Semantic and cognitive features of verbalizing perfume scents in internet reviews of Russian and English internet discourse

INTRODUCTION. Internet discourse is a topical subject of research in contemporary linguistics. Its communicative, cognitive and even evocative components are becoming the subject of study. The aim of the study is to analyze the semantic and cognitive features of perfume verbalization (Juliette has a gun, Givenchy and Baccarat Rouge) in Russian and English Internet communication texts. The lack of domestic publications dedicated to the conceptual structure of these perfumes and the analysis of multilingual comments through the prism of their perception determines the relevance of this study. The research broadens our understanding of the cognitive mechanisms of verbalizing scents in different linguistic cultures. The comparison of English and Russian comments on the perception of perfumes was carried out using a new approach – evocative comparison.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The material of the study was the process of perception of Juliette has a gun, Givenchy and Baccarat Rouge scents and its representation on the fragrantica.ru and fragrantica.com forums. The study employed descriptive and quantitative counting methods, contextual and semantic-cognitive analysis.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. It is revealed that the cognitive attributes of the studied perfumes in the English discourse are represented by a wider set of characteristics than in Russian. Thus, Juliette has a gun in the Russian language segment of comments is verbalized by emotionally polar cognitive attributes, among which negative ones prevail, based on anthropomorphic metaphor. Positive characteristics of the perfume are created on the basis of gustatory and visual object qualities. In English reviews, the conceptualization of the fragrance is complemented by the metaphor of music, olfactory evocations and tactile attributes. The variety of Givenchy cognitive attributes (olfactory, vegetal, visual, gustatory, animalistic and anthropomorphic images) indicates the popularity of the fragrance in the Russian-speaking segment. In English comments, the conceptualization of Givenchy perfume is supplemented by reference to other perfumes, emotional subjective evaluations, and sound evocations. Common cognitive features for Russian and English reviews of Baccarat Rouge are sweetness, causticity, suffocation by a smell with a unique recognizable DNA.

CONCLUSION. Common cognitive features and key differences in the perception of Juliette has a gun, Givenchy and Baccarat Rouge fragrances in Russian and English Internet reviews have been identified, and their field structure has been presented. The predominance of metaphorical verbalization of scents and the polymodality of metaphors in the conceptualization of these perfumes have been identified. The results of the study can be used in further research into the linguistic features of evocative texts.