Binominal Constructions with Metaphorical Quantifiers in Russian: “vsplesk ėmocij i volna pozitiva”

The paper provides a usage-based description of left-headed Russian binominals of the type [N1[metaphorical quantifier]N2gen] (e.g. vsplesk ėmocij ‘a surge of emotions’, volna pozitiva ‘a wave of positivity’), where N1 is used metaphorically and tends to ‘grammaticalize’ into a quantifier and/or intensifier, denoting a large quantity or a sudden increase of N2. The analysis presents two case studies based on complex upward/forward-oriented movements: vsplesk ‘surge’ and volna ‘wave’. The study, set in the framework of cognitive linguistics, adopts a usage-based approach in order to identify the classes of N2-collocates for the two quantifiers/intensifiers and determine which se-mantic (intensity, arrangement, shape), actional (inchoativity, iterativity and multiactionality) and pragmatic features (i.e., connotation, evaluation, speaker’s attitude towards increasing processes and large quantities) are mapped from N1 onto N2.