Platʼe tsveta moloko (A milk-coloured dress): on one stable grammatical variation type

Abstract

The article considers reasons and conditions for the spread of a new syntactic colour designation pattern, i. e. an attributive phrase with a colour identifier and a noun in the nominative case (X tsveta moloko / milk-coloured X, X tsveta baklazhan / aubergine-coloured X). The new model (X tsveta moloka / milk-coloured X, X tsveta baklazhana / aubergine-coloured X), which is inconsistent with Russian grammar, coexists in modern speech with the normative pattern. The study aims to determine the route of dynamic changes in this language area subject to variation. Using contexts extracted from the Russian National Corpus (the main and newspaper sub-corpora), the research identifies all grammatical variants of compound colour names and their qualitative and quantitative correlation. As a result, the body of colour terms having no codified variant is established. At the next stage, the research employed the "Media Archive" service (since 1996) of the electronic media bank "Integrum" as a source. Based on its materials and using a hypothetically specified search, the study has specified the composition of grammatically varying composite colour terms, as well as the composition of colouronyms that have no variants (tsveta diplomat / diplomat-coloured, tsveta kardinal / cardinal-coloured, and so on). The reasons for actualising the new analytical colour designation pattern include the novelty factor (tsveta cosmos / space-coloured, tsveta "beeline" / "beeline"-coloured) which is supported in writing by quotation marks and/or in the case of borrowings by writing in the original script. Other factors are the influence of a similar analytical pattern with an unchangeable adjective (tsveta electric / electric blue), regular use of a nomenclatural name (in advertising texts, in merchandise catalogues, and the like), and the tendency towards analyticity. The results of the research can be used in the practice of teaching Russian at school when studying the styles of the Russian literary language and their differences. In addition, they are relevant to lexicography when compiling specialised linguistic dictionaries, especially those that codify new colour terms in the Russian language.