Cognitive-linguistic analysis of temporal prepositions in Russian: the application of spatio-temporal metaphor

The article examines the problem of reflecting concepts of space in language at the level of prepositions of time using metaphorization. The purpose of the study is to identify spatial characteristics, manifested through metaphorization, in the semantics of temporary prepositions: during, throughout, in continuation, as a means of conveying the meaning of the concept “temporal extension”. In Russian, the prepositions: “в течение”, “на протяжении” and “в продолжение” (“during”, “over a span of” and “through”) are usually considered as synonyms when expressing time concepts. These lexical units refer to derived prepositions used to express the concept of “time interval” and semantically imply the meaning of “temporal duration”. The examples of the usage of prepositions from the National Corpus of the Russian Language served as the material for the analysis. The analysis of modern usage of these prepositions, presented in the next section, reveals which spatial characteristics are metaphorically projected onto the conceptualization of temporal relations. According to the analysis of temporal prepositions of the Russian language, it was determined that all three prepositions consistently project onto the time domain such spatial characteristics as length, continuity and linearity. In the use of prepositions, there are significant differences in the compatibility of these prepositions. These differences are determined by the initial spatial semantics of prepositions and the degree of their metaphorization. The semantics of nouns, as well as their definitions (adjectives, numerals, pronouns), have a significant impact on the interpretation of temporal relations. The proposed research deepens the comprehension of the cognitive mechanisms involved in understanding time through spatial images and schemes, and contributes to the study of linguistic conceptualization of time relations in the Russian language.