Pragmatics of coloronyms in art spaces (based on the French and English languages)

Abstract

This article considers formation and evolution vectors of lexical units belonging to the semantic field “Color” in English and French. The purpose of this study is to describe the functional status and pragmasemantic parameters of the color vocabulary in the French and Russian-speaking art space. The relevance of the presented work is due to the intensive transformation of the extralinguistic space today. We gain deeper knowledge of it and more complicated structure of this knowledge, which leads to the evolution of the language systems themselves whose vocabulary shows the most sensitive reactions and, consequently, the highest dynamics. The work is based on English and French dictionaries, as well as on the texts of special literature, articles, reviews and comments from users of specialized art sites and forums. The article clarifies the concept of a coloronym and provides the basic principles of color space standardization and related nominations. We establish the most significant functional trends that determine the emergence of new coloronyms. The article describes in detail the mechanisms of nomination in the diachronic aspect. Based on a detailed structural and historical analysis of lexical units, we draw conclusions about the productivity of certain types of human activities, which serve as a source of a significant number of coloronyms: traditionally it is the sphere of fashion, art, as well as craft, industry, medicine and travel. The study also reveals the growing role of extralinguistic factors in the current processes of color naming, highlighting the policy of world-famous organizations as a specific factor in the creation of new units.