Synesthesia in the process of phraseologismformation: a new approach

Abstract The paper aims to explore how the process of phraseologism-formation is linked with the process of perception as part and parcel of human cognitive activity. Specifically, the research focuses on the role synesthesia plays in the construction of phraseological meaning. We proceed from the claim that the perceptual experience a human gains through multiple sensory channels while cognizing the world is preserved in the language semantics. Therefore, one of the main assumptions of the research is that synesthesia as a result of crossintegration of various perceptual sensations and their (sub)modalities influences the formation of phraseologisms and can be traced in their semantics. To test this assumption, a representative corpus of English and Russian phraseological units (more than 3,000) is analyzed. In the course of the analysis different types of synesthetic transfers that underlie the phraseological meanings in question are established. Special attention is paid to the way in which synesthesia is involved in the construction of the deep stratum of phraseological semantics that consists of the conceptual foundation (i.e., macro-metaphorical conceptual model) and phraseological image. Overall, the study offers further evidence that phraseological meaning is derived from the perceptual experience and from various synesthetic transfers in particular.