Coloristic Visualization Of The Sun In Paustovsky's Linguistic Picture Of The World

Abstract

Based on extensive factual material (1-8 vols. of Collected works) a fragment of K. Paustovsky's coloristic picture of the world is reconstructed. The spectrum of characteristics correlating with the lexeme " sun " is revealed, including both coloristic and actional, parametric, spatial, temporal, auditory, odorant, light and others. Significant for the writer the colour characteristic of the sun is implemented through the spectrum presented in the field model, only the core of which includes more than 20 colour terms, and expanding due to other colour terms marked by lexicography; stylistically marked and author's colour lexemes; lexemes with a root -colour-; lexemes containing an integral seme with a colour basis implicitly; lexemes with the value of colour intensity, the meaning ‘to lose colour’, colour and light value. The breadth of this spectrum indicates a variety of methods for transmitting colour values in the visualization of the sun. On the one hand, the dominants of the spectrum ( white , gold , crimson ) reflect national priorities, on the other hand, reveal the specific character of the author's colour perception. The functioning of the lexeme sun shows the features of Paustovsky's colour-writing, among which the interrelation of colour and light impressions, spatial and temporal coordinates prevail, the unity of which in the colour visualization of the sun creates a unique colour-light chronotope, the functional capacity of which is designed to reveal the specific characters of Paustovsky’s coloristic picture of the world, which is significant in the light of the anthropocentricity of modern linguistics.

Keywords: Linguistics of colourcolour termastronymthe sunlinguistic picture of the worldK Paustovsky

Introduction

The significance and relevance of the research in the field of colour linguistics ( Kulpina, 2019) today do not cause doubts among linguists. To paraphrase the words Kulpina ( 2002): "the concept of colour linguistics as an independent scientific paradigm in modern linguistics has acquired (emphasis added) specific features" (p. 7). This is convincingly shown by as the areas of colour research highlighted by Kulpina, including: historical-evolutionary, etymological, psycholinguistic, cognitive, comparative, linguoculturological, ontological, institutional, and terminological studies ( Kulpina, 2006), as well as numerous dissertation studies carried out in line with these areas and contributed to the development of colour linguistics methodology. The description of the coloristic picture of the world of outstanding masters of the artistic word such as L. N. Andreev ( Morshchinskii, 2017), M. A. Bulgakov ( Petrov & Petrova, 2016), A. N. Tolstoy ( Fedorova, 2017), F. I. Tyutchev ( Voronets, 2016), R. Bradbury ( Sokolova, 2018), and others today is the subject of heightened interest to linguists, as it reveals the possibilities of studying a unique linguistic personality, reconstructing a unique linguistic picture of the world, which seems extremely relevant in the light of the anthropocentricity of modern linguistics. In turn, the power of the artistic genius of K. G. Paustovsky, the writer, three times nominated for the Nobel prize, determines our research interest in his linguistic picture of the world ( Sivova, 2018).

Problem Statement

Nature has always been in the light of Paustovsky's attention; therefore, it is logical to assume that the natural environment is a significant fragment of his linguistic picture of the world. Given the status of the concept of the Sun as a key concept of the Russian language ( Babenko, 2017, p. 38), taking into account the correlation of colour and light impressions that is justified from the standpoint of physics, which leads to the syncretism of colour and light at the language level ( Kharchenko, 2009, p. 435), given the dominant position of the sun in the writer's cosmic world-building, we will identify and describe the features of the author's individual perception and colour visualization of the sun based on the prose of K. G. Paustovsky, which will contribute to a comprehensive reconstruction of the writer's linguistic coloristic picture of the world.

Research Questions

The research is aimed at finding out answers to the following questions

  • to establish the quantitative (number of word-uses of the lexeme sun) and qualitative (an updated derivational potential) composition of the lexemes functioning in the studied texts with the meaning ‘the body of the Solar system’, ‘light, heat radiated by this body’;

  • on the basis of the correlation of the astronym sun with a number of attributes and predicates, to identify a range of characteristics illustrating the author's concept of the sun;

  • to identify the colour spectrum used by the writer to visualize the sun, and to determine the dominants of this spectrum; to establish the ratio of individual author's and national elements in the coloristic characteristics of the sun;

  • to describe the specific characters of individual author's colour-writing in the coloristic visualization of the sun; to establish the relationship between the colour, spatial and temporal characteristics of the sun underlying the colour chronotope.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study, the significance of which is due to the anthropocentricity of modern linguistics, is to recreate one of the fragments of the writer's linguistic coloristic picture of the outer space, based on the description of the specific characters of individual author's perception and visualization of the sun.

Research Methods

In the light of the effectiveness of the holistic approach in science to achieve the goal of our research, it seems appropriate to apply a set of methods used at different stages of work, including the continuous sampling method, a descriptive method that includes observation, cognitive interpretation, and classification.

Findings

The research interest in identifying the author's specificity of the sun perception is due to: 1) the number of uses of the lexeme sun in the studied texts amounted to more than 1000 word-uses. The sun is an absolute dominant of outer space of the writer's works (next the star, moon); 2) the breadth of the family of words of the SUN are actualized in K. G. Paustovsky's prose ( солнечный , солнечно , солнышко , солнечность , солнцепёк ); 3) a range of characteristics with which correlates the lexeme sun , among which, besides the coloristic one: a) actional ( the sun was just rising ; the sun rises ; the sun broke through ; the sun was in the eyes ; sunbeats ; the sun burned the coasts ; the sun sets ; the sun disappeared , etc.): « солнце заиграет на мокрой листве» ( Paustovsky, 1982a, p. 370); b) parametric – the shape ( square , ray , lake , bar , strip , flow , spot , cut , arrow ): « первый квадрат солнечного света пополз, крадучись, из угла в угол» ( Paustovsky, 1982c, p. 386); « синий дым подо мной, покрытый озёрами солнечного света» ( Paustovsky, 1981b, p. 122), based on cultural associations: « представлял зал в Эльсиноре, узкие, готические лучи солнца, крик фанфар» ( Paustovsky, 1982b, p. 209) and the size ( gigantic , huge , vast small ): « солнце казалось чрезмерно огромным» ( Paustovsky, 1982c, p. 159); c) intensity ( strong , ruthless , unbearable , bright , dazzling – timid , weak , scanty , cool, bashful , damped etc.): « за пределами земли просвечивало скудное солнце» ( Paustovsky, 1982b, p. 416); d) spatial ( urban sun ; the sun of Provence ; sun of Hellas ; the sun of a distant overseas country ; tropical sun ; burnt by the African sun ; the sun in the desert , etc.): [декорации] « выгорели под черноморским солнцем» ( Paustovsky, 1981b, p. 24); « чистые краски, то плотные, то совершенно прозрачные, созданные светом северного солнца» ( Paustovsky, 1982a, p. 505), in correlation with the astronym, creating an idea of the country as a whole: « облик будущей страны, ради которой шли умирать, – страны солнца» ( Paustovsky, 1981b, p. 122); « Твоя родина – камень, и солнце, и Сионская земля» ( Paustovsky, 1983a, p. 41); e) temporal, in which the meanings of ‘time of day’ are updated ( the morning sun ; illuminated by the evening sun ; the last glimpses of the sun ; the setting sun ; declining sun etc.), ‘time of year’ ( the sun of early winter ; dried out in the spring sun ; summer sun ; soak up the autumn sun ; late autumn sun , etc.), ‘month’ ( under the sun of Junuary ; the August sun ; warmed by the October sun ), etc.: « есть берега, сожжённые тысячелетним солнцем» (Paustovsky, 1982с, p. 149); f) an auditory one in which the minimum of a sound prevails over the maximum (high-frequency syntagma sunny silence ): « хотелось пустынности, дней бесшумных, как солнце» ( Paustovsky, 1981a, p. 278); « солнце подымется в глубокой тишине, в синих туманах» ( Paustovsky, 1982a, p. 605); « солнечная тишина уходила от подножья мола» ( Paustovsky, 1983b, p. 384); g) odorative: « благоухающее солнце греет листву буковых лесов» ( Paustovsky, 1982c, p. 192), created using descriptive and expressive means of the language: « медуница пахла так сильно, что солнечный свет казался жидким мёдом» ( Paustovsky, 1983a, p. 140) and caused by the intersection of the spatial planes of the work (the space of nature and creativity): « Солнце Грина издавало запах, подобно тем тропическим зарослям, которые он описывал» ( Paustovsky, 1983c, p. 196); h) tactile: « Весь день лежал шелковистый блеск солнца» ( Paustovsky, 1983a, p. 26); i) evaluative (ridiculous , unusual , ominous ): « Солнце, прогревавшее корабли, не было нашим обыкновенным солнцем» ( Paustovsky, 1983a, p. 196); j) anthropomorphic ( alive , moody , etc.): « Дым слоился над крышами, закрывая угрюмое солнце» ( Paustovsky, 1982a, p. 396).

The wide colour range that the writer uses to visualize the sun can be represented in a field model, the zoning of which is based on both the lexical meaning and the number of lexemes used ( Sivova, 2018). Only the core of this field includes more than 20 colour terms (in descending order): white is the absolute dominant (used more than 30 times), gold and crimson around 20 uses; followed by – yellow , pink , orange , red – from 10 to 20 uses. To a lesser extent, bloody , silver , amber ; blood-red , rubiginous , gray ; as well as scarlet , orange-coloured , green , citreous , dark blue , straw-coloured ; sporadically – whitish , bronze , cranberry-coloured , lilac , purple , black . The qualitative side of this composition is specific in the predominance of colour terms representing the “red” block: cranberry-coloured , crimson , blood-red , red , bloody , scarlet, pink . It is followed, in order of importance, the “yellow” block: gold , amber , straw-coloured , yellow , citreous and followed by the “orange”: orange-coloured , orange , rubiginous , bronze . To a lesser extent, the “white” block is represented: white , whitish , “purple”: lilac , purple , “gray”: gray , black , reflecting a high degree of author's perception. For example: « нагромождение Баку – серых гор, серого неба, серых домов, покрытых заплатами яркого, но тоже серого солнечного цвета» ( Paustovsky, 1981a, p. 450). They are followed by the colour terms from the “dark blue” blocks: dark blue and “green”: green , “intermediate”: silver .

The author's dominant colours are white , gold , and crimson . Taking into account that "the associative thesaurus is a model of human consciousness" ( Ufimtseva, 2016, p.245), and associative lexicography helps to "model a holistic picture of the world "of a naive" native speaker / culture" ( Ufimtseva & Balyasnikova, 2019, p. 15), we compare this colour sequence with “colour” responses to the Sun stimulus – red, yellow, white, bloody ( Karaulov, 2002, p. 611), reflecting the standard of Russian colour language consciousness. As a result, we conclude that the predominance of the individual over the national in the colour visualization of the sun.

The colour range that visualizes the sun is expanded by the near-nuclear zone, which includes: 1) colour lexemes that are not included in the core of the colour field, but fixed in lexicography: wax-coloured , iridescent , gray , mica , saffron , etc.; 2) stylistically marked colour lexemes: dark-red , pure gold ; 3) author's colour categories: « солнце бельмом томилось над землёй» ( Paustovsky, 1981a, p. 305); « солнце казалось глазом слепого» ( Paustovsky, 1982a, p. 552), as well as: « вино, выпитое за счастье товарищей, напоминало по цвету солнечный день» ( Paustovsky, 1982a, p. 398), where the sun becomes the prototype of the colour. The close periphery is represented by: 1) the lexemes with a root -colour-: [the sun] «просвечивает через листву сотнями разноцветных – то зелёных, то пурпурных, то золотых – пятен» ( Paustovsky, 1984, p. 50); 2) the vocabulary of fine art with the seme ‘colour’: « солнце, прорвавшись сквозь низкие тучи, загоралось охрой и суриком» ( Paustovsky, 1981b, p. 518). The far periphery includes: 1) the lexemes containing an integral seme with a colour basis implicitly: inflamed , cloudy , foggy , etc.; 2) the lexemes with the meaning of the colour intensity: pale , tender , timid , stingy , weak , thin , dim – clean , bright , clear , etc.; 3) the lexemes with the meaning ‘to lose colour’: « солнечные лучи теряли яркость и лежали на полах, как листы выцветшей бумаги» ( Paustovsky, 1982b, p. 187); 4) the lexemes with colour-light meaning ( diamond , glitter , to shine , to sparkle , flash , sparks , fire , case of fire , glow , light , to blaze , etc.): « Солнце низко сверкало в лесах, как громадный алмаз» ( Paustovsky, 1981a, p. 589); « Высокое солнце, как пылающая корона, струило свой свет на башни» ( Paustovsky, 1982b, p. 659). This zoning reflects both the transition from the informative (actually coloristic) component to the figurative one, as well as the natural connection of colour and light, not only at the level of the scientific, but also the artistic picture of the world.

In the functioning of the terms of colour creating a coloristic characteristic of the sun, the main features of the colour style of writing by K. G. Paustovsky were naturally appeared. Of these, the dominant ones are the interrelations between colour and light characteristics: « комната была озарена оранжевым блеском солнца» ( Paustovsky, 1981b, p. 181) and spatial and temporal coordinates: « чистое и жаркое солнце киевского лета» ( Paustovsky, 1982b, p. 208), as a result of the interaction of which a stereoscopic picture of reality is created, the uniqueness of which is due to both the author's perception of colour and the level of artistic skill of the writer.

Conclusion

The sun is at the centre of the cosmic world-building by K. G. Paustovsky.

Correlating with a wide variety of attributes and predicates, astronym sun reveals the features of the author's perception of the sun.

The coloristic characteristic is significant for the visualization of the sun, as confirmed by both the wide colour spectrum and the heterogeneity of the means of updating the colour value, reflecting the transition from an informative to a figurative component, from colour to light one.

The terms of colour dominating in the colour visualization of the sun are white, gold, and crimson, to a greater extent reflect individual author's preferences rather than the national coloristic preferences.

The specific characteristics of the author's colour style of writing reveals the basic mechanisms of the synergistic nature of the relationship of colour and light impressions, spatial and temporal coordinates. As a result of the interaction of colour, light, time and space in the visualization of the sun, a unique colour chronotope of K. G. Paustovsky's works is formed, revealing the distinctiveness of the author's coloristic picture of the world.

References

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03 August 2020

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Cite this article as:

Sivova, T. V. (2020). Coloristic Visualization Of The Sun In Paustovsky's Linguistic Picture Of The World. In N. L. Amiryanovna (Ed.), Word, Utterance, Text: Cognitive, Pragmatic and Cultural Aspects, vol 86. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 1244-1250). European Publisher. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2020.08.143