Suvorova T. The System of Verbal Images in the American Folklore Ballads of the XVIII-XX Centuries: Cognitive, Semiotic and Synergetic Aspects

This research focuses on revealing lingual, cognitive and synergetic properties of the system of verbal images in American folklore ballads. It is proved that the system of folklore ballad images has specific structural-semantic, compositive-syntactic and genre unity. The conceptual metamorphosis is seen as a specific way to cognize the archaic world in folklore ballads. It is assumed that synergetic principle of the imagery formation lies in the trans-dimentional transition that enables the change of primeval emotional knowledge formats into logical with the further verbalization of their conceptual features. It is distinguished that the main linguistic and synergetic principles of the verbal imagery system functioning are synergetic and emergent ones since they influence the formation of the congenial image in a folklore ballad. Key words: cognitive mechanisms, conceptual metamorphosis, congenial image, synergetic principles, pre-conceptual, conceptual and verbal planes, system, trans-dimension, verbal image.