Analogous to хипстерша in the semantic group
of “fashion” in Chinese youth speech, the word
洋气
(foreign flavor), where the word
洋
obtains
its sememe [popular] by a similar semantic
transfer. The original meaning of the word
洋
is
wide water, such as
海洋
, which means ocean.
While it has another sememe [foreign(country)],
e. g.:
东洋
, which means orient foreign countries,
and
西洋
– western foreign countries by
metonymization – replace the names of other
countries by their positional features (over the
oceans). In the youth speech, the sememe
[foreign] is further metonymically transferred to
[popular], [novel], where “a whole characteristic
of a region" is transferred to "the characteristic of
an individual in this region”. In contrast, the
example in Russian хипстерша transferred the
focus from “a whole characteristic of a
subculture” to “the characteristic of an
individual, who represents this subculture”. Both
belong to the transfer from overall characteristics
to individual characteristics. Furthermore, these
examples fully reflect the influence of the extra-
linguistic factors: хипстерша (hipster girl)
obtained its metonymic sememe
[fashionable/trendy girl] in the context of the
massive popularity of hippie culture among
young people in the world. In contrast, the
metonymic meaning of
洋气
(foreign flavor) is
closely related to the low productivity of China
in the first half of the 20th century.
Similar to the example альфачка (alpha girl) in
Russian youth speech, in Chinese, the expression
超
A
的
(super A), which means “handsome,
aggressive”, when used for female. The word
"A" in this expression comes from the first Greek
letter “alpha”. It obtains its sememe [first] from
the postural characteristics of this letter. And
then in youth speech, this sememe of this word
metonymically transferred to the features of the
human, female gender, which in Chinese obtain
the sememes [leadership], [aggressive], [cool];
while in Russian – [cool], [self-confident],
[beautiful]. Although the processes of semantic
transfer in two languages are similar and the
vehicles of two metonymies and metaphors are
the same, it can be found that the transferred
meanings are not the same in both languages. The
Russian language emphasizes more on the
characteristics of an outstanding female, while
the Chinese language concentrates on
highlighting their masculinities.
The above comparative analysis of the
complimentary expressions for the female gender
in Russian and Chinese youth speech leads to the
followings:
In complimentary expressions of youth speech of
both Chinese and Russian languages observed,
lexical units with a metonymic transfer share a
similar metonymization mainly manifested as the
transfer from characteristics to the result of this
characteristic and from overall characteristics to
individual characteristics. It shows that
metonymy, as a universal linguistic and cognitive
phenomenon, is widely used in youth discourse.
In addition, a semantic transfer is a complicated
process, usually not always completed by a
single metonymic or metaphorical transfer but by
combining the two. That can be proved by the
examples of Russian and Chinese youth speeches.
As a variant of the standard language, youth
speech, despite its willingness to be different, is
based on standard language. Nation's linguistic,
social, and historical factors subtly influence
speech behavior. For example, the two sememes
of
小
(small) in Chinese and the different
expressions in Russian; and the extra-linguistic
factors reflected behind the expressions
洋
(foreign) and хипстерша (hipster girl).
There are a lot of borrowed words in youth
speeches of both languages, such as сасный,
хипстер from the word хипстерша, альфа
from the word альфачка, etc. Some semantic
transfers happened in the original languages of
these borrowed words. For example, "sassy" and
"hip" of сасный and хипстерша already have
the semems [beautiful] and [popular] in the
English youth speech. At the same time, some
words obtained their new sememesonly after
they entered the new language. For instance,
[cute] of the expression тян / тянка in Russian,
unlike Japanese, which only means a gentle
address; and “alfa” in expressions
超
A
的
and
альфачка in two languages obtained different
sememes.
Conclusions
With the discussion and analysis above, the
followings are observed:
1) Metonymy, as an important means of
replenishing the lexical stock, has many
applications in youth speech. Metonymic
transfer in complimentary expressions for
female gender of Russian youth speech is
mainly formed by adjectives, with a small
number of nouns.
2) In the adjective metonymy, the most
common mode is “transfer of the
characteristic to the result or cause of this
characteristic”, occurring through the causal