Kryvenko G. Zoosemisms in English and Ukrainian: Semantic, Cognitive, Functional, and Pragmatic Perspectives.

This thesis presents a comparative study of English and Ukrainian zoosemisms, which are animal names used figuratively to characterise human beings. A number of case studies allows for the establishment of references to fauna which are contained in the lexemes and phraseological units with the animal component, both explicitly through the figurative names of animals, as well as implicitly through the following indications: names of animal body parts, terms related to the keeping of animals, names of places where animals live, sounds typical of animals and others. Componential and frame analyses of the language units under study have resulted in the elaboration of the typology of the conceptual models that underline English and Ukrainian zoosemisms as well as the contrastive classification of features for comparing human beings with animals. There is evidence that a change in the main functions of zoosemisms entails a conceptual re-categorisation which lies in a conceptual shift of the input concept ANIMAL from one category to another. This process assumes its material form in derived zoosemisms. The pragmatic potential of zoosemisms is also defined.