словообразовательная метафора

The article deals with the issues of describing the lexical meaning of word-formation metaphors in thesauruses. Various means of defining derivatives with metaphoric motivation are regarded. The reasons of why it is impossible to describe the lexical meaning of some groups of derivatives by means of linking them to the generative word are established.

The article considers one of the ways of formation of word-formative metaphor in the history of the Russian language – that of the loss of primary meaning of derivative. Analysis of the vast material elucidates the reasons for the loss of primary meanings, the most important being the meaning becoming obsolete and the change in morpheme meaning.