Mentefacts-containers in the Verb Classifying Constructions Based (on the Material of the English Language)

Abstract

Categorization of names helps expand the framework for studying the lexical potential of a language, to discover new phenomena that will help interpret the semantic meaning of a word in a new way, and, therefore, to attribute it to a new implicit class and consider the inherent characteristics of this particular class. This study presents material on the ‘Res Continens’ (Container) cryptotype. The problem is addressed for the first time, as at present, the Cryptotypes of the English Language platform is known to contain data on emonyms only. The purpose of the research is to analyze mentefacts with a view to categorizing them by the image and similarity of the container. To study the problem, a contextual analysis based on electronic language corpora is carried out, which involves automatic sampling on request, manual data processing, sorting of the author’s research corpus, quantitative analysis of the material and its interpretation (the methodology used is presented in detail in the author’s early works). The author provides contexts with authentic tokens and detailed descriptions in the verb classifiers with non-object names, i.e. mentefacts. The research reveals that the described mentefacts have a metaphorical extension, they are comprehended in the image and likeness of the container, which means they belong to the ‘Res Continens’ cryptotype. The results obtained contribute to the systemic representation of English nominal vocabulary classes (cryptotypes).