Materials for the Dictionary of metaphors and similes of the 19th – 21st centuries Russian literature as a source of research into the personifying comparative tropes

The paper presents a methodology for lexicographic description of personifying comparative tropes in the 6th issue of the “Materials for the dictionary of metaphors and similes of the 19th- through 21st-century Russian literature”. The material in the dictionary is arranged according to an ideographic semantic classification of vehicles and tenors of the described tropes; the chronological principle is also taken into account. This methodology allows us to show the repertoire of figurative imagery of Russian literature in its evolution. All of the aforesaid is illustrated by a fragment of the 6th issue of the dictionary, namely, the description of the semantic class of tenors of metaphors and similes “Seasons”. Semantic classes of vehicles characterizing WINTER, SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN are identified. Their figurative characteristics in synchrony and diachrony are compared, a tendency towards the appearance, starting from the second half of the 20th century, of stylistically low lexemes is revealed.