Reflection of the peculiarities of the semantic structure of ancient colour names in the evolution of the semantics of the Common Slavic colour terms *bronъ and *polvъ

Abstract

The aim of the research is to identify the peculiarities characterising the evolution of the semantics of the Common Slavic colour terms *bronъ and *polvъ, which reflect the specific features of the semantic structure of ancient colour names. The scientific novelty of the study lies in describing the specificity of the semantic structure of ancient colour terms through the history of not the main colour names, but rather the colour names that are “peripheral” from a modern perspective, namely, броный (derived from the Common Slavic *bronъ) and половый (derived from the Common Slavic *polvъ). The semantic features of the Common Slavic colour terms *bronъ and *polvъ, as well as their Indo-European proto-forms and Old Russian derivatives were identified through component analysis. As a result, it has been found that the evolution of the semantics of these Common Slavic colour terms is characterised by the absence of the initial semantic connection with the reference object, the presence of a semantic connection with light or its absence and the syncretism of the denoted colour tone. Thus, it has been revealed that the Common Slavic lexemes *bronъ and *polvъ were more likely to be names for colouration rather than colour itself. These characteristics reflect the specific features demonstrating differences in the perception of colour by ancient and modern linguistic consciousness that are common for the semantics of words developing colour meanings in the Russian language.