COLOR PALETTE OF THE MIDDLE AGES

Abstract

In linguistics, the attention of linguists constantly attracts the question of the history of the formation and development of individual thematic groups at different stages of the language, in particular, the interest of researchers to the history of color names has increased considerably. In general, the diachronic study of color names, in particular the Middle Ukrainian period, is important for the formation process, the functioning of the subject group under consideration, and the identification of the regularities of the formation of the historical lexicology of the Ukrainian language in general. This led to the choice of the topic of the article and its relevance. The purpose of the article is to determine the specificity of the existence of Ukrainian nomens for the designation of the colors of the Middle Ukrainian period. The object of the study is the lexical-semantic group of color names. The subject is the functioning of this thematic group, revealing the patterns of registration of groups and microgroups of color names. Methods of research are predetermined by the purpose and tasks put in the article. The main ones are descriptive with its universal methods of observing, systematizing and interpreting linguistic facts and phenomena, studying the structure of semantic color filling, and the method of statistical calculations. Divergent materials point to the specifics, the national originality of the Ukrainian language, and substantiate the tendencies of the evolutionary formation of the lexical-semantic group of color names, testifying to its steady development. The sources of the occurrence of color titles are polysemy (the use of objects, objects of nature with a certain color to create new color names); lexical-morphological means (complex words, special words for the transmission of shades); loan. The proof of high valence of color renders is white, black, red is a series of derivatives, complex derivatives, synonymous rows. The name of the mixed colors is evidenced by diffuse phenomena in the language. Quantitative indicators are drawn to attention: the names of black, white, and yellow are mainly represented in one color, while blue, and especially red, is low. The Proto-Slavic heritage is the main names of animals, some borrowed from the Turkic languages. Originally, some tokens reach the Indo-European period (white, black, red), others are formed on the grounds of the Proto-Slavic, Old Ukrainian languages (blue, gray, green), the middle-Ukrainian period, or borrowed at different times from other languages. The linguistic tradition of the XIV–XVIII centuries. testifies to the active use of color names known in the XI–XIII centuries, which is an indicator of the high degree of preservation of the Common Slavic lexical layer in the analyzed group. In the XVI–XVII centuries. the number of colourolexes increases significantly due to new nominations, derivatives and borrowings. By the end of the XVII century finally formed a lexical-semantic group of color attributes. Diachronic analysis of semantics of color names reveals trends in its development, creates a ground for further in-depth study of lexical-semantic groups of color names.