COLOR CONCEPTUALIZATION OF THE PLANT WORLD: ON THE COLOR OF BIRD CHERRY IN THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE PICTURE OF THE WORLD (A POLYDISCOURSIVE STUDY)

Abstract

The article presents the results of a comprehensive study into the specific features of the color perception of bird cherry in the linguistic consciousness of Russian speakers. The stated goal – the reconstruction of a segment of the color conceptosphere of the Russian language’s floral space – was achieved in the following way: 1) the set of color terms actualized in the color descriptions of the plant has been established (26 units); 2) the dominant colors, which display variability in texts of different discourses, have been determined; 3) unique color descriptions of the bird cherry, reflecting the individual color worldview of a native speaker, have been identified; 4) the methods for specifying the color impression – the means for the fine differentiation of a color shade – have been established; 5) the understanding of the ways of conveying color meaning has been expanded, including through meta-lexemes, lexemes with the meaning of color intensity, color non-uniformity, implicit color, and lexemes with the meanings ‘to be in bloom’, ‘light’, and ‘darkness’; 6) the collocability of the actualized color terms has been described, demonstrating the spheres of denotation for bird cherry color descriptions: from nature to the “material world”; 7) the functionality of the plant’s descriptions has been identified, which is realized primarily in the ontological function, the specific function, the illustrative-expressive function, the prototypical function, and the function of creating a color chronotope. The obtained results are significant for creating a comprehensive color description of the bird cherry; they are of both theoretical and applied significance.