Cultural determinants of nationally specific metaphorical models in Russian and Spanish slang
Abstract
This article presents a comparative analysis of cultural determinants shaping metaphorical models in Russian and Spanish slang. Despite a substantial body of cognitive linguistics research, cultural conditioning of metaphorisation in substandard vocabulary of these two languages remains underexplored. The study's novelty lies in describing the hierarchical organisation of cultural determinants that generate nationally specific metaphorical models. A corpus of 4,199 units was compiled via systematic sampling from authoritative lexicographic sources (1,970 Russian; 2,229 Spanish); the MIPVU metaphor identification procedure and frame analysis were applied. Results show that archetypal schemas CONTAINER, PATH, and FORCE cover 85-89% of the material in both languages, while nationally specific frames account for approximately 30% of the corpus. Dominant cultural determinants in Russian slang are ROAD, HOME, FREEDOM, and FATE; in Spanish – HONOUR, PASSION, DEATH, and FESTIVITY. The findings verify Extended Conceptual Metaphor Theory and clarify the mechanism of cultural filters operating at the level of conceptual domains. Results are applicable to lexicographic practice, the methodology of teaching Spanish and Russian as foreign languages, as well as to the theory and practice of intercultural communication.
Keywords:
Conceptual metaphor cultural determinant slang nationally specific models Russian language Spanish language cognitive linguistics contrastive linguisticsReferences
Абдуллаев, М. К. (2025). Вариативность лексикона (сленга) в испанском языке стран Центральной Америки через призму языковых контактов. Журнал гуманитарных и естественных наук, 28(1), 200–214.
Арутюнова, Н. Д. (1990). Метафора и дискурс. В Н. Д. Арутюнова, М. А. Журинская (Ред.), Теория метафоры. 5–32. Прогресс.
Елистратов, В. С. (2000). Словарь русского арго (материалы 1980–1990-х гг.). Русские словари.
Никитина, Т. Г. (2015). Молодёжный сленг: толковый словарь. АСТ; Астрель.
Попова, З. Д., & Стернин, И. А. (2007). Когнитивная лингвистика. АСТ-Восток-Запад.
Телия, В. Н. (1996). Русская фразеология: семантический, прагматический и лингвокультурологический аспекты. Языки русской культуры.
Химик, В. В. (2000). Поэтика низкого, или Просторечие как культурный феномен. Изд-во СПбГУ.
Чудинов, А. П. (2001). Россия в метафорическом зеркале: когнитивное исследование политической метафоры (1991–2000). Урал. гос. пед. ун-т.
Abdullaev, M. K. (2025). Metaphorical modeling in Spanish slang: from cognitive structures to linguistic realizations. Western European Journal of Linguistics and Education, 3(12), 64–68. https://westerneuropeanstudies.com/index.php/2/article/view/3099
Briz, A. (1998). El español coloquial en la conversación: Esbozo de pragmagramática. Ariel.
Carbonell Basset, D. (2000). Gran diccionario del argot el sohez. Larousse.
Coleman, J. (2012). The life of slang. Oxford University Press.
Deignan, A. (2005). Metaphor and corpus linguistics. John Benjamins.
Eble, C. (1996). Slang and sociability: In-group language among college students. University of North Carolina Press.
Grady, J. (1997). Foundations of meaning: Primary metaphors and primary scenes [Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley].
Ibarretxe-Antuñano, I., & Valenzuela, J. (Eds.). (2012). Lingüística cognitiva. Anthropos.
Johnson, M. (1987). The body in the mind: The bodily basis of meaning, imagination, and reason. University of Chicago Press.
Kövecses, Z. (2005). Metaphor in culture: Universality and variation. Cambridge University Press.
Kövecses, Z. (2020). Extended conceptual metaphor theory. Cambridge University Press.
Kristiansen, G., & Dirven, R. (Eds.). (2008). Cognitive sociolinguistics: Language variation, cultural models, social systems. Mouton de Gruyter.
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press.
Navarro Ferrando, I. (2024). Frames and semantic roles in metaphorical mappings. Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 22(1). https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.00180.nav
Palmer, G. B. (1996). Toward a theory of cultural linguistics. University of Texas Press.
Sanmartín Sáez, J. (1998). Diccionario de argot. Espasa Calpe.
Sharifian, F. (2017). Cultural linguistics: Cultural conceptualisations and language. John Benjamins.
Steen, G. J., Dorst, A. G., Herrmann, J. B., Kaal, A. A., Krennmayr, T., & Pasma, T. (2010). A method for linguistic metaphor identification: From MIP to MIPVU. John Benjamins.
Wierzbicka, A. (1992). Semantics, culture and cognition: Universal human concepts in culture-specific configurations. Oxford University Press.
Published
Downloads
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Marks Kamilzhanovich Abdullaev
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Republic of Uzbekistan, Tashkent city, 
+998 93 097 75 88