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COLOUR AND COLOUR NAMING:CROSSLINGUISTIC APPROACHES
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João Paulo Silvestre, Esperança Cardeira & Alina Villalva (eds.)
João Paulo Silvestre, Esperança Cardeira &
Alina V
illalva (eds.) Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa | Universidade de Aveiro
Colour terms behave quite differently across languages, similar to the way in which our psychological interpretation varies in response to refl ected visible light. Indeed, from a linguistic perspective, a defi nitive explanation of basic colour terms still eludes many researchers of different disciplines, posing both cognitive and lexical issues. The Colour and Colour Naming conference, held in 2015 at the University of Lisbon, offered a chance to explore colour naming processes from a cross-linguistic approach. Scholars were invited to present and submit their own research for discussion, covering a wide range of fi elds, notably that of lexicology, lexicography, comparative linguistics, morphology, historical linguistics and cultural studies.
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DICIONARÍSTICAPORTUGUESA- V
Colourandcolournaming:
crosslinguisticapproaches
JoãoPauloSilvestre,EsperançaCardeira&AlinaVillalva(eds.)
CENTRODELINGUÍSTICADAUNIVERSIDADEDELISBOAUNIVERSIDADEDEAVEIRO
2016
Título|Colourandcolournaming:crosslinguisticapproaches
Coleção|DicionarísticaPortuguesa
Autoreseditores|JoãoPauloSilvestre,EsperançaCardeira&AlinaVillalva
Edição|CentrodeLinguísticadaUniversidadedeLisboa-UniversidadedeAveiro
Impressão|Clássica-ArtesGráficas
Capa|JanLuyken,1689
DepósitoLegal|413885/16
ISBN|978-989-98666-2-1
Tiragem|250exemplares
Apoio|
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Contents
Presentation……………………….…………………………………………………………….………………….. 3
I.Colournames,pan-Europeanperspective
Adiachronicoverviewofcolortermsintheromancelanguages:thelexicalstabilityofthelatincolorvocabulary ………………………………………………………………….. 9|StevenN.DworkinItaliancolourtermsintheBLUEarea:synchronyanddiachrony............................ 21|MariaGrossmann&PaoloD’AchilleEuropean(dis)unionofcolours:secondarybasiccolourtermsinPolish,PortugueseandSpanish …………………………………...………………………………………………… 51|EwaStala&PrzemysławDębowiakPretoandnegro,pardo,mestiçoandmulato……...............................…….………………. 71|EsperançaCardeiraII.CategorizationandlexicographicdescriptionColourfulmicrostructures:howItaliandictionariesseecolourterms…….............… 91|CarlaMarello&CristinaOnestiOnthegrammaticalsubstanceofcolourwords………………………………....………….…...105|AlinaVillalvaMetaphorandemotionincolourwords………………………................………………………. 130|ErlingStrudsholm,CarlaBazzanella&IreneRongaColourverbsinEnglishandRomanian….................……………………………………………. 145|AdinaCameliaBleotu
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Presentation
Colour termsbehavequitedifferentlyacross languages,similar to theway in
whichourpsychological interpretationvaries inresponse toreflectedvisible light.
Indeed,fromalinguisticperspective,adefinitiveexplanationofbasiccolourterms
still eludes many researchers of different disciplines, posing both cognitive and
lexical issues. The Colour and Colour Naming conference, held in 2015 at the
University of Lisbon, offered a chance to explore colournamingprocesses froma
cross-linguistic approach. Scholars were invited to present and submit their own
research fordiscussion,coveringawide rangeof fields,notably thatof lexicology,
lexicography,comparativelinguistics(especiallyfromaPan-Europeanperspective),
morphology,historicallinguisticsandculturalstudies.
The conference was an initiative of the working group Lexicography And
LexicologyfromaPan-EuropeanPerspective,itselfpartoftheCOSTactionEuropean
NetworkofLexicography.Theworkinggroupinvestigatesthevariouswaysbywhich
vocabularies ofEuropean languages can be represented in dictionaries and how
existing information from single language dictionaries can be displayed and
interlinkedtobettercommunicatetheircommonEuropeanheritage.
This present volume gathers together a selection of studies originally
presentedattheconferenceandisdividedintwosections.Thefirstsectionoutlines
aPan-Europeanperspectiveof colournames. In theopening chapter, STEVENN.
DWORKINoffersadiachronicoverviewofcolourtermsintheRomanceLanguages.
Within a comparative framework, he presents the survival of selected elements
pertaining to Latin’s complex colour vocabulary, addressing both the national
standardand regionalvarietiesofRomance languages.TheauthorexaminesLatin
colour terms that have survived on a Pan-Romance scale (e.g. viridis ‘green’ and
niger ‘black’) as well as items that have only survived in scattered Romance
territories(e.g.coccinus‘scarletred’inRomontsch).Thechapteralsodiscussesthe
rivalrybetweenthecolourterms inherited fromspokenLatinandthoseborrowed
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from other languages (e.g. the spread of the Germanic root *blank ‘white’ at the
expenseoftheLatinalbusandcandidusinRomancelanguages)andcasesinwhich
Romance varieties have created innovative colour terms (e.g. Spanish amarillo,
Portugueseamarelo‘yellow’andtheirgeneticrelationshiptoLatinamarus‘bitter’).
Movingfromthisgeneralpanoramatoamorepreciseanalysisofcolourterms
in particular languages, MARIA GROSSMAN and PAOLO D'ACHILLE propose a
casestudyoftermsregardingthecolour‘blue’intheItalianlanguage.Theyfocuson
thesemanticrelationsbetweensuchtermsatdifferentstagesinthedevelopmentof
theItalianlanguage,rightuptoitscontemporaryform.Followingthepublicationof
Berlin&Kay’s book (Basic Colour Terms: Their universality and evolution, 1969),
thequestionastowhetherthenumberofbasictermsmayexceedeleven,hasbeena
pointofcontentionforcolourvocabularystudiesinseparatelanguages.Infact,even
BerlinandKaythemselvesdidnotruleoutthepossibilitythat12basictermscould
feasibly exist. Indeed, the status of the Russian terms sinij ‘blue / dark blue’ and
goluboj‘lightblue’andtheHungarianpiros‘red1’andvörös‘red2’wasleftopen:on
the one hand, Berlin&Kay hypothesise that all are basic terms (thus raising the
numberofbasictermsinthosetwolanguagestotwelve).Ontheotherhand,they
alsoconsiderthepossibility thatgolubojandvöröscouldwellbesecondaryterms
thatindicatedifferentshadesofthebasictermssinijandpiros.Thedebatedstatus
oftheRussiantermssinijandgolubojhasignitedaninterestingdiscussionamong
linguists, psychologists and anthropologists, stimulating a vast number of specific
studiesfocusedontheBLUEareaalsoinotherlanguages,amongstwhichItalianis
included.Theavailabilityoflargeandsearchablecorporanowmakesitpossibleto
advance studies which focus on the distribution of azzurro, blu, celeste and
turchino,bothfromadiachronicandasynchronicperspective.
EWA STALA and PRZEMYSŁAW DĘBOWIAK propose a cross-cultural and
cross-geographical analysis of secondary basic colours, covering the languages of
Polish, Portuguese and Spanish.Here, the selectedwords are violet, orange, pink
andgrey.However,thesewordsstillpertaintotheclassofBasicColourTerms(as
referredtoinBerlinandKay'shierarchy)astheyareusuallydescribedasamixture
oftwoother(basic)colours(i.e.violet=red+blue;orange=yellow+red;pink=
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red+white;grey=black+white)–wecallthemsecondarycolourterms.Notonly
are they the least studied (in comparison towhite, black and red), but they also
seemmore likely to highlight the potential differences between the languages in
question. The study is essentially synchronic, but also contains information of
diachronic nature (the etymology and, possibly, the history of considered terms).
Havingdemonstratedthepresenceofviolet,orange,pinkandgreyinthelanguage
(idioms,phrases,collocations,etc.),theauthorsgoontodiscussthedifferencesand
similaritiesofcolourtermsgeographicalandlinguisticendsofEuropehavedifferent
colourvisions.
Toconcludethissection,ESPERANÇACARDEIRAwritesabouttheevolution
of words that designate the darkest colour in the Portuguese language, notably
‘negro’ and ‘preto’; words which have been present in Portuguese since the
thirteenth century, and are defined either in terms of the absence of light or the
fusionof all colours. Indeed,whenweconsider the labellingof skin colour,black
alsopresentsitselfasacontrasttowhite.However,duetotheheterogeneousnature
of skin tone, the Portuguese language soon found itself having to search for new
lexicon in order to fill the gaps in colour terminology. Inher chapter, the author
tries to identify theways bywhich try these newwords have emerged from pre-
existingconcepts,usingonlinecorporatoanalysesuchmeaningsand indoingso,
outlinethesemantichistoryofpreto,negro,pardo,mestiçoandmulato.
The second section is devoted to the categorisation and lexicographic
description of colour terms. CARLAMARELLO&CRISTINAONESTI analyse the
ways in which diverse Italian dictionaries deal with colour-related terms, in
particular theattributionofmore thanonepartof speech,usuallyanounandan
adjective, to the same headword, and whether they supply the necessary
morphosyntactic information. They examine how monolingual dictionaries are
ratherquickinhostingnew(sub)entriesfornewcolours,allthemoresowhenthe
newcolour isasemanticneologism.Theyconcludethatdictionariesareslower in
registering morphosyntactic features of colour terms coupled with chiaro ‘light
shade’or scuro ‘deep shade’,whereas theydonot follow the samemicrostructure
schemainthewholedictionaryforallthearticlesdevotedtocolourterms.
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ALINA VILLALVA´s chapter focuses on categorisation issues. The author
presents a hypothesis that advocates the lexical distinction of colour nouns and
colouradjectives, claiming that colouradjectivesareobtainedbyconversion from
colour nouns, although colour adjectives are far more frequent than nouns in
contemporaryPortuguese.InPortuguese,asinmanyotherlanguages,colourwords
arelexicallyambiguouswithregardtotheirgrammaticalcategory.Syntaxmayhelp
todisambiguatebut itcannotclarifyhowever therelationship thatexistsbetween
suchwords.ThisoftenexplainswhyPortuguesecontemporarydictionariespresent
colourwords quite inconsistently; sometimes as nouns, other times as adjectives.
Thisgives rise to furtherquestions, suchaswhether, froma lexicalpointofview,
colournounsandcolouradjectivesareonesoleentityorrathertwodifferentitems,
andifindeedthelatter,howdotheydiffer.
Basedonrecentstudiesfocusingonthemetaphoricalandmetonymicalusesof
colour words, ERLING STRUDSHOLM, CARLA BAZZANELLA & IRENE RONGA
dealwith two particular, deeply entrenched elements regarding the use of colour
words: theirmetaphoricalmeanings and emotional values.More specifically, they
presentexamplesofmetaphoricalmeanings,drivenbyacolourword/collocatein
relation to their conventionalisation and their interlinguistic and intralinguistic
variationsontheonehand,andtheemotional,oftencontrastingvalues,whichare
triggeredbycolourterms,ontheother.Theprincipallanguagesincomparisonare
DanishandItalian,whichshareonlyapartiallycommonlinguisticbackgroundand
Europeanculturalheritage;buttheauthorsalsorefertootherlanguagesthathave
beenanalysedinstudieswhichfocusoncolourwordsfromappliedperspectivesand
alsoinrelationtometaphors,proverbs,idioms,andemotions.
In the final chapter, CAMELIA BLEOTU uses a comparative analysis to
examineverbsdenotingchangeofcolourorcausationofchangeofcolourinEnglish
andRomanian.Aswellaspointingoutthedifferencesbetweenthetwolanguages,
sheprovidesasyntacticrepresentationwhichinturnsenableshertoelucidatetheir
developmentalprocesses.
JoãoPauloSilvestre,EsperançaCardeira,AlinaVillalva
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I
Colournames,pan-Europeanperspective
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Adiachronicoverviewofcolortermsintheromancelanguages:thelexicalstabilityofthelatincolorvocabularyStevenN.Dworkin(UniversityofMichigan)
1.LexicalStability
For the specialist in Romance historical linguistics, lexical stability can be
definedas therateofsurvivalof inheritedspokenLatin lexical itemsthroughoral
transmissionintotheRomancelanguages.TheRomanistwhohasdevotedthemost
attentionto this topicwas the lateArnulfStefenelli (seeespeciallyStefenelli 1992,
1996,2011).Stefenellidistinguishesbetweenorally-transmittedLatinvocabularythat
liveson inallRomance languages, inmostRomance languages,or inonlyoneor
two Romance languages (in Stefenelli’s German terminology, ‘panromanisch’
‘interromanisch’,and ‘teilromanisch’ respectively).Hebasedhissurveyontheone
thousandmostfrequentLatinlexicalitemsaccordingtotwofrequencydictionaries
(Gardner 1971, Delatte et al., 1981). I am unaware of previous studies on lexical
stability in the Romance languages based on a systematic analysis of stability by
semanticcategories.Dworkin(2016)looksbrieflyatlexicalstabilityinsuchfieldsas
basic or lower numerals, kinship terminology, body parts, the calendar and the
seasons,anddomesticandwildanimals.Thispaperseeks todescribeandanalyze
the lexical stability of orally-transmitted Latin color terms or chromonyms in the
Romancelanguages.Inthiscontext, lexicalstabilityreferstothesurvivalasacore
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color term through oral transmission into the Romance languages of the Latin
lexical iteminquestion,anddoesnot implylackof furthersemanticorfunctional
evolution which form part of the word’s history in the individual Romance
languages. Secondarily, as appropriate, it will also make some observations as
relevantonthelexicalstabilitywithintherecordedhistoryofthevariousRomance
languagesofselectedRomancecolortermsandoftheroleoflexicalborrowingand
internalcreationsinthehistoryofsuchlexicalitems.
ThispaperwilllimititspurviewtotheRomancelabelsforsix--white,black,
red,green,yellow,blue--of theelevenbasicorcorecolorcategories identified in
Berlin-Kay(1969).Itwillbeconcernedprincipallywiththesurvivalornon-survival
oftheLatinchromaticlexiconsignifiersascoreRomancecolorterms,andnotwith
some of the difficult semantic interpretations of some of these terms in the
documentedmedieval stages of the Romance languages. Itwill not dealwith the
many Latin color terms that survive only as secondary labels with restricted
semantic scopes (the color of skin, hair, animal hides, etc.), nor will it deal with
figurativemeaningsthatmanyofthese itemsdevelopedovertime,e.g., theuseof
labelsfor‘green’todesignate‘unripe,immature,inexperienced’.
Written Latin had a rich color lexicon, with terms making distinctions
betweenbright,dark,andneutralhues.Insomeinstancesitisdifficulttodetermine
for a given set of Latin chromonyms which one was the core term. The most
detailed study of the Latin color lexicon remains André (1949). Only three Latin
color terms seems to fall into Stefenelli’s pan-Romance category, namely NIGER
‘black’,VIRIDIS ‘green’,andALBUS‘white’.WhereastheRomancedescendantsofthe
first two adjectives have lived on until today inmost of the Romance languages,
reflexes of ALBUS have been supplanted as a core color term in many Romance-
speakingregionsbytheintroductionofarivalGermanicbase.
2.Green
ThereislittletosayregardingthefateofVIRIDISintheRomancelanguages.As
can be seen from the following list of forms the Latin base has survived in all
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Romance-speakingregionsoftheformerEmpire:Sardinianbirde,Rumanian,Italian
verde, Engadine verd, Friulian, French,Occitan, Catalan vert, Spanish, Portuguese
verde,DolomiticLadinvërt,Veglioteverda.AsKristol(1978:271)states:“Levertest
un champ d’une simplicité sans pareil en ce qui concerne la diachronie du
vocabulaire…duchampdanslelatinclassiqueetdanstoutesleslanguesromanes”.
TheLatinadjectivehashadnoseriouscompetitors.TheDELLstates“Lafortunede
l’adjectifviridisdans les languesromanesprovientdesonemploi fréquentdans la
languerustique”(s.v.VIREO).Theimportanceofthecolorgreeninearlyagricultural
societiesraisesthequestionwhetherdesignationsfor‘green’showahighdegreeof
lexicalstabilityinotherlanguagefamilies.ThedatafoundinBuck(1949)pointsto
suchstability in theGermanicandSlavic languages.Nevertheless, theProto-Indo-
Europeanbasethathasbeenreconstructedfortheseitemsmaywellhavereferredto
plantandvegetationgrowth,and,consequently,wasnotabasiccolorterm(Biggam
2014:6-9);cf.Lat.virere‘toshowgreengrowth,tobegreenwithvegetation’.
3.Black
Latin had two terms for ‘black’, NIGER ‘shining black’ and ATER ‘dark black’
(both often employedwithmetaphorical negativemeanings). The latter seems to
have survivedonly inOld Italianatro andnorthern Italianadro as a chromonym
and,frequently,withsecondaryfigurativemeanings(LEI,s.v.ATER,TLIO).Varieties
ofGallo-Romance(especiallyOccitanandFrancoprovençal)offeralargenumberof
substantivizedorally-transmittedderivativesofATERusedtodesignatevariousdark-
colored fruits and plants; cf. Fr. airelle, ‘huckleberry’, and themany other dialect
reflexesrecordedinFEW,25,s.v.ATER.RareFratreisasixteenth-centuryLatinism,
andhasretainedthepejorativeconnotationsofitsLatinsource.
Orally-transmitted reflexes of NIGER are found from the time of the earliest
textsasthebasictermfor‘black’inalltheRomancelanguages:Frenchnoir,Spanish,
Portuguesenegro,Italiannero,Engadinenair,Friulianneri,Catalan,Occitannegre,
Rumaniannegru. One can also include here Sardiniannieḍḍu/nigeḍḍu < NIGELLUS
‘blackish’(REW3,#5917).InPortugueseandSpanish,negrofacedvaryingdegreesof
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competition from preto and prieto. The origin of these two forms is obscure.
Although they differ with regard to the details, Malkiel (1953) and the DCECH
derive them from the verb apretar ‘to squeeze’. Both these adjectives seem to be
synonyms ofnegro. Themedieval textual evidence offersmore examples ofnegro
than of prieto/preto; the small number of derivatives produced by these two
adjectives(OldSpanishpretura,OldPortuguesepretidão)maybespeak the relative
state of their vitality inmedieval Luso- andHispano-Romance.Whereas Spanish
prietowasalreadyconsideredobsoletebythebeginningoftheseventeenthcentury
(tojudgebythestatementinCovarrubias,Tesorodelalenguacastellanaoespañola
[1611]),pretograduallycametobethebasicdesignationfor‘black’inbothEuropean
andBrazilianPortuguese.
In some varieties of Dolomitic Ladin, fosc[h]/fosk, reflexes of lat. FUSCUS
‘dark, swarthy, brown’, are replacing or rivaling nejger, the local descendants of
NIGER.Given the late date of the first Ladin texts, the analyst cannot determine
whetherthisrivalrygoesbacktothelevelofregionalspokenLatinorrepresentsa
latersemanticevolutionofthedescendantsofFUSCUS.
4.White
Latindistinguishedtwotermsfor‘white’,ALBUS,thebasicterm,andCANDIDUS,
‘brilliant,shiningwhite’.Theformerleftreflexesin(almost)allRomanceterritories.
Although the family of ALBUS has left descendants in Gallo- and Italo-Romance,
examplesofOldFrenchalbe/aubeandOldItalianalvoasanindependentadjective
are very rare. Schafer (1987: 36) calls into question the authenticity of the few
instances of the Old French forms. The Latin adjective has survived in such
compounds as aubifoin, aubépine ‘hawthorn’, and in such toponyms asAuberive,
Fiumalbo.TheLEI,(s.v.ALBUS)recordsmedievalexamplesofalbousedtodescribe
thefruitofcertainplants(ficoalbo),paper,clothing,andtextiles.Italsoclaimsthat
theexampleofalbo intheso-calledIndovinelloVeronese isprobablyaLatinform.
Although far outnumbered in Spanish and Portuguese by blanco and branco
respectively,alvoseemstohaveenjoyedahighdegreeofvitalityasacoloradjective
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inmedievalSpanishandPortuguese.beforefallingintodisuseintheearlymodern
period (for examples, see DEM, s.v. albo). ALBUS has also survived in relic areas:
Rumanian alb, Vegliote yualb, Friulian stradalbe ‘Milky Way’, Grigione alf/alva,
LowerEngadinealp/alba,Sardinianalbu,alvu,archaicarvu.
In contrast, CANDIDUS did not fare well in the Romance languages. Some
northernvarietiesofItalo-Romancecontainsuchformsascando/canda,cand(e);see
LEI(s.v.CANDIDUS).Doescandido,welldocumentedinmedievaltextswithreferenceto
objects,cloths,textiles,reflectlearnedororaltransmissionoftheLatinbase(cf.tiepido<
TEPIDUS) ?; This Latin base also survived in some varieties of southern Gallo-
Romance: Occitan cande ‘blanc; clair, proper; transparent (de l’eau); Cantal,
Limousin.cande‘trèsblanc’,Gasconcande‘brillant,propre’purblancclair;seeFEW
(Vol.2:281-282).
ThereisnoevidenceforthesurvivalofCANDIDUSasanindependentadjective
in Spanish or Portuguese. The toponymRucandio (province of Burgos) has been
explained as a derivative of RIVUS CANDIDUS (García Sánchez 2007: 161, 261); oral
transmissionofCANDIDUSwouldhaveyielded*candioinHispano-Romance.Dothe
toponymsCandemuela, Candepajares (Menéndez Pidal 1950: par. 39:1), as well as
Spanish, Portuguese. trigo candial,OldCatalan forment candel, Gascpan canesal,
referringtoatypeofwheatthatproducesaverywhitebread,bespeakthepresence
at some point in the spoken Latin of the Iberian Peninsula of the Latin family
headedbyCANDERE‘tobeshiningwhite’?
InmostRomancevarietiesthereflexesofALBUSandCANDIDUSgavewaybefore
descendants of theGermanic root *BLANK ‘bright, shiningwhite’,whichmayhave
been employed at the outsetwith reference to horses, and only later came to be
applied to animals,weapons, and thehuman face.Reflexesof thisGermanicbase
arewidespreadintheRomancelanguages:Frenchblanc,Spanishblanco,Portuguese
branco, Italian bianco, Catalan blanc, Friulian blanc, Dolomitic Ladin blanch.
Specialistshaveoffered twodifferent analyses for the introduction, incorporation,
and diffusion of these chromonyms in the Romance languages. One school of
thought holds that theGermanic base represents a very early borrowing into the
LatinoftheEmpireinthoseregionsofLatin-Germaniclinguisticcontact(henceits
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absence from Rumanian). I am not aware of any vestiges of a Latinized
*blankus/blancus in post-Classical sources (cf. blavus ‘blue’, below). More recent
thinkinghasproposedthattheGermanicbasefirstenteredthespokenlanguageof
Gaul, fromwhere it spread elsewhere (with the localphonetic adjustmentsof the
/bl-/ cluster) with the Carolinagian Empire (for a summary of the pertinent
argumentsandrelevantbibliographyseetheentry[authoredbyM.Barbato]inLEI,
Germanismi,fascicolo6:cols.1053-1057).
5.Red
Although RUBER (documented as early as Ennius and traceable to a proto-
Indoeuropeanbase))mayhavebeenthecoredesignationfor‘red’inwrittenLatin,
flanked by RUFUS (whose medial –F- points to its non-Latin Italic origin), the
Romanceevidenceshowsthatitfailedtostrikerootinthespokenlanguage.Before
fallingintodisuseRUBERactedondialectalandruralROBUS/ROBEUS,whichoriginally
designatedthehidesofanimals,especiallyoxen.Theresultofthislexicalblendwas
RUBEUS, the source of French rouge, Occitan roge, Catalan roig, Spanish rubio,
Portuguese ruivo, Sardinian, ruyu, short-lived Old Italian robbio, and Rumanian
roib.AlthoughtheseRomanceformsdocumentthelexicalstabilityofrubeusinthe
transition from Latin to Romance, their semantic ranges show a high degree of
variation. Rumanian roib designated only the coat of a horse; Spanish rubio and
Portugueseruivo indicateareddishorstrawberryblonde,especiallywithregardto
hair color, ameaning that is found inmedieval sources. (Cunha 2014: 2255).Old
Italianrobbioisfoundmainlyinnotarialtextstodescribethecolorofsteers,cows,
and calves. In a contiguous swath of territory comprising French, Occitan, and
Catalan,thereflexesofRUBEUSlistedabovefacedcompetitionasthebasictermfor
‘red’fromthedescendantsofVERMICULUS(seebelow).
Though not frequent in written Latin, RUSS(E)US ‘brownish-red; red-haired’
enjoyedmuch vitality in the spoken language as illustrated by Old Spanish roxo
(modernrojo),Portugueseroxo,Frenchroux,Catalanros,Italianrosso,Friulianros,
Vegliote ruas/raus. The French and Catalan terms here designate a hair color.
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Though not unknown in earlier periods, Old Spanish roxo appears infrequently
before the fifteenth century. Medieval Spanish preferred vermejo/bermejo as the
designationfor‘red’,asdoesPortuguesetodaywithvermelho.Portugueseroxonow
designates a color leaning toward ‘purple’, and is scantily documented with the
meaning ‘red’ in medieval sources (Swearingen 2014). Specialists in Rumanian
etymology aredivided as towhether roşu ‘red’ goesback to RUSSEUS or to ROSEUS
Phonetically both bases can account for roşu, but favors RUSSUS on grounds of
semanticidentityseemtofavorRUSSEUS.
Asacolorterm,VERMICULUS,diminutiveofVERMIS‘worm’originallyreferredto
abrightredorscarletdyeproducedbythelarvaofacertainsmallworm.Itisfirst
attested as a color adjective in the Vulgate (Exodus 35:25), where it designates a
brightcolor,varyinglytranslatedinEnglishbiblesas‘crimson’or‘scarlet’.InIsidore
ofSeville,itseemstobeequatedwithRUBER.InmedievalvarietiesofRomanceits
descendants (Old French vermeil, Old Spanish vermejo) often served as the core
termfor‘red,astatusthatstillappliestoPortuguesevermelhoandCatalanvermell.
Typologically similar is the history of COCCINUS/COCCINEUS ‘scarlet colored’ <
COCCUM ‘berry/insect that grows upon the scarlet oak’, attested already as color
terms inLatin,whosereflexeshavebecomethecore labels for ‘red’ inRomontsch
and inDolomitic Ladin (tgietschen, cotschens, cöc and other formal variants; see
Kramer,EWDS, Liver 2012:88).Kramercites regionalRumaniancoacin ‘brebis au
museaujauneourougeâtre’,megelenorumaniancoatsin ‘red’asadditionalreflexes
ofthisbase.
6.Yellow
NooneLatintermthatdesignatedshadesof‘yellow’cametodominateinthe
Romancelanguages.LatinlabelsforshadesofthecolorinquestionarePALLIDUS,
FALVUS, FULVUS, LURIDUS, MELLEUS, CROCEUS, GALBINUS. This last term,
whichmeant ‘greenish-yellow’ is the source of Rumanian galbàn andOld French
jalne (the forerunner of modern jaune). The Old French form was borrowed as
16
Italian giallo (> Sardinian ğallu/dzallu [DES: 602]), Sicilian gálinu, Friulan zâl,
DolomiticLadinghel,andOldSpanishjalde.
Elsewhere,variousLatinwordsbecamethebasiclabelfor‘yellow’.Amongthe
labelsfor‘yellow’intheIberianPeninsula,SpanishamarilloandPortugueseamarelo
haveauniquehistory.Amplydocumentedinthemedievallanguage,bothcontinue
AMARELLUS, diminutiveof AMARUS ‘bitter’ (PérezGonzález 2010: 40).The semantic
historyreflectsthemedievalbeliefthatayellowishskincolorcharacterizedaperson
sufferingfromanexcessofbile.CatalangroccontinuesLatinCROCUS‘saffron’,asdid
OldOccitangrocbefore itcededto jauna/jaune,borrowings fromnorthernGallo-
Romance. Wagner (DES: s.v. grogo) and Coromines (DECat, s.v. groc) consider
Sardiniangrogo/grogutobeCatalanisms.InRomontschthebasictermfor ‘yellow’
ismellen, a reflex of LatinMELINUS ‘pertaining toquince’ (Liver 2012: 73).Wagner
pointsoutthatinSardinian,melinurefersspecificallytoacolorofahorse’shide.In
somevarietiesofOccitan,rosset/rossel,atermreferringtoredcolorhairelsewhere,
hasbecomethebasicwordfor‘yellow’.
7.Blue
ThevariousLatinadjectivesforthedifferentshadesof‘blue’–CAERULUS‘sky-
blue’,LIVIDUS,GLAUCUS,CAESIUS(usedonlywithreferencetotheeyes),andVENETUS
‘sea blue’ – did not fare well in the Romance languages. Of these terms, only
VENETUS survived throughoral transmission intoRumanianasvînăt.Nevertheless,
thecoreterminRumanianfor ‘blue’ isalabastru,adescendantofLatinALABASTER
‘alabaster,typeofwhitishmarble’,alreadydocumentedin1588(AcademiaRomână
2012:60).Theoriginalmeaningofalbastrumayhavebeen ‘gray,ash-colored’,as in
Arumanianoaiealbastra‘graysheep’(Mihaescu1993:227).
MostRomancelanguageshaveturnedtoborrowingsfromotherlanguagesto
designate‘blue’.TheoldestappearstobeGermanic*BLAO,thesourceofOldFrench
blo(modernbleu).ThisbasealsolivesoninRomontsch,Friulian,DolomiticLadin,
varietiesofnorthernItalian,andVegliote.Italianistsanalyzebluasanearlymodern
Gallicism.InDolomiticLadinonefindsbrüm,glossedintheEWDas‘dunkelblau’,
17
but translated in Latin as ‘caerulus color’ in 1763 (Bartolomei). Its source is the
GermanicbasethatgivesFr.brun‘brown’.InDolomiticLadinblé(f),usedtodayonly
insomeregions,canmean‘lightblue’(EWD,300,362).
Spanish,Portuguese,andItalianhaveadaptedanArabicbaseLĀZAWARDasthe
coretermfor‘blue’.Spanishazulisrarelydocumentedpriortothemidthirteenth-
century, when it is usually found as a nounmeaning ‘lapis lazuli’. The Alfonsine
corpusprovidesnoexamplesof adjectivalazul (KastenandNitti 2002).Thebasic
Arabic term for ‘blue’ ZARQA is the source of Spanish, Portuguese zarco, with a
specializedmeaning ‘light blue’.Most of the nine thirteenth century examples of
zarco found inCORDEare in texts suchasPoridatde lasporidades, Judiziode las
estrellas,Bocadosdeoro,allbasedonArabicoriginals.SinceazulenteredSpanishas
part of a technical jargon, how did speakers of earlymedieval Hispano-Romance
denotethecolor‘blue’(assumingthattheyhadneedtodoso)?Mightadescendant
of theGermanicbasediscussedabovehaveenjoyedsomedegreeofvitality in the
spokenRomancevarietiesof the IberianPeninsula?A listunder theheading “De
coloribus versium” in the Etimologiae of Isidore of Seville (xix: 28:8) contains a
Latinized blavus (Sofer 1930: 108-109). Lapesa (2003: 94) records one example of
blavo in a late eleventh-century document from the eastern part of the Iberian
Peninsula.OpinionsaredividedastowhetherCatalanblauisaGallicismoralocal
descendantof*BLAO.Althoughazzurro is foundinOldItaliantexts,thereissome
questionastoitsvitalityinthespokenlanguageatearlierstages.Itdoesnotappear
in Italian dialects, where one finds for blue terms cognate to standard turchino.
AlthoughbluisamodernGallicism,OldItaliantextsofferexamplesofbiada,biado,
blavo, blava, and theGallicismbioa, biodo, bioe, bioi, bioia, bioio, bloi, bloio, broi,
broia,broio<OldFrenchbloi.
8.ABriefConclusion
Incomparison to theother semantic fieldsexamined inDworkin2016,Latin
colortermsshowarelatively lowdegreeof lexicalstability inthetransitiontothe
Romance languages. Itwouldbeworthwhile studying theevolutionofbasic color
18
termsinotherindividuallanguagesoracrosslanguagefamiliestoseeifthisrelative
lack of diachronic lexical stability is widespread cross-linguistically. It seems that
there is a great degree of variability and instability with regard to how humans
physicallyandcognitivelyperceiveanddistinguishthevarioustonesandshadesof
color.Itseemsreasonabletoconcludethatthisperceptualandcognitiveinstability
may be linguistically reflected in the historical evolution of the Latin chromatic
vocabularyintheRomancelanguages.
References
Abbreviations
DECAT=Coromines1980-2002
DCECH=CorominasandPascual1980-1991
DÉLL=Eronut-Meillet1967
DEM=Müller1987-
DES=Wagner1960-64
EWD=Kramer1988-1998
FEW=Wartburg1922-2002
LEI=PfisterandSchweickard1979-
TLIO=Beltrami1998-
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André, J. (1949). Étude sur les termes de couleur dans la langue latine. Paris:Klincksieck.
Beltrami, P. (dir) (1998-). Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini. Florencia:CNR/AccademiadellaCrusca(http://gattoweb.ovi.cnr.it).
Berlin, B. andKay, P. (1969).Basic Color Terms: TheirUniversality and Evolution.Berkeley,LosAngeles,andLondon:UniversityofCaliforniaPress.
Biggam,C.P. (2014). “PrehistoricColourSemantics:AContradiction inTerms”, InAnderson,W.etalii(eds.),ColourStudies:ABroadSpectrum.AmsterdamandPhiladelphia:JohnBenjamins,3-28.
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Buck,C.D.(1949).ADictionaryofSelectedSynonymsinthePrincipleIndo-Europeananguages.Chicago:UniversityofChicagoPress.
Capidan,Th.(1935).Meglenoromânii,III.Dicționarmeglenoromân.Bucarest:CarteaRomânească.
Corominas, J. and Pascual, J. A. (1980-1991). Diccionario crítico etimológicocastellanoehispánico.6vols.Madrid:Gredos.
Coromines, J. (1980-2001). Diccionari etimologic i complementari de la llenguacatalana.10vols.Barcelona:Curial.
Cunha,A.G.da(2014),Vocabuláriohistórico-cronológicodoportuguêsmedieval.RiodeJaneiro:FundaçãoCasadeRuiBarbosa.
Delatte,L.etalii.(1981).Dictionnairefréquentieletindexinversedelalanguelatine.Liège:L.A.S.L.A.
Dworkin, S. N. (2016): “Lexical Stability and Shared Lexicon”. inMaiden,M. andLedgeway,A.(eds.).OxfordGuidetotheRomanceLanguages,Oxford:OxfordUniversityPress,577-587.
Ernout, A. and Meillet, A. (1967): Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine:Histoiredesmots.Fourthed.Paris:Klincksiesck.
GarcíaSánchez,J.J.(2007):AtlastoponímicodeEspaña,Madrid:ArcoLibros.Gardner,D. (1971).A FrequencyDictionary of Classical LatinWords. Unpublished
Dissertation,StanfordUniversity.Grossmann, M. and D’Achille, P. (2015). “Italian Color Terms in the BLUE Area:
Synchrony and Diachrony”. Paper read at the International Conference“Colour and Colour Naming: Crosslinguistic Approaches”, Lisboa, July 2-3,2015.
Kasten,L.A.andNitti,J.J.(2002).DiccionariodelaprosacastellanadelReyAlfonsoX.NewYork:HispanicSeminaryofMedievalStudies.
Kramer,J.(dir.)(1988-1998).EtymologischesWörterbuchdesDolomitenladinischen.Hamburg:Buske.
Kristol, A. M. (1978). COLOR Les langues romanes devant le phénomène de lacouleur.RomanicaHelvetica88.Berne:Francke.
Lapesa, R. con la colaboración de Constantino García (2003). Léxico hispánicoprimitivo (siglosVIIIalXII).Versionprimitivadel “Glosariodelprimitivo léxicoiberorrománico”. Ed. Manuel Seco. Madrid: Fundación Ramón MenéndezPidal/RealAcademiaEspañola.
Liver, R. (2012). Der Wortschatz des Bünderromanischen. Elemente zu einerrätoromanischenLexicologie,Berne:FranckeVerlag.
Malkiel,Y.(1953[1955].“Apretar,pr(i)eto,perto:historiadeuncrucehispanolatino”,Thesaurus:BoletíndelInstitutoCaroyCuervo9,1-139.
MenéndezPidal,R. (1950).Orígenesdel español:Estado lingüísticode laPenínsulaibéricahastaelsigloXI.Thirdedition.Madrid:Espasa-Calpe.
Mihaescu, H. (1993). La Romanité dans le Sud-Est de l’Europe, Bucharest: EdituraAcademieRomâne.
Müller,Bodo(1987-):Diccionariodelespañolmedieval,Heidelberg:Winter.PérezGonzález,Maurilio(2010):LexiconLatinitatisMediiAeviRegniLeonis(S.VIII-
1230)Imperfectum,Turnhout:Brepols.
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Pfister, M. y Schweickard, W. (1979-). Lessico etimológico italiano, Wiesbaden:Reichert.
Ramat, A. Giacalone (1967). “Colori germanici nel mondo romanzo”, en Atti ememoriedell’AccademiaToscanadiScienzeeLettere“LaColombaria”,32,105-211.
Schäfer, B. (1987). Die Semantik der Farbadjektive im Altfranzösischen, Tubinga:GunterNarr.
Sofer,Johann(1930):LateinischesundRomanischesausdenEtymologiaedesIsidorusvon Sevilla. Untersuchungen zur lateinischen und romanischen Wortkunde,Göttingen:Vandenhoeck&Ruprecht.
Stefenelli,A.(1992).DasSchicksaldeslateinischenWortschatzesindenromanischenSprachen.Passau:Rothe.
– (1996). “Gemeinromanische Tendenzen VIII. Lexikon undSemantik/Tendances communes aux langues romanes VIII. Lexique etsémantique”,inHoltus,G.,M.Metzeltin,M.,andC.Schmitt,C.(eds.),LexiconderRomanistischenLinguistik2:1.Tübingen:MaxNiemeyerVerlag,368-86.
– (2011).“LexicalStability”,inMaiden,M.,Smith,J.C.andLedgeway,A.(eds.),Cambridge History of the Romance Languages, I: Structures. Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,564-84.
Swearingen, A. (2014). “From Blood to Worms: The Semantic Evolution of aPortuguese Colour Term”. In Anderson, W. et alii (eds.), Colour Studies: ABroadSpectrum.AmsterdamandPhiladelphia:JohnBenjamins,79-92.
Wagner,M. L. (1960-1964).Dizionario etimológico sardo. 3 vols. Heidelberg: CarlWinterUniversitätsverlag.
Wartburg, W. von (1922-2002). Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch. Einedarstelleung des galloromanischen sprachsatzes. 25 vols,Bonn/Heidelberg/Leipzig-Berlin/Basel,Klopp/Winter/Teubner/Zbinden.
21
ItaliancolourtermsintheBLUEarea:synchronyanddiachronyMariaGrossmann(UniversityofL’Aquila)PaoloD’Achille(UniversityofRomaTre)
1.Briefsurveyoftheliterature
The linguistic encoding of colour – i.e. the existence of a continuum that
different languages break into arbitrary discrete segments and the evolution
towards ever more complex and differentiated colour-naming systems – is a
privileged topic for both ethnolinguistics and psycholinguistics. Semantics also
frequentlyreferstocolourtermsforillustratingtheoreticalissues.Colourtermsare
ofcoursealsothesubjectofspecificresearch.
Colour-naming in its different aspects (linguistic, perceptive, cognitive,
cultural) has been a privileged area of research for linguists, psychologists and
anthropologistssincethe19thcentury.Grossmann(1988),astudyonthesemantics
of colour terms in Catalan, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, Latin and Hungarian,
includes a history of the literature and an interdisciplinary bibliography of about
1300studiesonthecolour-namingsystemsofdifferentlanguagespublishedbetween
1814and1987.Thenumberofworkspublishedafterthisdateissohighthatweshall
onlybeabletomentionafewhere.
The“space”ofcolournames,whosereferentisthecolourspace,ismadeupof
thesemanticstructureofasetoflexemes.Thelinguisticencodingoftheperceptual
andphysicalsubstanceofcoloursimpliesageneralizationprocess:eachnamerefers
toagroupofshades,abstractingawayfromthedifferencesamongthem.Different
22
languagessegmentthecolourspaceindifferentways:theboundariesofindividual
categoriesmay fall indifferentplaces; theremaybedifferences in: thenumberof
availableterms,thebasisformakingdistinctions,theweightattributedtothethree
psycho-sensorialvariablesofcolour,i.e.hue(whatalaymanreferstowhentalking
aboutcolourbyclassifyinghis/herperceptionas‘green’,‘red’,etc.),brightness(the
variation in intensity, passing from lighter to darker shades), saturation (the
percentageofpurehueinacolour;saturationishigherwhenthecolourappearsto
be less blended with white). The assessment of differences between languages
shouldalsotakeaccountofotherfactorssuchas: insomelanguages,colourterms
canalsoincludeinformationaboutotherfactorsbesidesthethreeaforementioned
variables (succulence vs. desiccation, featuresof surface texture, featuresof shape
andconsistency,etc.);often,apartfromidentifyingagivenshade,colournamescan
beusedassymbolsforrepresentingsocial,religiousandmoralconceptsofvarying
complexity.Also, intralinguisticdifferencescanemergebasedonvariablessuchas
age,gender,educationandsocialstatusofspeaker.
Themost recent studiesoncolour termscanbe framed in themoregeneral
debate regarding linguistic relativism vs. universalism. The seminal work in this
respectisthe1969bookbyBrentBerlinandPaulKay.Theirresearchwasaimedat
demonstratingboththeexistenceofuniversalsincolourlexiconsandthepresence
of an evolutionary connection between these universals and the historical
developmentoflanguages.Accordingtothesetwoscholars,thereexistsauniversal
inventory of eleven perceptual categories that act as psychophysical referents for
basiccolourterms(twotoeleven)ineachlanguage.Thesetermshaveanumberof
characteristic features: fromthemorphologicalpointofview theyarenotcomplex;
fromthesemanticpointofviewtheyarenottransparent,theyarenothyponymsof
othertermsandtheirapplicationisnotrestrictedtospecificclassesofentities;from
thepsychologicalpointofview,theyaresalienttospeakers.Non-basiccolourterms,
on the other hand, are morphologically analysable, semantically transparent and
generallymorerecentthanbasicterms.Whenalanguageencodeslessthaneleven
categories,accordingtoBerlinandKay,restrictionsapplytothecategoriesthatare
actuallyencoded.Astothehistoricalevolutionofthecolourlexicon,itisassumed
23
that the encoding of the eleven universal perceptual categories takes place, as
shown in Figure 1, in a partially fixed chronological order of seven evolutionary
stages(Berlin/Kay1969:4):
Figure1
Berlin andKay’s (1969) bookwas a “revolution” in colour-naming studies. It
attracted vast consensus, but alsowidespread disagreement, and literally boosted
researchaimedatvalidatingorinvalidatingthetheoryofthetwoscholars.Weshall
mention but a few of the many partial revisions and successive elaborations of
BerlinandKay’stheses.Kay(1975)revisitedthetemporalorderinwhichfocalpoints
are encoded by introducing the GRUE category and established correlations
betweentheevolutionofcolourtermsystemsandthesynchronicheterogeneityofa
linguistic community. Itwas againKay, this time in collaborationwithMcDaniel
(1978),whointroduced:a)thedistinction,basedontheneurophysiologyofcolour
vision, between “primary”, “composite” and “derived” colour categories; b) the
reinterpretation of the evolutionary sequence, no longer seen as a successive
encoding of new focal points but rather as a differentiation of previously existing
primary colour categories. The two scholars maintain that the number of basic
terms in a language canbehigher than that assumedbyBerlin andKay and that
theirnumbercanvaryevenwithinoneandthesame linguisticcommunity(Kay/
McDaniel 1978: 640-641). Other important studies were authored by Kay et al.
(1997),Kay/Maffi(1999,2013)andotherscholarswhoworkedonthedatacollected
fortheWorldColorSurvey(Kayetal.2009;http://www1.icsi.berkeley.edu/wcs/)and
theMesoamericanColorSurvey (MacLaury 1997andotherstudies in the “Vantage
theory” framework). A different interpretation of the evolutionary sequence was
proposedbyWierzbicka(1990)whoseesthedevelopmentofnewbasiccolourterms
24
as a consequence of the differentiation of complex concepts and not as the
emergenceofnewfocalpoints.
AfterthepublicationofBerlinandKay’sbook,tryingtoanswerthequestion
whether the number of basic terms could be increased past the elevenmark has
been a frequent challenge for colour vocabulary studies in individual languages.
Actually,theauthorsthemselvesdidnotruleoutthepossibilitythat12basicterms
couldexist.ThestatusoftheRussiantermssinij‘blue/darkblue’andgoluboj‘light
blue’andtheHungarianpiros‘red1’andvörös‘red2’wasinfactleftopen:ontheone
handBerlinandKayadmitthepossibilitythatallcouldbebasic(thusraisingto12
the number of basic terms in those two languages), on the other hand they also
consider the possibility that goluboj and vörös are secondary terms that denote
differentshadesofthebasictermssinijandpiros(Berlin/Kay1969:35-36,95,99).
The dichotomy between the Hungarian terms piros ‘red1’ and vörös ‘red2’,
pointedoutbyBerlinandKay,generatedinterestinmanyscholars(cf.Grossmann
2006, Uusküla 2011, Benczes / Tóth-Czifra 2014, and their references). Other
analysesintheREDareahavebeencarriedoutasregardsthedistributionofvermell
and roig in Catalan (Grossmann 1988), rojo, colorado and encarnado in Spanish
(Grossmann1988),vermelho,encarnadoandroxo inEuropeanPortuguese(Correia
2006,Schäfer-Priess2010,Silvestreetal.2014),červenýandrudýinCzech(Uusküla
2011).IntheBROWNarea,Forbes(1979,1986,2006)studiedthedichotomybetween
brunandmarroninFrench.
Thedisputed status of theRussian terms sinij ‘blue / darkblue’ andgoluboj
‘light blue’ ignited an interesting debate among linguists, psychologists and
anthropologists.Thereisavastliteratureonthesubject,includingworksbyagroup
ofresearchersattheUniversityofSurrey(Corbett/Morgan1988,Morgan/Corbett
1989,Moss et al. 1990,Davies /Corbett 1994, 1997, Laws et al. 1995,Davies et al.
1998, etc.) and variousRussian scholars (discussed in Paramei 2005, 2007). These
studies are based on experiments with informants (work with colour arrays -
naming,mapping,identifyingfocalpoint;color-elicitingtasks,etc.),occasionallyin
combinationwithananalysisofcorpus-basedfrequency,derivationalpotentialand
collocationalpreferencesoftheterms.Whilethereisagreementuponthefactthat
25
bothtermsarebasicandvaryonthebrightnessaxis(goluboj, lightvs.sinij,dark),
recent research singled out the existence of differences in their combinatory
possibilities and in their figurative, connotative and symbolic meanings. An
interestingresearchangleisprovidedbyTayloretal.(1997):Theauthors,whobuild
on MacLaury’s “Vantage theory”, underline the partial overlapping of the
distributionofthetwolexemesandassigna“dominant”roleproperofabasicterm
tosinijasopposedtoa“recessive”,non-basicstatustogoluboj.
BerlinandKay’sbookand,morespecifically,thedebateonthestatusofsinij
andgolubojignitedavastnumberofspecificstudiesontheBLUEareaalsoinother
languages, such Ukrainian and Bielorussian (Hippisley 2001, Starko 2013), Polish
(Stanulewicz 2010, Skuza 2014), Old English (Biggam 1997), Old French (Schäfer-
Priess 2011), Catalan (Davies et al. 1995), Modern Greek (Androulaki et al. 2006,
Athanasopoulos 2009),Nepali (Bolton et al. 1980), Turkish (Özgen /Davies 1998,
Rätsep2011),Maltese(Borg2011),Udmurt(Ryabina2011),etc.
The literature on colour terms in Italian is rather substantial. Most of the
studies, be they on the entire set of colour terms or specifically on the nearest
equivalents of sinij and goluboj, were published after Berlin / Kay (1969). Among
studies published before Berlin / Kay (1969), attention should be drawn to two
studiesmoving fromaRomanceperspective:Martius (1947), adissertationon the
BLUEarea, andGiacaloneRamat (1967), awide-rangingpaperon colour termsof
Germanicorigin.Inoutliningthehistoryofblu,GiacaloneRamatalsodwellsonthe
semanticrelationshipsbetweenazzurro,blu,celesteandturchino incontemporary
Italianandobservesthatblutookoverazzurroasthetermusedforalltheshadesof
theBLUEarea.
AlsotheworksbyKristolandGrossmannmove fromaRomanceperspective
and,fromthemethodologicalpointofview,arecouchedintheframeworkoflexical
semantics. In his book,Kristol (1978) analyses Italian colour terms both from the
synchronicandthediachronicpointofview;inGrossmann’smonograph(1988;cf.
alsoGrossmann/Mazzoni1972,1976)thetypologicaloverviewofdifferentnaming
systemsismainlyfromasynchronicperspectiveandthedescriptionofthehistorical
evolution of colour terminology is limited to Catalan.With respect to the BLUE
26
area,Kristolcomestotheconclusionthatazzurro,thedominantterminthearea,
washistoricallypresentonlyinthewrittenlanguageandabsentinthedialects,and
entered the spoken language only after the political unification of Italy. Also in
written language, celeste denotes light shades whereas turchino and blu denote
darkershadesoftheBLUEarea(theturchino-bludualismisaccountedforbythe
puristpreferenceinthe19thcenturyforturchinotothedetrimentofblu,awordof
Frenchorigin).AccordingtoKristol,bothcelesteandblu/turchinoarecommonin
dialects, with a predominance ofblu. Grossmann (1988: 170), based on data from
lexicographic sources and informant interviews,underlines that in some speakers’
opinionazzurrodenotesashadein-betweenceleste ‘lightblue’andblu ‘darkblue’,
whereasforothersitsmeaningissimilartocelesteandbothareinoppositiontoblu.
Grossmannfurtherunderlinesthattheextensionofoneofthetwoterms,azzurroor
blu, or both, as also their degree of usage are subject to diatopic, diastratic and
diaphasicvariation.
RED, YELLOWand BLUE are the subject of a recentwork by Skuza (2014).
Building on previous synchronic and diachronic studies on the colour lexicon in
Italian and Polish, the author broadens the research field to a number of
ethnolinguisticandculturalaspects.MentionshouldalsobegiventoRonga(2009)
wheretheauthorexaminesfromahistoricalperspectivethelinguisticandcultural
factorsthatledtothe“exceptionofblue”inItalian,asopposedtootherEuropean
languages.
Many recent psycholinguistic studies on the BLUE area in Italian adopt
methodologiessimilartothoseadoptedbytheaforementionedstudiesonRussian
andotherlanguages,i.e.theyarebasedonnamingexperimentsandelicitationtasks
and,insomecases,onidentifyingcollocationalpreferences.Amongthem:Paggetti
et al. (2011), Sandford (2012),Valdegamberi et al. (2011),Paggetti /Menegaz (2012,
2013), Paramei / Menegaz (2013), Bimler / Uusküla (2014), Paramei et al. (2014),
Uusküla(2014),Paggettietal.(2015).Theoverallfindingsconfirmthatnamingthe
areainItalianrequiresatleasttwobasicterms,bluplusazzurroand/orceleste,and
show that the prototypes for the latter two and their interrelationship are
determined by diatopic factors. It is further shown that blu, apart from denoting
27
darkshades,canalsoactashyperonymforthetwootherterms.Significantinthis
respectaretheanswerstoataskonhyponymyrelationscollectedbySandford(2012:
287):“‘KindofBLUE’taskresponsesshowthat93%ofItalianinformantsresponded
affirmativelytoazzurroasakindofblu,and100%affirmedthatcelesteisakindof
blu,butbluisnotakindofazzurroorceleste.Only10%ofinformantsclaimedthat
celeste was a type of azzurro.” The author claims that even though both blu and
azzurromaintaintheirstatusasbasiccolourtermsincontemporaryItalian,azzurro
isexperiencingagradualrecession.
The structure of naming systems that fall within our interest has also been
studied in other Romance languages spoken in Italy and Italo-Romance dialects.
Kristol (1979, 1980) authored two specific studies on the history and usage of
azzurro,blu,celesteandturchinoinItalo-Romancedialects.Basedondataextracted
frommaterialcollected in theperiod 1919-1927 for the linguisticandethnographic
atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland by K. Jaberg and J. Jud (Sprach- und
Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz, Zofingen, Ringier, 1928-1940), Kristol
identifies regression phenomena, i.e. a system that is poorer when compared to
Latin, and claims that Italian dialects are basically a “museum” of the different
evolutionarystagesofthecolourlexicon.DataalsosupportKristol’s(1978)findings
on the status of azzurro. Vincent (1986, cf. also 1987) points out an interesting
coexistenceinNaplesofthreeforms,ble,bleu[blø]andblu.Thesearedifferentand
independent adaptations of the French term bleu, whose usage is influenced by
diastratic and diaphasic factors. Sardinian colour terms have been studied by
Giacalone Ramat (1978) and Wolf (1985). Giacalone Ramat (1978) points out a
dialectaldifferentiationasregardscentraltermsintheBLUEarea:Southerndialects
use an Ispanism, aṡúlu (< Sp. azul ‘blue’) as central term,whereas the Italianism
biaíttu(<It.biadetto ‘bluish’orMedievalLat.bladictus)iswidespreadinNorthern
dialects.OneshouldalsorememberZörner(2005),astudyonthecolourlexiconin
somePiedmonteseandFranco-ProvençaldialectsspokeninNorthernItaly.
Various morphological features of Italian colour terms, i.e. patterns for
formingderivedandcompoundwords,havebeenstudiedinGrossmann/Mazzoni
(1972), Grossmann (1988), Elwert (1989), Koura (1992), Timmermann (2002) and
28
D’Achille/Grossmann(2013).
There are also specific works on the figurative, idiomatic and symbolic
meanings of Italian colour terms. Among them, with specific reference to new
coinages, the rather substantial study by Fresu (2006) and, in a contrastive
perspective,Arcaini(1993,1996)onItalianandFrench,Philip(2003,2006)onItalian
and English, Bronowski (1998) and Skuza (2010, 2014) on Italian and Polish, Ross
(1989)onItalianandDutch,Bocz(2012)onItalianandHungarian.Furtherresearch
dealtwithtraductological(Pierini2000)andacquisitional(Mecacci/Serafini1987)
aspectsofthecolourlexicon.
2.LatincolourtermsintheBLUEarea
ThetermsoftheBLUEareainLatinwereratherlimitedasopposedtoother
areas of the colour space, such as RED or YELLOW. The term with the broader
meaningintheBLUEareawascaerul(e)us(cf.André1949:162-183,GiacaloneRamat
1967:184-187,Kristol1978:220-228,Grossmann1988:111-112).Caerul(e)us isderived
fromcaelu(m)‘sky’,buttherelationshipbetweenthetwotermswasmostlikelyno
longertransparenttospeakers,whoprimarilyusedcaerul(e)us fordenotingrather
dark shadesofblue,which inparticular contexts tended toblackorgreen. Itwas
usedfordescribingthecolourofthesky,thesea,thebluebandinarainbowanda
colouring agent. Also cyaneus and lividus denoted dark shades: the first term, of
Greekorigin,describedthecolourofthesky,ofsapphires,birds,etc.,whereasthe
secondmainlyreferredtothepurplishbluecolouroftheskinfollowingatrauma.
Asforlightshades,withparticularreferencetoeyes,caesiuswasusedfordescribing
those tending to grey, whereas another Grecism, glaucus, referred to greenish
shades.Theadjectivevenetus, thatdenoted inparticularoneof thecoloursof the
aurigainthecircus,probablyoriginatedfromtheethnicnounVenetus,nameofthe
inhabitantsof theareawherea specificcorporationofcharioteersoriginallycame
from. André (1949: 224-229) also points out a number of adjectives derived from
these terms: subcaerul(e)us and sublividus, for shades near to caerul(e)us and
lividus,andlivens,adeverbaladjectivedenotingthestateofbeinglividus.
29
ThecolourlexiconoftheBLUEareainRomancelanguagesreflectsathorough
renovationwhencomparedtoLatin.Noneof theoriginalLatintermshasadirect
Romancecontinuation,withthesoleexceptionofvenetus,preserved inRomanian
(vânăt ‘purplish dark blue, livid’; vânătă, an ellipsis of the noun phrase pătlăgea
vânătă,isalsothenamefor‘aubergine’)andinafewSouthernItaliandialects.The
basictermsofthemajorityofRomancelanguageseithercomefromPersianthrough
Arabic(Sp.andPort.azul,It.azzurro)orareofGermanicorigin(Fr.bleu,Cat.and
Occ. blau, It. blu through French); only Romanian uses a term of Latin origin,
albastru,whoseetymon*albasterderivesfromalbus‘white’.Itshouldbenotedthat
some of the aforementioned Latin terms can be found in Italian, i.e. ceruleo or
cerulo‘lightblue’,cesio‘lightblue’,glauco‘greenishblue’,livido‘purplishdarkblue,
livid’.ThesetermsarelearnedwordsborrowedfromLatinand,withtheexception
oflivido,typicaloftheliteraryregister.Theyareattestedsincetheearliesttimesof
thehistoryofItalianandarestillinusage.
3.ItaliancolourtermsintheBLUEarea
The availability of large and searchable corpora makes it now possible to
deepen the studyof thedistributionof the central terms, i.e.azzurro,blu,celeste
and turchino, fromboth a diachronic and a synchronic perspective.Our research
focuses on the semantic relations between these terms at different stages of the
developmentoftheItalian language,uptocontemporaryItalian.Thedatawewill
bediscussingaretakenfromthefollowingcorpora:
• laRepubblica(newspapertextsdatingfrom1985to2000,roughly380M
tokens),http://sslmitdevonline.sslmit.unibo.it/corpora/corpus.php?path=&
name=Repubblica
• DiaCORIS(differentkindsofprosetextsdatingfrom1861to2001,roughly25M
tokens),http://corpora.ficlit.unibo.it/DiaCORIS/
• PTLLIN(literaryprosetextsdatingfrom1947to2006),DVD-ROM
• OVI (Old Italian texts dating before 1375, roughly 23M tokens),
http://gattoweb.ovi.cnr.it/
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• MIDIA (various types of texts dating from the 13th century to 1947, roughly
7.5Mtokens),http://www.corpusmidia.unito.it/
• BIZ (literary texts fromearly Italian to the firstdecadesof the20th century),
DVD-ROM
• BADIP – Corpus LIP (different types of spoken texts recorded in the period
1990-1992 in Milan, Florence, Rome and Naples, roughly 0.5M tokens),
http://badip.uni-graz.at/it/.
To start with let us briefly recap the history of azzurro, blu, celeste and
turchino.
Azzurro, as we anticipated, is a Persian word (lāžward) that entered into
Italian throughArabic. It is attested inLatinalready in the9th centuryas lazurus
andin13thcenturyOldItalianwithnumerousformalvariants(seeinTLIO:aççurro,
açuro, açurro, agiur, agiurro, arzuro, azule, azur, azurlo, azuro, azurro, azzuro,
laçur, lagiuro, lazuro). Originally, it denoted lapis lazuli. The semantic
transformation intoaname for colouringagentsand intopropercolour termhad
alreadyhappenedinOldItalian,whereazzurrowasusedforindicatingthecolourof
cloths, clothes, heraldry elements and also of the sky (lo die …. lo cielo azzurro
chiaro,elanotte…quelloazzurropiùoscuro‘duringtheday…thelightazzurrosky,
andduring thenight… thedarkerazzurro one’, Restorod’Arezzo, 1282).Azzurro
alsooccurs twice inDante’s Infernoandthreetimes inBoccaccio.Withrespect to
Dante,Perrone(2001)pointsoutthatthetermsoftheBLUEareaareamere2%of
thetotalofDante’scolourlexicon,asopposedto31%forWHITE,26%forBLACK,
19%forRED,14%forGREEN,8%forYELLOW.Inalldiachroniccorporaazzurrois
extremelyfrequent.Itcanbefoundmainly(thoughnotexclusively)inliterarytexts,
whereitqualifiesthecolourofvariousentities(sky,sea,lakes,mountains,flowers,
birds;eyes;gemstones;drapes,cloths,clothes,coatsofarms,etc.).The termalso
frequently occurs as a noun and, especially in treatises on painting, it is a
component of phrases that denote colouring agents (azzurro della Magna /
d’Alemagna ‘azzurro from Germany’, azzurro oltramarino ‘ultramarine azzurro’,
etc.).The roleofazzurro as thebasic term for theBLUEarea inwrittenOld and
Modern Italian appears to be confirmedby the fact that it is themost frequently
31
used–evenintheoldesttimes–inlistsofcolours.Examplesare:Chesonqueste?
sonellerosse?sonelleazzurre?sonellenere?nonsonellebianche?‘Whatarethese?
Aretheyred?Aretheyazzurro?Aretheyblack?Oraretheymaybewhite?’(Franco
Sacchetti,endof14thcentury[referringtobedsheets]);Altrisonostatidiparerechei
principali [colori] sieno sette, cioè il bianco, il nero, il giallo, il rosso, il verde, la
porpora,e l’azzurro ‘Otherswereoftheopinionthatthemain[colours]areseven,
that is, white, black, yellow, red, green, purple and azzurro’ (Filippo Baldinucci,
Vocabolariotoscanodell’artedeldisegno,1681).
BluisaGermanismthatenteredItalianattheendofthe17thcenturyunderthe
influence of French bleu. Originally it was used to qualify the colour of cloths,
uniformsormilitarystandards,alsointhevariantblo,bléorthenon-adaptedform
bleu(Dardi1990).Indiachroniccorporaitoccurswithalimitedfrequencyanditis
also used as a noun. It denotes darker shades and, for the most part, refers to
clothes,occasionallyobjects,eyes,theseaandthesky.Thenon-adaptedformbleu
canbewidelyfoundinthe19thcentury,when,bywayofexample,itoccursinavast
numberofcompoundsusedinthefashionjargon,suchasbleusultano‘sultanbleu’
(Sergio2010).TheheydayofbleucametoanendintheFortiesofthe20thcentury,
when the Fascist regime listed it among the foreign terms that needed to be
expungedfromtheItalianlanguage,indicatingbluasareplacement(Raffaelli2010).
BluinlieuofbleuwasalsochampionedbythePuristmovementintheaftermathof
World War II (Messina 1965). Associated with the fortune of blu in the fashion
jargon is the pseudo-Gallicismbluette (the French bluet is the commonname for
‘bluebottle’)whichdenotesalightershadeinclothes.
InOldItalianwecanalreadyfindcolourtermsthatcanbetracedbacktothe
LateLatin termblavus(documented in the7thcentury,cf.Pfister 1999)whichhas
thesameGermanicetymonasFrenchbleu(*blēwa-).Thesearebioio(orbiodo,bloio,
broio)andbiavo(orbiado,blavo),usedalmostexclusivelyfordenotingthecolourof
cloths (cf. TLIO). The same applies to its derivative biavetto (or biaveto, blaveto,
biadetto,biadeto)andothertermsassociatedwithbiavo(sbiavo,sbiavato,sbiadato,
sbiadito, etc.). In contrastwith themodern usage ofblu, they all seem to denote
lightershades.Intheliterary,Tuscan-basedlanguage,thereisabreakincontinuity
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betweenthesetermsandblu.Intextsdatingfromafterthe14thcenturybiavo,biado,
biadetto are only occasionally found: azzurro di biadetto is a colouring agent
mentionedinBaldinucci’s(1681)Vocabolario;inthe20thcentury,Pirandellospeaks
of occhi biavi ‘biavo eyes’ andMontale of tinte ora scarlatte ora biade ‘hues now
scarlet nowbiado’.Many of themoderndialectal forms ofblu recorded in Pfister
(1999)mightwellbecontinuatorsoftheLateLatinblavus.Others,tothecontrary,
derivedirectlyfromtheFrenchbleuandenteredintothedialectsatdifferenttimes
(starting from the Middle Ages), depending on the degree of contact with the
Frenchculture.
CelesteformallyderivesfromLatin,buttheadjectivecaelestisdidnotcarrya
colourmeaning in Classical Latin. The semantic shift came about already inOld
Italian. The first instances of celeste carrying a colour value are found in the 13th
century, at a time when the term basically carried the ‘celestial’ and ‘divine’
meanings. In some contexts, the meaning of the adjective can be ambiguous
(especiallywhen it qualifies light, lamp, ray, etc.). The term can be found inOld
Italianinmanyotherforms(seeinTLIO:çeleste,celesto,celestro,celleste,cielesstre,
cieleste,cielesto,cielestre,cielestro,cileste,cilesto,cilestre,cilestro,zeleste,zelestro,
zileste).Amongthese,cilestro(formedbyanalogywithterrestre‘terrestrial’)would
soon acquire an exclusively colour-related meaning, documented in Dante and
Boccaccio,butisnolongerinuse.Ontheotherhand,cilestrino‘somewhatcilestro’
hasnotcompletelydisappeared in literaryuse. Indiachroniccorporaceleste is far
lessfrequentasanounthanazzurro.InOldItalianitusuallyreferstothecolourof
cloths and clothes, but also of gem stones, and it denotes a shade lighter than
azzurro. Inmore recent literary language celeste is also used in connection with
eyes, water, air, a number of objects and occasionally, by way of metonymical
extension,evenwithpeoplewhowearthiscolour.
Turchino derives from turco ‘Turkish’. It is documented already in the 14th
century and it was usually used to qualify cloths, clothes, standards: in the
beginning it probably referred to the origin of the cloths and only later to their
colour. The term was also used to denote the gem stone commonly known as
turchese‘turquoise’.Albeittoalesserextentthanazzurro,turchinoisalsopresentin
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colour lists,particularlywhendescribing rainbows (si distinguono sette colori, che
possono considerarsi come primitivi, e sono il rosso, l’arancio, il giallo, il verde, il
turchino,l’indacoeilvioletto‘Onecanidentifysevencoloursthatcanbeconsidered
asprimitive,and theseare red,orange,yellow,green, turchino, indigoandviolet’,
Leopardi, 1813). Rather common in dialects, as recorded in Schweickard (2013),
turchinoisnotexclusivetoliterarylanguage.Indiachroniccorporaitisalsousedas
a noun and it qualifies first and foremost cloths, clothes and various objects, but
oftenalsoeyes,shadows,thesky,thesea,mountains,theair.Betweenthe19thand
the 20th century its usage spreads to denote the darker shades, right at the time
when blu becomes an important competitor. As of today turchino is an obsolete
termthatoccursalmostexclusivelyinalimitednumberofidiomaticexpressions,as
weshallsee.OnlyinTuscanycanwefindsomeevidenceofsurvival,sinceitisused
alongwith blu, azzurro and celeste for naming the colours of the insignia of the
‘contradas’(districts)ofSiena.
Inordertobetterunderstandtheusageofazzurro,blu,celesteandturchinoin
texts dating from the last decades of the 19th century and 20th centurywemainly
searched two corpora:Diacoris (different kinds of prose texts dating from 1861 to
2001)andlaRepubblica(newspapertextsdatingfrom1985to2000).Beforedelving
intotheanalysisofcollocationsweshallpresentafewfigures.Table1illustratesthe
numberofoccurrencesofthefourtermsinthereferencecorpora:
AZZURRO BLU CELESTE TURCHINO
Diacoris 1729 446 861 389
laRepubblica 18555 16938 2965 275
Table1
Ananalysisofthecontextsinwhichtheyoccur,however,revealsthatapartof
thecollocationscanbeascribedto figurativemeanings, idiomaticexpressionsand
propernouns(inthecaseofceleste,mainly totheothermeaningof theterm, i.e.
‘celestial’), with frequent calques from other languages. In order to evaluate the
quantitativeweight of these contexts,whose variety has significantly increased in
34
the second half of the 20th century for both azzurro and blu, we made a rough
calculation of the occurrences in the la Repubblica corpus, whose texts aremore
recent and larger in number. The calculations reveal that the percentages of
collocationsareintheorderofapproximately50%forblu,60%forturchino,65%for
azzurro,and75%forceleste.Thefrequencyofthistypeofcollocationsforazzurrois
ascribabletothefactthatitisconsideredasnationalcolouroftheRepublicofItaly.
Thecolourwasoriginallyused in the standards, flags,military scarves, etc.of the
Savoia royal family and became the official colour of the Italian national sports
teams.Thenational jersey is calledmaglia azzurra, even though the actual shade
canbedarkerorlighter,andazzurroisused,byvirtueofmetonymicextension,to
qualify or denote the athletes, coaches, sites, abstract concepts and ultimately
anything that revolves around the national teams. A similar mechanism applies
when one ormore colours (the so-called “club colours”) come to identify a sport
club.Thetermsazzurro,blu,celeste,thatareusedtoindicatethejerseys,flagsetc.,
arealsousedtorefertotheathletes, fans,etc.of therespectiveclubs(cf.also3.2.
below). The absence of turchino in this type of contexts is probably due to the
associationwiththeethnicnounandadjectiveturco‘Turkish’thatmakesitill-fitas
“clubcolour”forItalianandothernon-Turkishsportclubs.
AsillustratedinTable2,Diacorisprovidesuswithotherinterestingnumbers
asregardsthetrendofoccurrencesinthe5chronologicalsub-periodstowhichthe
textsofthecorpusbelong:
DIACORIS AZZURRO BLU CELESTE TURCHINO
1861-1900 305 27 314 121
1901-1922 286 10 90 122
1923-1945 464 32 143 74
1946-1967 429 185 145 54
1968-2001 245 192 169 18
Table2
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Data from the two corpora confirm the hypothesis, expressed in previous
studies,thatin20thcenturyItalian–andinparticularinthelastdecades–thereisa
restructuring of the BLUE area: blu is spreading more and more, even to the
detrimentofazzurro,celesteholds,whereastheusageofturchinoisexperiencinga
sharpdownfall.
The four adjectives qualify nouns that roughly belong to the same semantic
areasbutoccurwithdifferentdegreesof frequencydependingon thearea.Letus
analyzeingreaterdetailthecollocationsforthethreetermsthat,atpresent,arethe
mostcommon,i.e.azzurro,celesteandblu.
All three, andblu inparticular,qualify first and foremostnouns thatdenote
cloths, clothes and clothing accessories. Azzurro and celeste denote the lighter
shades, blu the darker ones: among the most frequent collocations we find, for
example,anazzurroorcelesteshirtwithablujacket,sweater,trousersortie.Darker
andlightershadescanbepresentinoneandthesamegarment,forexampleasuit
orashirtwithbluandazzurropinstripes.
With reference to the human body, eyes are azzurro par excellence, much
morerarelysocelesteorblu,whereasbluisselectedforskinspotscausedbybruises
orcyanosisorto indicatethecolourthat lipsturntobecauseofthecold.Azzurro
andbluarealsousedwithreferencetoveinsanddyes,asisthecaseforhair,nailsor
tattooedskin.Uominiblu‘lit.bluemen’isthecommonnamefortheTuaregpeople,
whosetraditionalblueveilcanoccasionallystaintheskin.
Both azzurro and blu, rarely so celeste, describe the colour or one of the
colours of various birds, butterflies, fish, and occur in names of taxonomic
categories (e.g., sula dai piedi azzurri / piediazzurri ‘blue-footed booby’, volpe
azzurra ‘blue fox’, a variety of the Arctic fox, tonno pinna blu ‘bluefin tuna’,orso
azzurro/blutibetano‘Tibetanbluebear’).Itshouldalsobenotedthatpesceazzurro
‘oilyfish’identifiesaclassofsmallfishindependentlyoftheirtruecolour.
Thecolourorcoloursofsomeflowers,likeirisorwindflower,isazzurroorblu;
hydrangeas, bluebells and gentians can also be celeste. Fruits and plants such as
bilberries, plums and aubergines are blu, but also other deteriorated or
36
contaminated fruits and foods can be said to be blu (mozzarella blu ‘blu
mozzarella’).
Thecolourof thesky,and inparticularof theday-timebrightsky, ismainly
azzurro,butaftersunsetitgenerallybecomesblu.Bothbluandazzurrodenotethe
colourofthesea,ofriversandlakes,etc.Gemstoneslikediamondsandsapphires
areazzurroandblubutalsoceleste,which,tothecontrary,isonlyseldomusedfor
thecolourofthesky,ofthesea,etc.
Artificiallightshedbylightingequipmentisbothazzurroandblu,butwitha
sharppreferenceforbluwhenreferringtoflashingwarninglights.
Asforothercontextsinwhichthethreeadjectivesqualifynamesofinanimate
entities, apart from the previously mentioned garments, there are numerous
referencestothecolourofdecor,furnitureandornaments,asalsoofbuildingsand
buildingmaterials.
As for the colour of paper and paper products, book covers, graphical signs
and instruments for writing and drawing, all three terms are found but with a
prevalenceofblu;theschoolhabitofunderliningmajormistakeswithablupencil
gaverisetotheidiomerroreblu ‘lit.blueerror’(asopposedtoerrorerosso ‘lit.red
error’aminorerror).Blu,azzurroandcelesteareallusedforidentifyingcolouring
agentsandcoloursusedinpaintings.
Blu is slightly predominant overazzurro, andmuchmore so overceleste, in
denoting colourspresent in flags, standards, banners, etc. Inparticular,blu is the
international flag awarded to beaches and marinas that comply with sustainable
developmentcriteria.BluisthecolouroftheUnitedNationsflagandofthehelmet
worn by the UN troops; casco blu ‘Blue Helmet’ is used as a metonym for the
soldiersoftheinternationalpeacekeepingforces.
Blu is prevalentoverazzurro, andbothoverceleste, alsowhendenoting the
colourofvariousmeansof transport, inparticularcars,butalsoairplanes,vessels,
etc.Vehiclesusedbypoliticiansorhighpublicofficialsorthepublicadministration
arecalledautoblu ‘officialdedicatedcar’and,bywayofanalogy,wealsohaveblu
helicopters,bicycles(andblumobiles,i.e.dedicatedmobiles).
37
ThelowernumberofoccurrencesofturchinointhelaRepubblicaandDiacoris
corpora makes it more difficult to analyze in further detail the collocational
preferencesoftheterm.Itdenotesdarkershadesanditqualifiesfirstandforemost
garments,butalsothesky,thesea,eyes,etc.
Metonymic connections and semantic associations derived from symbolic
valuesaccountforthepresenceofthefouradjectives,andinparticularofazzurro
andblu, inmany other contexts not yetmentioned.We shall illustrate but a few
examplesofstablecollocationsthatoccurfrequentlyinourcorpora.
Both azzurro and blu are also “political colours”, in the sense that they are
symbolicallyused to representapoliticalparty, itsmembers, constituency, etc. In
the past decades, for example, azzurro has been associated with the Forza Italia
party. Further,azzurro is associatedwith newbornmales in the expression fiocco
azzurro ‘blue baby ribbon’ (as opposed to fiocco rosa ‘pink baby ribbon’) and in
generaltochildprotectionintelefonoazzurro ‘lit.bluephone’,akindofChildline.
Principeazzurro‘lit.blueprince’,thenameforPrinceCharming,atypicalcharacter
oflikelyFrenchoriginthatappearsinvariousfairytales(cf.D’Achille2011),denotes
by antonomasia the quintessential romantic ideal for amale partner or husband.
The expressions fata turchina ‘lit. blue fairy’ or fata dai capelli turchini ‘lit. blue-
hairedfairy’,associatedwiththecharacterofthenovelforchildrenTheAdventures
ofPinocchiobyCarloCollodi,havealsobecomeantonomasticandattimesareused
(also ironically) to refer to a woman who is someone’s benefactor, mentor or
counsellor.
Denominations suchas tuteblu ‘lit.blueoveralls’orcolletti blu ‘blue-collars’
forlaborers(asopposedtocollettibianchi‘white-collars’),cinturablu‘bluebelt’for
athleteswho reached a given level at karate (as opposed to cintura bianca ‘white
belt’, cintura gialla ‘yellow belt’, etc.) are metonymically motivated and they are
usedwith classifying function. Strisce blu ‘lit. blue stripes’ and zona blu ‘lit. blue
zone’ are expressions used in the regulation of car traffic and parking, whereas
bollinoblu‘lit.bluesticker’isacertificationofproperfunctioningforcars,devices,
etc.Expressions suchaspaurablu ‘lit. ‘blue fear’or fifablu ‘lit.blue fright’,which
refertoahugefrightthatturnsyourfaceblue,orsangueblu ‘blueblood’,usedto
38
indicate aristocratic lineage (apparently, a very light complexion with blue veins
clearly visible on one’s wrists was considered as a sign of nobility), are also of
metonymicorigin.
Azzurroandblu,andtoamuchlesserextentcelesteandturchino,alsooccurin
differenttypesofpropernouns:ofsites(e.g.,CostaAzzurra‘FrenchRiviera,Fr.Côte
d’Azur’,Grotta Azzurra ‘Blue Grotto’), persons (as a feminine name: Azzurra; as
both feminine andmasculine:Celeste), institutions (Arma azzurra is the name of
the Italian air force), companies (Blu was a telecommunications operator),
establishments (e.g., Bar Trattoria Blu in Milano, Hotel Residence Azzurro in
L’Aquila, Hotel Celeste in Procida, Sassi Turchini – hostel in the Isola d’Elba),
products(e.g.,NastroAzzurro‘lit.blueribbon’isabeer,ACEDensoBluisawashing
powder,BluDiesel is a typeof fuel),meansof transport (e.g.,Freccia azzurra ‘lit.
bluearrow’trains),literary,musicalandartworks(e.g.,Celeste,azzurroeblu–an
album of songs by Gianni Morandi; Nel blu dipinto di blu (Volare) – a song by
DomenicoModugno;insomecases,translationspresentvariantswithbothazzurro
and blu, for example Bluebird by Bukowski is rendered as Uccellino azzurro or
Uccellino blu, Der Blaue Reiter by Kandinsky is both Il cavaliere azzurro and Il
cavaliereblu),etc.
OthertermsoftheBLUEareaareformedbymeansofvariousmorphological
devices. In 3.1. – 3.3. we shall briefly illustrate themain word-formation patterns
without dwelling on the possible differences regarding their combinatory
possibilities.
3.1.Azzurro,blu,celesteandturchinoasbasesforderivation
The four termswe analyzed in the previous paragraph can be bases for the
derivationofothercolouradjectives(Grossmann/Mazzoni1972,Grossmann1988,
MerliniBarbaresi2004).Themajorityofderivedadjectivesbelongstothefirstofthe
followingtwotypes:
1)derivativesformedbysuffixationthatdenoteanapproximation–intermsof
hue, brightness and saturation – to the focal point denoted by the base.
Lexicographic sources list a number of adjectives that denote shades that are
39
approximatelyazzurro (azzurrino andazzurrigno, already attested in the 13th and
14th century respectively, azzurrognolo, azzurrastro, azzurretto, azzurriccio), blu
(bluastro), celeste (celestino) and turchino (turchinetto, turchiniccio, turchinaccio,
turchinuccio,turchinastro).Thesetermswiththesoleexceptionofazzurrinoand,to
a lesser extent,azzurrognolo andbluastro, are rareor absent in the laRepubblica
and Diacoris corpora. Azzurrino also denotes, by metonymy, young athletes of
Italian national teams. One should mention that the selection of a specific
approximative and/or evaluative suffix may depend on diatopic and diaphasic
factors,asisthecasewithothertypesofadjectivalbasesinItalian;
2)derivativeswiththeelativesuffix-issimothatdenotethehighestdegreeof
brightnessandsaturationcomparedtoanimplicitstandard.Featuredinthecorpora
are: azzurrissimo, mainly referred to eyes, the sky and the sea, and the rare
celestissimo and turchinissimo. Instances of bluissimo can only be found on the
Internet (Googled on 10.04.2015). It should be noted that Italian can express
intensificationofagivenqualityalsobymeansoftheprefixstra-,whichhoweveris
seldom known to modify colour terms. Straazzurro can only be found on the
Internet,whereasstrabluisalexicalizedformthatdenotesakindofcheese.
Azzurro,blu,celesteandturchinocanalsobebasesforthederivationofnouns
and verbs. Derived verbs (cf. Timmermann 2002), formed by suffixation,
parasynthesisorconversion, aremainlybasedon azzurro.Theseare (in)azzurrare
‘todye/tocolourazzurro’,alsousedinthepronominalform(in)azzurrarsi‘toturn
azzurro’,andazzurreggiare‘tobesomewhatazzurro’.Lexicographicsourcesalsolist
rare verbs such as inturchinire ‘to dye / to colour turchino’, inturchinarsi ‘to turn
turchino’, turchineggiare ‘to be somewhat turchino’, while blueggiare ‘to be
somewhat blu’ can only be found on the Internet. Internet also provides us with
adjectives derived from the stative verbs in -eggiare, such as azzurreggiante,
blueggiante, turchineggiante, thatdenote the stateofbeingazzurro, blu, turchino.
Asforderivednouns,corporaarerepletewithqualitynounsformedbyconversion
(l’azzurrodei suoiocchi ‘theazzurroofhis/hereyes’, ilbludelcielo ‘thebluof the
sky’, il turchinodelmare ‘the turchino of the sea’, etc.)and, less so,by suffixation
(azzurrità ‘the quality of being azzurro’). Other nouns derive from the
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aforementioned verb azzurrare ‘to colour azzurro’: these are azzurramento
‘action/result of azzurrar(si)’, azzurraggio and azzurrante ‘blu(e)ing’, technical
termsthatapplytocolouringagentsandrelatedprocesses.
3.2.Azzurro,blu,celesteandturchinoasconstituentsofcompounds
Acommonlyuseddeviceforenlargingtheinventoryofcolourtermsisforming
compound words made up of two adjectives or an adjective and a noun. These
constructions, frequently nonce-formations in both literary and journalistic texts,
confront scholars with the same problems as all other adjectival compounds in
Italian, i.e. spelling, allomorphy, inflectional characteristics, etc. (cf. D’Achille /
Grossmann2009,2010,Grossmann/Rainer2009,and,withparticularreferenceto
colour compounds, Grossmann 1988, D’Achille / Grossmann 2013). When
considering the relationship between the constituents, we have two groups:
coordinateandsubordinatecompounds.
Among coordinate compoundswe can further identify three subtypeswhich
spread in usage from the 18th century onwards, with some isolated examples in
earliertimes:
1) constructions that qualify two- or multi-coloured entities such as flags,
apparel,etc.(suchasdrappiblubianchi‘blu-whitecloths’,bandiereblu-bianco-rosse
‘blu-white-red flags’), or denote the colours of a team jersey (the so-called “club
colours”), especially in football, and, by metonymy, the players, fans, managers,
executives, etc. D’Achille’s (2014) study on this kind of terms, based on CONI
(Italian National Olympic Committee) documents dating from the 20th century
(http://dlib.coninet.it) lists the following, among others: biancazzurri ‘white
azzurro’ (later re-denominated biancocelesti ‘white celeste’) relating to the Lazio
football team, rossoblù ‘redblu’ relating toGenoa,Cagliari andBologna,gialloblù
‘yellow blu’ relating to Verona, Chievo and Parma. Notice that turchino does not
appearinthiskindofconstruction;
2) constructions indicating a hue that is intermediate between the colours
denotedbytheconstituents(suchasocchiazzurro-grigi ‘azzurro-greyeyes’,capelli
blu-neri‘blu-blackhair’);
41
3) reduplicative constructions (more syntactic in nature) of the type occhi
azzurriazzurri‘azzurroazzurroeyes’,usedfordescribingthepresenceofthecolour
at the highest degree of brightness and saturation, as is the case with the
aforementionedderivativesin-issimo(cf.Rainer1983).
The majority of compounds found in corpora are left-headed subordinate
constructions.Most are documented since the 18th century,with the exception of
sub-type1),alreadyattestedinOldItalian.Thefirstconstituentisthehyperonymof
theconstructionwhile the secondconstituentacts asmodifier.Thesecompounds
describeaparticularshadeofthecolourdenotedbythehead.Modifierscanbe:
1)adjectivesthatrefertothedegreeofbrightnessandsaturationofthecolour
(such as azzurro-chiaro ‘light azzurro’, blu intenso ‘intense blu’). These
constructionsarevery frequent in the laRepubblica andDiacoris corporaand the
arrayofadjectivalmodifiersisvast.Bothazzurroandbluarefoundincombination
withadjectivessuchasacceso ‘bright’,brillante ‘shining’,chiaro ‘light’,cupo ‘dark’,
elettrico ‘electric’, intenso ‘intense’, pallido ‘pale’, profondo ‘deep’, sbiadito ‘faded’,
scuro ‘dark’, vivo ‘vivid’.Otheradjectives suchas forte ‘strong’, spento ‘dull’, tenue
‘soft’, modify azzurro but not blu, whereas fiammante ‘flaming’, opaco ‘opaque’,
slavato‘faded’,squillante‘shrill’,occurwithblubutnotwithazzurro.Someofthese
modifiersalsooccurwithcelesteandturchino;
2)aderivativeofanothercolouradjectiveindicatingahuetowhichthecolour
denoted by the head comes close (such as azzurro grigiastro ‘grayish azzurro’,
azzurro verdognolo ‘greenish azzurro’, azzurro violaceo ‘purplish azzurro’; blu
verdastro ‘greenish blu’, blu violaceo ‘purplish blu’; celeste biancastro ‘whitish
celeste’);
3) a noun (such as blu notte ‘night blu’) or a denominal adjective (such as
azzurro-smeraldino ‘emerald azzurro’) that specifies the shade by virtue of a
comparisonwiththequintessentialcolourattributedtoitsreferent.Amongazzurro
orblu+NcompoundsinthelaRepubblicaandDiacoriscorporathereisavastarray
ofnounsthatcanactasmodifiersofthetwoadjectives(cf.Kristol1978,Grossmann
1988:182-199).Therearenounsdenotingmetals/minerals,stones/jewels,colouring
agents, flowers, fruits/vegetables, associated with the animal kingdom and a
42
numberofothersstill.Nounssuchasacciaio‘steel’,cartadazucchero‘sugarpaper’,
cielo ‘sky’, cobalto ‘cobalt’, ghiaccio ‘ice’, indaco ‘indigo’,mare ‘sea’, notte ‘night’,
pervinca ‘periwinkle’,petrolio ‘petroleum’, occur in compoundswith bothazzurro
andblu albeitwithdifferent frequency.Themost frequentmodifier forazzurro is
cielo‘sky’,whilebluoccursfrequentlyfollowedbynotte‘night’.Othernounssuchas
acqua ‘water’, fiordaliso ‘cornflower’, glicine ‘wisteria’, lavanda ‘lavender’, polvere
‘dust’,etc.onlyoccurwithazzurro,othersstill,likeasfalto‘asphalt’,inchiostro‘ink’,
lavagna ‘slate’,melanzana ‘aubergine’,mirtillo ‘bilberry’,zaffiro ‘sapphire’,etc.only
occur with blu. Also the remaining two terms, celeste and turchino, can be
constituents of an A+N compound, but the types are fewer in number and their
frequency is lower. Among themodifiers of celeste there are, for example, acqua
‘water’,ortensia‘hydrangea’,polvere‘dust’.Turchino,ontheotherhand,canonlybe
found in combination with pavone ‘peacock’. While these types of compounds
denoteashadeofazzurro,blu,celesteandturchinothatistypicalforthereferentof
thenoun,inothercasesitisacolourofanobjectthatisintimatelyassociatedwith/
typical of the referent (azzurro + forzista ‘member/supporter of the Forza Italia
party’, blu + aviazione ‘air force’, etc.). The nominal constituent is generally a
commonnoun,howevertherearealsoafewinstancesofnamesofpersons(azzurro
Tiepolo ‘Tiepolo azzurro’, blu Savoia ‘Savoia blu’, etc.) and institutions (azzurro
Europa ‘Europe azzurro’, blu Nazioni Unite ‘United Nations blu’, etc.). Similar in
nature,fromthesemanticpointofview,arecompoundsmadeupofazzurroorblu
and a denominal adjective such as azzurro ministeriale ‘ministerial azzurro’, blu
berlusconiano ‘Berlusconianblu’.TheproliferationofA+Ncompoundcolourterms
inthe20thcenturyismainlyattributabletothefashionindustryandtoanumberof
crafts and businesses that kept introducing new hues into themarket and giving
them coined names that were subsequently disseminated by themass-media. An
interestingcaseinpointisrepresentedbythenamescoinedforcarbodycolours(cf.
Caffarelli2014).Theapparentlyarbitraryselectionofnominalmodifierscanoftenbe
accounted for by the cultural salience of their referents in the Italian linguistic
community,andinsomecasesisinfluencedbyforeignmodels.
43
3.3.Nounsusedascolourterms
Thelastdeviceforcreatingcolourterms,whichweshallonlybrieflymention
here since it is less relevant to our topic, is recourse to names of entities for
denoting,bymetonymy,acolour(ananalysisofthemorphologicalcharacteristicsof
thistypeoflexemes,thatcanbeinterpretedastheresultofaconversionprocess,is
given inThornton 2004: 529-530).These are someof thenominal constituents of
compounds listed in the previous paragraph, that can be used independently to
denote a particular shade (such as abito acquamarina ‘aquamarine dress’, stoffa
indaco ‘indigocloth’),asalsoothernounsthataregenerallyusedintheabsenceof
azzurro or blu (such as lago turchese ‘turquoise lake’). These terms are probably
generated by ellipsis of phrases like: un brillante colore di acquamarina ‘lit. a
diamond of colour of aquamarine’, brillante color acquamarina ‘lit. aquamarine
colourdiamond’,brillanteazzurro/bluacquamarina ‘lit.aquamarineazzurro/blu
diamond’,occhidiacquamarina‘lit.eyesofaquamarine’.
4.Conclusion
The existence of large and searchable corpora, unavailable at the time of
Grossmann’s studies on Italian colour terms (Grossmann 1988, Grossmann /
Mazzoni 1972, 1976), asalso the findingsof themany studiespublished thereafter
especiallyontheareaofBLUE,makeitnowpossibletofine-tunetheobservations
outlinedover25yearsago.
Our analysis of the historical evolution and contemporary use of azzurro,
celeste,bluandturchinoinwrittenItaliansuggeststhat:
• azzurroandblu,thetwotermsthatarenowdominantinthearea,meetthe
criteriathatareusuallyrequiredforbeingconsideredbasiccolourterms;
• celeste, which is analyzable from a morphological point of view and
semantically transparent, cannot be considered as a basic colour term and is
peripheralwithrespecttoazzurroandblu;
44
• turchino,whichisalsoanalyzablefromthemorphologicalpointofviewbut
lesstransparentfromasemanticpointofview,wasperipheralinprevioushistorical
periodsandisnowadaysindisuse;
• thehistoryoftherelationshipsamongthefourtermscanbegroupedinthree
broad periods: a) a first period (from the 14th to the 17th century) during which
azzurro is the central termandceleste denotes light shades and turchino denotes
dark shades;b) a secondperiod (from the 18th century to the firsthalfof the20th
century) during which azzurro remains the central term, celeste denotes light
shadesand turchino andbludenotedarkshades;c)a thirdperiod (secondhalfof
the 20th century) during which azzurro still denotes a shade in-between celeste
(light) and blu (dark), but gradually hands over the central term role to blu and
comesclosertocelesteinasmuchasitindicatesonlylightshades;
• thehuge increase intheuseofbluduringthe20thcenturycancertainlybe
ascribed,atleastinpart,tothehighnumberofcalques(suchastheaforementioned
caschi blu ‘BlueHelmet’,colletti blu ‘blue-collars’, etc.) and loans (blue-jeans,blue
chip, etc.) by contact with French, German and, above all, English that have a
similarcentralterm(Fr.bleu,Ger.blau,Eng.blue);
• the derivational potential of blu and celeste is more limited than that of
azzurro and turchino; in compounding, the prevalence ofazzurro andblu is very
marked;
• theusewithfigurativemeaningsandthepresenceinidiomaticexpressionsis
basically limited to azzurro and blu; the number of these contexts with blu is
continuallyexpandingalsobyvirtueofcalquesfromotherlanguages.
Furthermaterial forstudyingthehistoryof thesemanticrelationshipamong
thefourtermscouldbeofferedbyresearchonspecializedtechnicaltexts(suchas
treatises on painting, minerals, gems, etc.) in different historical periods and on
botholdandcontemporarydialectaltexts.
45
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Taylor, J.R.;Mondry,H.;MacLaury,R.E.(1997).“Acognitiveceilingofelevenbasiccolorterms”. In MacLaury, R. E. Color and cognition in Mesoamerica: Constructingcategoriesasvantages.AppendixIV.Austin:UniversityofTexasPress.419-429.
Thornton,A.M.(2004).“Conversioneinaggettivi”. InGrossmann,M.;Rainer,F.(eds.).Laformazionedelleparoleinitaliano.Tübingen:Niemeyer.526-533.
Timmermann, J. (2002). “Laverbalisationdesadjectifsdecouleuren français, espagnoletitalien”.VoxRomanica 61.1-31.
TLIO = CNR. Opera del Vocabolario Italiano. Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini.http://tlio.ovi.cnr.it/TLIO/[Accessdate:10February2015].
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51
European(dis)unionofcolours:secondarybasiccolourtermsinPolish,PortugueseandSpanishEwaStala&PrzemysławDębowiak(JagiellonianUniversity)
1.Subject,objectandpurpose
Althoughthephysiologicalperceptionofcoloursbythehumanspecieshasnot
changed, the cultural filter creates differences between their connotations across
populations.Thisisreflectedinthelanguagethatfunctionsasalinguisticprism.
Thepresentstudyiscross-culturalandcross-geographical,coveringlanguages
of theEastern andWestern endof theEuropeanUnion: Polish on the onehand,
PortugueseandSpanishontheotherhand.Itaimstocomparetheuseofsecondary
colournames:purple,pink,orangeandgreyatbothendsofEurope.Itisundisputed
that “the analysis of the colours petrified in phraseological units can be an
inexhaustiblesourceofinformationoftheprocessofsemanticencoding,carriedout
within a given linguistic system”1 (Szałek 2005: 88). By showing the presence of
selectedcolournamesinthelanguage(idioms,phrases,collocations,etc.),wehope
to discover if both geographical and linguistic ends of Europe have different or
rathercommoncolourvisions.
1 Our translation of the original text: “el análisis de los colores fijados en unidades
fraseológicas puede ser una fuente inagotable de información sobre los procesos decodificaciónsemánticallevadosacabodentrodeunsistemalingüísticodado”.
52
Thecolours thatwehavechosentoanalyseoccupythe lastplaceamongthe
so-called basic terms of colours in the hierarchy of Berlin andKay2. Even though
theystillpertaintotheclassofBasicColourTerms,theyareusuallydescribedasa
mixtureoftwoother(basic)colours(i.e.purple=red+blue;orange=yellow+red;
pink = red +white; grey = black +white). Consequently,we call them secondary
colourterms.
Let us remember that Berlin and Kay suggest the existence of a universal
lexical category: the names of basic colours terms. Based on the hypothesis of a
neuro-physiologicalnature, according towhich theocular apparatusof allhuman
beings focuses as central to a finite number of parts of the spectrum, the lexical
itemsthatarebeyondthissharecertaincharacteristicswhichidentifythemasbasic
nameseffectively3.AnotablecontributionistheworkofKayandMcDaniel(1978)
whichemphasisesthatthelexicalorganisationofthespectrumhascharacteristicsof
a continuum, so no discreet segmentation is possible: “the development of basic
colours-term lexicon (is) not the successive encoding of foci but the successive
differentiationofpreviouslyexistingcolouredbasiccategories”(ibidem:640).Thus
coloursexemplifythetheoryof“fuzzysets”.
What is more, in the latest research the adjectives of colour appear as
polysemic entities (cf. Leduc-Adine 1980: 69). This ability to attribute multiple
meanings to one signifier plays an important role in the “linguistic economy”. In
fact,Leduc-Adineinhisarticleliststhesocalled“pseudo-adjectivesofcolour”(e.g.
Sp.turismoverde‘greentourism’,eminenciagris‘greyeminence’)andpresentstheir
features.Thepolysemyof the adjectivesof colourmakes that theymayappear in
different contexts and be subject to very differentmeanings. Tokarski (1963: 142)
calls this phenomenon “subjective polysemy in the highest degree”4 and offers
varioususesofthePolishadjectiveczarny‘black’.Thesamechromaticadjectivecan
2 InthistextwehaveoptedfortheBerlinandKayoptics(1969),althoughtherearemore
classifications: van Wijk 1959, Bidu Vrănceanu 1976, Kristol 1978a, Grossmann 1988,EspejoMuriel1987,1990orMartinell1979.
3 Thereareexceptions,e.g.Russianwithtwoequivalentsofblue:golubóy ‘lightblue’andsíniy‘darkblue’(Kay&McDaniel1978:640).SeealsoKristol1978b.
4 Pol.“polisemiawznacznejmierzesubiektywna”.
53
mean‘dangerous,grim’(blackcharacter,blackfuture)aswellas‘dark’(blacknight,
blackclouds)5.
Going back to the reasons for our choice, we would like to emphasise that
purple,orange,pinkandgreyarenotonlytheleaststudied(versuswhite,blackand
red),but, at the same time,onecouldexpect that they seemmore likely to show
potentialdifferencesbetweenthethreelanguagesinquestion.
2.Analysis
Our study is basically synchronic, but it also contains information of a
diachronicnature (etymologyand,possibly, thehistoryof considered terms).The
sourcesaremainlylexicographic:dictionaries,lexiconsorcorpora,yetitwouldbeof
great interest toshowtheoccurrencesofmentionedcolours in literatureas itcan
open different research pathways. Such a study, however, would overlook the
dimensions of the present contribution and we leave this question for the
considerationofotherinterestedresearchers.
As Bochnakowa (1990: 7) remarked, the degree of lexicalisation of nominal
syntagmascontainingthenamesofcolours,aswellastheirclassificationinclichés,
phrases, idiomaticexpressions,phraseologicalunits,etc. isacomplicatedquestion
forsuchsciencesaslexicology,lexicographyanddidacticsoflanguage.Wewillnot
discussthisproblemhereasitisnotrelevantforthepurposesofourstudy.Wetake
into consideration every kind of expression that contains the name of one of the
fourcoloursweareinterestedin.
Some examples have become entrenched in language because they name a
specific historical event, situation or person, largely commented on and generally
knowninagivenculturalmilieu,suchase.g.:
- Pol. pomarańczowa rewolucja / Port. Revolução Laranja / Sp. Revolución
naranja ‘OrangeRevolution, i.e. a series of protests that took place inUkraine in
2004–2005’,
5 Ofcourse,allthisreferstosomePolishexpressions.
54
- Port.mapa cor-de-rosa / Sp.mapa rosado / Pol. różowamapa ‘pinkmap /
rose-colouredmap,i.e.adocumentpreparedin1885torepresentPortugal’sclaimof
sovereigntyoveralandcorridorconnectingthePortuguesecoloniesofAngolaand
Mozambique’,
- Pol. szara eminencja / Port. eminência cinzenta / Sp. eminencia gris
‘counsellorwhoinspiresunostensiblythedecisionsofanotherperson,corporation
or a party’, but they are direct translations of the French Éminence grise ‘grey
eminence’ (1st half of the 17th century, with reference to François Leclerc du
Tremblay or Father Joseph (1577–1638), confidant and private advisor of Cardinal
Richelieu).
Nevertheless, thenamesof coloursused in these expressionsdonot achieve
newmeanings.Beyondtheseexpressions,theycannotbeappliedelsewhere,sothey
aretobeomittedinouranalysis.
Letusaddthatwedonottakeintoaccountthispartofsemanticsofanalysed
unitsthatreferstoobjectsandnotcolours(e.g.‘orange–fruit’,‘rose–flower’).
2.1.Polish
Colours are an enormously popular topic among Slavic linguists. There are
works that analyse the socio-cultural connotations of colours (cf. Tokarski 1995),
semantic-culturalapproaches(cf.Wierzbicka2006)ormonographicworks(Zaręba
1954,Komorowska&Stanulewicz2010).Therearenumerousarticlesthatdealwith
colours in Polish literature; for a more complete bibliography, we refer those
interestedtothemonographbyKomorowska(2010).
InordertoanalysePolishcolournames,thefollowingsourceshavebeenused:
• dictionaries ofContemporaryPolish:WSJP (on-line), SJPPWN (on-line too)
andISJP,bringingdefinitionsandsomefixedusages;
• corpusofContemporaryPolish:NKJP,providingmorecollocations;
• Boryś’ (SEJP) and Bańkowski’s (ESJP, ESMP) etymological dictionaries,
indicatingtheoriginandthefirstattestationsofanalysedterms.
55
fioletowy‘purple’etymology <fiolet‘purplecolour’←Germ.Violett‘purple;purplecolour’←Fr.
violette‘viola’<OFr.viole‘id.’←Lat.viola1statt. 2ndhalfofthe17thcenturyconcretemeanings
1.‘ofthecolourresultingfrommixingredandblue,liketheoneofheatherorcrocuses’
figurativemeanings&usages
2.‘undertheinfluenceofdifferentphysicalfactorsorstrongemotions’-fioletowyzzimna‘frozen’,fioletowyzprzepicia‘beery’,etc.-fioletowyzewściekłości,fioletowyzgniewu‘furious,angry’
Table1
Fioletowy(formerlyalsofijoletowy)replacedtheprimitivePolishnameofthis
colour,i.e.fiołkowy‘ofthecolouroftheviola’(1stattestedtoatthebeginningofthe
15thcentury)<fiołek‘viola’(<MHGvīol(e)‘id.’<Lat.viola).Evenifthemotivationof
thismore ancientwordwasmore explicit for Polish speakers, the final source of
both remains identical.Fioletowy is used only in a few expressions related to the
physical aspect of someone whose body is reacting to external (cold) or internal
(alcoholconsumption)stimuliorwho isexperiencingan intenseemotion(anger).
These usages have a clear concrete basis and refer to the colour of body or face
resulting from concentration of blood under the skin. Albeit, the adjective can
denotedescribedstatesevenifthephysicalaspectofthepersoninquestionremains
unchanged.
pomarańczowy‘orange’
etymology <pomarańcza‘orange’←It.pomod’arancia,wherearancia‘orange’←Ar.nāranǧ←Pers.nārang←Sanskr.nāraṅga
1statt. early18thcenturyconcretemeanings
1.‘yellowwithredtint,likethecolourofaripeorange’
figurativemeanings&usages
-
Table2
No metaphorical usages of pomarańczowy in phraseology or collocations
havebeenfound.Itisusedexclusivelyinitsconcretemeaning.
56
różowy‘pink’etymology <róża‘rose’←OHGrōsa‘id.’←Lat.rosa1statt. 2ndhalfofthe18thcenturyconcretemeanings
1.‘ofredcolourmixedwithabigquantityofwhite’2.‘flushed’
figurativemeanings&usages
3.‘prosperous,favourable,satisfyingone’sexpectations,optimistic’-różowyscenariusz‘positivescenario’,różowaprzyszłość‘greatfuture’,
etc.-różowyhumor‘verygood,cheerfulmood’-widziećcośwróżowychbarwach‘toseesomethingoptimistically’-malowaćsięwróżowychbarwach‘tobeexpectedtobegood,prosperous’-oglądać/patrzećnaświatprzezróżoweokulary‘tobeanoptimist,tosee
onlythepositiveaspects’4.‘sympathisingwiththeleft,socialismorcommunism’-różowiateiści,różowidemokraci,etc.‘atheists,democrats,etc.
sympathisingwiththefar-left’5.‘erotic,relatedtosex’-Różowalandrynka‘titleofaneroticTVprogrammepresentingnude
women’-różowebalety‘bigpartyofanexpresslysexualnature’
Table3
Różowy replaced the former adjective naming this colour – różany (also
derived from róża ‘rose’, butwas first attested to already in the 1st half of the 15th
century)thatincontemporarylanguagereferspredominantlytothesmellofroseor
tothefloweringeneral(e.g.wodaróżana‘rosewater’).
Różowy has mainly positive connotations in Polish, denoting either an
optimisticattitudeormoodofapersonorfavourablecircumstancesandsituations.
However,itcanalsosuggestsomebody’spoliticalaffiliation,namelythefar-left,but
ina“light”versionifcomparedtoczerwony ‘red’(theintensityofcolourisdirectly
proportionate to the intensity of political convictions). Polish dictionaries do not
noteaseparatemeaningreferringtoeroticismorsex,butonemustrecognisethat
różowy sometimes has this kind of association too, which is proved by the cited
collocations6.
6Cf.thisfragmentfromapoembyMariaPawlikowska-Jasnorzewska(1923):“Zalotnośćjest
pachnącairóżowa,/amądrośćżółtaisucha./Wolałabym,bymnieMickiewiczchciałcałować, / niż bymnie chciał słuchać […]”,which could be translated as: “Coquetry isfragrantandpink/andwisdomisyellowanddry./IwouldpreferMickiewicztokissme/ratherthanlistentome[…]”.
57
szary‘grey’etymology ←Occid.Proto-Sl.*šarъ‘ofthecolourofash,grey’1statt. 15thcenturyconcretemeanings
1.‘ofthecolourresultingfrommixingwhiteandblack’2.‘colourless’
figurativemeanings&usages
3.‘average,mediocre’-szaryczłowiek(>szarak,szaraczek),szaramysz/myszka‘average
person’4.‘monotonous,boring’-szararzeczywistość‘monotonousreality’,szaracodzienność‘boring
everyday’5.‘cloudy,gloomy’-szarydzień‘gloomyday’-szaragodzina(>szarówka)‘crepuscule’76.‘showingsignsoffatigue,lackofsleeporadisease’-szaratwarz‘sicklyface’,szaraskóra‘unhealthypallorofskin’7.‘bad,poor,difficult’-byćnaszarymkońcu‘tobeattheveryend,intheworstposition’-zrobićkogośnaszaro‘tocheatsomebody,puttinghimintentionallyin
adifficultsituation’8.‘undetermined,vague,indistinct,invisible’-szarastrefa‘partofeconomywhichisoutofthecontrolofthestate’
Table4
The history of the term szary in Polish has already been detailed by
Bochnakowa(2010:33)whogivesitsfirstattestationsindifferentcollocationsfound
intextsanddictionaries,startingfromthe16thcentury.Thesearemainlyconcrete
usages,relatedtotheeffectivecolourofreferents,stillpresentintoday’slanguage,
e.g.:szarypapier ‘greypaper’,szarysos ‘greysauce’,szaremydło ‘greysoap’, istota
szara ‘greymatter’8.Szary isalsoa frequentepithet innamesofsomespeciesand
diseases: wierzba szara ‘grey willow’, szary niedźwiedź ‘grey bear’, słowik szary
‘thrushnightingale’,szarapleśń‘noblerot’,etc.
As it has been shown, when it comes to figurative meanings, szary refers
rather to negative qualities:mediocrity,monotony, lack of health and vagueness.
Theyarecertainlyduetoanundefinedcharacterofthiscolour.Someofthemeven 7 Thecollocationszaragodzinapertainsrathertoliteraryorformalregister,whereasthe
derivativeszarówkaisusedinthecasualone.8 However, the expression szara pycha / szara pyszka ‘grey pride, haughtiness’ (16th
century),thatisnomoreinuseinContemporaryPolish,deservestobementionedhereasacounterpart.
58
constituted the basis for further derivatives, such as szarak / szaraczek ‘average
person’,szarówka‘crepuscule’,wherethechromatictermisemphasised.
Asacuriosity, letusmentionanexamplewhich iscontrarytothe lastone.
Theexpressionrządzićsięjakszaragęś‘toimposeone’swill,toabuseone’spower’
(literally‘tobosslikeagreygoose’)hasalsocreatedaderivative,theverbszarogęsić
sięwith the samemeaning.However, in this case it isnot thegrey colour that is
stressed, but the goose which is accidentally grey. That is why this picturesque
expressionhasnotenteredintoourcorpus.
2.2.Portuguese
TherehavenotbeenmanystudiesaboutPortuguesecolournames.SaidAli
(1975) offers a brief and general overview of the subject. Schmitz (1983), Jensen
(1992) and Kobędza (2014) study them in a comparative and / or historical
perspective.Zavaglia(2006)andMoreiraBrangel(2011)discussproblemsrelatedto
colour terms from thepointof viewof lexicographicdescription.Moreover, there
areworksoncolours in the toponymyofPortugal:RocaGarriga (1958),Dębowiak
(2010).
With the purpose of analysing Portuguese colour names, the following
sourceshavebeenused:
• dictionariesofContemporaryPortuguese:DPLP(on-line)andDLPthatoffer
definitionsandapartoftheirusages;
• corpus of Portuguese from the 13th to the 20th century: CDP, helpful in
establishingfirstattestationsandsomecollocations;
• Machado’s (DELP1) and da Cunha’s (DELP2) etymological dictionaries,
providingtheoriginandthefirstattestationsofstudiedterms.
59
roxo‘purple’etymology ←Lat.rŭssĕu-‘darkred’1statt. 1258concretemeanings
1.‘whichisofthecolourofviolaoramethyst;purple’2.(obsolete)‘red’
figurativemeanings&usages
3.‘undertheinfluenceofdifferentphysicalfactors;exaggerated,excessive’
-teroslábiosroxosdefrio‘tohavefrozenlips’,choraratéficarroxo‘tocryintensively’,etc.9
Table5
ThehistoryoftheadjectiveroxoinPortuguesemeritsfurthercommentary.It
firstmeant ‘red’,a factwhichbringsthiswordcloserto itsSpanishcorrespondent
rojo ‘red’ and to the Latin etymon of both. By way of example, the Red Sea was
calledMar Roxo (orRoixo) in Portuguese still in the 16th century (cf. DELP1 s.v.
Roxo).Theadjectivewaseventuallyreplacedbyvermelho(←Lat.vermĭcŭlu-‘small
worm (producing scarlet dye)’) and encarnado (< carne ‘flesh,meat’), whereas its
semanticextenthasmovedtowards‘purple,violet’.
When itcomesto figurativemeanings,roxodenotesdifferentstatesrelated
to intense physical factors experienced by somebody: cold, weep etc. Aswe have
already explained it for Polish, these usages come from referring to the colour of
bodyorfaceresultingfromtheconcentrationofbloodundertheskin.Itseemsthat
roxo can describe the aforementioned states even if the physical aspect of the
personinquestionremainsunchanged10.
9 Letusnotethat inBrazilianPortuguesethereareexpressionsthatcouldpertaintothe
samegroup:roxoderaiva‘furious,angry’androxodeciúmes/inveja‘extremelyjealous’(itismorefrequentforthelastonetooccurwiththeadjectivemeaning‘green’:verdedeciúmes/inveja).
10 LetusnotethatthePortuguesecontemporarywriterFernandoCamposwritesasfollows:“Oheternalandabsolutecolour!Vagueandundecidedandmysteriousasagodwhoishidingbehindyourveilsfullofsecrets!Youdonotexpresstheendnorthefall,likeblackwhich represents the night and sin, and purple that symbolises the crepuscule anddeath.Youdonotexpressthebeginningnorfaith,likepinkoryellow,thatdenouncetheaurora,andred,thatstandsforpassion.Youdonotexpressnaivetynorcandidness,likeblue, nor contingency, like green and brown, with which nature colours many of itsmortalforms.”(fragmentofnarrativeFlordeestufa,1999).(Originaltext:“Ócoreternaeabsoluta!Vagaeindecisaemisteriosacomoodeusqueseescondepara ládos teusvéuscheiosde segredo!Tunãoexprimeso fimnemaqueda,comoonegro,querepresentaanoiteeopecado,eoroxo,quesimbolizaocrespúsculoe
60
(cor-de-)laranja‘orange’etymology <laranja‘orange(fruit)’←Hisp.Ar.naranǧa←Ar.nāranǧ←Pers.
nārang←Sanskr.nāraṅga1statt. 16thcenturyconcretemeanings
1.‘whichhasthecolourofthepeelofanorange,betweenintenseyellowandareddishhue’
figurativemeanings&usages
-
Table6
Formally,twoadjectivesfor ‘orange’areusedinPortuguese.Thefirstoneis
descriptive:cor-de-laranja,literally‘colouroforange(fruit)’;thesecondone,simply
laranja,resultsfromanellipsisofthepreviousterm.Bothareinvariable.
Therearenofigurativemeaningsof‘orange’inPortuguese11.
(cor-de-)rosa‘pink’etymology <rosa‘rose’←Lat.rosa1statt. 16thcenturyconcretemeanings
1.‘verylightredcolour’
figurativemeanings&usages
2.‘happy,positive,optimistic’-sonhoscor-de-rosa‘happydreams’-vertudocor-de-rosa‘tobeanoptimist’
Table7
amorte.Tunãoexprimesocomeçonemafé,comoorosaeoamarelo,quedenunciamaaurora, e o vermelho, que figura a paixão. Tu não exprimes a ingenuidade nem acandura, como o azul, nem a contingência, como o verde e o castanho, com que anaturezacoloremuitasdassuasformasmortais.”).ThissymbolicmeaningattributedtoroxoseemstobeexclusivelyliteraryandisprobablyrelatedtoChristiancommemorationsoffunerals,AdventandLent,duringwhichpurpleattireisdonned.LetusaddthatinBrazilianPortugueseroxocanalsomean‘desirous,anxious’,referringinformallytosomeone’slackofpatienceorevengreed.
11 Infact,wehavemanagedtofindthetermlaranjausedasanouninBrazilianPortuguesewith two metaphorical meanings: 1. ‘simple or naïve person’, 2. ‘person used as anintermediary in fraud and suspicious business’.We suppose the secondone is derivedfromthefirstmeaning,whichisprobablyrelatedtoorangeasafruit,notacolour.
61
Asinthecaseoforange,twoadjectivesfor‘pink’areinuseinPortuguese:a
descriptive one, cor-de-rosa, literally ‘colour of a rose’, and a shortened one,
resultingfromellipsis,rosa.Bothtermsareinvariable.
Theadjectiveinquestioncanappearinnamesofsomespecies,e.g.botocor-
de-rosa/botorosa‘pinkriverdolphin’(knowninBrazil)12.Itistobenotedthatits
concretemeaningproducedaderivativeverbwitha figurativemeaning:rosar (‘to
blushbecauseofbeingashamed’>)‘tobeashamed’.
Metaphorical usages of (cor-de-) rosa show its extremely positive
connotations,relatedtohappinessandoptimism13.
cinzento‘grey’etymology <cinza‘ash’←Lat.*cinīsia‘ashesmixedwithembers’1statt. 1506–1510concretemeanings
1.‘ofthecolourofash,anintermediatebetweenblackandwhite;mousy’
figurativemeanings&usages
2.‘whichdoesnothaveenoughluminosity’-manhãcinzenta‘gloomymorning’,diacinzento‘cloudyday’3.‘whichdoesnothavebrightness,vivacityorinterest’-vidacinzenta‘boring,monotonouslife’,atmosferacinzenta‘uninterestingambience’,cidadecinzenta‘drearycity’,etc.
Table8
At first referring to the colourof ashes, this adjectivehas a clear relational
origin. As it has been demonstrated, its figurative meanings are rather negative
ones,denotinglackofluminosity,characterandinterest.
2.3.Spanish
Infact,theworksdevotedtothechromaticproblemsinSpanishcoveravery
broad spectrum, including: the work of rather general or theoretical nature (cf.
Michelena1972,CaboVillaverde2001),colourinplacenames(cf.RocaGarriga1954,
Dębowiak2013),colourinacertainperiod(Stala2011),chromaticdenominationsof
12 Butalso:botovermelhoorbotobranco,literally‘red’or‘whiteriverdolphin’.13 Therearealsometaphoricalexpressionswiththewordrosainthequalityofthenoun:de
rosas ‘overjoyed’;marde rosas ‘occasiononwhicheverythinggoeswell’;maréde rosas‘period inwhich everything happens just aswewish’. They have similar, very positiveconnotations.
62
humanraces(cf.Stephens1989).Finally,anumberofworksdedicatedtocolourin
literarywork,tociteafewexamples:Spanishballads(Kenyon1915),Spanishpoetry
(Rogers1964)ortheBible(AlegreHeitzman1979).
IntheanalysisofSpanishthefollowinghavebeentakenintoaccount:
• dictionaries of Contemporary Spanish: DRAE, 22nd edition on-line, that
provides the actualmeaning,Diccionario de uso del español (Moliner 1991)
andaphraseologicaldictionary(Varela&Kubarth1994);
• CorpusDiacrónicodelEspañol(CORDE)thatgivesfirstattestations;
• Corpusdereferenciadelespañolactual(CREA)thatoffersfrequencyoflexical
items;
• BDELCthatgivestheetymology.
Spanish presents curiosities also at a formal level: there is more than one
denomination of some of the secondary colours. That is, in addition to the
monolexematicgris ‘grey’,violeta (608314) appears togetherwithmorado (16726);
rosa(961)appearsmoreoftenthanrosado(11881).
violeta‘purple’etymology ←Fr.violette‘viola’<OFr.viole‘id.’←Lat.viola1statt. 1477–1491concretemeanings
1.‘lightvioletcolour,likeviolet’
figurativemeanings&usages
2.‘superficial,ignorant’-eruditoalavioleta‘manwhoonlyhasasuperficialknowledgeofsciencesandarts’
Table9
morado‘purple’etymology <mora‘mulberry’←Lat.vg.mōra,Lat.mōrum1statt. 1407–1463concretemeanings
1.‘colourbetweencrimsonandblue’
figurativemeanings&usages
2.‘unfortunate’-pasarlasmoradas‘tobeinadifficultorpainfulsituation’3.‘excessive,intense’-ponersemorado‘togorgeonfood;toenjoyfood,sexorsomeother
14 This isthenumberoftheplacewhichoccupiesacertainwordonthefrequencylistby
CREA(Listadodefrecuencias),althoughitcanbeduetoacoincidenceofmeaning:both‘colour’and‘flower’.
63
pleasurefully’Table10
First of all, the predominance of violeta as a chromatic term is clearly seen
althoughvioleta’s firstmeaning is thatofa flowerandnotacolour.Whilevioleta
originallycomesfromFrench,morado isaderivativeofthenameofthemulberry.
They have almost simultaneous attestations as a colour name: the 15th century.
Neither violeta normorado has awide usage except for the name of a plant or a
colour.Ifany,theyarerathernegative:theyrefertosomethingsuperficial,difficult
orexcessive.Morado isalsousedtonamesomevegetal species:berenjenamorada
‘sortofeggplant’,camburmorado‘musaparadisiaca,sortoffruit’oracertaincloth:
granamorada‘asortofclothofthatcolourwhichmakesitinferiortootherkindsof
cloth’.
rosado‘pink’
etymology ←Lat.rosātu-‘ofroses’<rosa‘rose’1statt. c.1250concretemeanings
1.‘speakingofcolours:asthatofroses’
figurativemeanings&usages
-
Table11
rosa‘pink’etymology (?<colorderosa,whererosa‘rose’)←Lat.rosa1statt. 1493concretemeanings
1.‘redmixedwithwhite’
figurativemeanings&usages
2.‘romanticandbanalatthesametime’-novelarosa‘varietyofnovelisticnarrative,theactionofwhichappearsinmoderntimesandpresentsveryconventionalcharactersandenvironmentsinwhichthevicissitudesoftwoloversarenarrated,whoselovetriumphsagainstallodds’
3.‘optimistic,good,cheerful’-pasardelrosaalamarillo‘tochangeone’smoodsuddenlyorunexpectedly’-verlotododecolorderosa‘tobeanoptimist’
Table12
Perhapsaprocessofellipsiswaspossibleinthecaseofrosa,yetaccordingto
dictionariesbothrosadoandrosaderivedirectlyorindirectlyfromLatin,although
themainmeaningofthelastoneisthatofflower:DRAEdocumentsthechromatic
meaning in its 12th position. Yet, only rosa has created some lateralmeanings in
64
associationwiththecolourandiswidespreadinSpanishasacolourname.Except
forsomeneutralextension(duetotherealcolour)likesalsarosa‘saucemadewith
mayonnaiseandketchup’), themainconnotation isverypositive:health,comfort,
optimism,romanticism.Thevisiblecontrastwithyellow(pasardelrosaalamarillo)
onlyunderlinesthepositiveaspectofthischromaticterm.
naranja‘orange’
etymology (?<colordenaranja,wherenaranja‘orange(fruit)’)←Hisp.Ar.naranǧa←Ar.nāranǧ←Pers.nārang←Sanskr.nāraṅga
1statt. 1622concretemeanings
1.‘yellowwitharedtint’
figurativemeanings&usages
-
Table13
Although orange in Spanish has at least two denominations: naranja and
anaranjado, the second one clearly refers to the colour as such,which is scarcely
used,comparedtonaranja.At thesametime, it ismainlythenameofa fruitand
thatiswhyitschromaticmeaningisnotthefirstone.
Asthecolourterm,naranjaappearsrelativelylate:inthe17thcentury.Thatis
why,perhaps,therearenotmanyspecialusagesinSpanish15.
gris‘grey’etymology probably←Occit.gris‘id.’←OldLowFrankishgrîs1statt. 1150concretemeanings
1.‘colourthatusuallyresultsfrommixingwhiteandblack’
figurativemeanings&usages
2.‘unattractive,mediocre’-personagris‘amediocreperson’3.‘overcast’-díagris‘grey,cloudyday’4.‘cold’-haceungris‘itiscold’
Table14 15 In fact, there are some expressions like piel de naranja ‘orange peel’, naranjas chinas
(interjection)ormedianaranja ‘somebody’s lifepartner’ (lit. ‘half orange’), yetnoneofthemrefertothecolour.
65
Gris has an early attestation and a discussed origin. The contemporary
analysisofphrasesinSpanishformedwithcolouradjectiveleadstotheconclusion
that grey is commonly associated with sadness and melancholy, intellectual or
emotional mediocrity, dull objects, worthless, without particular qualities. These
meaningsconfirmtheconnotativeapproachtoblackratherthanamixtureofblack
andwhite.
3.Observationsandconclusions
Fromanetymologicalpointofview,thenamesofthefouranalysedcolours
canbeclassifiedinthefollowinggroups:
1) with an ancient origin from protolanguage, today opaque (Pol. szary←
Occid.Proto-Sl.*šarъ;Port.roxo←Lat.rŭssĕu-);
2)with a concrete, relational origin, themotivation ofwhich is still visible
(Pol.różowy,pomarańczowy,Port.(cor-de-)laranja,(cor-de-)rosa,Sp.naranja,rosa,
toalesserextentalsoPort.cinzentoandSp.morado);inPortugueseandSpanishit
hasmorphologicalconsequences:(cor-de-)laranja,(cor-de-)rosa,naranjaandrosa
areinvariableadjectives;
3)ofaforeignorigin(Pol.fioletowy<fiolet[←Germ.Violett]←Fr.violette;
Sp.violetaofthesameorigin;Sp.gris←Occit.gris).
One could then expect that various connotations have developed mostly
around the names of colours from the first group, as they have existed in the
languageforalongtimeandtheyaremorphologicallyunanalysable.Consequently,
the connotations should be less represented around the terms which are most
recent.Albeit,ourstudyrevealsthattheageandtheorigin(native/borrowed)of
chromatictermsdonotconditiontheirculturalmeaningandfrequency.Ofallthe
fourcoloursconsidered,pinkandgreyare theonesthathavedevelopedthemost
figurativemeanings,evenifthenamesofgreyhavecompletelydistinctoriginsand
the names of pink appeared later on (if compared to the other adjectives) in all
languagesanalysed.
66
Besides the concrete values of the adjectives analysed,when they denote a
real colour of something, we observe a greater or lesser disappearance of the
primitivemeaningofcolour insomemetaphoricalusages: thentheadjectivedoes
notevokearealcolour,butismentionedwithextra-chromaticassociations.
Purple’smetaphoricalusages inPolishandPortuguesearemainlybasedon
the transposition of meaning from the effective colour of someone’s skin to the
emotion or state itself. Thus a range of possible usages is obtained, concentrated
around bad emotions (anger) and some anomalous physical states (heavy cold,
drunkenness).Spanish seemsnot toassociatepurplewith these situations,maybe
with the exception of excessive gluttony.However, it rather links it to superficial
wisdomanddifficulties.Thesearestillnotverypositiveconnotations.
Strangely enough, orange has practically not developed any figurative
meaningsinanyofthelanguagesconsidered.
Pink is generally related to strongpositive emotions in all these languages:
happiness,optimism,hope forprosperity.This is indisputably thecolourwith the
bestassociationsfromourgroup.Nevertheless,therearealsosomeconnotationsof
pinkthatourlanguagesdonotshare:thecommunistone–onlyinPolish,beinga
traceoftherecenthistoryofPoland;theeroticone–inPolishtoo,probablybecause
ofthesymbolismofredandpinkascoloursofpassionandlove;theromanticone–
inSpanish,inrelationtothesamesymbolism,butevokingbanalitytoo.
An undefined character of grey (somewhere between black andwhite, but
also between red and green) makes its linguistic image dubious, polyvalent (cf.
Bochnakowa 2010). It is frequently an indeterminate colour, which is reflected in
PolishandSpanish.Mediocrity, average character,nothing special – theseare the
connotationsofgrey.
Infact,therearetwopossiblelinesofinterpretation:
invisible>insignificant
lackofcolour
average>poor
Thefirstoneismoreliteralandisreferredmainlytoobjectslikeday,person,
character and the fossilised syntagma inPolish szaramysz ‘greymouse, someone
67
shy and self-effacing’. The second one is more metaphorical with reference to a
situation,personand,again, reflected inPolishasszarykoniec ‘greyend, thevery
end’witha ratherpejorative connotation.Finally,Polish sources alsodocumenta
negativeextension‘tocheatsomeone’.
All these observations support the hypothesis that, in Spanish, only two
coloursaretruemetaphoricalbases:blackandgreen(Tatoj2006).Inaddition,so-
called cold colours connotenegativephenomena,while thewarmorneutralones
arepositive(Szałek2005).Generally,“theperceptionofcoloursbynativespeakers
ofSpanishisnotnecessarilythesameastheexperienceofotherEuropeanpeoples,
althoughusuallynotsodissimilarfromEuropeanculturalparadigm”(Szałek2005:
89;Arcaini1993).SuchahypothesisseemstobevalidforPolishandPortugueseas
well.
Thepresenceofthenamesofcoloursinlanguageshowsustheimportanceof
thevisualsideofourperceptionoftheworld.Weassociatecolourswithemotions,
characteristicfeatures,ideas,notionsandpetrifytheminsomeexpressionsthatare
sometimes identic and sometimesdivergent in a given cultural-geographical area.
Still, Europe, at least seen through the prism of secondary colour terms, seems
ratherhomogenousandthereismoreunionthandisunionintheirperception.
Symbolsandabbreviations
<isaderivativeformof
←comesfrom
Ar.=Arabic
Fr.=French
Germ.=German
Hisp.=Hispanic
It.=Italian
Lat.=Latin
MHG=MiddleHighGerman
Occid.=Occidental
Occit.=Occitan
OFr.=OldFrench
OHG=OldHighGerman
Pers.=Persian
Pol.=Polish
Port.=Portuguese
Proto-Sl.=Proto-Slavic
Sanskr.=Sanskrit
Sp.=Spanish
68
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71
Pretoandnegro,pardo,mestiçoandmulatoEsperançaCardeira(UniversityofLisbon)*
The words that designate the darkest colour, negro and preto, which are
definedeitherintermsoftheabsenceoflightorthefusionofallcolours,havebeen
presentinthePortugueselanguagesincethethirteenthcentury.Indeed,itiseasyto
understand how a colour that absorbs rather than reflects beams of light has
becomeanobviousmetaphor forall that isdarkand sad,whereasbranco (white)
hasbecomethesymbolofhappinessandpurity.Whenweconsiderthelabellingof
skin colour,black also presents itself as a contrast towhite.However, due to the
heterogeneous nature of skin tone, the Portuguese language soon found itself
havingtosearchfornewlexiconinordertofillthegapsincolourterminology.In
thispaper, Iwill attempt to identify thewaysbywhich try thesenewwordshave
emergedfrompre-existingconcepts,usingonlinecorporatoanalysesuchmeanings
and in doing so, outline the semantic history ofpreto,negro,pardo,mestiço and
mulato.
1.Negroandpreto
TheLatinnounNĬGERhasbeenfounddocumentedinallRomancelanguages,
with the exception of Sardinian. As well as designating the colour Black,
metaphorical uses of the word also stretch back several centuries, either being
* The author wishes to thank Catherine Bremner for her assistance in proofreading.
72
assigned to ‘sadness, mourning’ or to ‘dark skin’. When referring to ‘dark skin’,
negrohasbeenfoundin15thcenturySpanishtexts(Corominas1991,s.v.negro);the
Frenchnègre16, Italiannegro,Englishnigger, andGermanneger (whichhave same
meaning)areallborrowingsfromtheSpanish.
The etymology of preto seems to bemore problematic. Corominas (1991, s.v.
apretar)suggestedafirstform*apetrar,fromlateLatinAPPĔCTŎRARE(<PĔCTUS).
Theunderstandingof‘brownskin’(Portuguesepreto,oldSpanishprieto17)maycome
fromtheideaof‘dense,thick’,asanequivalentto‘dark’.
Negroandpretohavebeenpresent in thePortuguese languagesince the 13th
century. As adjectives, both words designate something which is 'dark coloured’
(either as tangible entities or irrealia) and such usage may be observed in the
HistoriaTroyana(14thcentury)18:
mandoutragerdouscarneirosnegros(twoblacksheep),fl.14rb
etosollosavíangrandesepretos(blackeyes),fl.49vb
aswellasinmedievalsongbooks19
Permeusnegrospecados,tiveũucasteloforteedei-oaseudon[o](blacksins),B1592
/V1124.
Here,negroretainstheLatinconnotationof ‘gloomy,sinister’;thesamegoes
forpretoandthisisevidentinthedescriptionofjusticeinBooscoDeleitoso(thelate
14th, early 15th century)20.Once again, the black colour is related to pain and the
whitecolour(alva)topleasure:
16Nègreisdocumentedonthe16thcentury(LeTrésordelaLangueFrançaiseInformatisé,s.v.
nègre).17TheNebrija’dictionarygivesprietoasasynonymofnegro:“prietoaquellomesmoesque
negro”(Corominas(1991,s.v.apretar).18Ed.Pichel(2013).19 InDicionáriodedicionáriosdogalegomedieval -Corpus lexicográficomedievalda língua
galega.20InCorpusdoPortuguês.
73
[ajustiça]asuavistidurahededuascoloreshacolorpretademostraatribulaçõeha
door que ha justiça faz padecer aosmaãos. E a color alua demostra ho prazer e o
gualardõqueelladaaosboõs(justice’clothinghastwocolours:theblackcolourstands
forthepainthatthewickedwillsufferandthewhitecolourrepresentspleasure,which
istherewardforthevirtuous).
Contemporary dictionaries (I will use Infopedia, an online dictionary
commonlyusedas a referencedictionary for contemporaryEuropeanPortuguese)
keepbothmeanings.Here,negro,aswellaspreto(adj.),isdescribedassomething1.
defined by the absence of colour; 2. dark coloured; 3. dirty; 4. gloomy; 5. sad. 6.
mournful.Thedefinitionforpreto isalmostexactlythesame21duetothefactthat
negroandpretoareseenassynonyms.Asanoun,bothnegroandpretocanreferto
an individual who is dark skinned, but in this case, preto is considered to be
pejorative.
However, a diachronic analysis reveals an important difference: whilst as
adjectives, bothnegro andpreto apply, as early as the 13thCentury, to ‘something
dark’ or ‘sad’, as nouns and as ameans of labelling skin colour, thedictionaries22
onlyrecordnegrointhe15thCenturyandpretointhe18th.Nevertheless,anon-line
corpus23 survey shows that it is possible to find evidence of the adjective negro
referringtoskincolourorraceevenbeforethe15thcentury:
Casseosenhoracousaquiserdemãdarporsua&formouil&uiuaassycomeseruo
deuedizeronomedelseosouber&sehebarõ.oumolher.oumãçebo.ouuelho.ou
brãcoounegro (themaster should tell the servant'snameandwhetherhe ismaleor
female,youngorold,whiteorblack),TerceyraPartidadeAfonsoX,13th-14thcentury;
E,emsayndoelreydaclaustra,vyoviinrhuuclerigoqueeramuynegrodesuacolor.
El rey, por que o vyo assynegro, preguntoulhe por o nomede seu padre e elle lhe
dissequeavyanomeÇolleyma.(thekingsawaclergymanwhowasblack;hisfather’s
namewasÇolleima),CrónicaGeraldeEspanhade1344.
21InBrazilianportuguesepretoalsomeanssomething‘tricky’,‘hard’(Infopedia).22Machado1977;Cunha1986;Houaiss2001,s.v.negro,preto.23Corpusdoportuguês.
74
Interestingly,inthesetexts,itisalwaystheadjectivenegrowhichisusedwhen
referringtoskincolour,neverpreto.Weonlyfindthelatterusedwiththismeaning
inthe16thcentury:
Opayerapretoegentil-homemdebomcorpo,mayorqueodofilho.(thefatherwas
black),ChronicadosReisdeBisnaga.
AsurveyintheCorpusdoPortuguês(adatabaseofPortuguesetextsstretching
fromthe1300stothe1900s)revealsasignificantdifferencebetweentheoccurrences
ofpretoandnegro(forthecolouroftheskin):notonlyispretoalaterword,italso
appearslessfrequentlythannegro,particularlyafterthe18thcentury:
Fig.1:Thefrequencyofpretoandnegro(skincolour)inthetotalofformsreferringto
blackcolourintheCorpusdoPortuguês24.
Rafael Bluteau, one of the first lexicographers of Portuguese, defines both
preto25 and negro as synonymous in their designation of the colour black
(VocabulárioPortuguezeLatino,1712-28)26:
24 InCorpusdoPortuguêstherearereferencestopretoandnegrowithotheruses(suchas
toponymoranthroponym)thatwerenottakenintoaccountinthisdistribution.25 Preto isalso thenameofacoin,preciselybecauseof thecolour(therewerewhiteand
blackcoins):“Preto.AntigamoedadePortugal.QuandoElReyD.Duartemandoubater
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII XIX XX
preto
negro
75
preto.Negro.Ater,atra,um.ouNiger,gra,grum.
negro.Cornegra,outintanegra.Hehudosdousestremosdascores,&heoppostoao
branco(blackcolororblackink,asopposedtowhite).
When referring to clothing, the colour black (negro or preto) appears in
associationwithpenitenceand,ingeneral,withsadnessandmourning:
AcornegraeraantigamentepropriadasvestesdosMonges(…)queprofessavãovida
penitente(…)Arazãofoi,porqueacorpretahemaispropriadahumildadedoestado
Monastico,&sesignificanellaatristeza;pelaqualrazãoseaccommodaaostumulos,
exequias,&representaçõesfunebres(inthepasttheclothingofthemonkswasblack
dueto itbeingsuitable forhumility;blacksignifiessadnessand issuitable for funeral
rites);
Negro.Infausto.Desgarciado.Dacornegra,queheamaisescuradetodas,tomamos
motivoparachamarmosnegroatodaacousaquenosenfada,molesta,&entristece,
comoquandodizemos,Negraventura,negravida,&c.(wecalleverythingthatmakes
ussad,black).
Bytheearly18thcentury,inBluteau’sdictionary,negroandpretohavealready
becomesynonymswhenidentifyingskincolour:
Negro.Homemdaterradosnegros,oufilhodepaysnegros.Pretotambemsechama
oescravoPreto.Servusniger.Pretinho.Negrinho.Pretinho,tambemvalomesmoque
pequenoescravo.Preto.Servulusniger(blackman,sonofblackparents,slave).
Itshouldbenotedthatthenegativeconnotationsthatlaterextendedtoskin
colour,andwhichwerealreadypresentinLatin,areregardedasamischance:
Quemnegronace.nũcaserabranco(thosebornblackwillneverbewhite), Jerónimo
Cardoso, Dictionarium latinolusitanicum & vice versa lusitanicolatinum cum
adagiorum,1570;
humamoeda, que chamáraõReaes brancos, parece quemandoubater outramoeda, aquechamouPretos“(Bluteau,VocabulárioPortuguezeLatino,1712-1728).
26 AllquotationsofancientdictionariesaretakenfromCorpusLexicográficodoPortuguês.
76
Aindaquenegros,gentesomos,&almatemos(weareblackbutwearepeopleandwe
haveasoul)Bluteau,VocabulárioPortuguezeLatino,1712-28.
Apparently,theblackskincolourwasconsideredapunishmentfromGod,and
in this instance,Bluteauoffersus somehypotheses (whichwerecirculatingat the
time)fortheoriginofblackskin:
AttribuemalgunsestacorpretaàforçadoSolnasterrasqueestespovoshabitão;mas
debaixodaZonaTorrida,ondeperpendicularmenteardeestePlaneta,hahomenstão
brancos, como na Europa (…) Para evitar os inconvenientes desta controversia, se
respondequeestanegridãodoscorposfoicastigodoCeo(somethinkthatthecoloris
causedbytheheatofthesunbutbelowthetorridzonetherearealsowhitemen;some
saythatthiscolourisapunishmentfromheaven).
As a result of Portuguese expansionoverseas, the figure of theAfrican slave
becameincreasinglyfrequentfromthemid-fifteenthcenturyonwards,mainlyasa
character in theatre.Forexample, inGarciadeResende’sCancioneiroGeral (1516),
andasdepictedinFernãodaSilveira’slyrics(44)27,weseethefigureofanAfrican
KingwhoispresentinordertocelebratetheweddingofPrinceFernando(1490):
AmimreidenegroestarSerraLioa,
lonjemuitoterraondevivernós,
lodarcaitbelatubaodeLixboa
falarmuaonovascasarperavós.
Quereramimlogover-voscomovai,
leixarmolhermeu,partirmuitosinha,
porquesemprenósservirvossopai,
folgarmuitonegro,estarvósrainha.
Aquestegentemeutaibo,terranossa
nuncafolgar,andarsempreguerra,
namsaberquiquebalharterravossa,
balharquesabercomonossaterra.
27 ThenumberingofthecompositionsistheoneintheeditionofDias(1990-93).
77
Selogovosquermandar,amimvenha
fazerquesaber,tomarqueachar,
mandarfazertaibolugar,Desmantenha!
Elogomeunegro,Senhora,balhar.28
InVida e Feitos d’el-reyDom João Segundo, Garcia deResendedescribes the
dance accompanying the song and from this, we learn that such ‘africans’ were
playedbymenpaintedinblack(“dozentoshomenstintosdenegromuitograndes
bayladores”)29.However,intheverseswrittenbyAnriquedaMota,whichpresentus
with a clergymanwho loses awinebarrel only to then accusehis slave (797), the
subjecthasalreadybecomeablackslave(negra):
(Falacomasuanegra).
—OoperradeManicongo,
tuentornasteestevinho!
Ũapostadetoucinho
t'hei-degastarnesselombo!
………………..
Osisoserácalar
peranambuscardesculpa.
Poisanegranamtemculpa,
peraquelhaquerodar?
……………….
anegraficaconvosco
comquevosconfortareis.
AfewyearslaterthetheatretextsbyGilVicentehaveseveralblackcharacters:
(VemumNegrocantandonalínguadesuaterra)
Negro:queindaquenegrosó 28 Teyssier gives a fairly complete analysis of this song (2005:276-8) and describes the
‘línguadepreto’(2005:275-305).29 Ed.Verdelho1994,p.334.
78
………………
Vénus:Cúyoeresnegrocoitado?
Negro:Amisánegrodecrivão
agorasávossocão
vossacravomurgurado.
Cativocomogalinha
quandobosoáguaquerê
logoamibaitrazê
emásofeixedelenha.
………………
Negro:Faze-mebrancorogo-tehomem(Fráguad’amor,1524);30
(VemumNegrodeBeniediz:)
.......................
Negroquefazefolia
.......................
Frade:EsteNegrochilramais
quesalmoneteemfigueira(Naod’amores,1527);
……………….
Clérigo:Setoparesláemfundo
umnegropõe-tearecado
porqueéumperromalvado
omaiorladrãodomundo.
…………….
Gonçalo:DizeNegroésdacorte?
Negro:Jáamiforronamsácatibo(ClérigodaBeira,1529-30).
GilVicentealwaysusedthewordnegro,neverpreto.Therefore,itappearsthat,
in theearly 16thcentury, the formerwas theonlyPortugueseword thatexisted to
denote black skin colour. However, Venus, a Spanish-speaking character from
Fráguad’amor,alsousedthewordprieto(“Vénus:PrietovienesdeCastilla?”).Due
tothefactthatmanywritersofPortugueseliteraturewerefrequentlyexposedtothe 30 All quotations ofGil Vicente´s plays are taken fromTeatro deAutores Portugueses do
séculoXVI.
79
Spanish language, it isplausible thatpreto,with themeaningof 'skincolor'wasa
Spanish loan. In any case, by the 17th century, preto was already in use with
reference to skin colour, aswe can see in the followingdescription inCrónica da
CompanhiadeJesus(SimãodeVasconcelos,1663)31.Inthistext,wealsocomeacross
anotherconcept,thatof‘miscegenation’:
…amulherbranca,debrancoparebranco,edenegromulato;sejaquente,oufriaa
disposiçaodoventre.Dondesetiramanifestamente,quenaoestásomentenoventre
a virtude do grau do frio, ou calor necessário; senao na virtude seminária, que
dependedeambososgenerantesporqueseambostêmvirtudefria,gerambranco;se
amboscálida,gerampreto:eseumfria,outrocálida,gerammulatodecorentremeia,
nemperfeitamentebranca,nempreta (whitewomanwithwhitemangeneratewhite
children;withblackmanmulatto,neitherwhitenorblack).
2.Pardo,mulatoandmestiço
Portuguese has an early word, pardo, meaning ‘dark’, that has been
documented since the 12th century: “unopoldro colorepardo” (Machado 1977, s.v.
pardo).Pardo was a fairly common form in the 15th-16th centuries and designated
anythingwithadarkhue32andinparticular,akindoffabric(“hũasopasvermellas
dobradasdepannopardo”,1414).33Asaresult,itquicklyadoptedthenewmeaning
of ‘dark skinorof indefined tonality’ and later, ‘mestizo,mulatto’. In fact,wecan
findpardousedasareferencetoskincolourasearlyasthe14th-15thcenturies,such
asinMiragresdeSantiago:34
31 InCorpusdoPortuguês.32 Pardowasalsousedasanamefortheleopard.AccordingtoCorominas(1991,s.v.pardo),
leoparduscouldhavebeenunderstoodasleo-pardus,thusparduswouldhavebeseenasanadjectivereferringtothedark-coloredpatchesthatdistinguishtheleopardfromthelion.Then,pardo came todesignate the colorofhorses andother animals, and finallyany dark object. A resemblance to pardal (sparrow, from Greek párdalos) may havecontributedtothissemanticevolution.However,Viaro2011:186)suggestedtheevolutionPALLIDUM>*paldo>pardo. In the 15th-16th centuriespardo (andpardilho)wasalsoakindofdarkandmixedfabric(Houaiss2001,s.v.pardo).
33 Maia(1986:104).34 InCorpusdoPortuguês.
80
Etdemaisainda tomoutodaa terra [...]que tinãosmouros,a terrados serranoset
dospardosetdoscastelãos.
Although isnot exactly clearwho thesepardoswere, thediary of Fernãode
Magalhães’,writtenintheearly16thcentury,presents‘genteparda’asasynonymfor
‘dark-skinnedpeople’:
tendo andado mays de mil leguas achou perto da linha duas ilhas não grandes
pouoadasdegentepardadecabello corrediogẽtios, saluagẽs,nus semuestidonem
polliciaalgũa35.
Around the same time, João de Barros’Décadas da Ásia (Década Segunda,
LivrosI-X,1553)36,showedthatbeingpardowasapparentlyareasonforcontempt:
DinisFernandesdeMelo, filhobastardodeGonçaloVazdeMelo,oqual,postoque
naquele tempo era pouco conhecido e estimado, por ser homem pardo nas cores
(Dinis Fernandes de Melo, bastard son of Gonçalo Vaz de Melo, was little valued
becauseofthecolourofhisskin)
InGilVicente’splays,thecharacterofMariaPardawouldprobablyhavebeen
dark-skinned,justlikethepardamujerinFráguadeAmor;bythattime,inAnrique
Lopes’ Cena Policiana/Auto do Estudante37, pardo and mulato had become
synonyms:
Teodósio:Quemcantaaosomd’almofaça?
Inofre:ÉomulatodeLicardo.
Teodósio:DaiaDeos,bemcantaopardo.
Mulato,fromLatinMŪLUS+ATTUS(thesuffixthatappliestoyounganimals)
is, inbothPortugueseandSpanish,thetermthatinitiallyreferredtotheoffspring 35 InCorpusdoPortuguês.36 InCorpusdoPortuguês.37 InTeatrodeAutoresPortuguesesdoséculoXVI.
81
producedthroughthebreedingofadonkeyandahorse.Corominas(1991s.v.mulo)
claimsthatthePortuguesewordmulatoisaloanfromSpanish,fromtheearly16th
century.Thewordtravelled,fromSpanishorfromPortuguese,toItalian(mulatto)38
and then to French (mulâtre)39 and English (mulatto).When referring to ´mule’,
mulato occurred in some of Gil Vicente’s plays, such as with a Spanish-speaking
characterJulião(TragicomédiadeDomDuardos):
Julião:…hadeheredar
unaburrayunpumar
yunmulatoyunmolino
andalsowithPortuguesespeakingcharacters(FarsadoClérigodaBeira)
Filho:…écousaperigosa
andardesàcaçaapé.
Clérigo:Sebeatoimmaculato
m’emprestasseoseumulato
masnamseisequererá.
Retainingthesamemeaning,thewordmulatoappearsinthefirstPortuguese
lexicography,writtenby JerónimoCardoso,who in the 16th century (Dictionarium
latinolusitanicum, 1570), translatesmulato with the word burdo: “mulato filho de
asnoedeegoa.Burdo,onis”(cubofadonkeyandamare).Inthefollowingcentury,
Barbosa (Dictionarium lusitanico latinum, 1611) stilldefinesmulato in termsof the
animal(“Mulatofilhodecavalo,easna.Burdo,onis”),asdoesBentoPereirainhis
Thesourodalinguaportugueza,1697(“Mulato,besta.Buido,onis”).
38MulattooccurredinItalianinatranslationbyRamusioofaPortuguesedocumentdated
1525;latter,in1580,Pigafettaalsousedthisword(Corominas1991s.v.mulo).39Mulâtre (mullatre, mulastre, mulate, mulat) is documented in French since the 16th
century,meaninga‘personbornfromtheunionofawhitewithablack’.ItisaloanfromPortuguese(LeTrésordelaLangueFrançaiseInformatisé,s.v.mulâtre).
82
In the 18th century, Bluteau´s Vocabulário also retains the same meaning:
“Mulato é a besta, o macho asneiro, filho de cavallo, & burra”. Bluteau even
highlightssomepopularproverbsconcerningthisanimal:
Caminholargo,oumula,oumulato(longwalk,muleormulatto);
O mulato sempre parece asno; quer na Cabeça, quer no rabo (the mulato always
appearstobeadonkey,beitwithhisheadorwithhistail).
Nevertheless,inthewritingsofCardoso,BentoPereira,andBluteau,theword
mulatocanalsobefoundappliedtoahumanbeing:
Hybrida(ae). Ho homem mulato (mullatto man), Cardoso, Dictionarium
latinolusitanicum,1570;
omulato,ou filhodenatural,&estrangeiro (sonof anativeanda foreigner),Bento
Pereira,Prosodiainvocabulariumbilingue,Latinum,etLusitanumdigesta,1697;
OfilhodepayEuropeo,&mãynegra,chama-seMulato(achildofaEuropeanfather
andblackmotherisamulatto)40,Bluteau,VocabulárioPortuguezeLatino,1712-28.
Bluteau demonstrates quite clearly the metaphorical twist on the original
meaning:
EstenomeMulatovemdeMú,oumulo,animalgèradodedousoutrosdedifferente
especie(theword‘mulato’comesfrom‘mulo’,ananimalgeneratedfromtwoanimals
ofdifferentspecies).
Therefore,eversincethe16thcentury,mulatohasnotsimplybeenrestrictedto
animals,buthasalsoreferredtoanindividualbornfromtwodifferentspecies,thus
combiningthenotionofmixingbothspeciesandcolours.
As for the word mestiço, traditionally it was employed in the Spanish and
Portuguese overseas dominions to indicate crossbreeding. From the late Latin
MĬXTĪCIUS,‘bornofamixedbreed’(<MIXTUS,p.p.MISCĔRE,‘tomix,tomerge’),
40According to Corominas (1991 s.v. mulo), in the 16th century mulato meant ‘son of
European andMoorish’ or ‘black and Indian’; itwas only in the 17th century that thiswordwasappliedto‘blackandwhite’.
83
documentedinSaintJerome(c. 347-420)andSaintIsidoreofSeville(c.560-636)41,
mestiçohasoccurredinPortuguesetextssincethe14thcentury.42JerónimoCardoso
(1570) andAgostinhoBarbosa (1611) translatedmestiçowith thewordsHybris,idis,
Ibrida,ae; the originalmeaningof 'mixed'was initially a reference to the result of
crossingspecies43asobservedinBentoPereira’Prosódia,1697:
Lycopantheros,Animalmestiçodelobo,&onça(crossbredofwolfandjaguar);
Leopardus,Leopardo,animalmistiçodepardo,&leoa(crossbredofleopardandlion).
Corominasobservedthatthemeaningof ‘darkskin’wasa loanfromSpanish
mestizo, first documented in 1600. Yet,Machado (1977, s.v.mestiço) claimed that
thiswordhadalreadybeeninuseina16thCenturyPortuguesetext:
HabitãmaisnaquellaprouinciadoMalabardousgenerosdemouros,huusnaturaes
daterraaqueelleschamãNayteasquesammestiços(Moorswhoaremestizos),João
deBarros,DécadasdaÁsia:DécadaPrimeira,LivroIX,1552.
Eitherway,Bluteau,inhisVocabulário(1712-28),alreadyidentifiesmestiçoasa
referencetoanytypeofanimal(rationalorirrational)thatresultsfromthecrossing
ofspecies:
mestíço. Diz-se dos animaes racionaes, & irracionaes. Animal mestiço. Nascido de
pay,&mãydedifferentesespecies,comomú,leopardo,&c.
Homemmestiço.Nascidodepaysdedifferentesnações.V.g.FilhodePortuguez,&
de India,oudepay Indio,&demãyPortugueza (rationalor irrationalanimalsborn
fromparentsofdifferentspecies;childofPortugueseandIndian).
41 Corominas1991s.v.mecer.42Machado1977;Cunha1986;Houaiss2001,s.v.mestiço.43 TheFrenchmétis(adj.)isdocumentedinthe13thcentury,inthesenseof‘mixed’,‘oflow
birth’, and in the 14th century, meaning ‘animal generated from two different species’(chienmestis);inthe17thmetice(adj.andn.)alreadymeans‘personbornofawhitemanwithanIndian’.Metice,mesticewerecommoninthe17-18thcenturiesandare,probably,anadaptationofthePortugueseortheSpanishword.AncientProvencalhadmestiz(adj.‘oflowbirth’,‘mixedblood’,‘bad’,‘vile’andn.,‘bastardoflowbirth’),fromtheearly12thcentury(LeTrésordelaLangueFrançaiseInformatisé,s.v.métis).
84
Bluteau’s Vocabulario de synonimos e phrases portuguezas (1728) adds a
pejorative dimension to this word, associating it with the concept of ‘fake,
adulterated’: “Mistiço, ou Mestiço. Bastardo. Adulterino. Illegitimo. Naõ castiço
(bastard,illegitimate).
3.Closingremarks
Although negro has always been the word of preference to designate non-
whiteskin(probablybecauseitcanencompassanyskinwhichisdark),bytheend
ofthe15thcenturythePortuguesefelttheneedtointroducenewlexicon.Asshown
infigure2,theonlywordinthe14thcenturythatwasusedtodesignateanon-white
skincolourwasnegro; in the followingcentury,pardobecameanavailableoption
fordarkskincolour;inthe16th,pretoemerges(asanalternativetonegro)butalso
themixedskincolours,mestiçoandmulato.44
Fig.2:Thefrequencyofpreto,negro,pardo,mestiçoandmulato(referringskincolor)
inCorpusdoPortuguês.
ThevarietyofcultureswithwhichthePortuguesecameintocontactinthe16th
centurymusthavestimulatedthisneedtospecifycolorsandbackgrounds.Hence,
aside from the terms preto/negro, branco, pardo,mulato andmestiço, therewere
44Allthesewordsarestillinuse,forskincolor(Infopedia).
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII XIX XX
pardo
mes8ço
mulato
preto
negro
85
othernewerwords,suchascriouloandcaboclo,whichalsofoundthemselveslisted
inBluteau,1712-28:
O filhodepayEuropeo,&mãynegra, chama-seMulato (European fatherandblack
mother);
O filho de pay do Brasil, &mãy negra, chama-se Curiboca, ou Cabocles (Brazilian
fatherandblackmother);
Ofilhodepay,&mãy,negros,chama-seCrioulo(blackfatherandmother).
Itwasno longersufficient tosimplyrefer toa ‘mixtureofspecies’; rather, it
had become necessary to specify the exact type of mixture. This desire for
specificationwaspossiblyduetothefactthatnegrowasperceivedasanexcessively
broadterm.ThePortuguesealreadyknewthecolourblack(negro)andcoulduseit
toqualifyAfricanswithwhomtheyhadhadcontacteversincetheearlyperiodof
the Christian ‘Reconquista’. But from the 16th century onwards, when the
expansionistoverseasmovementresultedinnewinterculturalcontacts,skincolour
couldnolongerbereducedtoabinarycoloursystem:blackandwhite.Therefore,
theneedtogivenamestodifferentskintones,inparticularthe'mixed'skin,ledtoa
commonstrategyforextendingthelexicon:usingwordsthatalreadyexistedandto
whichknownrealitieshavebeenassigned,andgivethemnewmeanings,adaptedto
newrealities.Thisiswhatseemstohaveoccurredinthisparticularsemanticfield:
theparticularadjectivethatqualifiedacolorstartedbeingappliedtotheskincolor
ofanindividualand,later,namedtheindividualitself.
negro darkcolor,somber,sad(13th)
↓
skincolor(14th)→blackman(15th)
preto darkcolor,somber,sad(13th)
↓
skincolor(16th)→blackman(17th)
86
pardo darkcolor,(12th)
↓
mixedfabric,mixedskincolor(15th)→personofmixedrace,n.(16th)
mestiço mongrelanimal(14th)→personofmixedrace,adj.,n.(16th)
mulato mule(16th)→personofmixedrace,adj.,n.(16th)
The element which supports this extension of the meaning for negro and
preto,isindeedcolour.Ontheotherhand,thenewmeaningforpardo,mestiçoand
mulatowasnotonlybasedoncolourbutalsoontheveryconceptof intersection;
mixingmaterials,cross-breeding,andalsothecrossingofcolours.
Withregardtothenamingofskincolour,negroandpretoareclearlyopposed
tobranco;but,astheworld isnotsimply 'blackandwhite', thecolourof theskin
cannotbeexclusively reducedto these twocolours,especiallywith thenew inter-
culturalcontactsbroughtaboutwithbeginningofPortugueseoverseasexpansion.
Hencetheneedformorespecificwordssuchaspardo,mestiçoandmulato;words
that already existed but which had previously designated other realities. New
experiences arise from already existing concepts, and indeed, the same applies to
lexicon.Inessence,ifwegobacktotherootsofwordsandstudytheiretymological
chain,wemayreachsimplerformsandmore'primitive'concepts.
References
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Corominas, J. & J. Pascual (1991) [1980]. Diccionario Crítico Etimológico Castellano eHispánico.Madrid:Gredos.
Corpus do Português. [Mark Davies & Michael Ferreira (orgs.)],http://www.corpusdoportugues.org[02.12.2015].
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Dias, A. F. (1990-93).Cancioneiro Geral de Garcia de Resende (IV vols). Lisboa: ImprensaNacional-CasadaMoeda.
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Machado, J. P. (19773) [1952]. Dicionário Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa. Lisboa:Horizonte.
Maia, Clarinda de Azevedo (1986). História do Galego-Português. Coimbra: InstitutoNacionaldeInvestigaçãoCientífica.
Pichel, R. (2013). A Historia Troiana (BMP ms.558). Edición e estudo histórico-filolóxico,TomoII.SantiagodeCompostela:USC-DepartamentodeFiloloxíaGalega.
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Teyssier,P.(2005).ALínguadeGilVicente.Lisboa:ImprensaNacional-CasadaMoeda.Verdelho,E.(1994).LivrodasObrasdeGarciadeResende.Lisboa:Gulbenkian.
89
II
Categorizationandlexicographicdescription
91
Colourfulmicrostructures:HowItaliandictionariesseecolourtermsCarlaMarello&CristinaOnesti(UniversityofTurin)
AColorstandsabroadOnSolitaryFields
ThatSciencecannotovertakeButHumanNaturefeels.
(EmilyDickinson)
1.Introduction
This paper aims to analyze how different Italian dictionaries (mainly digitalmonolingualdictionaries)dealwithcolour-relatedterms,inparticularasconcerns:
-theattributionofpartsofspeech;-thetreatmentofnewchromonymsandcompoundcolours.Theassociationofcolourwithfontsandmicrostructuredesignhasmassively
entered the world of digital dictionaries. As Dziemianko (2015) demonstrated inarecentpublication, thiskindof information ineverymicrostructure significantlyincreasesthespeedandeffectivenessofonlinedictionarysearches.
Thoughthisisanimportantaspectofcolouruseinlexicography,itisnottheprimarytopicofourresearch.Ourmainaimistoanalysehowdifferentdictionariesdealwith theattributionofmore thanonepartof speech,usually anounandanadjective, to the same headword, and whether they supply the necessarymorphosyntacticinformation.
At a methodological level, we worked with full text queries in digitaldictionaries andwith queries exploiting part of speech (POS) labels in annotatedcorpora(see§3).
92
2.ColoursinItaliandictionariesA complete analysis of dictionary definitions of colour terms is discussed in
Casati(1990),whodefendsanAristotelianparadigmofdefinition(colournamesareintroduced by pointing to objects of a specific colour) against the scientificparadigmusedbymostItaliandictionaries. Inhisopinion,thestateofconceptualconfusion in Italian lexicographyderived froma tendencywhich first appeared inTommaseo–Bellini(1861-1879)and,duetoitsauthoritativeinfluence,waspassedonin many subsequent works, whereas correct reference to a prototype wascharacteristicofourearlylexicographictradition(seeVocabolariodellaCrusca).The lack of homogeneous criteria is documented by the range of possibledefinitions,asoutlinedinthefollowingscheme:
-adefinitionstartingfromtypicalsubstance45,whichreferstoaprototype,asforexampleviola=ilcoloredellaviolamammola(Palazzi1986),‘thecolourofwoodviolet’
-adefinitionstarting fromthesauralassociationwith idiomaticexpressions(like rosso come il fuoco ‘red as fire’) which are vague and not always true orsufficient;
- a definition starting from the spectrum position in terms of wavelength(i.e.: “radiazionidi lunghezzad’ondacomprese tra7500e6540A”/ “chesta tra ilgialloeilblu”).
Consider that inourdigital era suchvariety isdecreasingbecause seriesofheadwordssharingthesamefeaturesaredealtwithusingthesamemicrostructuremodel.
Lookingat Italianpaperdictionaries,Marconi (1997:300-301)observed thatillustrationscouldbeaddedtocolourdefinitionstoclarify fineshadedistinctions;otherwise, in some cases they become almost unintelligible. For example, users’referentialcompetenceisnotreallysupportedbydefinitionslike:
magenta = [...] color porpora carico venutodimodadopo la battaglia diMagenta(1859),conriferimentoalcoloredeipantalonideglizuavifrancesi[Treccani1989]‘intensepurplecolour,whichbecamefashionableaftertheBattleofMagenta(1859),referringtothecolourofFrenchZouavetrousers’We can find the same definition in Zingarelli 1970 (magenta = [...] colore
cremisicarico,Eng. ‘intensecrimson’):acomparisonwith themost recentedition(Zingarelli2016)showsarevision,inanattempttoreferonlytobasiccolours,likerosso‘red’andvioletto‘violet’:
45 Some attention should also be devoted to websites where people post images they
associatewithfeelingsandcolours,becausenowadaysdefiningcoloursaccordingtothe“typicalsubstance”ofthatcolour,asCasati(1990)suggests,mightreservesomesurprisesandrevealshiftsintypicality.
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magènta/ maˈdʒɛnta/[daMagenta,luogodellasanguinosabattaglia(1859),conallusionealsanguechevifusparso☼1872]agg.;anches.m.inv.●dicolorerossomoltointenso,tendentealvioletto
InZingarelli2008inthe internalpartofthecoverthepublisherprovidedanatlas of colours and indicated thenameof each colour and thepercentageof thefour-colourprocessforeachhue.
In the Merriam Webster online Learner’s Dictionary we find (seehttp://www.learnersdictionary.com/definition/magenta):
magenta/məˈʤɛntə/nounpluralmagentasLearner'sdefinitionofMAGENTA[count,noncount]:abright,deeppurplish-redcolor—seecolorpictureonthispagemagentaadjective
Clickingonthelink“thispage”wecanseeatableofcolourswheremagentais
placednearfuchsia:anundeniableadvantageofe-lexicographyonline.
3.Searchingforcolourterms (withoutgetting lost somewhereovertherainbow...)
Initially, our methodology worked with full text queries within digital
dictionaries, running the risk of also obtaining articleswhich contained exampleswhereacolouradjectiveismentionedasanyotheradjectivemightbe.Overallthemethodworkedwellandofferedmoreresultsthanasearchforthewordcolour inthefield“definition”oftheadvancedsearchmode.Thenweusedannotatedcorporaof Italian in order to verify the frequency and use of some particular cases:ItTenTen46andNUNC-It47corporawerethemainsources.
Grossmann(1988)alreadydealtwithmosttopicsweareinterestedinbecauseherresearchwas(also)basedonpaperdictionaries.Wewilldealwiththesepointsmainlythroughdigitalonlinedictionariessincetheyallowtheabovementioned“fulltext”searchmodewhichhelpstodiscoverunexpectedoccurrencesofcolourtermsinmicrostructuresaswell.Inanycase,wenoticedthatcolourtermmicrostructures 46 The Italian TenTen corpus (v. 1.0, 2010) is available in Sketch Engine
(https://www.sketchengine.co.uk/)with3.1billion tokens. It is taggedwithTreeTaggerusingMarcoBaroni’sparameterfile.
47 The NUNC suite of multilingual corpora (Newsgroups UseNet Corpora) is based onnewsgroups’language:itwasimplementedatTurinUniversitybytheresearchgroupledbyCarlaMarelloandManuelBarberaand is freely searchableatwww.corpora.unito.it.TheItaliansubsetofdataNUNC-Ithas237.401.299tokens.
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havenotundergonemajorrestylingsinceGrossmann’sstudy,soitcanbesaidthatmostofwhatsheobservedremainstrue.
Apreliminarynoteisrelatedtowhatwecannotfindwhensearchingcolore:insomecases,dictionaryglosseshave theplural formcoloriorwords like riflesso (=glare, reflection); for example, the entry posterizzàre ‘to posterize’ whosedefinitioncontainscoloriinthepluralinZingarelli2016.
WeexaminedwhetherItaliandictionariesalwaystreateverycolourorcolourcategorythesameway.
Basicallywefacedifferentlevelsoflexicalisationofcolourterms,asoutlinedinthefollowingexamplifications:
(1) verde‘green’(2) verde scuro ‘dark green’: the term is followedby a characterization givenby
anotheradjective;verdolino-verdino‘lightgreen’,allowedbytherichpaletteofItaliansuffixesofendearment
(3) verde smeraldo / verde bottiglia ‘emerald green’ / ‘bottle green’: the term isfollowedbyacharacterizationgivenbyaninvariablenoun48
(4) verdeoro ‘green and gold’ (in particular when referring to Brazilian sportteams):thetermiscomposedbytwojuxtaposedcolourtermswhosemeaningsremaindistinct49
(5) verd(e)azzurro ‘bluish green’: the term is composed of two colour terms,indicatinganewcolourbetweenthetwo
(6) smeraldo/sabbia‘emerald’/‘sand’
In the following discussion we will analyse some aspects of their linguistic(andlexicographic)behaviour.
Predictably, moving towards the last classes, which represent the lesslexicalised types, the likelihood of finding definitions and examples such as “(di)color(e) + X” ‘ of colour X, X-coloured’ before the colour term itself (a situationpotentiallyoccurringalsofortype(1))grows:e.g.unamagliettacoloralbicocca ‘anapricot-colouredt-shirt’ismorecommonthanunamagliettaalbicocca’anapricott-shirt’bothincorporaandindictionaries.
48Colourtermsaresometimeshapax,intendedtocreateabrilliantstyleandthereforethey
arenotrecordedindictionaries(Sergio2010:248);type(3)termsinparticulararemorelikely to be occasional neologisms. An Italian research paper focusing on children’scategorization of colours has shown that colour vocabulary enrichment in earlychildhood ismainlyduetocompoundexpressionsmadeupofabasiccolour+anounwhich is generally related to real objects, e.g.: giallo formaggio ‘yellow [like] cheese’;rosso guancia ‘red [like a] cheek’;blu grembiule ‘blue [like a] smock’ (Mecacci/Serafini1987:82).
49The difference between type (4) and type (5) is clearly illustrated byD’Achille/Grossmann (2013), distinguishing respectively additive and intersectiverelations.
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4.Partofspeechattribution
As concerns the categorization of word classes, we aremainly dealing withadjectives.Grossmannalreadyargued(1988:35)thatthesetermsexpressqualitiesorfeatures of people, objects, and ideas which can also be named by nouns (colorsabbia),compounds(verdebottiglia/fumodiLondra),elementsderivedfromverbs(verdeggiante it. adj coming from present participle of verb verdeggiare ‘to beverdant’),actingasanADJfromasyntacticandsemanticperspective.
However, we can note that some forms are more or less adjectival. Aprototypical ADJ is formally defined by a series of properties; for example, +/-agreementwith its head is an interesting aspect tobe considered in our analysis.Thetermshereconsideredcanbevariableorinvariablelexemes.
Giventhenormalnumberandgenderagreementofcolourtermsofwhatwecalled type (1) (pantaloni bianchi ‘white trousers’; penne rosse ‘red pens’), let usconsidertype(2):
(1) lagonnagiallachiara/legonnegiallechiare/gliabitigiallichiari(2) *lagonnagiallachiaro/legonnegiallechiaro/gliabitigiallichiaro(3) lagonnagiallochiaro/legonnegiallochiaro/gliabitigiallochiaro
• ad(1)la[[gonna][[giallo]&[chiaro]].Bothchiaro‘light’andgiallo‘yellow’are
adjectivesandmodifygonna‘skirt’.• ad (3) la [[gonna] [[giallo] chiaro]], i.e. chiaro (adjective) modifies giallo
(noun)andgiallo chiaromodifiesgonna.Giallo ismeantascoloregiallo andgiallo chiaro is invariable, being an attributeofcolore ( thoughcolore isnotexpressed).
Italian behaves differently from Russian, another language rich inmorphological agreement markers, where we have to deal with compoundadjectives:
• светло-желтая юбка - светло-желтая← composed by светл(ая) (light) +желтая (yellow) ; linking morpheme 'o'; светло-желтая (It. giallo chiaro)agreesinnumbergenderandcasewiththenounheadofthenominalphrase.
Movingtowardsthelesslexicalisedcases,wecanobservedifferentbehavioursfortypes(3),(4),(5)and(6):
(4) Lecalzeverdebottiglia/*verdibottiglia/*verdebottiglie/*verdibottiglie‘bottlegreensocks’
(5) Lecalzeverdeoro/?verdioro/*verdeori/*verdiori‘greenandgoldsocks’(6) Le calze verdeazzurro / ?verdiazzurro / ?verdeazzurre / ?verdiazzurre50 ‘bluish green
socks’(7) Lecalzesmeraldo/*smeralde‘emeraldsocks’
50 This last form (verdiazzurre) would be easily accepted in the case of, e.g., socks with
stripesofbothgreenandblue,which isacasebelonging to type (4)withanaddictiverelation.
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Generally dictionaries do not devote enough attention to these cases ofagreement.
5.Nounsturningintocolourattributes
Let us now consider those colour termswhich come from natural elements(e.g.avorio,theItaliancorrespondentofivory),orparticularstones(e.g.coral,jade,ruby),mineralsandmetals(e.g.bronze,copper),fruitandvegetables(e.g.apricot,eggplant), food (e.g. cream,mustard), fauna (e.g. lobster, salmon)or flowers (e.g.cyclamen,lilac),andareusedfordenominatingtheirtypicalcolour.
Thornton(2004)considerssuchcolourterms,whichareveryfrequentinthefield of textiles and fashion, under the process of NOUN → ADJ conversion.However,sheremarkedthattheydonotbehave likeadjectives intraditional tests(number/genderagreement,comparative,superlative,adverbialuse,antepositioninfrontofN),unlikemostbasiccolours:
(a) i.unamagliarosa/fucsia/salmone/albicocca/panna duemaglierosa/fucsia/salmone/albicocca/panna duemaglie*rose/*fucsie/*salmoni/*albicocche/*panne vsunamagliarossa/nera,duemaglierosse/nere ii.unmaglionerosa/fucsia/albicocca/panna, unamagliasalmone unmaglione*roso/*fucsio/*albicocco/*panno unamaglia*salmona vsunmaglionerosso/nero,unamagliarossa/nera(b) i.lamiamagliaèpiùrosa/?salmone/?albicocca/?pannadellatua ii.lamiamagliaè*rosissima/*salmonissima/*albicocchissima/ *pannissima vslamiamagliaènerissima/rossissima(c) *rosamente/*albicoccamentevestito butalso:*rossamente/*neramentevestito(d) la?rosa/*fucsia/*salmone/*pannamaglia vslenerechiome,lebianchevesti,iverdipascoli
Thornton(2004:530)
Consequently,thiscategoryofmodifiersseemstohave,onthewhole,a“nullgrade of adjectivality” and it should be classified as nouns modifying nouns,accordingtoThornton.
This leads to the problematic decisions lexicographers need to take: howshouldtheattributionofmorethanonepartofspeechtothesameheadwordtobemanagedandhowshouldthenecessarymorphosyntacticinformationbeprovided.
Wecantakeintoconsiderationthosenounsenteredasrecentchromonymsinourdictionaries,beginningwiththetermsabbia‘sand’,usedinexpressionslike“ungolfinocolorsabbia”.
Most cases in the ItTenTencorpuspresent the formcolor sabbia (with somevariantsbutthesamestructure:tonalitàsabbia):(8) Trerusticiditufodalcoloresabbiachiarochericordalaterradeideserti
‘Threesandcolouredtuffcottages’
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(9) Ifruttisonoachenicolorsabbia,espessovengonoscambiatipersemi.‘Thefruitaresandcolouredachene,andoftenaremistakenforseeds’
(10) giocanosull’accostamentodellatonalitàsabbiaedelbeige‘theyplaywiththecombinationofshadesofsandandbeige’
However,someexamplesaredocumentedwheresabbiaisnotprecededby“colour”:(11) moquettesabbiaeselleriainpellebeigeconcopricapote
‘sandcarpetingandbeigeleatherupholsteringwithslipcovers’
(12) Questa farina si ottiene in primo luogo essiccando le castagne, [...]macinandole[...]cosìdaridurleinfarinafinissima.Questasipresentaconuncaratteristicocoloravoriodallepossibilisfumaturesabbia.‘Theflourisobtainedbydryingthechestnutsfirst,[...]grindingthem[...]intoaveryfineflour.Thisshouldbe ivorycolourandmaybetintedwithvariousshadesofsand.’
ThiskindofinformationisactuallyincludedinZingarelli2016(Breferstothe
possibleroleofinvariableadjective),butitisprovidedwithabadexample:
♦ sàbbia/ ˈsabbja/[lat.săbula,nt.pl.disăbulum‘sabbia’,prob.diorig.indeur.☼1440]As.f.[...]Binfunzionediagg.inv.●(pospostoaunsost.)chehailcoloretrailbeigeeilgrigiochiarocaratteristicodellasostanzaomonima:ungolfinocolorsabbia
The singular form un golfino color sabbia cannot really illustrate the
invariabilityoftheform–whereascorporadataclearlyshowthatalsopluralwords(likecappottiin13.)arefollowedbythesingularsabbia:(13) cappottisabbiadaimprenditoreconsaniprincipi.(LaStampaModa)
‘Sandcolouredcoatstypicalofbusinessmenwithsoundprinciples’Seealsothecaseofardesia,‘slate’.UndertheheadwordardesiainZingarelli
2016wefindthefollowingdefinitionsandexamples:
ardèsia/ arˈdɛzja/[fr.ardoise,dietim.incerta☼1741]As.f.1rocciascistosaargillosafacilmentedivisibileinlastresottilidicoloregrigiooverdastro;èusataperlacoperturaditetti,perlavagneecc.2coloregrigiobluastrocaratteristicodellasostanzaomonima:cielod'ardesiaBinfunzionediagg.inv.●(pospostoalsost.)nellaloc.grigioardesia,dettodelletonalitàdigrigiotendentealblu,tipicadell'omonimominerale:abito,tessutogrigioardesia
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TheexamplesgiveninB.donotbelongtotheuseoftheadj.ardesiabuttothemultiwordgrigioardesia.ThisisnotsurprisingbecauseeveninlargemoderndigitalcorporaofItalianwecannotfindmanyexampleswhereardesiaisalone,asatotallylexicalisedcolourterm:(14) lacupoladellenuvolediardesia(NUNC-It) ‘thedomeofslate(grey)clouds’(15) cielitemporaleschidiardesiainunmiscugliodisguardiimpigliatiebrivididell'aria
(NUNC-It) ‘stormyskiesofslateinamixofentwinedexpressionsandshiversofair’(16) Ilcieloprendevaunatintadiardesia(ItTenTen) ‘Theskybecamethecolourofslate’
Contexts (14-16)showtheprepositionalphrasediardesia;we foundonlyonecontextinascientificdescriptionwherethecolourtermaloneisanadjective:(17) nelCanarinobiancooardesiaildatohaunautilitàbenmaggiore(ItTenTen)(18) ‘forwhiteorslate-greycanarythedatumismuchmoreuseful’
Most terms of this type are classified as invariable adjectives; for instance,cachiorkaki ‘khaki’andalbicocca ‘apricot’ inZingarelli2016,butnoexamplesareprovided.
This is not valid for melanzana ‘eggplant’ (which is a colour term inGrossmann’s list), described as a NOUN (s.f.) with the meaning ofplant/vegetable/etc.,butwithnomentionofthecorrespondingcolourinZingarelli,NuovoDeMauroorSabatini-Coletti.Devoto-Oli2011registerstheadjectivaluseinfashionjargonbutgivestheexample:accessoricolormelanzana,‘eggplant–colouredaccessories’wheremelanzanaactuallyisusedasanappositionofcolor.Underthedefinitionofprugna‘plum’theNuovoDeMauroonlinedistinguishesboththenounandtheinvariableadjective:
prù|gnas.f.,s.m.inv.,agg.inv.av.1320;lat.tardoprūnĭa(m),der.diprunus“susino”.AD1.s.f.,susina:marmellatadiprugne2.s.m.inv.,colorerossoviolaceosimileaquelloditalefrutto|agg.inv.,ditalecolore:cappottoprugna
Zingarelli 2016 gives two examples:una borsa color prugna ‘a plum-coloured
bag’;unvestitoprugna‘aplumdress’.Onlythesecondoneisatrueexampleoftheadjectivaluse.
Asconcernstype(3)ofourclassification, itneedstobedeterminedwhethercaseslikegiallozafferano‘saffronyellow’areindependentlexicographicalentriesorwhether these shades are specified among the co-occurrence strings of a lemma,andinparticular,ofabasiccolour.
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InGRADITwe find thephraseologywithin themicrostructure insteadof anindependentheadword-seee.g.undergiallo:
4. s.m., il coloredel limoneodell'oro:unmaglionediunbelgiallo, quest'annovadimoda il giallo | seguito da un sostantivo che indica una cosa o un animale di talecolore che individua la tonalità: giallo limone, giallo oro, giallo canarino, giallozafferano; anche seguito da un aggettivo o da un altro colore: giallo carico, vivace,intenso, allegro, tenue, delicato; giallo arancio, giallo verde |TS fis. colore primariocompresonell'iridetral'aranciatoeilverdeInZingarelli2016,ontheotherhand, the independentcolourtermzafferano
‘saffron’ is lemmatizedwithout any reference togiallo ‘yellow’ (withno recordingundertheheadwordgiallo):
zafferàno/ *dzaffeˈrano/[dall'araboza‘farān‘croco’☼1303]As.m.[...]Binfunzionediagg.inv.●(pospostoaunsost.)dettodicoloregiallointenso:vestitozafferano|gabbianozafferano,piccologabbianodalvivaceeintensocoloregiallocheviveagruppisullecostenord-europee(Larusfuscus)
Studies such as Fresu (2006) and D’Achille (2014) might help Italian
lexicographers toreviseandenlarge thephraseologicalpartof themicrostructure.Fresu (2006)51 inparticular tries toverifyhownewchromonyms relate toexistingtermsofcolours.
Notethatlookingforcolore ine-dictionariesusingthefulltextsearchmodeproduces a list of lemmaswith theword in the etymology, butwith very specificmeanings:
enrosadìra/ enrozaˈdira/[ladinodolomiticoenrosadöraerosadüra,propr.‘ilfarsidicolorerosa’,darösa‘(colordi)rosa’☼1924]s.f.●lagradualecolorazionerosachesfumaversoilviola,cheleparetidolomiticheassumonoaltramonto
Fulltextqueriesforcoloreidentifyverbsrelatedtocoloursaswell,suchasthe
rarearrubinàre ‘tobecomeruby-coloured’, thestillusedazzurreggiàre ‘tobecome,tobeblue-coloured’,imporporare‘tobecomepurple-coloured’.
51Fresu(2006)remarksthatinItaliannero,bianco,rossoarevery“productive”andstable.
Morerecentcolourslikearancioneorviolahavenot(yet)developedtheirmetaphoricaldomain.
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The dictionary definition of imporporare does not contain the figurativemeaningwhichisattestedinsomecorpusdata,connectedtohighchurchpositions:Fresu(2006:78)considersita“highgradeofsemanticspecialization”(ilporporato=cardinal), actually recorded under the lemma porpora ‘purple’, for example inZingarelli2016:
pórpora/ ˈporpora/[vc.Dotta,lat.Pŭrpura(m),dalgr.Porphýra,dietim.Incerta☼av.1250]s.f.1sostanzacoloranterossausatadagliantichi,secretadaghiandoledeltegumentodigasteropodimarinidelgenerePurpuraeMurex2colorevermiglio:cielodiporpora|essere,diventare,farsidiporpora,(fig.)arrossireviolentemente3drappo,tessutotintoconlaporpora|(est.)vesterealizzatacontaletessuto:laporporaregia,prelatizia|(est.)ladignitàeiltitolodicardinale:aspirareallaporpora;essereinnalzatoallaporpora|indossarelaporpora,essereelettocardinale4(med.)macularosso-violaceadellapelledovutaaunapiccolaemorragia:porporaemorragica|porporaretinica,rodopsinaInItTenTenwefindonly5casesoutof206occurrences(+1caseinNUNC)in
whichthewordimporporatoreferstocardinalsas,forinstance,in:(19) farcitadallapresenzadiautoritàgraduateeimporporate
‘filled by the presence ofmilitary [lit. graduated] and ecclesiastic [lit. cardinal red]authorities’
5.Compoundterms
SpecialattentionisdevotedinItaliantocompoundcolourtermsrelatedtothefieldofsport,footballinparticular.
Teams, players, supporters and related lemmas are frequently denominatedwith termsdesignatingcoloursof teamkits52: a simpleword likegranataor viola;more often compounds, like bianconero, rossonero, nerazzurro, biancoceleste,rosanero,giallorosso,53etc.
SimilarItalianadjectivesagreeinnumberandgenderwithnouns(lasquadranerazzurra; i campionibianconeri/rossoneri; l’allenatorebianconero),whereas, forexample,Catalanblaugrana (=of/orrelatingtothe football teamFCBarcelona) isinvariable.
A special case mentioned by D’Achille (2014) is represented by rosanero(referredtoPalermo’splayers),recordedalso-andmostly-asinvariable:irosanero.
52 See the very detailed analysis proposed by D’Achille (2014) and his bibliographical
references.53 The mentioned examples refer respectively to the football teams Torino, Fiorentina,
Juventus,Milan,Inter,Lazio,PalermoandRoma.
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Among the examples presented by D’Achille such colour terms have a nominalvalue.However, their use as adjectives is highly frequent: actually, they probablyemerged as adjectives - see the ellipsis process suggested by Nascimbeni54 andmentionedinD’Achille(2014:117,footnote38): igiocatori inmagliaviola→ iviola‘theplayerswithviolett-shirt→theviolets’,whichletsuspresumeanintermediatestep:igiocatoriviola‘thevioletplayers’.
GRADIThasconsideredviolaasanoun,withthemeaningof‘supporteroftheFiorentinateam’,alsousedasaninvariableadjective.Ontheotherhand,itrecordedthecompoundgiallorossoasanadjectivealsousedasanoun.
InZingarelli2016wefindbothcategorizations:aninvariableadjective(‘thatisplaying on the football team Fiorentina or is a supporter of the team’) and aninvariablenoun(‘personplayingonthe football teamFiorentinaorasupporteroftheteam’):
♦viòla(1)/ viˈɔla/[...]Binfunzionediagg.inv.[...]2chegiocanellasquadradicalciodellaFiorentinaoneèsostenitoreCs.m.inv.(anchef.nelsign.2)[...]2chigiocanellasquadradicalciodellaFiorentinaoneèsostenitore
6.Closingremarks:colourfulmicrostructuresmightbebetter
Colourtermsarepresentlystudiedbylinguistsbecausetheyaredeeplytiedtoemotionsandvisualexperiences.Inthepastcenturytheyweremainlyinvestigatedbecausetheyshowedahighdegreeoflanguage(andculture)specificity,inspiteofthefactthathumanbeingssharethesameorganofsight.
Italianlinguistshavewrittenmanyinterestingpapersandbooksaboutcolourterms, both from a diachronic perspective and from a morphosyntactic point ofview.
Theknowledgegatheredaboutthefirstwrittenoccurrenceofacolourtermisnow fairly represented in dictionaries because almost all monolingual Italiandictionariesgivethedateofthefirstappearanceofaword.Lexicologicalstudieson“new” colours are facilitated by large corpora, including newspapers and fashionmagazines. We mentioned specialised studies such as the one by D’Achille 2014aboutbicolorcompoundsinfootballpressreports.
Fromoursurvey,itappearsthatmonolingualdictionariesareratherquickinhostingnew(sub)entriesfornewcolours,allthemoresowhenthenewcolourisasemanticneologism, likeapricot,meaning ‘apricot-coloured’addedasanadjective
54 Nascimbeni,G.(1992-1993).“Lalinguadelcalcio”.InLudus.Sport&Loisir.I,3-4.26-31.
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to apricot fruit noun. They often do not give examples for such adjectival usewithoutthecompanyofthewordcolor.ItshouldbeimportanttostressthatapricotcanbeanADJofcolourinitsownright,withoutcolorinfrontofapricot.
Dictionaries are slower in registering morphosyntactic features of colourterms coupledwith chiaro ‘light shade’ or scuro ‘dark, deep shade’; yet,we knowthat languages vary in theway they showagreementbetween the adjective shadeandthecolournoun/adjwiththeheadofthenounphrase.
If dictionaries registermany shades of basic colours, they do not follow thesamemicrostructureschemainthewholedictionaryforallthearticlesdevotedtocolour terms. The Zingarelli dictionary (2016) is probably the only Italian deskdictionarywhichhasmassively applied the following formula to colour adjectivesderivingfromanoun:
Infunzionediagg.inv(pospostoalsost)(‘Usedasanadj.itisinvariableandfollowsthenoun’)
IntheZingarellidictionary2016outof395entriescontainingthisformula,83arecolourterms.Aqueryonthewebshowsthattheinvariabilityoftheseadjective+nouncouplets,asforinstancegialloocra,verdebottiglia,rossofuoco,isnotalwaysobservedintheuseofthenativespeaking/writingcommunity.Ifdictionariesplayakey role in defining themorphology of difficult verbs and unusual plural, in thesameway,theyshouldnotethatnotonlythesecondmemberisinvariablebutthatalsothecolouradjective“becomes”invariablebecauseitismeantasanattributeofellipticalcolore :occhiverdi (literallyeyes pluralgreenplural)butocchiverdebottiglia(literally ‘eyespluralgreensingularbottlesingular)andnot*occhiverdibottiglia(literally‘eyespluralgreenpluralbottlesingular).
In the French monolingual lexicographic landscape, we find that Le PetitRobert2013moreaccuratelyregistersthedifferencebetweenwhatiscalledAPPOS.INV.i.e.appositioninvariable,incasessuchasbleu,grisardoise‘slateblue,grey’orvert bouteille and what is labelled ADJT INV. “adjectivement invariable” i.e.invariableadjectivaluseofawordwhichusuallyisnotanadjectiveincasessuchasabricot, aubergine, ivoire, prune, sable (‘apricot, eggplant, ivory, plum, sand’) andregisters thedistinctionwhenbothbehavioursarepossible, as forsafran:APPOS.INV.Jaunesafran‘saffronyellow’-ADJTINV.“Lesoirsafranquisurlesquaisdéteint”Aragon‘Thesaffroneveningwhichdiscoloursontheriverwalks’.
In theSpanishmonolingual lexicography, theauthoritativeDiccionariode laReal Academia Española registers two adjectival uses of azafrán: no. 4 is theapposition;no.5.istheinvariableadjectivaluse,butitsbeinginvariableissignalledonlythroughtheexample,wheretúnicasisplural55.Albaricoque‘apricot’andmarfil‘ivory’ are dealt in the sameway: the invariable use of the adjectives is conveyed 55 DRAE online http://dle.rae.es sub voce azafrán […] 4. adj. Dicho de un color: Rojo
anaranjadosemejantealquesesacadelestigmadelazafrán.U.t.c.s.m.5.adj.Decolorazafrán.Túnicasazafrán.U.t.c.s.m.istheshorteningofusadotambiéncomosustantivomasculino andmeans thatazafrán can also be used alone as a nounmeaning ‘saffroncolour’withoutbeingaccompaniedbythewordcolor.
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through plural nouns sedas albaricoque ‘apricot silks’, sábanas marfil ‘ivorysavannahs’56.
This small sample of comparison with dictionaries of two other Romancelanguages shows that there is not just one way to deal with this type ofmorphological behaviour, though the French Le Robert approach appears moreconsistent. The English language, with its invariable adjectives and with theprenominal position of nouns used as adjectives, handles this lexicographic issuemoreeasily.
References
Berlin,B.;Kay,P.(1969).BasicColorTerms:theirUniversalityandEvolution.BerkeleyandLosAngeles:UniversityofCaliforniaPress.
Casati,R.(1990).“Dizionarieterminidicolore”.LinguaestileXXV,1.103-118.D’Achille,P.(2014).“Perunastoriadelleparoledelcalcio:inomideigiocatori,icomposti
bicolorieilcasodiblucerchiato”.LinguanostraLXXV.112-126.D’Achille, P.; Grossmann, M. (2013). “I composti “colorati” in italiano tra passato e
presente”, inCesáreoCalvoRigual, Emili Casanova (eds.),Actas del XXVICongresoInternacional de Lingüística y Filología Románicas (Valencia, 6-11 de septiembre de2010).Berlin:WalterdeGruyter.Vol.III.523-537.
Dziemianko, A. (2015). “Colours in online dictionaries: a case of functional labels”.InternationalJournalofLexicography,Vol.28No.1.27-61.
Fresu, R. (2008). “Neologismi a colori. Per una semantica dei cromonimi nella linguaitaliana”.InFresu,R.LinguaitalianadelNovecento.Scrittureprivate,nuovilinguaggi,gender.Roma:EdizioniNuovaCultura.69-92.
Fresu,R. (2011). “Colore, terminidi”. InSimoneR. (dir.).Enciclopediadell’Italiano (EncIt).With the collaboration of Berruto, G. and D’Achille, P. Roma: Istituto dellaEnciclopediaItaliana,2010-2011,2voll.,vol.I.235-236.
Grossmann, M. (1988). Colori e lessico. Studi sulla struttura semantica degli aggettivi dicoloreincatalano,castigliano,italiano,romeno,latinoeungherese.Tübingen:Narr.
Marconi, D. (1997). “La competenza referenziale in un dizionario tradizionale”. In DeMauro,T.;LoCascio,V.(eds.).Lessicoegrammatica.Teorielinguisticheeapplicazionilessicografiche. Atti del Convegno interannuale, Madrid 21-25 febbraio 1995. Roma:Bulzoni.293-308.
Mecacci, L.; Serafini, A. (1987). “Sviluppo del lessico dei colori” Rassegna italiana dilinguisticaapplicataXIX,n.2.77-90.
Sergio,G.(2010).Paroledimoda.IlCorrieredelleDameeillessicodellamodanell’Ottocento.Milano:FrancoAngeli.
Thornton,A.M.(2004).“Conversioneinsostantivi”.InGrossmann,M.;RainerF.(eds.),Laformazionedelleparoleinitaliano.Tübingen:Niemeyer.505-26.
www.corpora.unito.it[Lastaccess:24January.2016]https://www.sketchengine.co.uk/[Lastaccess:24January.2016] 56 Berenjena ‘eggplant’, ciruela ‘plum’, pizarra ‘slate’ do not register a color meaning in
DRAE.
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DictionariesDeMauro, T. (2000). IlNuovo dizionario della lingua italianaDeMauro. Torino: Paravia.
Nowavailableon-lineathttp://dizionario.internazionale.it/ [Lastaccess:24 January.2016]
Devoto-Oli = Devoto, G.; Oli, G.C. (2011). Il Vocabolario della lingua italiana. Editors:Serianni,L.;Trifone,M.Firenze:LeMonnier.
DRAE =Diccionario de la Real Academia Española. (2014) [23.ª edición]. http://dle.rae.es[Lastaccess:24January.2016]
GRADIT=DeMauro,T. (1999). IlGrandedizionario italianodell’uso.6vol. (supplementi:vol.VIINuoveparoleitalianedell’uso,2003evol.VIIINuoveparoleitalianedell’uso2,2007),Torino:UTET.
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Palazzi,F.(1986).Nuovissimodizionariodellalinguaitaliana.Torino:Loescher.Palazzi,F.;Folena,G.(1992).DizionariodellaLinguaItaliana.Torino:Loescher.Sabatini-Coletti=Sabatini,F.;Coletti,V. (2008). IlSabatiniColettiDizionariodella lingua
italiana.Firenze:Giunti. http://dizionari.corriere.it/dizionario_italiano/ [Last access:24January.2016]
Tommaseo, N.; Bellini, B. (eds.) (1865-79). Dizionario della lingua italiana, nuovamentecompilato dai signori Nicolò Tommaseo e Cav. Professor Bernardo Bellini con oltre100000giunteaiprecedentidizionariiraccoltedaNicolòTommaseo,Gius.Campi,Gius.Meini, Pietro Fanfani e da molti altri distinti filologi e scienziati, corredato di undiscorso preliminare dello stesso Tommaseo. Torino: Società l’Unione tipografico-editricetorinese.
Treccani 1989 = Duro, A. (dir.) (1986-1991).Vocabolario della lingua italiana. 4 voll. in 5tomi.Roma:Treccani.
Zingarelli,N. (1970).Vocabolario della lingua italiana [X edizione]. Editors:Dogliotti,M.;Rosiello,L.;Valesio,P.Bologna:Zanichelli.
Zingarelli,N.(2016).LoZingarelli2016.Vocabolariodella lingua italiana[on-linerestrictedaccess]. Editors: Cannella, M.; Lazzarini, B. Bologna: Zanichelli.http://ubidictionary.zanichelli.it/dizionariOnline/#zingarelli[Lastaccess:24January.2016]
105
OnthegrammaticalsubstanceofcolourwordsAlinaVillalva(UniversityofLisbon)
Portuguese colourwords - those that refer a colour and those that refer the
colour of something or someone - surface either as nouns or as adjectives. These
colour words are lexically ambiguous with regard to their grammatical category.
Syntaxmaydisambiguatethem(andifoftendoes),butthatdisambiguationdoesn’t
provide enough information to understand the relationship that holds between
colournounsandcolouradjectives.
In this paper, I will explore different avenues (i.e. etymology, semantics,
grammaticalpropertiesandcontemporaryusage)todiscussthefollowingissues:
• Fromalexicalpointofview,arecolournounsandcolouradjectivesonesoleentityortwodifferentitems?
• Ifcolournounsandcolouradjectivesdifferent,howdotheydiffer?Whichofthemcomesfirst?Howistheotheroneobtained?
• Iftheyareoneonlylexicalitem,howcanitsdifferentoutputsbegenerated?• Dodiachronicandsynchronicanalysesconvergeordiverge?
Thewords under considerationwill beamarelo ‘yellow’,azul ‘ blue’, laranja
‘orange’,verde‘green’andvermelho‘red’.Iwillpresentabriefdescriptiononcolour
words gender and number variation, within the general picture for gender and
numbervariationinPortuguese.ThisdescriptionwilljustifywhyIwilljustconsider
non-femininesingularcolournouns.Inthesecondsection,Iwillshowtheresultsof
acolourwordqueryontwoPortuguesetextualdatabases.Theyindicatethatcolour
adjectivesaremoresalientthancolournouns,butnorthestatisticsnortherecord
of early usage make significant contributions to the discussion of the above-
106
mentioned questions. The following section offers a survey of colour words in a
contemporary and some early dictionaries, that, again, is unable to providemore
definitivehints.
Giventheaccumulationofinconclusiveobservations,Idecidedtotakealook
atcompoundcolourwords.Thesecompoundshaveahybridnatureduetothefact
thattheyarewordsbuiltuponaphrasalsequence.Colouradjectivecompoundsare
particularlyinteresting.Infact,theyoriginateinanounphrase,whichmeansthat
theyareobtainedbyconversion.Butnotstraightforward-thescrutinyofusagedata
willallowustoconcludethat,irrespectiveofthegenderandnumbervaluesoftheir
syntacticantecedent,mostof thesecolourcompoundadjectiveswillbemasculine
and singular, just like simple colour nouns. Based on this, Iwill claim that these
compound adjectives are generated by conversion of a compound colour noun,
whichisproducedbyconversionofanounphraseheadedbyasimplecolournoun.
Thesamekindofreasoningwillthenbeappliedtosimplecolourwords.
1.Genderandnumbervariation
Portugueseadjectivesandnounshaveaquitesimilarmorphologicalbehaviour
as far as gender and number variation are concerned; yet they are not exactly
identical(seeVillalva2008fordetails).
Portuguese nounsmust have a gender value (eithermasculine, feminine or
underspecified). When they refer animate entities, the gender value largely
correspondstothemale/femaledistinction(cf.1a),buttherearesomemismatches,
suchasunderspecifiednouns(cf.1b),masculinenounsthatreferfemalebeings(cf.
1c)andfemininenounsthatreferbothgenders,aswellastheopposite(cf.1d).Asto
thegenderofinanimatenouns,itisfullyunmotivated(cf.1e):
(1) a. alunomasc ‘malepupil’ alunafem ‘femalepupil’ b. (um/uma)estudantemasc/fem ‘(amale/afemale)student’ c. mulherãomasc ‘kindofwoman’ d. testemunhafem ‘(male/female)witness’ cônjuguemasc ‘(male/female)spouse’ e. sofámasc ‘couch’ poltronafem ‘armchair’
107
All nouns do require a gender value, but only a subset is prone to gender
variation.Infact,variationisrestrictedtoanimatenouns,althoughitadmitsmany
different realizations (cf. 2a). Furthermore, it is not compulsory, not evenwithin
thissubgroupofnouns,soalargenumberofanimatenounsareinvariable(cf.2b):
(2) a. alunomasc/alunafem ‘malepupil’/‘femalepupil’ doutormasc/doutorafem ‘maledoctor’/‘femaledoctor’ estudantemasc/estudantefem ‘malestudent’/‘femalestudent’ galomasc/galinhafem ‘rooster’/’hen’ profetamasc/profetisafem ‘maleprophet’/’femaleprophet’ [águiafem-machomasc]fem ‘maleeagle’ [crocodilomasc-fêmeafem]masc ‘femalecrocodile’ homemmasc/mulherfem ‘man’/‘woman’ soldadomasc/fem ‘(male/female)soldier’ b. criançafem ‘child’ indivíduomasc ‘individual’
Colournouns,whichareinanimatenouns,arequitesystematicwrttogender.
In fact, although they spread for different thematic classes, their value is
systematicallymasculine57:
(3) -o amarelomasc vermelhomasc -a laranjamasc -e verdemasc -Ø azulmasc
Astoadjectives,generallyspeaking,theymayeitherbevariableorinvariable
for gender, a capacity that is lexically determined, usually for diachronic reasons,
anditisalsorelatedtotheirthematicafilliation:
(4) a. secomasc ‘Xmascdry’ secafem ‘Xfemdry’ b. levemasc/fem ‘Xmasc/Xfemlight’
57Thecaseof laranja isparticularly revealing, since it corresponds toa conversionof the
nameofafruit,whichisfeminine(i.e.alaranja‘theorange’).
108
Colour adjectives accommodate quite easily to this state of affairs, which
meansthat thesetcorresponding(3)getsabitmorecrowded,onceweaddthose
formsthatcanonlybeadjectives(whicharemarkedingrey):
(5) -o amarelo vermelho -a amarela vermelha laranja -e verde -Ø azul
Number variation is customary for both nouns and adjectives, and it is
systematicallyobtainedbyaddingthesuffix-s.Therearesomemorphophonological
processes operating on -Ø stems, especially when they have a final lateral
consonant.Theyaretriggeredbytheneedtofulfilthethematicindexpositionfor
phoneticreasons,relatedtotheresultingsequenceofconsonants:
(6) a. mar‘sea’ mar+sàmares‘seas’ anel‘ring’ anel+sàanéis‘rings’ b. capaz‘capableXsing’ capaz+sàcapazes‘capableXpl’ normal‘normalXsing’ normal+sànormais‘normalXpl’
Some nouns (e.g. lápis ‘pencil’, in (7a)) and some adjectives (e.g. simples
‘simple’,in(7b))areambiguousregardingtonumber,duetothefactthattheirroot
endswithafricativeconsonant.Consequently,inthesecases,theadjunctionofthe
pluralsuffix,althoughoccurring,yieldsnovisibleresult:
(7) a. tenhoaquiumlápisbemafiado‘Ihaveawellsharpedpencilhere’ tenhoaquiunslápisbemafiados-cf.lápis+s=lápis b. estemotorémuitosimples‘thisengineisverysimple’ estesmotoressãomuitosimples-cf.simples+s=simples
Amajor restriction fornumber inflectionconcernsmassnounssuchaságua
‘water’.Usually,thiskindofnounscanonlyoccurinthesingularform,eventhough
apluralformisfullyavailable(cf.8a).Arguably,massnounsthatmayoccurinthe
pluralform(cf.águas)arenolongermassnouns(cf.8b):
109
(8) a. velhice‘oldage’vs.?velhices b. Traga-meduaságuascomgás‘bringmetwo(bottlesof)sparklingwaters’ Aságuassulfurosassãoterapêuticas‘sulphurwatersaretherapeutic’
Being intrinsically mass nouns, colour nouns resist pluralisation, and when
theyallowit,pluralformsrefertodifferentsortsofthecolourthatthenounrefers,
usuallyhuesorshadesofthatcolour:
(9) Overmelhoéumacorquente‘redisahotcolour’ Nestequadro,osvermelhos(=tonsdevermelho)predominam‘inthispainting, reds(=huesofred)arepredominant’
Thus,Portuguesecolourwordscaneitherbeinanimatemasculinemassnouns,
if singular, or count nouns if plural, or adjectives that can be gender variable or
invariable.Theyhaveaquitestraightforwardlexicalbehaviour,sincetheysplitover
allthematicclassesandtheyinflectfornumberasallothernounsandadjectives:
(10)
MASCULINENOUNS ADJECTIVES
SINGULAR(MASSNOUNS)
PLURAL(COUNTNOUNS)
SINGULAR PLURAL
-o amarelo
vermelhoamarelosvermelhos
amarelomvermelhom
amarelosm
vermelhosm-a
laranja
laranjas
amarelafvermelhaflaranjam/f
amarelasfvermelhasflaranjasm/f
-e verde verdes verdem/f verdesm/f-Ø azul azuis azulm/f azuism/f
Apart from the feminine form of gender variable adjectives (i.e. amarela(s),
vermelha(s)),allcolourwordsarelexicallyambiguouswrttosyntacticcategory.This
iswhyweneedtotakealookatcolourwordsincontext.
2.ColourwordsinPortuguesecontemporaryandinearlyusage
In this section I will consider the real usage of Portuguese colour words. A
search of colour nouns (tagged CN) on the Corpus de Referência do Português
Contemporâneo(=CRPC)yieldsasetofhitssimilartothefollowing:
(11) azul_CN,vermelho_CNeamarelo_CNvãodominarsinaléticadaExpo-98 ‘blue,redandyellowwilldominateExpo-98’slabelling’
110
This set of results had to be manually filtered, since they included a large
numberofcasesthatcan’tbetreatedascolournouns.Feminineandpluralforms,
forinstance,wheresystematicallyexcluded,since,asithasbeenestablishedinthe
previoussection,theyarenotcolournames.Thisisclearlythecaseinthefollowing
circumstance: politics and sportsmake a very extensive usage of colourwords to
identifyorganizationsandtheirmembers.Thesehits(oftenusedintheplural)were
excludedbecausetheydon’trefertoacolour:
(12) Verdes-Denominaçãodeumcuriosopartidopolíticoquetemporhábito[…]aliar-seaosvermelhos
‘Greens–Nameofacuriouspoliticalpartythatusuallymakesallianceswiththereds’
Secondly, thequery line ‘colourname_CN’ (e.g.verde_CN)broughthits thatshould have been tagged as adjectives. They occur as nounsmerely superficially,duetoanellipsisoftheantecedent:
(13) foi uma chuva de […] cartões: ao todo, nove [cartões] amarelos_CN e um [cartão]
vermelho_CN‘itwasarainshowerof[…]cards:nineyellow[cards]andared[card],intotal’
umaoutra[cerâmica]vermelha_CNegrosseira‘anotherredandrough[china]’ devia estar a pensar nos [sacos] vermelhos_CN ‘[he] was probably thinking of red
[bags]’
Aparticularcaseofwrongtagginginvolvesthesequencebué,whichisaloan
ofAfricanorigin,nowadaysoftenusedbyyoungerspeakers.InInfopediaitislisted
asanadverb;inCRPCitisoftentaggedasanoun,butitalsogetsanadjectivetag
andevenother,moreexotic,optionsdoshowup.InPortuguese,buéismostlyused
asanadverb(aproxyofmuito‘very’)anditisoftenaccompaniedbydeorda,which,
atfirstsight,looklikeprepositions(withthecontractionofadefinitearticleinthe
secondcase).Eventually,buédeorbuédamaybeanalysedasadjectivalquantifiers,
whichmeansthatvermelhos,inthefollowingexample,iswronglytaggedasanoun:
(14) ogajoestásemprejanado,meu,osolhosbuédavermelhos_CN ‘theguyisalwayshigh,dude,hiseyesareveryred’
Thus,afterfiltering,thenumberofsingularcolournounsisroughlyasin(15).
Noticethat,apart from laranja -whichclearlyseemstobe far less frequent, these
figureslookquitebalanced:
111
(15) NOUNS amarelo azul laranja verde vermelho TOTALSINGULAR 1.031 1.584 3 1.426 1.534 5.578
Asforadjectives58,nofilteringwasapplied,althoughtheywerenotalltested
fortheirsemantics.Figuresin(16)showthattheylargelyoutnumbertheirnominal
counterparts, and that singular forms are always more frequent, as well as
masculine, if both gender forms are available.Laranja is again the least frequent
case,butthedistancetotheotherislessimpressive:
(16) ADJECTIVES amarelo azul laranja verde vermelho TOTAL
SINGULARMASCULINE 2.156
4.271 3.486 7.3392.932
24.147FEMININE 2.018 1.945
PLURALMASCULINE 1.172
2.113 2 4.4071.507
10.431FEMININE 409 824
TOTAL 5.755 6.384 3.488 11.746 7.208 34.581
So,apparently,colouradjectivesarefarmoresalientforspeakersthancolour
nouns,butdoes this saliencehaveanybearing in thequestions thatwere initially
raised?Itdoesn’tseemtobethecase.Themeaningofthisnumbers,ifany,remains
unclear and the observation of colourwords in syntactic contexts surely helps to
disambiguatetheirspecificuses,butitdoesn’tmakeanysignificantcontributionto
thediscussionoftheissuesinitiallystated.
Regarding early usage, the output of a search on the Corpus do Português
(=CdP)producesasetofquitesimilar results:amarelo,azul,verdeandvermelho59
are well documented since the late 14th century or the early 15th. Apparently,
58InPortuguese,allcolouradjectivesoccurinapost-nominalposition.Prenominalposition
isclearlyunacceptable(cf.saiaazulvs*azulsaia).59Laranjawasnotscrutinized,sincemosthitsconcernthefruit,notthecolour.Probably,
theearlycolournamehadaderivativeform,laranjado(cf.camatambemdeverdeeouromuito rica e de boa emuenção forrada delaranjado – CdP:Mosteiro de Guadalupe ePortugal,16thcentury);oralaranjado(cf.capalombardadecetimalaranjado–CdP:JoãodeBarros(1553)DécadasdaÁsia.Décadasegunda.Asacolourname,laranjaisprobablythe outcome of an ellipsis from the expression cor (de) laranja and a subsequentconversionthatentailsagenderchange.Laranja, the fruit, isa femininenoun; laranja,thecolourname,isamasculinenoun.
112
adjectivesareagainmorecommonlyusedthannouns,butitisimpossibletodraw
anyconclusionfromthatfact.
NOUNS ADJECTIVES
aspenasrosadascõcolloramareloesplandecenteCdP:OrtodoEsposo(<1438)
caeuenterraamareloettodobanadoensangeCdP:CronicaTroyana(1388)
tabernaculomuynobremëteobradoaouroeazulCdP:CrónicaGeraldeEspanhade1344
seisCapazdeveludoazulCdP:CrónicadeD.Fernando(1431-1443)
DondelhevemoverdenafolhadeforaeobrancodedentroCdP:JoãodeLucena(1600)HistoriadavidadoPadreS.FranciscoXavier
deitarõnoenhûahervaverdeCdP:CrónicadeD.Fernando(1431-1443)
nopeytotraziahumsynaldevermelhomaisluzentequeasestrelasCdP:CronicadePortugal(1419)
hûûboybrancoeoutrovermelhoCdP:CrónicaGeraldeEspanhade1344
3.ColourwordsinPortuguesedictionaries
ThesalienceofcolouradjectivesfoundinCRPCparallelswhatcanbefoundin
Portuguese contemporary dictionaries, although this is not explicitly stated.
Infopedia,anonlinereferencedictionaryforcontemporaryPortuguese,forinstance,
treatsazul,laranja,verdeandvermelho,firstly,asadjectives,andthenasnouns(cf.
17);amareloispresentedtheotherwayround(cf.18).Noclarificationisofferedwrt
therelationshipbetweenadjectiveandnounineachcase:
(17) azuladjetivode2géneros1.dacordocéusemnuvens;cerúleonomemasculino1.cordoarco-írissemelhanteàdocéusemnuvens2.qualquergradaçãodestacor
vermelhoadjetivo1.dacordosanguenomemasculino1.cordosangue
laranjaadjetivoinvariávelqueédacorcaracterísticadestefrutonomemasculinocorresultantedaadiçãodevermelhoeamarelo
verdeadjetivode2géneros1.dacordaerva;dacorresultantedamisturadoazulcomoamarelonomemasculino1.umadascoresdoarco-íris,situadaentreoamareloeoazul
113
(18) amarelo nomemasculino 1.corque,noespetrosolar,sesituaentreoverdeeolaranja,semelhanteàcordolimão
maduro,dagemadoovooudoouro adjetivo 1.quetemacordolimão,dagemadoovooudoouro
Is there any grounded reason to present thesewords differently?Under the
influenceofthehaphazardsemanticdescriptionoftheseentries(whicheithermake
reference to the ‘solar spectrum’ or to the ‘rainbow’, or to metaphors such as
‘lemon’, ‘yolk’, ‘gold’, ‘cloudlesssky’, ‘grass’and ‘blood’andobviously ‘orange’,and
eventoprocesses,likethe‘mixofblueandyellow’orthe‘sumofredandyellow’),
wemightconcludethatwordclassispresentedrandomly.Althoughnojustification
isgiven,wemightpresumethattheorderofpresentationisrelatedtotheancestry
ofthecolourwordsinthePortugueselexicon.However,etymologydoesn’tseemto
beofmuchhelp either.According toCoromines,amarillo (anobvious cognateof
amarelo) has probably originated in the Hispanic Latin adjective AMARELLUS, a
diminutiveoftheadjectiveAMARUS;andbermejo(theSpanishcognateofvermelho)
originatedintheLatindiminutivenounVERMICULUS.So,anetymologicalapproach
wouldjustifyexactlytheoppositeresult-nottheoutputthatisinfactpresentedby
Infopedia.
Alookupofaselectionofearlydictionariesmayhelptoshedsomelight.In
Cardoso(1559),amareloisclearlyregisteredasanadjective(cf.amarelacousa),but
theotherthree(i.e.azul,verde,vermelho)arenot,althoughtheyaretranslatedinto
Latinadjectives.Thereisnomentiontolaranjaasacolourwordinthisdictionary.
Barbosa(1611)hasamoresystematicapproach:allthesecolourwordsarepresented
as colournames, although theyareadjectives trapped inside theexpressioncorX
‘colourX’(cf.coramarela,corazul,cor laranjada,corverde,corvermelha);but, in
thisdictionary, eachentry, except for laranja, isdominatedby theadjectival item
(cf.amarelacousa,azulcousa,verdecousa,vermelhacousa),againastranslationsof
Latincolouradjectives.Pereira(1647)resumesCardoso’s lesson,butheaddssome
more Latin equivalents. Bluteau (1712-28), who first presents colours as nouns,
114
suppliesaconsiderableamountof informationonhowtheymaybeobtained,and
used (laranja is again differently treated, appearing as a ‘caste’ of ‘red’, but still a
colour name, i.e. cor de […] laranja). Then, in some cases, Bluteau alsomakes a
registerofcolouradjectives,butthisisquitenon-systematicallyachieved.Folqman
(1755) resumes the pre-Bluteau tradition that favours colour adjectives, either by
showing that they are gender variable forms (cf. amarello, a; vermelho, a) or by
explicitlystatingthewordclass,forthefirsttimeinthissetofearlydictionaries(cf.
azul,adj;verde,adj).Thereisnoroomforlaranjainthisdictionary.
Moraes(1789)triesadifferentsolution,sinceheconveystwoseparateentries
forsomeofthesecolourwords:anounentryandanadjectiveentryareavailablefor
azul and verde, butamarelo and vermelho are just entitled to the adjective entry.
Laranja,asusual,isnotacolourword,butthederivedadjectivelaranjadore-entries
in the word list. Finally, Figueiredo (1899) concentrates all the information in a
single entry: azul, verde and vermelho are presented as adjectives and then, as
nouns;amareloismerelyconsideredasanadjectiveandlaranjaisabsent.
Despite the interest that a thorough analysis of all this lexicographic
information60mayhaveforthestudyofcolourwords,thefactisthattheydon’tadd
muchintermsofcategorization.Nosystematicandcoherentpictureemergesfrom
thesurveyofearlyorcontemporarydictionaries.
60EarlydictionaryconsideredinthispaperareavailableatCLP.
Car
doso
1559
Amarelacousa.Pallidus(a.um).
Azul.Caeruleus(a.um).
Verde.viridis(e).
Vermelho.Ruber(a.ũ).rubicũdus.
Bar
bosa
1611
Amarelacousa.Pallidus,a,ums.v.corCoramarela.Colorpallidus.
Azulcousa.Caeruleus,a,eum.s.v.corCorazul.Caeruleuscolor.[...]aliàscordoceo,oucorceleste.
s.v.corCorlaranjada.Luteuscolor.
Verdecousa.Viridiss.v.corCorverde.Colorviridis,colorherbeus
Vermelhacousa.Ruber,rubra,rubrum.s.vcorCorvermelha.Colorruber
115
4.Compoundcolourwords
Since focusingoncolourwordsbythemselvesseemstoreachnosatisfactory
answers,thefocuswillnowbeputoncompoundcolourwords,sincetheyprovide
interesting insights to the understanding of the word class of their colour
constituents.
Per
eira
1647
Amarellacousa.Pallidus,a,um.Luteus,a,um
Azul.Caeruleus,a,um.Thalastinus,a,ü.
Verdecousa.Viridis,&de.Glaucus,a,um.
Vermelhacousa.Ruber,bra,brum.Rubiumdus,a,um.
Blu
teau
1712-28
amarello.Corentrebranco,&vermelho
azùl.DerivasedoArabicoZul,quesegundoalgüs,valomesmo,queemLatimCaeruleus.[...]Cousaazul.Caeruleus,a,um.
s.v.vermelho[...]trescastasdevermelho[...]Asegunda,quetemsuapartedeamarello,comoacordefogo,&adeLaranjas.v.Pintarroxoacordagarganta[...]nãohevermelha,masalaranjada
verde.Acor,queanaturezadààshervas,arvores,&c.
vermelho.Cor.Vermelho.Cousadecorvermelha.Ruber,bra,brum
Folqman
1755
amarello,a,Flavus,a,um.[...]
azul,adj.Coeruleus
verde,adj.Viridis
vermelho,a,Ruber,bra,brum.
Mor
aes
1789
amaréllo,adj.Dacòrdagemmadeovo,doouro[...]
azúl,s.m.Tintaazulazúl,adj.Còrdamassaextrahidadoanil
laranjádo,adj.Decòrdelaranja.
vèrde,s.m.Humadascoresprincipaesvèrde,adj.Dacòrdoverde
vermèlho,adj.Còrdorostocoradocomvergonha
Figu
eire
do
1899
amareloadj.Quetemacordooiro,dagemadeovo,[...]
azuladj.QuetemumadascoresdoespectrosolarM.Acorazul.
verdeadj.Queédacorordináriadaervaedasfolhasdasárvores.M.Acorverde.
vermelhoadj.Muitoencarnado;rubro.M.Acorvermelha.
116
The following lists include all the compounds (formed upon the five colour
wordsinitiallyestablished)thatoccurinBluteau(cf.19),inInfopedia(cf.20)andin
CRPC(cf.21).
(19)amarellogualdeamarellotostadoazulcelesteazulferreteazulturqui
azulultramarinoverdeazuladoverdebexigaverdecrèverdedesmayado
verdelirioverdemarverdemontanhaverdenegroverdeterra
(20)amarelo-claroamarelo-canárioamarelo-escuroamarelo-pálidoamarelo-topázioamarelo-torradoazulcelesteazul-bebéazul-claro
azul-cobaltoazul-escuroazul-ferreteazul-marinhoazul-pavãoazul-turquesaazul-violetaverdealfaceverdecré
verde-águaverde-amareladoverde-azeitonaverde-claroverde-escuroverde-esmeraldaverde-gaioverde-garrafaverde-limão
verde-marverde-musgoverde-negroverde-velhovermelhoescurovermelho-amareladovermelho-púrpuravermelho-tijolovermelho-vivo
(21)amarelo-açafrãoamarelo-acastanhadoamarelo-águaamarelo-alaranjadoamarelo-avermelhadoamarelo-baçoamarelo-bananaamarelo-canárioamarelo-castanhoamarelo-ceraamarelo-cháamarelo-claroamarelo-de-ovoamarelo-desbotadoamarelo-doceamarelo-douradoamarelo-encarniçadoamarelo-escuroamarelo-esverdeadoamarelo-ferrugemamarelo-forteamarelo-fosforescenteamarelo-gemaamarelo-impérioamarelo-incandescente
azul-céuazul-cinzaazul-cinzentoazul-clarinhoazul-claroazul-cobaltoazul-cobreazul-de-metilenoazul-do-céuazul-eléctricoazul-esbranquiçadoazul-escuroazul-esverdeadoazul-faíscaazul-ferreteazul-forteazul-geloazul-gangaazul-glaucoazul-índigoazul-lisoazul-marinheiroazul-marinhoazul-metálicoazul-miosótisazul-negroazul-negruscoazulnocturno
verde-arbóreoverde-azebreverde-azeitonaverde-azulverde-azul-claroverde-azuladoverde-azulada-escuraverde-bandeiraverde-bosqueverde-brancoverde-bronzeverde-cadáververde-caquiverde-castanhoverde-castanho-tristeverde-cinzaverde-cinzentoverde-claroverde-cobreverde-couveverde-de-prataverde-douradoverde-ecologistaverde-ervaverde-esbatidoverde-escarlateverde-escuro
verde-salvaverde-secoverde-sedaverde-sujoverde-tíliaverdes-Tirolverde-transparenteverde-tropaverde-turquesaverde-verdeverde-verde-verdeverde-vivovermelho-abrunhovermelho-acastanhadovermelho-acinzentadavermelho-alaranjadovermelho-alizarinavermelho-amareladovermelho-amarelovermelho-arroxadovermelho-arroxeadovermelho-azulvermelho-azuladovermelho-baçovermelho-barrovermelho-bordeaux
117
amarelo-junquilhoamarelo-laranjaamarelo-limãoamarelo-manteigaamarelo-metalizadoamarelo-ministérioamarelo-mostardaamarelo-negroamarelo-ocreamarelo-ouroamarelo-palhaamarelo-pálidoamarelo-pardoamarelo-primaveraamarelo-púrpuraamarelo-queimadoamarelo-saramagoamarelo-semáforoamarelos-sépiaamarelo-sujoamarelo-terrosaamarelo-torradoamarelo-tostadoamarelo-uniãoamarelo-vivoazuldaPrússiaazul-acinzentadoazul-águaazul-aguadoazul-amareloazul-anilazul-arroxeadoazul-bebéazul-berranteazul-brilhanteazul-celesteazulcelesteclaroazul-celestialazul-cerâmica
azul-noiteazul-oceanoazul-pálidoazul-pardoazul-pavãoazul-pervincaazul-petróleoazul-piscinaazul-prataazul-prateadoazul-profundoazul-prussianoazul-roxaazul-safiraazul-sulfatoazul-tintaazul-transparenteazul-turquesaazul-ultramarinoazul-verdeazul-vermelhoazul-violáceaazul-violetaazul-vivoverde-acastanhadoverde-ácidoverde-acinzentadoverde-açoverde-águaverde-alfaceverde-alfazemaverde-algaverde-alvoverde-amareladoverde-amêndoaverde-anil
verde-esmeraldaverde-esperançaverde-florescenteverde-foscoverde-francoverde-frescaverde-gaioverde-garrafaverde-góticoverde-grandeverde-Guinéverde-lagartaverde-lamaverde-limaverde-limosoverde-maçãverde-malvaverde-marverde-marinhoverde-mateverde-musgoverde-negroverde-noiteverde-ocreverde-olivaverde-palhaverde-pálidoverde-papagaioverde-pastelverde-pinheiroverde-pinhoverde-rãverde-relvaverde-rosaverde-rubroverde-salsa
vermelho-brancovermelho-brilhantevermelho-cádmiovermelho-carmimvermelho-castanhovermelho-cerejavermelho-chamavermelho-clarovermelho-coca-colavermelho-desbotadovermelho-distânciavermelho-douradovermelho-escarlatevermelho-escurovermelho-esverdeadovermelho-forçavermelho-fortevermelho-granadavermelho-intensivovermelho-laranjavermelho-míniovermelho-negrovermelho-ocrevermelho-pálidovermelho-púrpuravermelho-rosavermelho-rosadovermelho-rubrovermelho-ruçovermelho-sanguevermelho-sanguíneovermelho-terractovermelho-tijolovermelho-tomatevermelho-verdevermelho-violáceovermelho-vivo
Notice that from Bluteau’s fifteen dictionary registers, ten fail to be
acknowledgedbyInfopedia(cf.22a)andeighthavenoregisterinCRPC(cf.22b).Also
notice that very few of the compounds that are listed in Infopedia fail to occur in
CRPC.Exceptionsarethosein(22c).
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(22) a. amarellogualdeamarellotostadoazulturquiazulultramarinoverdeazuladoverdebexiga-----verdedesmayadoverdelírioverdemontanhaverdeterra
b. amarellogualde-----azulturqui----------verdebexigaverde-créverde-desmayadoverde-lírioverdemontanhaverdeterra
c. amarelo-topázio‘topazeyellow’verde-cré‘goldengreen’verde-limão‘lemongreen’verde-velho‘oldgreen’vermelho-púrpura‘purplered’
ThenumberofcompoundsfoundinCRPC(i.e.254)showsthatrealitygoes
indeedmuchbeyond imagination,but this isaverypromisingresult, since their
morphosyntactic behaviourwill probably reveal the grammatical nature of their
constituents,unbiasedasfarasgrammaticalprescriptionsareconcerned.Mostof
the compoundsactuallyusedby speakers (maybeonlyonceor twice) arenot in
thedictionary–theyshowupiftheyareneededandnodictionaryregisterisfelt
toberequired.
The categorization of these compounds is certainly one of their most
interesting aspects. In Infopedia, different possibilities are offered: they can be
listedasnounsandthenasadjectives,asin(23a),(23b)and(23c);orasadjectives
firstandnounsafterwards,asin(23d),(23e)and(23f);orasadjectivesandnouns,
at the same time (cf. 23g) and (23h) and, finally, just as nouns (23i). This
classificationlooksasarbitraryastheclassificationofsimplecolourwords(cf.(17)
and (18)).The largestgroup favours theprecedenceof adjectives (cf. 23d-h),but
thepercentageoftheoppositegroup(cf.23a-c)isnotlow.
119
(23) a. amarelo-canárionomemasculino.tomamarelo-claroligeiramenteesverdeado,comoodecertoscanáriosadjetivo.queapresentaessetom
amarelo-claroamarelo-escuroamarelo-pálidoamarelo-torradoazul-escuroazul-marinhoazul-cobaltoazul-ferreteazul-pavãoazul-turquesaazul-violeta
39,0% b. azul-claro
nomemasculino.tomclarodoazuladjetivo.queapresentaessetom
c. azul-bebénomemasculino.tomdeazulquetendeparaobranco;azul-claroadjetivoinvariável.queapresentaessetom
d. amarelo-topázioadjetivo.dacordotopázionomemasculino.1.umadascoresdoespetrosolar.2.cordotopázio
verde-águaverde-amareladoverde-azeitonaverde-escuroverde-esmeraldaverde-gaioverde-garrafaverde-limãoverde-negroverde-marverde-musgoverde-velhovermelho-amareladovermelho-púrpuravermelho-tijolovermelho-vivo
58,3%
e. verde-claroadjetivo.queapresentaumatonalidadeclaradeverdenomemasculino.essatonalidade
f. vermelhoescuroadjetivoinvariável.queapresentaumatonalidadeescuradevermelhonomemasculino.essatonalidade
g. verdealfaceadjetivoinvariável,nomemasculino.queoutomqueéverde-clarovivocaracterísticodaalface
h. azulcelesteadjetivode2géneros,nomemasculino.azuldacordocéu
i. verdecrénomemasculino.verdetiranteaouro 2,7%
Furthermore,regarding,itisworthmentioningthattheorderofthelistingof
majorcategoriesforthesecolourcompoundsinInfopediaisquiteinconsistentwith
theorderfollowedforsimplecolournouns:
120
(24) N,ADJ ADJ,N amarelo
amarelo-canárioamarelo-claroamarelo-escuroamarelo-pálidoamarelo-torradoazulcobaltoazulferreteazulpavãoazulturquesaazulvioleta
amarelo-topázioazulazul-celesteverdeverde-águaverde-alfaceverdeamareladoverdeescuroverdeesmeraldaverdegaioverdegarrafaverdenegro
verdevelhoverdeazeitonaverdelimaoverdemarverdemusgovermelhovermelhoamareladovermelho-escurovermelho-púrpuravermelho-tijolovermelhovivo
Gender variation for compound colour adjectives is also problematic.
Apparently,ifthecompoundincludesonevariableconstituent,itwillbepresented
as a variable adjective (cf. (23a), (23b), (23d) and (23e)), but the classification of
vermelho-escuro(cf.(23f))asaninvariableadjectiveisabsolutelypuzzling,sinceits
twoconstituentsarevariableandalsobecauseamarelo-escuro,whichisstructurally
identical,isclassifiedasavariableadjective.Eventually,thisisamistakesince,for
instance,castanho-escuroandcinzento-escurofollowthemodelofamarelo-escuro.
Thedistinctionbetween ‘adjetivoinvariável’(in(23c)and(23g))and ‘adjetivode2
géneros’ (in23h) isequallyanundesirablebackgroundnoise, sincetheymeanthe
same.
5.Variationincompounds–theresults
The following data was extracted from CRPC, on the basis of a query line
formed by one of the above colourwords followed by a dash61 (-) and any other
word(e.g. ‘amarelo-*').Thesearchyieldedmorethanonethousandhits,but,once
again,someoftheresultshadtobeexcluded,eitherforstructuralorforsemantic
reasons.Inthefirstcase,Ihaveeliminatedallcoordinatedstructures(cf.25),mainly
61 Theorthographyofthistypeofwordcompoundsrequirestheuseofadashtoconnect
bothwords(cf.VOP).
121
formed by two colour words, since these compounds are exocentric and the
identificationofthecompoundwisneededfortheupcomingdiscussion.
(25) cubinhoscomduascores:umvermelho-amarelo,outroazul-amareloeumterceiroazul-vermelho
‘two-colouredlittlecubes:thefirstisred-yellow,theotherisblue-yellowandathirdoneisblue-red’
Hits thatwere excluded for semantic reasons include, like for simple colour
words,colourcompoundsthatarenotusedtoreferacolour,suchasthefollowing:
(26) coligaçãovermelha-verde‘red-greencoalition’clubevermelho-branco‘red-whiteteam’
The subcorpus thus obtained is formed by 875 different compounds. Their
frequencywillnotbe taken intoaccount, since,generally, it is individuallyalways
verylow.
Beforelookingattheresults,someremarksontaggingareadvisable.Tagging
of a corpus such as CRPC is largely obtained automatically, which is a risky but
inevitable operation. In the case of colour words, this automatic tagging is even
morerisky,since,aswehaveseenbefore(cf.(10)),theformofadjectivesandnouns
is virtually the same.Wrong tagging was identified above, in the case of simple
colour words (cf. (12) and (13)), but it seriously increases when we consider
compoundcolourwords.
The first problem concerns the appearance of bizarre categories, given their
syntacticcontext. In fact, somecolourcompoundsare taggedasverb formsother
than past participle, infinitive and gerund forms (cf. 27a), but these can also be
found(cf.(27b),(27c),(27d)and(27e)).Someothercolourcompoundsaretagged
aspropernames(cf.(27f),andevenascardinals(cf.(27g))andromannumerals(cf.
27h),althoughthelasttwoarequitescarcelyfound.
(27) a. V=Verbbarra[vermelha-escura]V
b. PPT=PastParticiple(incompoundtenses) ORabisgato[…]temosbagosdum[verde-claro]PPTdecertoslicores
122
c. PPA=PastParticiple(notincompoundtenses)ocloroéumgás[amarelo-esverdeado]PPAdeaspectolímpidoecor[amarelo-pálido]PPA
d. INF=Infinitive tonsintensosde[verde-mar]INF e. GER=Gerunds viu-lhenoolhinho[amarelo-castanho]GERocírculovermelhodaorlacontrair-se f. PNM=PartofName entrecortada[...]pelo[verde-escuro]PNMdosmontados g. CARD=Cardinals ostons«camel»,[verde-bronze]CARDepretopredominam h. DTGR=RomanNumerals dezclassificadoresdeumhorrível[verde-caqui]DTGR
These hits (94 in total) could be disregarded, and the searchwould still be
representative, buthits tagged asnounsor adjectives are alsoproblematic,which
meansthattheresultsareveryunreliable:
(28) a. Nounswronglytaggedasadjectivesostonscaracterísticossãooverdeeoazul-acinzentado,[...]o[vermelho-tijolo]ADJ
b. Adjectiveswronglytaggedasnounsgrãoscor[vermelho-alaranjada]N
Another frequently mistaken tagging concerns sequences that involve two
potential colourwords, as in (29), for very understandable reasons: if one colour
wordisdifficulttotag,asequenceoftwohastobeevenhardertoclassify.But,in
thiscase,thefirstwordisnotacolourword,hencethesequenceisnotacompound
colourword:
(29) Sóalguns espíritosmaisobservadores seaperceberamdeumpormenorpoético:uma
rosa_ADJvermelha_CNtambémlançadapelotratador ‘onlyafewattentivespiritsrealizedthepoeticdetail:aredrosealsothrownbythe
keeper’umsumodelaranja_ADJvermelho_CN‘aredorangejuice’
Mentioning this kind of mistaken tagging has a purpose, which is not to
evaluatenegativelytheCRPC’stagger.Infact,colourcompoundsaredifficulttotag
because they have to be morpho-syntactically analysed and that functionality is
probablynotthere.Hence,CRPC’sPOSresultswillbedisregarded.
Thus,searchresultsthatIwillnowpresenthavebeenmanuallytagged,both
globally and internally. Morphosyntactic compounds, such as these colour
123
compounds are lexical itemswith aphrasalbasis. So, Ihavepinpointed theword
class of each constituent and the word class of the compound, according to its
syntactic context. I have also annotated gender and number values for the
antecedents of compound adjectives and gender and number values for each
compound constituent. In total, this subcorpus includes 316 nouns and 559
adjectives. Unexpectedly, the asymmetry between nouns and adjectives is much
morediscretenowthanwhatitwaswithsimplecolourwords(cf.(15)and(16)):
(30)nouns
singular 300 plural 16 adjectives 559
This complexmorphosyntactic tagging allows to set different configurations
anditalsoallowstodetectpredominantgrammaticalbehaviours.Thisisasummary
ofthesurveyofnouncolourcompounds:
(31) a. [[X]singularcolourword[Y]singularadjective]singularmasculinenoun (144/300) e.g. amarelo-claro ‘light yellow’, azul-celeste ‘sky blue’, laranja-escuro ‘dark orange’,
verde-pálido‘palegreen’,vermelho-vivo‘vividred’ b. [[X]singularcolourword[Y]singularnoun]singularmasculinenoun (127/300)
e.g. abrunho ‘apricot’, açafrão ‘saffron’, limão ‘lemon’, miosótis ‘myositis’,musgo‘moss’,saramago‘wildradish’alface ‘lettuce’, alfazema ‘lavender’, amêndoa ‘almond’, banana ‘banana’,cereja ‘cherry’, coca-cola ‘Coca-Cola’, couve ‘kale’, lima ‘lime’, maçã ‘apple’,salva‘sage’,violeta‘violet’bronze ‘bronze’, cádmio ‘cadmium’, cobalto ‘cobalt’, cobre ‘copper’, indigo‘indigo’, mínio ‘minium’, ocre ‘ochre’, ouro ‘gold’, petróleo ‘petrol’, sulfato‘sulphate’água‘water’,alizarina‘alizarin’,ardósia‘slate’,esmeralda‘emerald’,ferrugem‘rust’,safira‘sapphire’
c. [[X]singularcolourword[Y]singularcolourword]singularmasculinenoun (33/300) e.g. azul-turquesa ‘turquoise blue’, verde-negro ‘black green’, vermelho-escarlate
‘scarletred’ d. [[X]singularcolourword[Y]pluraladjective]pluralmasculinenoun (1/16) e.g.amarelo-acastanhados‘brownyellow’ e. [[X]pluralcolourword[Y]pluraladjective]pluralmasculinenoun (7/16) e.g.amarelos-doces‘sweetyellow’,azuis-berrantes‘shoutingblue’,azuis-celestiais‘sky
blue’ f. [[X]pluralcolourword[Y]singularnoun]pluralmasculinenoun (7/16) e.g. amarelos-ouro ‘gold yellow’, azuis-turquesa ‘turquoise blue’, verdes-cinza ‘ash
green’,vermelhos-rosa‘rosered’ g. [[X]pluralcolourword[Y]pluralnoun]pluralmasculinenoun (1/16) e.g.verdes-algas‘algaegreen’
124
The analysis of singularnounsmust focuson the second constituent,which
can either be an adjective (cf. (31a)) or a noun, referring to a fruit, a vegetable, a
mineral,or anythingelse, in fact (cf. 31b).The third type (cf. (31c)),witha colour
wordasitssecondconstituentisnotarealtype–I’veisolatedthembecausetheir
analysisas those in (31a)oras those in (31b) isequallyavailable.Fromasemantic
pointofview,allthesecompoundsarehyponymsofthefirstconstituent:amarelo-
claro is a kind of amarelo; vermelho-coca-cola is a kind of vermelho. So, if these
nounsareheadedbyacolourwordthat ismodifiedeitherbyanadjectiveorbya
noun,thecolourwordhastobeanoun-ifinvermelho-coca-cola,vermelhowasto
be an adjective, then it would be a kind of coca-cola, which is semantically
inadequate, if not for other reasons,merely because the feminine noun coca-cola
would require the feminine adjectivevermelha, but alsobecause colour adjectives
cannotprecedenounsinPortuguese(seefootnote2).Compoundsin(31c)alsohave
acolourheadnounandtheirmodifiercaneitherbeanadjective(e.g.verde-negro
‘black green’), similarly to those in (31a), or a noun (e.g. vermelho-escarlate), like
thosein(31b).
Pluralnounsareobviouslyofsecondaryimportance,simplybecausethereare
onlyafewofthem.
Adjectives offer much more interesting information. In this case, I will set
three different subtypes: agreement configurations, ‘disagreement’ configurations
and irrelevant context. In the first subtype (cf. 32), one of the compound
constituents(thefirst,thesecondorboth)explicitlyagreeswithitsantecedent:
(32) a. MASCULINESINGULARANTECEDENT (144/225) e.g.açúcaramareloMASCSING-escuroMASCSING ‘darkyellowsugar’ cabeloamareloMASCSING-manteigaNOUNSING ‘butteryellowhair’ vestidoazulINVSING-claroMASCSING ‘lightbluedress’ b. FEMININESINGULARANTECEDENT (69/201) e.g.camisadepopelinaamarelaFEMSING-cháNOUN ‘teayellowpoplinshirt’ coloraçãoamarelaFEMSING-esverdeadaFEMSING ‘greenishyellowcolour’ camisaazulINVSING-claraFEMSING ‘lightblueshirt’ c. FEMININEPLURALANTECEDENT (13/79) e.g.ondasazuisINVPLU-escurasFEMPLU ‘darkbluewaves’ t-shirtsazuisINVPLU-gangaNOUN ‘denimbluet-shirts’ d. MASCULINEPLURALANTECEDENT (8/53) e.g.olhosazuisINVPLU-clarosMASCPLU ‘lightblueeyes’
125
Inthesecondsubtype(cf.33),thereisnoagreementbetweenoneorbothof
thecompoundconstituentsanditsantecedent.Therearenocasesof‘disagreement’
withmasculinesingularantecedents,whichwillbearelevantissuefortheanalysis
below:
(33) a. FEMININESINGULARANTECEDENT (76/201) e.g.auréolaamareloMASCSING-douradaFEMSING ‘goldenyellowhalo’ cabeleiraamareloMASCSING-fosforescenteINVSING ‘phosphorescentyellowhair’ camisolaverdeINVSING-claroMASCSING ‘lightgreensweater’ casacavermelhoMASCSING-escuroMASCSING ‘darkredcoat’ tonalidadevermelhoMASCSING-sangueNOUN ‘bloodredhue’ b. FEMININEPLURALANTECEDENT (66/79) e.g.floresamareloMASCSING-esverdeadasFEMPLU ‘greenishyellowflowers’ letrasazulINVSING-celestesINVPLU ‘skyblueletters’ manchasazulINVSING-celesteINVSING ‘skybluespots’ calçasazulINVSING-escuroMASCSING ‘darkbluetrousers’ folhasverdeINVSING-escurasFEMPLU ‘darkgreenleaves’ boinasvermelhoMASCSING-escuroMASCSING ‘darkredberets’ unhasvermelhoMASCSING-sangueNOUN ‘bloodrednails’ c. MASCULINEPLURALANTECEDENT (45/53) e.g.tonsamareloMASCSING-escurosMASCPLU ‘daryellowhues’ panosamareloMASCSING-torradoMASCSING ‘toastedyellowclths’ livrinhosazulINVSING-bebéNOUN ‘babybluebooklets’ poenteslaranjaMASCSING-púrpuraNOUN ‘purpleorangesunsets’ uniformesverdeINVSING-escurosMASCPLU ‘darkgreenuniform’ paralelipípedosverdeINVSING-secoMASCSING ‘drygreenparallelepiped tufosverdeINVSING-mateINVSING ‘mategreenwisp’ óculosvermelhoMASCSING-azulINVSING ‘blueredglasses’ rolosvermelhoMASCSING-rosaNOUN ‘roseredhairpin’ d. MASCULINESINGULARANTECEDENT (0/225)
Finally, the third subtype comprises all the cases that involve singular
antecedents andgender invariable colournames, invariablemodifier adjectivesor
modifiernounsthatdonotagreewiththecolourhead(cf.34).Ifthereisanykindof
agreement,inthesecases,itisnotvisible:
(34) a. MASCULINESINGULARANTECEDENT (81/225) e.g.véuazulINVSING-águaNOUN ‘waterblueveil’ céuazulINVSING-celesteINVSING ‘skybluesky’ b. FEMININESINGULARANTECEDENT (57/201) e.g.malinhaazulINVSING-bebéNOUN ‘babybluebag’ cúpulaazulINVSING-celesteINVSING ‘skybluedome’
126
In sum, most of these colour compounds show agreement features (circa
41,9%), but the antecedent is predominantly a masculine singular noun (circa
61,5%). This observationmust be related to the fact that there are nomasculine
singular antecedentswhenagreement fails tooccur and it is still relevant tonote
that the ‘disagreeing’ formswithin the compound aremasculine and singular (cf.
boinas vermelho-escuro ‘dark-red berets’). A similar observation is offered by the
factthatcompoundsthathaveinvariableforms(cf.véuazul-água ‘waterblueveil’,
malinhaazul-bebé‘babybluelittlebag’)alwayshavesingularantecedents.Thisisa
summaryofthecounting:
(35) ANTECEDENTTOTAL SINGULAR PLURAL
MASC FEM MASC FEM AGREEMENTSTRUCTURES 144 69 8 13 234 ‘DISAGREEMENT’STRUCTURES ----- 76 45 66 187 IRRELEVANTCONTEXT 81 57 ----- ----- 138 225 202 53 79 559
Thecorollaryofalltheseobservationsseemstobethatthereisatendencyto
assignunmarkedgenderandnumbervalues to thesecompounds. Inotherwords,
mostof these compoundswillhave amasculine singular form, irrespectiveof the
genderandnumbervaluesoftheantecedent.Noticethatonly90colourcompounds
exhibit full agreement with non-masculine singular antecedents (circa 16%) and
probably,nativespeakerswouldacceptstheirnon-agreeingcounterparts:
(36) coloraçãoamarela-esverdeadavs.coloraçãoamarelo-esverdeado olhosazuis-clarosvs.olhosazul-claro
Wewillnowleavethislineofreasoninginstand-by,tofindoutwhatisgoing
on inside colour compounds that surface as adjectives. All the cases under
considerationhereareformedbyacolourwordplusamodifierthatcanbeeitheran
adjectiveoranoun.Apparently,thestructureofthesecompoundsissimilartothe
nouncompoundsdescribedabove(cf.31).So,ifamodifierfollowsthecolourword,
thenthecolourwordmustbeanoun,butifthisisso(i.e.ifthecolourword,which
istheheadofthecompound,isanoun),howdoesthecompoundcomestobean
adjective? The hypothesis that seems more plausible is that these compound
127
adjectives are initially generated as nouns and then they are re-categorised as
adjectives.
(37) [[amarelo]NOUN[escuro]ADJ]NOUN à [[[amarelo]NOUN[escuro]ADJ]NOUN]ADJ
Conversion processes often have a ‘freezing’ effect wrt to morpho-syntactic
variation.Thismaybethereasonwhyadjectivalcolourcompoundstendtooccurin
themasculine-singularform(whichistheformofthebasenoun)andtendtoelope
agreementwithitsantecedent.Theseadjectivesaregenderandnumberinvariable
forms:
(38) [casaca]FEMSING[vermelhoMASCSING-escuroMASCSING]INVADJ [boinas]FEMPLU[vermelhoMASCSING-escuroMASCSING]INVADJ [panos]MASCPLU[amareloMASCSING-torradoMASCSING]INVADJ
Finally,weneedtoaccountforthecasesofcompoundcolouradjectivesthat
donotbehaveasinvariableadjectives,sincetheyexhibitpartial(cf.39a)orfull(cf.
39b)agreementfeatures.
(39) a. [auréola]FEMSING[amarelo-dourad]aFEMSING [flores]FEMPLU[amarelo-esverdead]asFEMPLU [tons]MASPLU[amarelo-escur]osFEMPLU b. [coloração]FEMSING[amarela]FEMSING[esverdeada]FEMSING [ondas]FEMPLU[azuis]INVPLU[escuras]FEMPLU
[olhos]MASCPLU[azuis]INVPLU[claros]MASCPLU
Certainly,partialandfull‘agreement’caseshavedifferentimplications.Partial
agreement, which affects the last constituent, is probably due to a more
consolidated stage of lexicalization. Frozen forms, such as those in (38) are the
directoutputofconversion;adjectivesthatshowgenderandnumberagreementat
theright-handperipheryarelexicalisedformsthathave‘lost’theiroriginalinternal
structure.Fullagreement,ontheotherhand,seemstorevealacompletelydifferent
word-formation strategy. In this case, we may consider that the compound is
formed upon a simple colour adjective by coordination, which is a plausible
explanation for cases such as coloração amarela esverdeada ‘greenish yellow
colouring’.
128
Noticethatafewcasesofpartialagreementcomefromcompoundsthathavea
modifier noun (e.g. camisa amarela-chá, t-shirts azuis-ganga). The coordination
hypothesis to explain these cases is simply inadequate: sequences of nouns and
adjectives can’t be coordinated, nor can sequences of adjectives, unless theyhave
cumulativereading,whichisnotthecase.Noothergoodexplanationseemstobe
available,whichmaysuggestthatthesecasesareoccasionaldeviations.
6.Closingremarks
Portuguesecolourwords, suchasamarelo,azul, laranja,verde andvermelho,
are more frequently used as adjectives, although they may also occur as nouns.
Lexicographic descriptions, from early to contemporary dictionaries also tend to
privilege the description of these words as adjectives, although descriptions are
quiteinconsistent.Etymologycan’tbeofmuchhelpeither,sincesomecolourwords
originateinnouns(e.g.azul)andotheroriginateinadjectives(e.g.amarelo).Thus,
the analysis of colourwords doesn’t provide enough information to decide about
theirwordclassstatus.
Compoundcolourwordspresentaquiteinterestingsetofpropertiesthatmay
help to better understand the former. Compound colour nouns are formed by a
simple colour noun and a modifier (an adjective or a noun). Like simple colour
nouns, they are typically masculine nouns. Compound colour adjectives provide
somemoreinterestinginformation.Ingeneral,theseadjectivestakethemasculine
singular form even when they have other kinds of antecedents, which may be
explainedasanoutcomeofconversion,thewordformationprocessusedtoproduce
them.Ifthisisthecase,compoundcolouradjectivesareobtainedfromcompound
colournouns,whicharealsoobtainedbyconversionofanounphraseheadedbya
colournoun.
So,thosequestionsthatwereinitiallyputcannowbereplied.Theobservation
of thegrammaticalbehaviourofsimpleandcompoundcolourwordssupports the
hypothesis thatcolournounsandcolouradjectivesaredifferent lexical items,and
alsothatadjectivesareobtainedbyconversionofcolournouns.
129
The small setof compoundcolouradjectives that exhibits agreementon the
rightmostconstituentmaysuggestthatothercolourwordformationstrategiesmay
apply,althoughmarginallyforthetimebeing.
References
Barbosa,A. (1611)DictionariumLusitanicoLatinum.Bracharae:FructuosiLaurentijdeBasto.
Bluteau,R.(1712-1728)VocabularioPortuguezeLatino[...].Coimbra-Lisboa:CollegiodasArtesdaCompanhiadeJesu.
Cardoso, J. (1569-1570) Dictionarium Latinolusitanicum. Conimbricae: JoanBarrerius.
CdP=Davies,Mark&MichaelFerreira(2006-)CorpusdoPortuguês:45millionwords,1300s-1900s.[www.corpusdoportugues.org](01-02-2016).
Corominas, J. & J. Pascual (1992) Diccionario Crítico Etimológico Castellano eHispánico.Madrid:Gredos.
CLP-CorpusLexicográficodoPortuguês[clp.dlc.ua.pt/DICIweb/](01-02-2016).CRPC - Corpus de Referência do Português Contemporâneo [alfclul.clul.ul.pt/
CQPweb/].Figueiredo, C. de (1913) Novo Diccionário da Língua Portuguesa. Porto: Typ. da
Empr.Litter.eTypographyca.Folqman,C.(1755)DiccionarioPortuguez,eLatino.Lisboa:naOfficinadeMiguel
ManescaldaCostaInfopédia -Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa com Acordo Ortográfico [em linha].
Porto: Porto Editora, 2003-2016. [www.infopedia.pt/dicionarios/lingua-portuguesa/dicionário](01-02-2016).
MoraiseSilva,A.(1789)DiccionariodaLinguaPortugueza.Lisboa:naTypographiaLacerdina. [archive.org/details/diccionariodalin01mora & archive.org/stream/diccionariodalin02mora](01-02-2016).
Pereira,B.(1647):Thesourodalinguaportugueza.Eborae:TypographiaAcademiae.Villalva,A.(2008).MorfologiadoPortuguês.Lisboa:UniversidadeAberta.VOP–VocabulárioOrtográficodoPortuguês.
[http://www.portaldalinguaportuguesa.org/vop.html](01-02-2016).
130
MetaphorandemotionincolourwordsErlingStrudsholm(KøbenhavnsUniversitet),CarlaBazzanella&IreneRonga(UniversitàdegliStudidiTorino)
1.Introduction
Within the rich and fruitful, research on colour words, starting from Berlin
andKay 1969 (more recently cf. Grossmann 1988; Lyons 2003; Biggam 2011 et al.;
Rossi 2012, 2013, 2014; Anderson 2014 et al.), a significant and complex
intertwinement of language/culture/context has been highlighted, together with
psychologicalandcognitiveprocesses,suchasperceptionandcategorization.
A general, still recurring question is the following: When studying colour
words, do we find universal pairings or cultural and linguistic specificities? With
regard toour issue, are themetaphorical62meaning and the emotional valueof a
colour word in a given language completely dependent on culture, context, and
language?Oristhereaconvergenttendencyamonglanguages(possiblygrounded
in embodiment and intersubjectivity, cf. Gibbs 2005, Fusaroli et al. 2012), in
associatingmetaphoricalmeaningsandvaluestocolourwords?
62 Thedifferencesbetweenmetaphorandmetonymy(see,e.g.,Koch2001;Niemeier1998;
Barcelona2003,Sandford2014a),willnotbetakenintoaccounthere.Bothofthemareconsideredaspartofthefigurativelanguagethatisawider,powerfulumbrellareferringto non-literal meaning (see Gibbs 1994; Dobrovol’ski and Piirainen 2005; Bazzanella2014).
131
The integrative answer provided by an increasing amount of recent, cross-
linguistic studies consists in maintaining the significance of both cultural and
universal facetsof theiruse,by attenuating the strong, initial oppositionbetween
nurtureandnature(cf.,amongothers,RegierandKay,2009;CruzandPlebe,2013;
Ronga,etal.2014;RongaandBazzanella2015;Strudsholmetal.submitted).
Inthisperspective,wewilldealherewithtwoparticular,strictlyentrenched,
aspects of the use of colour words, that is: their metaphorical meanings and
emotionalvalues.Morespecifically,wewillpresentsomeexamplesofmetaphorical
meanings, driven by a colour word/collocate in relation with their
embodiment/conventionalization and their interlinguistic and intralinguistic
variations, on the one hand (§ 2), and the emotional, often contrasting values,
whicharetriggeredbycolourterms,ontheotherhand(§3).
We will mainly compare Danish and Italian, which share only a partially
commonlinguisticbelongingandEuropeanculturalheritage;butreferalsotoother
languages that have been analysed in studies discussing colour words in applied
perspectives (McCarthy and O’ Dell 2002, Diadori 2012) and in relation with
metaphors, proverbs, idioms, and emotions (Niemeier 1998, 2007; Kövecses 2010;
Albertazzi 2009, 2010; Bazzanella et al. 2012; Dobreva 2014; Ronga et al. 2014;
Sandford2011,2014a,2014b).
2.Colourwordsandmetaphoricalmeaning
2.1Embodimentandconventionalization
Colourwordsareoftenusednotasasimplereferencetoaperceptualportion
of the colour spectrum, that is, not literally: they often assume a metaphoric
meaning, which is grounded in the correspondence between perceptual and
semantic processes (Albertazzi 2010) and varies according to its context and
collocation,asinthefollowingDanishexample:
132
1) Da.Grønkoncerterhverkenrødellerblå(lit.63‘Greenconcertisneitherrednorblue’;
met.‘Grønkoncertispoliticallyindependent’).
The threemetaphorical values, here associated togreen, red, andblue, need
explication:
• Since1983,theGrønkoncert,whichhasbecomeaninstitutioninDanishmusic
andculturallife,referstoanopen-airrocconcertandtakesplaceeveryyear;
• The colour green is generally64 associated to nature in general and to the
ecologicalmovement (Niemeier 1998: 131): see, e.g., the green petrol, theUK
GreenParty (formerly theecologicalone), thecorrespondinggreenparties in
Europe(suchasinFranceLesVerts,inGermanyDieGrünen,inItalyIVerdi),
and The European Green Party founded in 2004. In fragment 1), the use of
greenisalsorelatedtothemainsponsor,namely:theDanishbreweryTuborg
(http://www.groenkoncert.dk/;standNovember2015);
• Red and blue are meant here to represent, symbolically, opposite political
parties,thatis,left-andright-wingideologiesinDenmark,respectively.
Colours associated to the political parties are mostly conventionally and
arbitrarily established; e.g., the United States color symbolism is opposite to the
Danishone: themoreconservativeRepublicanParty is symbolizedbyred andthe
DemocraticPartyissymbolizedbyblue,thecolorsymbolismistheoppositetothe
Danishone.However,since1854redinpoliticalideology“[…]iswidelyusedtorefer
toleft-wingpolitics(communism,Marxism,socialism.)”(Niemeier1998:129).
Also thecolourof the roadsignsarehighlyconventional, somuchso thata
Vienna Conventions on Road Signs and Signals has been established for the
European countries in 1968, but in a flexible way, given that the road markings
63Themetaphoricalmeaning follows theEnglish literal translation that ismarkedby ‘lit.’
and‘met’,respectively.64 See already in the Latin language: “The adjectives uiridis and uirens (‘green’) most
commonly described the healthy crops and shrubs of Roman agriculture andhorticulture,ortherichverdureoftheItaliancountryside”(Bradley2009:7).
133
partly vary among countries; e.g.: althoughyellow is commonlyused tomark the
forbiddenparking,inNorwayyellowmarkingsseparatethetrafficdirections.
Furthermore, there are colours, or coloured objects, which have been
conventionallyselectedinmanysocieties/languagesasasymbol,suchaswhite for
truce/peace,oryellowin:
• the yellow ribbon, which is used in the United States, Denmark, Italy etc.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_ribbon; stand December 2015), for
supportingthewarprisonersandsoldiers,and
• the yellow t-shirt used in Thailand as a sign of protest
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Shirts;standDecember2015).
Ingeneral, themetaphorical, conventionalusesof colourwords aremoreor
lesssharedamongEnglish,Danish,andItalian,asinthefollowingidioms:
2) En. green fingers/thumb, Da. grønne fingre (lit. ‘green fingers’), It. pollice verde (lit.
‘greenthumb’).
3) En.outoftheblue,Da.udafdetblå(lit.‘outoftheblue’);itdoesnotexistinItalian.
4) En.yellow-bellydoesnotexistneitherinDanishnorinItalian.
AccordingtoRongaetal.2014,commontendenciesinthemetaphoricaluses
ofcolouraremore frequentlyrelatedtoembodiedexperienceandnaturalobjects.
Perceptualproperties (Albertazzi2009,2010), experience, cognitiveprocesses, and
culturalmotivation affect together the creation and conventionalizationof colour
metaphors.Thevariableinterlacementbetweenembodied(oriconic,suchasinthe
Grønkoncertabove),andtheconventional(orarbitrary,suchasintheredandblue
above)associationspertainstometaphoringeneral(cf.,amongmanyothers,Lakoff
and Johnson 1980;Kittay 1987;Kövecses2010;Lakoff 1987;Bazzanella2009, 2014),
and, by extension, to the metaphorical uses of colour words, especially in
collocations,idiomaticexpressions,orproverbs(Bazzanellaetal.2012,Rongaetal.
2014,Strudsholmetal.submitted).Toquoteanexample,themeaningoftheEnglish
idiomoutoftheblueisrelatedtoablueandclearsky,fromwhichnothingunusual
isexpected;but,nowadays,itishighlyconventionalized.
134
Embodied metaphors, initially grounded in nature and experience, when
conventionalizedbecome“storedandretrievedwholefrommemoryatthetimeof
use” (Wray 2002: 9), by referring to a general exemplar of an object, as in the
Englishphrasewhiteasasheet:theoriginalcolourofsheetsmetaphoricallyinvokes
the paleness of a visage, even todaywhen sheets are, usually, variously coloured.
Not surprisingly, Danish and Italian people resort to the same, literally and
metaphoricallycorrespondingidioms:
5) Da.hvidsometlagen,
6) It.biancocomeunlenzuolo.
Interestingly,theEnglishidiomwhitenoiseandthecorrespondingItalianand
Spanish ones (that is, rumor bianco, ruido blanco), the colourwhite - that is, an
‘achromatic’colour-matchesthewordnoise,andmetaphoricallysuggestsa light,
background noise (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=islibiZhbxc; stand
December2015).
The association appears arbitrary or partly motivated also in the Italian
idiomaticexpressionvedovanera,whichinotherlanguages,likeDanish,onlyrefers
totheverypoisonousspider:
7) It.vedovanera,(lit.‘blackwidow’;met.‘awidowwhokilledherhusbandormadehim
been killed’; but also a category of serial killers (men included!), who mainly act
withinthefamily).
TheItalianmetaphoricalmeaningof:
8) It.Principeazzurro(lit.‘lightblueprince’;met.,PrinceCharming,thatis‘amanwho
fulfillsawoman’sromanticexpectations’),
issharedby:PrincipeazulinSpanish,PrincipeazulinPortuguese,Prinzepblau
inCatalan(lit. ‘blueprince’ forallthreelanguages);butnotinGerman,whereder
blauePrinzwouldmean‘thedrunkprince’.
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2.2 Inter-/intralinguistic variations and multiple metaphorical
meanings
Withregardtothetranslationofcolourterms,which isadelicatetask,given
theirpossibledifferentconnotationsandvalues,Sutrop(2011:44)pointedout:“Ifwe
lookatcolourtermsonlyinonelanguage,orespeciallytheBCTsinthatlanguage,
ourobservationsremainstaticbut,ifwetrytolookatdifferencesinonelanguageor
betweenlanguages,werunintoproblemsofintra-andinterlinguistictranslation.”
Wewill touch upon these two kinds of variation in the use ofmetaphorical
colourwords65:
• on the one hand, the interlinguistic variety consists either in the absence of
correspondences in other languages of specific metaphorical uses (such as
English yellow-belly, which is neither used in Danish nor in Italian), or in
different associations, which themetaphorical use of the same colour word
cantriggeramonglanguages(see2.2.1),
• on the other hand, the intralinguistic variety, which is more surprising,
consists in the different associations, which can be attributed by the
metaphorical use of the same colour word within one single language (see
2.2.2).
2.2.1. The interlinguistic variety has been widely discussed in a contrastive
perspective, and the contextual, cultural, historical, and social parameters (which
play a crucial role in characterizing the selection, establishment and
conventionalizationofthemetaphoricalusesofcolourwordsinaspecificlanguage
and society, in comparison to other languages and societies) have been recently
highlighted(see§1).
Toquoteanexampletakenfromourcorpus66:Danishveddetgrønnebord(lit.
‘atthegreentable’)denotes‘intheexaminationroom’,whileItalianaltavoloverde
65Wewillnotdealherewith‘creative’and‘polyphonic’uses,whicharecommoninDanish
newspapertitles,suchas:Københavnsungeharstemtogmalerhelebyenirødt(lit.‘TheyouthofCopenhagenhas voted andpaints thewhole town red’, i.e. youngpeoplehaspreferentiallyvotedfortheleftwing/redparties).
136
‘(lit. ‘at the green table’),means ‘at the card table’ (Strudsholm et al. submitted).
Another example is theuseofblue-eyed: interlinguistically, ithas the same literal
meaning, that is, ‘with blue eyes’; but, while the English a blue-eyed boy has the
figurative meaning of ‘a darling’ or ‘a favoured person’, the correspondences in
DanishblåøjetandinGermanblauäugigmean‘naïve’or‘ingenuous’.
2.2.2. In general, metaphorical meaning is ambiguous67. Therefore, not
surprisingly,whenthemetaphoricalmeaning isdrivenbyanexpressiongrounded
onacolourword/collocateinaspecificcontext,itmayvarynotonlybetweentwo
(oramongmore)languages,butalsowithinasinglelanguage.Inotherwords,the
intralinguisticvariationconsistsindifferentassociationsandvaluesconstrainedby
perception, culture, history, and linguistic context, which that can be
metaphoricallyattributedtothesamecolourwordwithinonesinglelanguage:e.g.,
inItalianweusebiancocomelaneve(‘whiteassnow’),whichcontrastswithbianco
comeunmorto(‘whiteasadeadman’).
TheEnglishgreencanrefertofreshness,vitality,butalsotoimmaturity,such
asinEn.greenyears(‘aperson’sdevelopingyears’),andgreenideas(‘unripeideas’).
SimilarlyinDanishandItalian,wheretheidioms imingrønneungdom(lit. ‘inmy
green youth’) andesserenel verde degli anni (lit. ‘tobe in the greenof the years’;
met. to be in the early youth) are commonly used (Strudsholm et al. submitted).
Recently, anew “serie verde” (‘green series’), specifically addressed toA1 learners,
startedwithinaTVquizprogram(seeALMA.tv;http://www.almaedizioni.it/it/
almatv/lingua-quiz/;standDecember2015).
With regard to English red, it assumes both a positive value, such as in
examples9)and10),andanegativeone,e.g.,inred-eye(met.‘slavewhisky’)andred
tape(met.‘bureaucraticdelays’).
66See Ronga et al. 2014 for details on our corpus, grounded both in questionnaires and
corpora.67 “Vagueness,ambiguity,andpolysemyaretypicalfeaturesofthemetaphoricallanguage”
(Radman1995:228).
137
9) redcarpet,Da.rødløber,It.tappetorosso.
10) paintthetownred,Da.malebyenrød(‘tocelebrateboisterously’).
On the contrary, theblack colour expresses only fewpositive – or neutral –
associations (see examples 11-12). Negative associations prevail, by referring to
unofficial, illegal uses (see examples 13-16), bad reputations (see examples 17-18),
sadnessordysphoricfeelingsrelatedtoemotion,etc.(see§3).Theseusesaremore
orlesssharedamongEnglish,Danish,andItalian:
11) blacktie;Da.denlillesorte(‘thelittleblack’);It.abitonero(‘blackdress’).
12) Da.enlillesort(‘alittleblack’,i.e.coffeelacedwithbrandy;It.caffècorretto)68.
13) blackmarket,Da.sortmarked/sortbørs,It.mercatonero/borsanera.
14) Da.sortarbejde,It.lavoronero(‘illegalwork’,moonlight??).
15) Da. sorte penge (lit. ‘blackmoney’), It. denaro sporco (lit. ‘dirtymoney’); Da. vaske
sortepengehvide(lit.‘washblackmoneywhite’;met.‘launderblackmoney’).
16) blackeconomy,It.economianear.
17) toblacklist,Da.atsortliste;Da.atkommepådensorteliste(lit.‘tocomeontheblack
list’,i.e.‘tobeblacklisted’).
18) blacksheep,Da.sortfår,It.pecora.
In some cases, as in the following Danish example, positive or negative
interpretationsdependonthecontext:
19) sortafmennesker(lit.‘blackwithpeople’,met.verycrowded).
Let us briefly discuss here the ‘mixed case’ of black Friday, in their partially
convergentanddivergentuses,whichencompassbothapositivemeaningrelatedto
shopping (which is commonly used by English and Danish; http://blackfriday-
guide.dk; stand December 2015), and a negative one, related to several sad events
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday; stand December 2015), which is also
sharedbyItalian.Recently,alsotheshoppingmeaningisbecomingcommoninthe
Italian advertisements, e.g. in EATALY’s Speciale Black Friday
(http://www.eataly.net/it_it/black-friday; stand December 2015). A recent Danish 68 InTriestinedialectunnero(lit.‘ablack’)isacupofexpressocoffee.
138
expressionwithreferencetoBlackFriday(example20)playsontheDanishwordfor
blackintheidiomatgåisort(lit.‘togoinblack’,met.‘togophut’):
20) Byengårisorttil“BlackFriday”(lit.‘ThetowngoesinblackforBlackFriday’).
Withregardtoblue,consideredbyRomansasablackhue(Pastoureau,2000,
Garcea 2003), the Italian blu (which alternates also with azzurro ‘azure-medium
blue’andthelesscommonceleste‘lightblue’69)refersbothtopositive(example21)
andnegative(example22)meanings:
21) Telefono Azzurro (lit. ‘the Blue Phone’, that is, an institution set up to safeguard
children’srights).
22) Avere una fifa blu (lit. ‘having a blue fear’; met. experiencing an intense fear, thus
causingafacesopalethatisalmostlooksbluish,asifitisexposedtoagreatchill;see
Biasietal.2013:158).
The multiplicity of metaphorical meanings, which can be attributed to a
colour word/expression in different languages and within the same language,
increases when emotional features are involved, as we will see in the following
section.
3. Emotional values and double polarity in the metaphorical uses of
colourwords
Recent studies have developed a wide conception of emotion, in its
relationship not only with reason and mind, but also with history, culture, and
language(see,e.g.,Bodei1991,Damasio1994,BazzanellaandKobau2002,Weigand
2004).
Colour words can be used for referring to emotion on the basis of diverse
forms of embodiment (see. 2.1). To quote an example related to the externally 69 Interestingly, also inother languages, suchasModernGreek,Maltese,Polish,Russian,
andTurkish,theEnglishBLUEcategoryisoftensplitintotwoorthreecolourwords(seeRonga 2009, Sandford 2012b, Paramei and Menegaz 2013, Bimler and Uusküla 2014,Uusküla2014,RongaandBazzanella2015).
139
observable, facial reactions,anger isassociatedwithred inseveral languages,such
asEnglish,Danish (at blive rød i hovedet af raseri, lit. ‘tobecome red in thehead
with anger’), Italian (rosso di rabbia), Bulgarian (Почервенявам от гняв ‘go red
with anger’; Dobreva 2014: 196), Chinese (mian-hong er-chi; lit. face-red ears-red)
‘become red in the face; flushwith anger, shameor shyness’;NingYu2002: 343),
Czech,andHungarian:
“theCzechrudáaswellastheHungarianvörösareconnectedwithastateof
beingangryatsomeone(inCzechbýtrudývztekem‘toberedwithanger’,zroudnot
jako krocan ‘to become red as turkey’, meaning ‘to become red with anger’, in
Hungarianelvörösödik‘tobecomered(withanger)’.”(Uusküla2008:24).
Emotional associations and values attributed to colour words either can be
sharedbymanylanguagesorcanvary,accordingtolanguage,culture,andlinguistic
context, in a complex intertwinement of factors. Unavoidably, when one speaks
about emotion, the complex balance between nature and nurture and the cross-
linguistic variability come to foreground (see § 1). According to Soriano and
Valenzuela (2009: 441), who applied Adams and Osgood (1973)’s semantic
dimensions:“[…]colourPotencyandActivitysemanticratingsarelikelytobemore
stableacrosslanguagesbecauseoftheirimportantrelationtophysicalpropertiesof
colour,likebrightnessorsaturation.Evaluation,ontheotherhand,isinfluencedby
saturation, but seemsneverthelessmore sensitive to context,more dependent on
external associations and a framework of reference, and thereforemore prone to
cross-linguisticvariability.”
As Da Pos and Green-Armytage (2007: 12) write: “There can be no single
‘correct’ colour for each emotion; emotions themselves are not one-dimensional.”
Forexample, in Italianwenotonlyuserossodi rabbia (‘redwithanger’),butalso
verdedirabbia(‘greenwithanger’),similarlytoBulgarian:Позеленявамотяд ‘go
greenwithanger’(Dobreva2014:196).
Within the same language, a colour word may be related with contrasting
emotional values – let us label it double polarity - similarly to themetaphorical,
multiplemeanings of the colour words that we highlighted above (see § 2.2). In
140
Italian, the colour green expresses both positive (in: verde speranza lit. ‘green
hope’70), and negative, emotional values, such as anger (see above), and envy in
verde di invidia, which corresponds to the following idioms English and Danish
idioms:greenwithenvy,grønafmisundelse.
In English, to see red is an expression of anger, but red-letter day is an
expressionofjoy.Ingeneral,theredcolourtermismostcommonlyassociatedwith
joy(example23),love(seetheredroseasasymboloflove),andpassion:
23) red passion, It. passione rossa (which is the name of the Ferrari Owners Club;
http://www.ferrariclubtorino.it/new/images/Documenti/schedaeventochivasso.pdf;
StandDecember2015).
On the negative side, red is related to anger (see above), urgency, warning,
fear,anddanger(example24):
24) redallert,Da.rødallarm,It.allarmerosso.
By contrast, black generally represents negative emotions, such as fear,
depression,badluck,hopeless,andgloomy:
25) Da.ensortdag,It.unagiornatanera(lit.‘ablackday’,met.off-day,badday)
26) Da.atsesortpåtingene(lit.‘toseeblackonthethings’,met.‘tolookonthedarkside
ofthings’),It.vederetuttonero(lit.toseeeverythingblack’,met.‘tobeapessimist’)
27) blackhumour,Da.sorthumor,It.humornero
28) blackmood,dasorthumør,It.nero
29) blackdog–depression
30) blackandblue–battered;Da.guloggrøn(‘yellowandgreen’)
31) Da.densortebog(lit.‘theblackbook’,i.e.a(black)notebookwhereanauthoritarian
person(suchasateacher)registershissubordinates’(hispupils’)errors)
70 The‘hope’value,whichisattributedtothegreencolourinItalian,canberelatedtothe
DanishandItalianusesofDanishveddetgrønnebord(lit. ‘atthegreentable’;met.. ‘inthe examination room’; https://www.youtube.com/user/veddetgronnebord; standDecember 2015), while Italian al tavolo verde ‘(lit. ‘at the green table’; see § 2.2.1),respectively.
141
32) Da.densorteskole (lit. ‘theblackschool’, i.e.anold-fashioned,reactionaryteaching
systembuildingonrotelearningandteachers’authority)
33) Da.sortsnak(lit.‘blacktalk’,i.e.nonsense)
34) Da.atsnakkesort(lit.‘totalkblack’,met.‘totalknonsense’)
35) It.cronacanera(lit.‘blacknews’,i.e.crimenews,crimepages)
With regard to blue (see note 10), the two Russian corresponding terms,
namely sinij and goluboj, show distinct emotional connotations and interesting
diachronicchanges,asreportedbyParamei(2005:14):
In semantics of sinij, realizationof extremedegreesofhue intensity (bright,
saturatedversusdim)isconceivedtocallforpositiveaswellasnegativeemotional
associations (Alimpieva, 1983).By comparison,goluboj conveyspositive emotional
expressive features and is commonly associated with tender, affectionate, soft
(Alimpieva, 1980, 1982b, 1983).Thenuanceofcloudlessandserenehasadheredto
goluboj under the influence of German and French 19th-century romanticism. It
thence has transferred to its abstract (poetic) connotations implying cloudless
insouciance,unrealisticallysanguine(Wade, 1985),oratthebeginningofthe20th
century,theunearthlyorinnocent(Grebenšcikova,2002).
4.Conclusion
Asexpectedinanintegrativeperspective,ontheonehand,metaphoricaluses
ofcolourtermssharecommontendencies(whicharebasedonembodiedfeatures
or conventionally established ones), and show significant variations, on the other
hand.
Furthermore, colour terms in context assume a multiplicity of metaphoric
meanings,byshowingbothinter-andintralinguisticvariations,whichcharacterize
also thepositiveornegativevaluesassociated to themetaphoricaluseofacolour
word.
The cognitive force, vagueness, and ambiguity of themetaphorical processes
combinewiththerichnessofthechromaticspectrumanditsmultifarioushues,to
142
represent the complexity and variety of emotion in their common and diverse
forms.
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ColourVerbsinEnglishandRomanianAdinaCameliaBleotu(UniversityofBucharest)
1.Aim
The aim of this paper is to take a comparative look at verbs derived fromcolour names in two languages: English (a Germanic language) and Romanian (aRomance language), pointing out the differences between them. In addition, thepaper provides a syntactic representation of colour verbs in the spanningframework, a refined Distributed Morphology framework which assumes that aword is a span, i.e. a sequence of complement heads in an extended projection(Svenonius2012,2014),alongwithBrody’sideathattherearenointermediaryheads(noX-bar).Thismakestheanalysisbotheconomicalandelegant.Iwilltrytoshowthat the spanning framework manages to account quite well, even better thanincorporation(Hale&Keyser2002),forthedifferencesbetweencolourverbsinthetwo languages, for instance, the difference between the English verb to blacken,where–enisasuffix,beingpositionedattheendoftheword,andtheRomanianaînnegri(lit.toin-black-verbalsuffix),wherethereisaprefixîn-precedingthecolourname.
2.RemarksonColourVerbs
Colour verbs have not received much focused attention in the generativegrammar literature. They have been listed under the label deadjectival verbs andchangeofstateverbs(Hale&Keyser2002),andtreatedaccordingly;however,noGGstudyhasexplicitydealtwiththeminanextensiveandspecificway.
Infact,eventhelabelsthattheyhavebeenputunderareproblematic.Firstofall,itisnotthatclearthatcolourverbsarederivedfromadjectives.Isaverbsuchastoyellowderivedfromanadjectiveorfromanoun:thenounyellow71,orthesilentnounCOLOURfollowedbytheadjectiveyellow, inasilentitemtheoryàlaKayne(Kayne 2003)?Moreover, if one looksmore in depth, one realizes that even thisquestion starts from the assumption that colour verbs should be derived from
71 In a sentence such as I like yellow, yellowmay be taken to be a noun, so onemight
assumetheverbyellow isderivedfromthenounyellowratherthanfromtheadjective.Moreover, ifconsideredanoun,yellowcouldevenbearguedtohavethethematicroleGoalorEndpointinasentencesuchasThewallturnedyellow.
146
categories (noun, adjective). However, there is an alternative to that, namely,arguingthattheyarederivedfromroots(Levinson2007),which,intheirturn,canbecategorialornaked,bearingno informationwhatsoever. Suchmatters areveryhardtoestablishinthecaseofEnglish,wheretheverbandthenoun/theadjective(andtheroot)sooftenhave thesame form,as in thecaseof theverb toblue, forinstance72. Romanian differs from English in that denominal/deadjectival verbspresentaverbalsuffixattheend,indicatingtheverbalconjugation,asonecannoteforaalbăstri(lit.toblue-verbalsuffix).AverbalsuffixmaybearguedtobepresentinEnglishaswell,althoughintheformofanullmorpheme.Whilethepresenceoftheverbalsuffixcreatesacleardifferencebetweenverbsandnouns/adjectives,itisstilldifficult toestablishwhethertheverbcomesfromtheN/A,andtheN/Amaycomefromaroot,orwhetherboththeverbandtheN/Acomefromthesameroot.Onemightverywellarguethatalbăstri(V)comesfromalbastru(N/A),andthelastvowelwaselided,orthatalbăstriandalbastruhavethecommonrootalbastr-.
Asforthechangeofstatelabel,itisagaindebatablewhetheritcancapturethecomplex behaviour of colour verbs. Essentially, colour verbs have twomeanings,both telic: (a) tobecome/ to turna certaincolour (an inchoativemeaning) (b) tomakesmthbecomeacertaincolour(acausativemeaning).Toblue,forinstance,canmeaneither(1a)toturnblue,or(1b)tomakesmthblue.
(1) a.Theskybluedasthesunrose. b.Shewantstoblueherhair.
Similarly,bothmeaningscanbeexpressednotonlybyaverbwhose form is
identicaltotheadjective/nounitderivesfrom,butbyasuffixedverbliketowhiten(2).(2) a.Herhairwhitenedwiththepassingoftime. b.Thetoothpastewhitensyourteeth.
Syntactically, these two meanings correlate with two different syntactic
configurations: an intransitive configuration (unaccusative) and a transitiveconfiguration. In Romanian, the firstmeaning can be expressed bymeans of theverb(3a)orbymeansoftheverbandareflexivepronoun/clitic(3b).(3) a.FataaroşitlavederealuiIon. Girl-thehasreddened/blushedatsightofJohn. ThegirlblushedatseeingJohn.’ b.Fatas-aînroşitlavederealuiIon. Girl-thereflexive3rdsg-hasin-red-PastPartatsight-ArtFem,sgofJohn. ThegirlreddenedatseeingJohn.’
72 However, this is not so in the case of to blacken, towhiten, to redden,where the verb
makesuseofthesuffix–en.
147
From an aspectual point of view, verbs denoting colour processes are telic.However,thechangeofstatetheyexpressisoftengradual.Theydisplaybothtelicandatelicproperties,combiningwithfor-phrasesandin-phrasesalike(4).
(4) a.Ireddenedthewallin5minutes. b.Ireddenedthewallforanhour.
Forthisreason,ratherthanarguingthatcolourverbsarechangeofstateverbs,onemightassumetheyaredegreeachievements(Dowty1979,Hay,Kennedy&Levin1999).
3.ColourVerbsinEnglishversusColourVerbsinRomanian
English makes use of three types of verbs/ verbal constructions to denote
processesrelatedtocolour:(i)verbswhoseformisidenticaltothatoftheadjective/nountheyarederivedfrom(suchastoblue,togray,toyellow,tobrown,togreen),(ii)verbscreatedwiththesuffix–en(suchastowhiten,toblacken,toredden),(iii)verbal paraphrases (such as to turn pink/ orange, or to make something pink/orange).MostEnglishcolourverbshavethesameformasthenoun/adjectivetheyderivefrom,whichisinlinewiththegeneralobservationthatEnglishtendstouseidenticaldenominal/deadjectivalverbs(Hale&Keyser2002).
InRomanian, this is not the case; one cannote that the verb and theN/Aneverhaveidenticalforms,asthereisalwaysaverbalsuffixattheendoftheword,indicating the verbaldeclension (i)aalbi lit. ‘towhite-verbal suffix’, a (se) roşi tored-verbalsuffix’,agălbeni toyellow-verbalsuffix’,aalbăstri toblue-verbalsuffix’.One alsouses (ii) verbal paraphrases such asa face ca ceva să fie roz/ gri/maro/portocaliu ‘tocausethatsomethingshouldbepink/gray/brown/orange’,and(iii)verbscreatedwiththeprefixîn-(aîn-ălb-i‘toprefix-white-verbalsuffix’-towhiten,aîn-negr-i ‘to prefix-black-verbal suffix’- to blacken, a în-roş-i ‘to prefix-red-verbalsuffix’- to redden,a în-gălben-i ‘toprefix-yellow-verbal suffix’,a în-verz-i ‘toprefix-green-verbalsuffix’)(5b,6b).
(5) (a)
Colour Verb(s)inEnglish(http://www.oxforddictionaries.com)
white to whiten - to become white or whiter: Shegrippedthe handle untilherknuckleswhitened.-tomakesmthwhiteorwhiter:Snowwhitenedthemountaintops.
grey togrey-(ofhair)tobecomegrey:Herhairgreyed.
pink topink-(ofacarengine)tomakeknockingsoundsbecausethefuelisnotburningcorrectly(itdoesnotcomefromthecolourpink)
red toredden-tobecomered:Theskyisreddening.-tomakesmthred:barearmsreddenedbysunandwind-toblush:Lynreddenedatthedescriptionofherself.
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- (of the eyes) become pink as the rims as a result of crying: Thereddenedeyesfilledafresh.
brown tobrown-tobecomebrown:Grillthepizzauntilthecheesehasbrowned.-tomakesmthbrown:askilletinwhichfoodhasbeenbrowned.
orange missing yellow toyellow-tobecomeyellow,especiallywithage:Thecreampaintwasbeginning
toyellow.
green
togreen-tobecomegreen:Theroofwasgreeningwithlichen.-tomake(anurbanordesertarea)moreverdantbyplantingtreesorothervegetation:Theywillcontinuegreeningthemanytreelessanddustysuburbs.-tomakelessharmfultotheenvironment:tipsonhowtogreenyourhome
blue toblue-toturnblue:Thedaywouldhaze,theairbluingwithafternoon.-tomakesmthblue:Thelightdims,bluingtheretina.- to heat metal so as to give it a greyish-blue finish (asadjectiveblued):nickel-platedorbluedhooks-historicalwash (white clothes) with bluing: Theyblued the shirtsandstarchedtheuniforms.
black toblacken-toturnblack,especiallyasaresultofburning,decay,orbruising:Stoneblackenedbythesootofages.-tomakesmthblack:Hesetlighttothepaper,watchingtheendblackenasitburned.-todyeorcolour(thefaceorhair)blackforcamouflageorcosmeticeffect:Parasinfullcombatgearwithblackenedfaces.-todamageordestroy(someone’sreputation)byspeakingbadlyofthem:Shewon’tthankyouforblackeningherhusband’sname.
violet missing
(b)verbsidenticaltonouns -enverbs
verbalexpressions/constructionsrequired
togrey,tobrown,toyellow,togreen,toblue
towhiten,toredden,toblacken
tomakesmthpink/orange/violet
(6) (a)
Colour Verb(s)inRomanian(http://dexonline.ro)
alb(white) aalbi‘towhite-suffix’–(refl,intrans)tobecomewhite-(trans)tomakesmthwhite(ofhair)-toturnwhiteaînălbi‘toprefix-white-suffix’-thesameas‘aalbi’
gri(grey) missing
roz(pink) missing
roşu(red) a(se)roşi‘to(reflexiveclitic3rdp)red-suffix’-(intrans,reflexive)tobecomered-(trans)tomakesmthreda(se)înroşi‘to(reflexiveclitic3rdp)prefix-red-suffix’
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-(refl)tobecomered-(transs)tomakesmthred;topaintsmth(eggs)
maro(brown)
missing
oranj(orange)
missing
galben(yellow)
a(se)îngălbeni‘to(reflexiveclitic3rdp)prefix-yellow-suffix’-tobecomeyellow-tomakesmthyellowagălbeni‘to(reflexiveclitic3rdp)yellow-suffix’-tobecomeyellow-tomakesmthyellow
verde(green)
aînverzi‘togreen-suffix’-(trans)topaintgreen,tostainwithgreen-(intrans,reflexive)tobecomegreen-(intrans)toturngreen,tosprout
albastru(blue)
aalbăstri‘toblue-suffix’-sameasaînălbăstri,alsotorinseclothesaînălbăstri‘toprefix-blue-suffix’-(intrans,reflexive)toturnblue;(aboutpeople)toturnblueoutofanger-(trans)tomakesmthblue
negru(black)
aînnegri‘toprefix-black-suffix’-toturnblack-tomakesmthblack
violet(violet)
missing
(b)verbsderivedfromnouns+theverbalsuffixfortheconjugation
În-verbs
verbalexpressions/constructionsrequired
aalbi,a(se)roşi,agălbeni,aalbăstri
aînălbi,aînroşi,aîngălbeni,aînverzi,aînălbăstri,aînnegri
afacecacevasăfieoranj/roz/violet(‘tocausethatsmthconjBEorange/pink/violet’)
Apart from the inchoativemeaning and the causativemeaning, some colour
verbs have acquired specialized meanings such as the verb to green (which mayrefertocreatingparksandotherareaswithtreesandplantsinacityortomakingsomebodymoreawareofissuesrelatedtotheenvironment)ortheverbtoblue,aswellasthecorrespondingRomanianverbaalbăstri,forinstance(whichmayrefertorinsingclothes)(ascanbeseenin(5a),(6a)).Also,someRomanianverbshavebothaprefixedvariantandanon-prefixedone(aînălbi,aalbi;aalbăstri,aînălbăstri;agălbeni,aîngălbeni;aroşi,aînroşi).Outofthese,onlytheverbsinthepairaroşi,aînroşi differ: the first verb a roşi can be used intransitively with the meaning toblush’,whilethesecondverbcannot.
By looking at the tables in (5) and (6), one can note that the suffix –en inEnglish is usedwith fundamental colours (red,white, black),while, for the othercolours, no suffix is used. A possible explanation for this could be related to theconclusion reached by Berlin & Kay (1969, 1973) on the basis of a study with
150
speakers of twenty different languages that there are eleven fundamental colours(white,black, red,green,yellow,blue,brown,purple,pink,orange,andgray)andthere is a hierarchy of colour words. According to this hierarchy, all languagescontain terms forblackandwhite,and ifa languagecontains three terms, then itcontains a term for red73. Another explanation could be related to how old thewords are in thehistoryof language-white, black, redentered the languagequiteearlyinthe13thcentury,earlierthangreeninthe15thcenturyoryelloworpinkinthe16thcentury,orblueinthe17thcentury,accordingtoTheConciseOxfordDictionaryofEnglishEtymology(1991).
Incontrast,Romanianusestheprefixîn-inalmostallcases(althoughitallowsthe unprefixed variant aswell e.g.a roşi ‘to blush’). Just like English, it also usesparaphrases with more recent words denoting colours (roz ‘pink’, maro ‘brown’,portocaliu‘orange’).
4.TheIncorporationAnalysis
The traditional analysis of denominal and deadjectival verbs is theincorporationanalysisofHale&Keyser (2002),assumingthat thenoun/adjectiveincorporates into the verb.A verb such as redden is considered a change of stateverbderivedfromanadjectivalroot(7).
(7) Englishinchoativeredden(asinTheskyreddened)(Hale&Keyser2002:48)
V
2 DPV 5 2 thesky VAen-red
The causative is derived from the inchoative by combination with aphonologicallynull causativizing functionalhead intowhich the verbmoves afterpickinguptheinchoativemorphemeen-.
73 Inaddition,BerlinandKay(1969)furtherestablishthat,ifalanguagecontainsfourterms,thenit
containsatermforeithergreenoryellow(butnotboth);ifalanguagecontainsfiveterms,thenitcontainstermsforbothgreenandyellow;ifalanguagecontainssixterms,thenitcontainsatermfor blue; if a language contains seven terms, then it contains a term for brown; if a languagecontainseightormoreterms,thenitcontainstermsforpurple,pink,orange,and/orgray.
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(8) English causative redden (as inThe sunset reddened the sky) (Hale&Keyser2002:48)
v
2 vV
redden 2 DPV 5 2 thesky VA
While there may be differences in morphology across languages, the
derivationalrelationsstaythesame(Koontz-Garboden2014).IncontrasttoEnglish,forinstance,wheretheinchoativizingfunctionalhead(en-)isconsideredovert,andthecausativizingheadisnull,thereverseisassumedforNavajo:theinchoativizingfunctional head is assumed to be null, while the causativizing functional head isassumedtobeovert.
In order to capture the difference between English redden and Romanian aînroşi,onehastostipulatethat–enisasuffixandîn-isaprefix(9,10).
(9) V
2 DPV 5 2 cerul VAîn-roşu74
(10) v
2 vV
înroşi 2 DPV 5 2 cerul VA
Ifsuchinformationisnotretainedinthelexicon,thenonedoesnotget theappropriate affix-root ordering. The adjective will move into the verb andincorporate,combiningwiththeaffixinaccordancewithitsprefix/suffixstatus. 74 Whilethereisnoverbaînroşiwithaninchoativemeaning,thereisaverbaroşiwithan
inchoativemeaning.Also, there is a verba îngălbeni (lit. to in-yellow-verbal suffix’, toyellow), aswell as a verba înverzi (lit. to in-green-verbal suffix’ , to green) ora înălbi(lit. to in-white-verbal suffix’, to whiten), hence, it is not the case that there are noprefixedcolourverbswithaninchoativemeaninginRomanian.
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5.ASpanningAccountofColourVerbs
Inwhatfollows,Iprovideadifferentaccountofcolourverbsinthespanningframework,whicheliminatesmovementandgeneratesthecolourwordsbymeansof spelling out a sequence of complement heads. Adopting such a frameworkmanagestoaccountforthedatainamuchmoreeconomicalandelegantwaythanincorporation,asnomovementisrequired,andnoprefix/suffixinformationneedstoberetainedinthelexicon.
5.1.AGeneralPresentationofSpanningasaFramework
Spanning isaversionofDistributedMorphologywhereSpell-Outrecognizesspans rather than terminal nodes likeDMdoes or phrasal nodes like nanosyntaxdoes. Following Svenonius (2012), I will assume a span can be defined as acomplementsequenceofheadsinasingleextendedprojection,whereanextendedprojection(Grimshaw2005)ismadeofa lexicalheadanditsassociatedfunctionalprojections(DforN,TforV).
If, for instance, one takes a PP which contains a noun phrase DP1 with aprenominalpossessorDP2: (11) PP
2 PDP1 2 DP2D1 2 D1NumP 2 NumNPthespansinthemainprojectionlinewouldbe:(12) P-D1,P-D1-Num,P-D1-Num-N,D1-Num,D1-Num-N,Num-N
Thisbecomesvery clear if oneadopts the telescopeperspective assumed in
Brody’s(2000)mirrortheoryrepresentation,consideringphraselabelsredundant:
(13) PD1 2 D2NumN
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Amorpheme can spell out one head (which is a trivial span), two heads oreven more, on condition that the heads be in a complement relation with eachother. Head-movement thus becomes a matter of where in a span the wordlinearizes (Brody 2000), and there is a direct linearizationmechanism in Brody’sMirrorTheory(2000)throughwhichwordorderisreaddirectlyoffthestructure:(14) Word Mirror: The syntactic relation ‘X complement of Y’ is identical to an
inverse-ordermorphological relation ‘XspecifierofY’ (where the lattergivesrisetothemorphologicalstrucure[X[Y]linearizedfromlefttoright)
There are no intermediate projections, and unnecessary labels should be
eliminated. Given that it is always the head of a projection that selects anotherprojection, itseemslegitimatetoarguethatheadsselectheads,hence,there isnoneedtoresorttoredundantlabellingX/XPifonecanmakeuseofonelabelonly,X(Telescope).Inthisway,bymeansofTelescope,astructuresuchas(15):
(15) [ZPQZ[YPRY[XPSX...]]]
becomes
(16) Z2
QY 2 RXS
whereQ,R,SarethespecifiersofZ,Y,Xrespectively.Specifiersarelinearizedtotheleftoftheirheads,whileheadsarelinearizedtotheleftoftheircomplements.TheBrodyanapproachisadirectlinearizationtheory(DLT)wherelinearizationisread off the structure75. It is thus highly innovative as it allows one to state alanguage specificparameter concerningwhereamorphemespellsout rather thanresort to syntacticmovement.The location is indicatedbyBrodybymeansof [email protected],intheexamplein(17):
75 As shown by Ramchand (2014), this has a serious advantage over the Linear
Correspondence Axiom (LCA) tradition (Kayne 1994 a.o). In the antisymmetricalapproach,itisassumedthatasymmetricc-commandsmeansprecedence.Theproblemisthat, ina languagewhich lookshead-finalon thesurface,oneneeds to firstcreate theappropriatec-commandstructuresbeforelettingtheLCAlinearizeit,andthisisdonebyresorting to variousmovement operations,many of which are unmotivated. Hence, adesirable alternative to word order movements would be DLA (direct linearizationalgorithm).
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(17) Z2
QY 2 RX@Sthediacritic@indicatesthatthemorphologicalword[X[Y[Z]]]spellsoutintheXposition of the tree, and the linearization would beQ R S [X-Y-Z]. In addition,Ramchand makes use of a * diacritic to indicate certain language specific factsrelated to linearization, inparticular, the fact that thehead thusnotated forms aword in the Brody-an sense with the head immediately below it. In Bangla, forinstance,onewouldhavesomethinglike(18).(18) Neg*
2 PFin@ 2 QT* 2
RAsp*2 SV@Linearizedas:PQ[Fin-Neg]RS[V-Asp-T]
Intheexampleabove,FinformsamirrortheoreticwordwithNeg,AspformsamirrortheoreticwordwithT,andVformsamirrortheoreticwordwithAsp.Theseare language specific factsaboutmorphological composition,and theyneed tobelearnedassuch.
5.2.SpanningAppliedtoColourVerbs
Iproposethatspanningcanaccountfordenominalanddeadjectivalverbsaswell: a single item (‘dance’, ‘shelve’, ‘hammer’) spells out a span, a complementsequence involving N, V and v (<N, V, v>) in the simplest case. Starting fromRamchand’sanalysisofverbs(2008), inthecaseofthedenominalverbdance,onecanconstructthefollowingrepresentation:
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(19) Init@*2 ‘x’Proc*2 ‘x’NdanceLinearizedasx[NProcInit]
AtL-Match(LexicalMatch)76,thisstructurewillgiverisetotheitem<dance-Ø-Ø>. For a verb like corral, an <init, Proc, Goal, Place, N> (using Pantcheva’sanalysisofprepositions(2011)),onecanassumethatthestructureislinearizedasx[Proc-Init–Place-Goal–N]y.
Iarguethatthespanningframeworkcanaccountforcolourverbsaswell.Asitdoesnotresort tohead-movement, it ismoreeconomical than incorporationand,hence,preferable.Averbliketobluereceivesthefollowingrepresentations:
(20) (a)inchoative
Proc*@ 2 ‘x’AblueLinearizedasx[AProc](b)causative Init*@ 2 ‘x’Proc*77 2 ‘y’AblueLinearizedasx[AProcInit]y
AccordingtoHale&Keyser(2002),-enisalwaysinchoative,andthecausativemeaningisaresultofcombiningwithav(cause).Suchaperspectiveassumesthattherewould be a single lexical entry for the suffix –en in English. Thiswould, of
76 LexicalMatch is the first stepof SpellOut in spanning, involving syntactic categories;
thesecondisInsertanditinvolvesphonologicalinformation. 77 Onecouldverywellplacethe@diacriticattheInitlevel.Theresultwouldbethesame.
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course,beanoption(20a,b).Analternativetothiswouldbetoassumethat–enhasaninchoativemeaninginaninchoativesentenceandacausativeoneinacausativemeaninginacausativesentence,whichwouldleadtohavingtwolexicalentriesfor-en:
(21) (a)inchoative
Proc*@-en
2 ‘x’AredLinearizedasx[AProc] (b)causative(i)Init* 2 ‘x’Proc@*-en 2 ‘y’AredLinearizedasx[AProcInit]y(ii)Init@*-en 2 ‘x’Proc* 2 ‘y’AredLinearizedasx[AProcInit]y
English represents a particular case among languages as there is no verbalendingsuffix in thebare infinitive.This isnot thecase inRomanian,whereverbspresentasuffixindicatingtheverbaldeclension(-a,-ea,-e,i/î).Thequestionwouldbewheretoplacethissuffix,whetheritshouldbeplacedunderProcorunderInit.Givenitslackofmeaning,placingitunderProcwouldbeabitmisleadingperhapsand projecting a VAff immediately above A might be a better option78. Theinchoativearoşi(lit.tored-verbalsuffix’)wouldreceivethisrepresentation:
78 Suchaprojectioncanbe represented forEnglishaswell,with theonlydifference that
theaffixisanullmorpheme.
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(22) Proc@*2
‘x’ VAff*-i 2 ‘x’AroşuLinearizedasx[AVAffProc]
A verb such as a îngălbeni (lit. to en-yellow-verbal suffix’) would berepresentedas:(23) (a)inchoative
Proc@*în-2
‘x’ VAff*-i 2 ‘x’A@galben yellow’Linearizedasx[[Proc][AVaff]]
(b)causative(i)Init* 2 ‘x’Proc@*în- 2 ‘y’VAff*-i 2 ‘y’A@galbenyellow’Linearizedasx[[ProcInit][AVaff]]y (ii)Init@*în- 2 ‘x’Proc* 2 ‘y’VAff*-i 2‘y’A@galbenyellow’Linearizedasx[[ProcInit][AVaff]]y
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JustasinEnglish,onecaneitherconsiderîn-asaninchoativemarkerbothintheinchoativestructureandinthecausativeone,oronecanoptfortwodifferentlexicalentries.Anothervariantofanalysiswouldbetoascribe-enaspatialmeaning.A reason for this is the fact that there are verbs which do not need this affix toexpressinchoativemeaningorcausativemeaningforthatmatter(liketoblueortogreen). Another reason would be the similarity between the affix en and theprepositionin(inRomaniantheaffixhasanidenticalformtotheprepositionîn).Inthisway,onewouldtreattheverbtoreddenasaspecialcaseofchangeoflocation/state(toreddenas topassintoastateofred’or tocausesmthtopassintoastateofred’(insuchananalysis,thecolournameistreatedasanoun):
(24)Init* 2 ‘x’Proc* 2 ‘y’Goal@*en 2 ‘y’Place* 2 ‘y’N red Linearizedasx[[N-Place-Goal][Init-Proc]]y
AsimilaranalysiscanbeprovidedforRomanian(@wouldalsoappearnexttotheNtogetthe[GoalPlaceN]ordering):(25)Init* 2 ‘x’Proc* 2 ‘y’Vaff*-i2 ‘y’ Goal@*în- 2 ‘y’Place* 2 ‘y’N@ roşu Linearizedasx[[Goal-Place]-[N]-Vaff-Init-Proc]]y
Such a representationwould be verymuch in linewith theories of localismwhich consider that spatialmovement operatesnot only in the field of (physical)
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location,butalsoinamoremetaphoricalway(Gruber1965),changeofstateverbsbeinginasensechangeoflocationverbs.
Conclusion
In conclusion, in the spanning account, the lexicon does not need to storewhethertheaffix isaprefixorasuffix.Spanningsimplyderivestherightorderofthemorphemesbylinearizingthestructureaccordingtoadirectlinearization(DL)mechanism.Bygivingupheadmovement,onecanveryelegantly account for theorderingofmorphemesincolourverbs.EnglishandRomanianprovideinterestingexampleswhere the affix-rootordering is theotherway round, and spanning cancapturethiscontrast inasensibleway.As fortheexactreasonwhycertaincolourverbshaveaffixesandothersdonot,Ibelievethiscanbeexplainedbyatheoryofcolour hierarchy (Berlin & Kay (1969, 1973), arguing that certain colours/ colournames aremore fundamental than others, and/ or by the history of language(s),registering older and newer colour terms. It seems to be that, in the case of theaffixed colour verbs, the affixes have combined with the names of morefundamentalcolours,whichalsoenteredthelanguagesearlier.References
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