors we live by.” So both the decline and the peak are quite appropriate when applied to economic troubles, but separately. And together - together we get yawning heights.

In general, the language is quite whimsical in assessing various kinds of measures and degrees - as, indeed, in everything else. Once upon a time, while describing words as many as whole, I noticed a curious difference between them. In fact, these words in their respective meanings are very similar (ate as much as five pieces of cake, lost as much as 20 kg/as much as 20 kg). But there is one subtlety. One could say that I lost as much as forty-five kg, but not as much as forty-five kg. Because although I have lost a lot of weight, 45 kg is not enough, so the word “ whole” does not fit. Another example. The merchant asked for 200 dollars for the carpet, then agreed to 100, and gave it back for as much as 50. And again, it’s impossible to say for as much as 50. But it’s possible - he threw off as much as 150 dollars. So you won’t be able to figure it out right away. We need to take a period of reflection.