Grammatical Metaphor and Temporal Contrast in Olga Arefieva’s Poetry

Abstract

Grammatical metaphor is an important means of creating imagery and expressing author’s intentions in Russian lyric poetry of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, in particular, in the works of Olga Arefieva, one of the brightest representatives of modern rock poetry. Although based on morphological transposition, grammatical metaphor is not just the use of one grammatical form in the meaning of another, but the figurative use of a certain form with the aim to create imagery. Grammatical metaphor is highly contextual, i.e. it is only realized in a certain microcontext. Being an expressive means, grammatical metaphor in a poetic text can compete quite successfully with lexical metaphor and be an important element of the author’s style, which can be observed in Arefieva’s texts. She makes an extensive use of the figurative potential of categorical grammatical metaphor, within which grammatical categories and forms are transposed. A central place is occupied by transposition in the category of verb tense. The use of one tense form in the meaning of another vividly evokes in the mind of the text addressee the person’s worldview, state and view of life. This kind of categorical grammatical metaphor in Arefieva’s poetry creates a temporal contrast between yesterday, today and tomorrow. Tomorrow is perceived by the addressee as an accomplished fact, while yesterday is something that has not yet happened and is still at the interface between the real and the unreal. The mixing of temporal planes and the destruction of time frames, based on grammatical metaphor, produce imagery that reflects the specific nature of the author’s subtle, psychologistic poetry.