A construction with the meaning of a figurative comparison, expressed in the creative case, quite often includes definitions that carry different semantic loads.

The well-known Czech linguist R. Mrazek speaks of the creative comparison with an attribute as a separate type of this construction (Mrazek R. Syntax of the Russian creative (Structural and comparative study). Prague, 1964. p. 72), since the presence of the attribute is observed primarily (or almost exclusively) in the literary text, and not in oral colloquial speech with its desire for conciseness.

In some cases, the attribute is structurally and semantically mandatory: "Orange juice in a glass shone with electric light" (italics hereafter nash - Yu. U.); "Steel flashed like fish scales..." (Ustinova); "The colonel's eyes flashed like razor blades" (Dovlatov). Much more interesting are the cases when definitions are semantically and stylistically significant for a literary text. First of all, the appearance of an attribute can affect the meaning of the case construction itself. So, the meaning of comparison in the instrumental case can arise precisely due to the presence of the definition: "And he is a thief, a thief, he is a criminal, who is surrounded on all sides by his own and others, and he does not know how to save himself now, and who runs, runs like a hunted beast in the hope that he will leave..." (Ustinova). To the entity-

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et stamp watch the beast. The definition of hunted, firstly, determines the very comparative meaning of the construction and, secondly, semantically colors the action: run as a hunted beast.

We also encounter the need for a definition when without it the lexical compatibility of the instrumental comparison and the verb would be impossible: "It boils, plays and hurries, Spinning in crystal clouds, And under the branching oaks [the spring] runs like molten glass" (Bunin).

An attribute is rarely semantically neutral in relation to the construction and to the artistic text as a whole. It can be considered relatively optional, probably, if it concretizes the object of comparison, introducing some new information about it of non-fundamental content: "Here and there only small birch groves were mottled with green spots" (Turgenev); "Branches covered with hoarfrost were wonderfully painted on the golden enamel of the sunset with gray coral"; "Pebbles Tremble like patterned mosaics in light moisture"; "Birches with yellow carvings Shine in blue azure" (Bunin); "On the horizon, lightning bolts continuously shot out of the clouds in white ribbons into the sea" (Chekhov); "Sheep lay in gray clods on the green grass"; "Ham bloomed like a scarlet rose" (Dovlatov); "Coffee rose rapidly like a nostrils-shaped brown cap" (Ustinova); "Outside the window, my daughter is moving like a black lump in the white snow"; "...And the porridge splashes like a liquid blob on Nanny's face" (Tokareva).

In most cases, this additional information relates to the color, size, or some other external characteristics of the object or its properties, and is often assumed by the semantics of the subject of comparison.

But even an optional attribute is hardly completely semantically neutral in relation to the content side of the design, concretizing, visually approximating the image, making it materially tangible, alive: "There were thick clouds of smoke falling in a black and purple rune" (Bunin). How impoverished the image would be without this color stroke! Or an image of two reservoirs presented as mirrors, but completely different from each other because of the definitions: "There is no sun, but the ponds are bright, They are cast mirrors..."(Bunin) and "The pond was a huge black mirror..." (Bunin).

The attribute may be semantically redundant depending on the nature of the action, the subject and object of comparison, and in this case it serves as a reinforcement of their features, being a kind of intensifier: "And I myself will remain an orphan in a foreign land, homeless to vegetate" (Aksakov). Both the semantics of the verb vegetate and the semantics of the comparison object orphan imply homelessness, but this is additionally emphasized by the attribute. "Morskaya - so go to your seas! Leave me and wander like a free bird! "(Akhmadulina). Semantics-

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the tic of the verb wander and the object of comparison with a bird suggest a sign of freedom, which is reinforced by the definition.

More examples: "...A bicycle will flash by with the silent swoop of a bird, But ice will rumble in a German truck "(Bunin); "Suddenly life seemed beautiful to him, suddenly hope lit up as a bright star in his soul"; " Love for her was not the occupation of a mazurka or fashionable idleness: she lit up in my soul as an unquenchable star "(Sollogub); "Their love then burned like a bright torch"; "Their hair lies like a solid canvas and glitters" (Tokareva); "Gena felt like a noble knight defending the honor of a beautiful lady" (Malysheva); "Cheap' fire ' water ... red-hot lava swept through the esophagus... "(Dontsova); "And then our critics <...> rush like hungry hawks at the prey" (Dovlatov).

An attribute that evaluates a comparison object may even assume its main semantic weight. This occurs, firstly, when the semantic inferiority of the object of comparison without an attribute: "Ivan Alibekov was lying at his feet with an unattended, uncultivated plot. You can still plow and plow on it. The land is full of grace "(Tokareva); "But from the past, from the past sadness, no matter how I complain, no matter how I pray, this music spills like black streams right into my blood";" The bug of God runs to them, runs to the poor young lady " (Okudzhava); "Don't let fiction enter the milky world of the child with a filthy army" (Akhmadulina) "Port wine spreads good news, coloring the world with tones of tenderness and condescension" (Dovlatov).

Without the attribute, the comparison object would emphasize the value present in it, which does not correspond to the specific author's intention: "In the evening, in a strange window, their life shone like a gentle star, unknown to me" (Akhmadulina). Without the definition of meek star in the object of comparison, the meaning of active glow, brightness, would come to the fore, and the semantics of the verb shone would not prevent this, which would completely change the meaning of the text.

Similarly: "Youth did not boil in him with a spring; it glowed with a quiet light" (Turgenev); "A tame monster in other people's homes/carry two wet blackness in the eye sockets" (Akhmadulina).

The definition, in addition to destroying the language stamp, creates a new image: "Cutting through the night with an orange line, a rocket flew up like a mad snake "(Bunin). The semantics of the verb soar implies a rapid movement, which is further enhanced by the definition of the object of comparison: not just a snake, but a rabid snake. Without definition, the attribute used to compare a rocket with a snake concerns first of all the external impression of the rocket that has soared up, the shape of its trajectory, while the attribute rabid adds speed to the comparison feature, that is, it makes the subject and object of comparison common.

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Or:"...And the leaves fall in a golden rain "(Bunin). Here, due to the attribute, the main emphasis in the image is not on the intensity of falling leaves (which we would have had without the definition: leaves are raining), but on their color, which is already becoming fundamentally important.

As you know, the creative comparison tends to break the semantic connection with the subject of comparison and "name it", becoming a language stamp and losing its original imagery. This process is countered by the use of a definition, which, despite its external non-binding nature, is fundamentally important for creating an artistic image. Let's explain with an example: Tanya fluttered around the table like a bird, i.e. Tanya easily fluttered around the table. Flutter like a bird is a language stamp with a clearly predominant verbal semantic connection in the creative comparison and with the desire to adverbialize it. Tanya fluttered around the table like a thin gray bird..."(Ulitskaya), i.e. Tanya resembled a gray thin bird, fluttering around the table - we see the return of the exact figurative meaning. Or: "Sometimes... she made her way to her parents 'room, dived between them like a calico fish, and in a sleepy, happy voice demanded to "smell and kiss" (Ulitskaya).

Thus, the definition of a creative comparison in the absolute majority of cases carries a significant semantic and aesthetic load, often adding a fundamentally important meaning to the comparative construction and being a vivid means of expressing the author's intention and giving the text additional expressiveness.

Kaluga

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