Color designations as intensifiers in the Kazakh language in comparison with Turkic languages of Southern Siberia

Abstract

Intensifiers are an expressive means to distinguish a particular phenomenon among others by emphasizing its importance for the speaker and addressee. This work describes the functioning of Kazakh color designations as intensifiers compared to Turkic languages of Southern Siberia and the Kyrgyz language. In a figurative meaning, they can be used to express the intensification of a sign. In the Kazakh and the Kyrgyz languages, the largest number of adjectives - color designations are used to indicate the intensity of the manifestation of a sign. These adjectives in most cases characterize natural phenomena (heavy rain, frost, storm etc.). Considering the Turkic languages of Siberia, most adjectival color designation are presented in the Altaic language, while in other languages such examples are uncommon, phraseologized, and used mainly to convey the expressive characterization of a person. In all Turkic languages, the adjectival color designation ‘black’ is found to acquire the meaning of intensifier. The model of figurative meaning formation such as “black” → “intensive; with a high degree of quality or properties” is common for many Turkic languages. This study was conducted by analyzing the dictionaries of the Kazakh and Altaic languages and the samples from Kazakh and Altaic prose, where color designations are used not in their direct meaning to denote the color of objects but figuratively to express a high degree of manifestation of a feature, for example: “black” → “intensive.”