CC BY
116
DOI: 10.12731/2218-7405-2013-7-7
RUSSIAN AND ENGLISH COLOUR-SOUND METAPHORS (A CORPUS-BASED RESEARCH)
Bardovskaya A.I.
The importance of research of synaesthesia and synaesthetic metaphor is discussed, the possibilities which corpus-based approach to studying synaesthetic metaphor offers is shown, the results of cross-linguistic comparison of colour-sound metaphors from the Russian National Corpus and British National Corpus are reported.
Keywords: synaesthetic metaphor, synaesthesia, corpus, Russian National Corpus, British National Corpus, the Russian language, the English language, color-sound associations, color terms, text, contexts, synaesthemia, linguocultural specificity, universals.
ЦВЕТО-ЗВУКОВЫЕ МЕТАФОРЫ РУССКОГО И АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКОВ (КОРПУСНОЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЕ)
Бардовская А.И.
Рассматривается вопрос актуальности проблемы синестезии и синестети-ческой метафоры на текущем этапе развития гуманитарного знания, обосновывается плодотворность корпусного подхода к изучению синестетической метафоры, предлагаются результаты сопоставления цвето-звуковых метафор русского и английского языков, собранных из Национального корпуса русского языка и British National Corpus.
Ключевые слова: синестетическая метафора, синестезия, корпус, Национальный корпус русского языка, British National Corpus, русский язык, англий-
ский язык, языковое сознание, цвето-звуковые ассоциации, цветономинации, текст, контексты, интерпретация, лингвокультурная специфика, универсалии.
Introduction
A. R. Luria's book «The Mind of a Mnemonist» [6] has been arousing unfading interest of specialists working in various fields of knowledge for half a century already. This book represents a description of the psychologist's observation of his patient Shereshevsky, who got his name in the history of science as «Shereshevsky phenomenon». But it was not some kind of disease that brought the man into the focus of Luria's attention. The point was that Shereshevsky belonged to a special group of people capable to experience a wonderful psychical phenomenon - synaesthesia (Greek, syn - «together», aesthesis - «perception»), which, according to S. L. Rubinstein's definition, is «a special kind of fusion between different sense modalities, in which one sense modality is transferred to another, for example, vision to hearing in coloured hearing» [9, p. 192] (here and elsewhere translated by me - A. B.). Shereshevsky's reports about his sensations, which we find in the book, sound really amazing for the majority of us. For example, he could hear coloured voices and different objects (like fences etc.) and feel their taste, each number in his perception was not only coloured but had a special shape, words tasted and weighed, when hearing some of them, he could feel correspondence between their meaning and sounding, when hearing others - he didn't etc. Basing on observations made while working with Shereshevsky A. R. Luria came to the conclusion that synaesthesia influenced not only his patient's perception, but also his thinking and was an important component of his memory.
Modern neuroscience, leading today in the sphere of studying synaesthesia and developing Luria's line in treating this phenomenon, claims synaesthetic experience to be common. For example, according to R. Cytowic, whose definition of synaesthesia as «the involuntary physical experience of a cross-modal association» [15] is considered classical in the West, on the surface of conscience we are «separately feeling»
beings, but in the subconsciousness, in the inner space of emotions and uncontrolled feelings, ruled by the most ancient part of the cortex - limbic system, we are all synaesthets [Ibid.]. Following this line of reasoning, explanation of many psychical phenomena and, finally, the way our mind works, is impossible without taking into consideration the mechanisms of synaesthesia. What is more, we can suppose, that synaesthesia, being connected with emotions and emerging on the boarder of the somatic and psychical (the separation of which, according to the modern conception of the human, is nothing more than convention [4]), serves as an important factor, facilitating our being single, feeling and thinking, organisms.
It should be stressed that such a treatment of intermodality can be found in works of many Russian psychologists. For example, F. E. Vasiliuk [3] underlines the importance of the mechanisms of synaesthesia in the structure of the image. Developing A. N. Leontiev's conception, according to which the image is always «a knot of sense modalities», conditioned by their «combining» [5], Vasiliuk writes about the «sensuous tissue», «the living plasma» as the essential constituent of any image. A special attention should be paid to P. V. Yanshin's statement, according to which synaesthesia is «not only the universal operator of the conversion of sense modalities, but also "a mould" of the most general system relations in the objective world in the form, in which they reveal themselves to the biological human being» [11, p. 156].
It is traditional for the Russian psychology to treat such phrases as a bright sound, a velvety smile, a sour smell, fixing synaesthesia in the language and functioning in abundance in different languages of the world, as another evidence of the fact that synaesthesia is a common and normal phenomenon. For example, it is reflected in A. R. Luria's definition, according to which synaesthesia is a «co-perception», emerging as an intermodal fusion in the brain to which «the language reacts by specific word-combinations» [7, p. 134].
Linguistics treats such language phenomena as a sort of metaphor, synaesthetic metaphor. It enters the linguistic discourse more than a century ago, just when the problem of synaesthesia becomes a separate object of scientific research (see about it
[1]). It is interesting to find the ideas, very close to the modern ones, in the speculations concerning the nature of synaesthetic metaphor of the great scholars of the past. For example, writing about the way we convey our perception in speech, A. A. Potebnya stated that the nature of perception itself contributes into it [Ibid.]. The hypothesis about interrelation of synaesthesia and metaphor suggested by B. L. Whorf, whose influence on the modern conception of the metaphor in general can't be understated, is very up-to-date too [Ibid.].
Yet the reference to synaesthetic metaphor in Linguistics becomes regular only after appearing of S. Ullmann's work [10], which has retained its authority so far. Basing on the analysis of the massive empirical data (i.e., synaesthetic word-combinations in English, French and Hungarian), the linguist suggested a hypothesis about the universal character of synaesthetic metaphor and found out that it follows the so-called principle of hierarchical distribution, according to which synaesthetic transfers go from the «lower» to the «higher» sense modes. So, in accordance with it, touch is the predominant source and sound and vision are the predominant destination of synaesthetic transfers (see picture 1). Tendencies marked by Ullmann are observed in different languages, and synaesthetic metaphors functioning in different genres and styles of speech follow them (see about it [1]), which proves the contribution of the discussed work not only into the linguistic theory, but the theory of synaesthesia in general.
С
touch
«lower» senses
«higher» senses
Pic. 1. The Hierarchical Distribution Principle According to S. Ullmann
Yet modern research of synaesthesia allows to define some of Ullmann's statements, still in use in Linguistics, more precisely. In particular, talking about met-
aphor, the linguist used the term «synaesthesia», which is wrong according to the data acquired by modern science, proving reality of synaesthetic experience. The subdivision of the two phenomena - synaesthesia and synaesthetic metaphor - is of paramount importance for the modern corporeal linguistic research. Synaesthetic metaphors are a typical feature of different languages, and they are built according to typical patterns, so it is evident that the fact of their appearance is connected with body experience and has psychophysiological reasons, rooting in the peculiarities of the structure of the brain (see about it, for example, our review [1]). On the other hand, synaesthetic metaphor, like any other metaphor, is mediated by semantic processes, it changes in time and is influenced by cultural factors [14; 15]. Cross-linguistic research illustrates this statement vividly [15]. The aim of our report is presentation of the results of our comparison of Russian and English synaesthetic metaphors, representing the most typical synaesthetic pattern - coloured sounds.
British National Corpus and Russian National Corpus as Sources of Information about the Synaesthetic Metaphor
Each linguist, starting research, faces the question of choosing the source of the language material. It is not an overstatement to say that in case of studying synaesthetic metaphor this question is of special importance. The status of this language phenomenon, regarded on the present stage of the development of humanities as a key to the mysteries of the mind, makes it possible to use it as an instrument in different studies aiming at various purposes. The task of the present stage of our work is observing peculiarities of synaesthetic metaphor functioning in modern English and Russian speech. For that purpose we are using the data of the linguistic computerized corpora - the main corpus of the Russian National Corpus (hereinafter - RNC) [8] and British National Corpus (hereinafter - BNC) [13], representing authoritative sources of information about modern Russian and English. The advantages of these corpora in synaesthetic metaphor research are evident: they are representative and give possibilities to use machine search and statistics.
It is beyond the scope of this article to cover all the peculiarities of the corpora used, but we consider it necessary to mark a number of their differences, which influenced the process of collecting material and, finally, the character of synaesthetic metaphors found. First of all, it should be noted, that time boarders of the texts in RNC are larger than those in BNC, which include texts created in the 80-s - 90-s of the last century. Thus for the purpose of comparison we limited the sample from RNC, customizing a subcorpus of texts, created in the last 20 years of the XXth century (the results of our observations of colour-sound metaphors from all the texts of the main corpus of RNC were reported in [2]). So, the list of metaphors analyzed included 76 Russian and 109 English ones. Are these figures big? Is it possible, basing on them, to say, that colour-sound metaphors are widely spread in modern Russian and English speech? This question is hard to answer, especially, if we speak about English: to make any conclusions we have, at least, to compare the collected data with the data of other periods of time. As for Russian, the data collected from RNC let us conclude, that the number of colour-sound metaphors in the texts belonging to the 1980s - 2000 is average. For example, in the texts of the new millennium we found 102 metaphors of such a model (this might be conditioned though by a bigger representativeness of these texts), and in the texts of the boarder of the XIX - XXth centuries 187 colour-sound metaphors were found.
Secondly, we have to pay attention to some differences in the character of the texts in the main corpus of RNC and in BNC. According to the statistics on RNC site [8], the majority of the texts (56%) of the main corpus are written non-fiction texts and 44% are written fiction texts. As for BNC, it is marked, that about 90% of its texts are written, belonging to different genres, and 10% of texts is orthographic transcriptions of unscripted informal conversations and spoken language collected in different contexts [13]. It is disputable whether the data collected can be useful for characterizing modern English and Russian stylistics in general, but our observations show that in BNC colour-sound metaphors are more typical for non-fiction texts (only 27 of them function in fiction texts), and in the main corpus of RNC, on the contra-
ry, we find the majority of them in fiction (only 14 of them function in non-fiction texts).
The general number of tokens in the main corpus of RNC is 209198275 [8], the number of words in BNC is close to 100 million [13]. Supplied with search systems, these corpora provide great opportunities for conclusions concerning the frequency of this or that language phenomenon and peculiarities of its functioning. On the other hand, such an amount of language is hard to handle for one researcher or even a group of them. Tagging the texts of the corpora are supplied with helps to solve this problem in part. Analyzing our experience of work with BNC and RNC, we can conclude, that semantic tagging in RNC makes it actually an autonomous source of information about synaesthetic metaphor [2]. As for BNC, it hasn't semantic tagging, but is supplied with parts-of-speech tagging, which is useful for searching synaesthetic metaphors, presenting word combinations (in our work it's combinations of adjective-colour terms and nouns naming sounds). Also it gives a possibility for searching synonyms and collocation function (in our research we were interested in the first noun coming after a colour term).
The process of working in RNC was described in [2], so we shall mention only the most important moments of it. Searching for colour-sound metaphors in RNC, we customized lexical and grammatical features of both words combining in a synaesthetic group, thus escaping the stage of building lexical-semantic field which normally precedes the search of synaesthetic metaphors, and only having to interpret the results of the search (the main problem here was homonymy, yet the majority of the offered contexts complied with the necessary parameters and contained colour-sound metaphors [Ibid.]). The analysis of the results of thus organized search provided us with a rather wide list of colour terms and names of sounds, constituting synaesthetic metaphors. It is necessary to note though that not all colour terms we acquired can be considered «proper colour terms». For example, among them we see words like светлый (light), темный (dark) which we would rather call adjectives, describing light perception. Yet for the purpose of a more precise coverage of colour-
sound metaphors' presentation in RNC, we included such word-combination in our list.
Working in BNC, we searched for metaphors by colour terms presented in word-combinations. So on the first stage we had to prepare a list of them, which was limited at first by the ones, considered, according to Berlin and Key [12], universal, i.e., black, white, blue, red, violet, yellow, brown, grey, pink, green, orange, and the words dark (included in our list for the purpose of comparison with the Russian material), colourful, coloured and colourless. Metaphors with the antonym of dark - light - were not included in the sample, because this adjective describes both vision and gravitation (as in light music, light voice), though, according to our data, its Russian analogue светлый belongs to the frequency terms functioning in the studied metaphors. Then the list of English metaphors was a bit broadened by means of including into it the ones with the synonyms of the above pointed colour terms (here the synonym search was used), but as we could see, very few synonyms of the universal colour terms appear in colour-sound metaphors. So searching in BNC demanded a bit bigger amount of effort from our part than that in RNC: we had to analyze each of the offered by BNC contexts (e.g., the general number of different word-combinations with the colour adjective white is 2885, but only 4 of them are colour-sound metaphors). It should be noted though that the convenient interface made the process of the analysis easier.
Passing on to the analysis of the collected data we would like to say that we don't claim to cover all the variety of metaphors of the studied model either in BNC or RNC, especially if we talk about new metaphors (it should be underlined that lexical group of colour terms is constantly growing). But we think that our sample provides an opportunity to observe the most general regularities of colour-sound metaphors in modern English and Russian, basing on which some suppositions about their functioning in the language conscience of English and Russian speakers can be made, and, generally, peculiarities of manifestations of synaesthesia in two different cultures can be observed.
The «Colour Palette» and Sounds in Russian and English Colour-Sound Metaphors
In [2] we made a supposition about some colour preferences in synaesthetic associations peculiar to native Russian language speakers, reflected in colour-sound metaphors. The cross-linguistic comparison lets us elaborate on it. First of all, the quantitative analysis shows that the frequency colour names presented in the analyzed Russian and English language material are very different. As for English, the leaders here are white (34), red (14) and dark (12). In the Russian sound-colour metaphors, functioning in the RNC texts, created in 1980 - 2000, the most frequent colour terms are бесцветный (24) (colourless), белый (10) (white) and голубой (8) (light blue).
As it is shown in the diagrams in pictures 2 and 3, the variety of frequency colour names in the Russian metaphors is a bit smaller (they are 7) in comparison with the English ones (they are 9).
40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0
1 - white; 2 - red; 3 - dark; 4 - silver; 5 - black; 6 - green; 7 - colourless; 8 - brown; 9 - silvery; 10 - other
34
17
14
12
-8-8-
5 5
33
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10
Pic. 2. Frequency colour names in English colour-sound metaphors (BNC data)
OA
20
10
В Б Е-
3 3
1 2 3 4 Е- 6 7 S
1- colorless; 2- white ; 3 - blue; 4- light; 5 - green; G - silver; 7 - dirk; В - other
Pic. 3. Frequency colour names in colour-sound metaphors in the texts of the main
corpus of RNC, created in 1980-2000
But the Russian colour names, appearing in the analyzed metaphors occasionally, two times or once, are more versatile and include розовый (2) (pink), мутный (2) (vague), золотистый (2) (golden), голубоватый (2) (bluish), черный (black), цветной (coloured), бордовый (wine red), красный (red), темный (dark), коричневый (brown), алый (scarlet), лазурный (azure), бледный (pale), бесцветно-холодный (colourlessly-cold), безразлично-бесцветный (indifferently colourless), мрачно-багровый (gloomily-purple). (Compare with the English occasionally represented in our metaphors colour names - blue (2), yellow (2), grey (2), ruddy (2), colourful (2), coloured, pink, pale, bleached, washed-out, shadowy, golden).
The universal (according to Berlin and Key) colour terms are characterized by different representativeness both in English and Russian metaphors. Besides, our data shows that not all of them function in colour-sound metaphors. Analyzing Russian metaphors we don't see colour names синий (blue) (though among the frequency colour terms we find голубой - light blue), оранжевый (orange), фиолетовый (violet), серый (grey), желтый (yellow). It should be noted, that in all the texts of the
main corpus of RNC colour-sound metaphors with all universal colour terms (except orange) were found [2]. In the English metaphors from our list there are no universal colour terms violet and orange. The colour terms, widely represented in English and Russian material, are бесцветный/ colourless, белый/ white, серебристый/ silver, silvery, зеленый/ green, сумрачный/ dark. The Russian analogues of the wide-spread in our list English colour names red, black and brown (красный, черный and коричневый correspondingly) are single.
In the English material we see the names of all achromatic colours (white, black and grey), colour terms white and black being frequent. In the Russian metaphors there is no colour term серый (grey) (though it is represented in the metaphors from the texts created in other periods of time [2]), белый (white) is frequent, черный (black) is occasional. The list of «achromatic» sounds can be enlarged by metaphors with the words бесцветный/ colourless, frequent in both English and Russian. The names of chromatic colours are represented in English and Russian metaphors differently, the most frequent being red in English and голубой (light blue) in Russian. The majority of both English and Russian contexts contain colour terms describing colours, traditionally considered cold (in English it's 64 «cold» metaphors and 23 «warm» ones, in Russian - 32 «cold» and 8 «warm»; here metaphors with such colour terms as бесцветный/ colourless, сумрачный/ dark etc. are not included).
Talking about the sounds described in colour terms it's interesting to compare them with «coloured sounds» synaesthets perceive. According to Synaesthesia List data [15], it is typical for synaesthets to colour musical sounds, sounds in general and musical notes. «Coloured sounds» in our metaphors are a bit different. Musical sounds in English colour-sound metaphors are represented by words music (14), bell(s) (4), voice(s) (2), melodies, tones, pop-funk, vocals, chimes, harmony, in Russian they are звук(и) (11) (sound(s), мелодия (6) (melody), рулады (roundelay), звучание (sounding), баритон (baritone). A separate group includes words denoting the sounds of the human voice: voice(s) (17), laugh (3), tone(s) (2), laughter in English and голос (29) (voice), хохот (laughter), интонация (intonation), вопли (shrieks) in
Russian. A metaphor representing colouring speech sounds was found in BNC, it's colourless vowel-sounds. Two other groups are names of silence: silence (5), stillness (2), тишина (11) and different noises and sounds in general: noise (46), sounds (3), echo(es) (2), bubbles; шум (7) (noise), шелест (2) (rustle), гул (roaring), шуршание (rash), жужжание (buzz).
Emotional Vector of Colour-Sound Metaphors in BNC and the Main Corpus of RNC Quantitative analysis of the collected word-combinations allows us to subdivide them into three groups (see picture 4).
Pic. 4. Single, average and frequency colour-sound metaphors (the data of BNC and the main corpus of RNC)
The first, largely represented in both languages, group is composed of single synaesthetic word-combinations, for example, красный гул (red roaring), лазурная мелодия (azure melody), черная тишина (black silence), coloured harmony, grey echo, pale voice. To the second, averagely spread (2-10 examples), word-combinations belong, for example, голубая мелодия (2) (blue melody), сумрачная тишина (3) (dusky silence), белая тишина (4) (white silence), colourful music (2), silvery laugh (3), dark silence (5). The third and the smallest one - frequency metaphors, observed in our list more than 10 times includes бесцветный голос (23) (colourless voice), white noise (29) and red noise (14).
Diagrams in picture 4 demonstrate, that in English we find more average and frequency colour-sound metaphors than in Russian, but the general tendency is that the majority of them in both languages are single word-combinations, what lets us conclude, that English and Russian colour-sound metaphors are mostly occasional. The more surprising it is that in spite of the «unique» character of such expressions we are still capable to understand them. It is traditional in the Russian psycholinguis-tics to explain it by functioning of synaesthemia - a psycholinguistic universal, conditioning the functioning of the linguistic universal (see about it [2]). Synaesthemia, meaning the fusion of sense perception and emotions (which is also proved by the modern synaesthesia research [14]) determines the emotional vector of the synaesthetic metaphor, which makes it possible to combine the seemingly incompatible notions and to experience the combination as understood. Talking about colour-sound metaphors, the emotionality of the colour, reflecting in its names, should also be born in mind [11]. Metaphors from our list are not the exception. Let's illustrate it analyzing examples with colour terms белый/ white, бесцветный/ colourless, the first being most frequent in the English material, the second - in Russian.
The colour term white is the most frequent in our list of English colour-sound metaphors (34 examples). The overwhelming majority of examples with this colour term are represented by the word-combination white noise (29). The other colour-sound word-combinations with the colour term white are white music (3), white voice and white melodies. Our observations show that in Russian metaphors with the colour term белый (white) are not so widely spread in 1980 - 2000 texts (10 examples). The word-combinations with this colour term are белая тишина (4) (white silence), белый шум (2) (white noise), белый голос (2) (white voice), белые вопли (white shrieks), белый звук (white sound). The majority of them, unlike the English metaphors with the colour term white, function in fiction (only three of them were selected from publicistic texts).
According to BNC, the word-combination white noise functions mostly in non-fiction texts on economic, computer, psychological, musical subjects. The very fact
of this synaesthetic metaphor entering the terminology of science (originally it's an acoustic term) contradicts the statement about the dispassionate character of abstract thinking. Emotional and personally-coloured attitude to the phenomenon described by the term can be observed in the definitions which specialists give to it, as in If I pick up something and drag it it makes this white noise sound,' Gaver demonstrates. It is a nondescript sound like the sigh of a carpet as furniture is shoved across it.' (about dragging icons on the computer desktop - A. B.) [London: Guardian Newspapers Ltd, 1989, Applied science material].
Synaesthetic metaphor reflects continuality of human perception, so it's typical that in text it is «broadened» by means of additional modalities, for example, in the literature on art and in fiction white noise is attributed visual and plastic features: a web of white noise... has hypnotizing effect on the audience [New Musical Express. London: Holborn Pub. Group, 1992]; ... the layer of guitar feedback and pure white noise that swathe the haunting sound... [Guitarist]; the wall of white noise [In the palace of serpents. Pow, Tom. Edinburgh: Canongate Press plc, 1992, pp. 28-124]. The emotional impact produced by white noise is vividly revealed here by phrases hypnotizing effect, haunting sound. In one of the examples white noise describes visual sensations: a silvery shimmer like visible white noise [The Fraxilly fracas. Hill, Douglas. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1989, pp. 8-127].
Analyzing the word-combination белый шум (white noise) [2] we made an observation, that here we have not only an interesting case of synaesthesia entering the sphere of science, but also a case, when scientific terminology becomes a source for new artistic metaphors. It is illustrated by the two Russian examples containing the word-combination белый шум (white noise) from the sample we are discussing in the present article. Both of them were found in fiction, and both appear in descriptions of the human inner, psychical life. In the first example a sad event - death is described: Но потом в будущем ты отдашь им свою жизнь и будешь умирать под этот белый шум дождя, а они выйдут из-за окон и будут тихо стоять вокруг [А. Володин. Одноместный трамвай (1990)] (But then in the future you will give them
your life and will be dying to this white noise of the rain, and they will go out from behind the windows and will be silently standing around [A. Volodin. A Single-Seated Tram (1990)]). In the second - peculiarities of psychology of the Soviet people are meant, and those peculiarities are considered positive rather than negative: Остаточный литературоцентризм редакторов и издателей - своего рода реликтовый белый шум советской психики - все-таки давал свои скудные маленькие плоды [В. Пелевин. Generation «П» (1999)] (The remnants of the editors and publishers' habit to pay attention to the quality of literature - a kind of relic white noise of the soviet psycho - still yielded its poor fruit [V. Pelevin. Generation «Р» (1999)]). There is also an example, describing the emotional state of trouble, in which white noise functions, in our English sample: the white noise that pulses continuously around Anya's troubled soul [The dyke & the dybbuk. Galford, Ellen. London: Virago Press Ltd, 1993, pp. 98-245].
Earlier, analyzing colour-sound metaphors in Russian [2], we found out that in modern Russian the word-combination зеленый шум (green noise) is quite frequently used. This word-combination is the title of Nekrasov's poem, which became a landmark in the Russian culture. Speaking about the English modern culture, we can't but notice the title of Don DeLillo's novel «White Noise», which was also filmed. In our list of examples it is mentioned once. We can suppose that the atmosphere created in this book surely influenced the way its readers understand the word-combination discussed and generally the way it functions in their language conscience.
It is interesting to compare the descriptions of musical sounds with colour terms white/ белый in English and in Russian. As for the English ones, only one of them can be called «synaesthetic metaphor proper», if it is possible to say so. This special musical term appears in the example White melodies can be produced by using random spinners... [Logic and design in art, science & mathematics. Barratt, Krome. London: The Herbert Press Ltd, 1989]. In all the other cases the race of the musician is meant, for example, They had never seen me so they thought I was white. They said I had a white voice. [Independent, elect. edn.]. The example with musical
sound - белый звук (white sound) in the Russian list of metaphors is Вот здесь не надо обертонов, пой «белым» звуком [А. Беляков. Алка, Аллочка, Алла Борисовна (1998)] (Here you don't need overtones, sing in «white» sound [A. Belyakov. Alka, Allochka, Alla Borisovna (1998)] contains an explanation what white sound is.
As for the other Russian synaesthetic metaphors containing colour term белый (white), their emotional vector reveals itself in different ways. For example, белый голос (white voice) is a voice without intonation: Анна Андреевна после большой паузы ответила «белым голосом», без интонаций [Э. Герштейн. Постаревшие собеседницы (1983 - 1987)] (Anna Andreevna answered after a long pause, without intonation [E. Gerstein. The Aged Companions (1983 - 1987)]). Белая тишина (white silence) is the silence of peace and calamity: Но о чем нужно думать, как нужно смотреть на этот мир из глазниц-амбразур этого круглого, непробиваемого, словно дот, черепа, чтобы эту белую тишину, наполненную спокойствием здорового безмятежного сна, сравнить с мертвой безжизненностью морга? [П. Андреев. Афганские рассказы (1998)] (But what should one think about, how should one observe the surrounding world from the eyepits-embrasures of this round, impenetrable, like a bunker, skull, to compare this white silence, filled with the calamity of healthy peaceful dream, with the deadly lifelessness of the dead house? [P. Andreev. Afghanistan Stories (1998)]), but it is also the silence of the cemetery: Белую тишину кладбища пронзил невнятный и короткий окрик [Н. Джин. Учитель (1980-1998)] (The white silence of the cemetery was pierced by a vague short bark [N. Gin. Teacher (1980-1998]). Белые вопли (white shrieks) are passionate: И сады, и пруды, и ограды, и кипящее белыми воплями мирозданье -лишь страсти разряды, человеческим сердцем накопленной [М. Вишневецкая. Есть ли кофе после смерти (1999)] (Everything - gardens, ponds, hedges, this boiling with white shrieks macrocosm - are nothing but firing of passion, accumulated in the human heart [M. Vishnevetskaya. Is There Coffee After Death (1999)]).
Our observations make it possible to claim that metaphors with colour terms бесцветный/ colourless are more uniform emotionally. The absence of colour is re-
lated with achromatic colours - black, white and grey. We can easily imagine what is meant when we hear these colour terms. And what is meant when something is called colourless? We can suppose that emotions play central role here, what is illustrated by numerous contexts from BNC and RNC, describing unpleasant, unemotional, cold voice, for example, Возможно, ему привиделось тут что-то схожее с его бедой, но устричные створки разомкнулись и бесцветным голосом он сказал, что фамилия ему знакома [Ю. Нагибин. Тьма в конце туннеля (1994)] (Perhaps he saw something similar to his trouble in it, but the oyster shuck opened and in colourless voice he said, that the name was familiar to him [Y. Nagibin. Darkness at the End of the Tunnel (1994)]); Grey lips, yellow teeth, yet a colourless voice... [A tupolev too far. Aldiss, Brian. London: HarperCollins, 1993, pp. 35-159]. Emotionality of colour term бесцветный (colourless) is clearly seen in such complex words as бесцветно-холодный (colourlessly cold) and безразлично-бесцветный (indifferently colourless): сказал он неожиданно, но каким-то безразлично-бесцветным голосом [В. Доценко. Срок для Бешеного (1993)] (he said unexpectedly, in a strange, indifferently colourless voice [V. Dotsenko. A Rap for the Rabid (1993)]); - Не возражаю, - бесцветно-холодным голосом, под стать своей несуразной нынче внешности, ответила Панкратова [П. Акимов. Плата за страх (2000)] (- I don't mind, - in a colourlessly cold voice, matching her absurd appearance, answered Pankratova [P. Akimov. A Fee for Fear (2000)]).
Special attention should be paid to the examples, representing extended descriptions of colourless sounds. Characteristics, specifying the emotional vector of such metaphors are represented by attributes not only from the vocabulary of emotions, but also from the vocabulary of other modalities of perception. For example, бесцветный голос (colourless voice) is ragged (рваный): Когда она вышла, всего на несколько секунд, на знаменитый «балкончик прощания», растерзанная после нательного обыска, вся красная и в слезах, и сказала мне сверху каким-то рваным бесцветным голосом [Г. Владимов. Не обращайте вниманья, маэстро (1982)] (When she went out just for a few seconds to the famous «balcony of fare-
well», torn to pieces after body search, all red and in tears, she addressed me from above in somewhat ragged colourless voice [G. Vladimov. Don't mention, maestro (1982)]); dim (тусклый): Кустов ответил отрицательно - прежним тусклым, бесцветным голосом [А. Азольский. Монахи (2000)] (Kustov answered in the negative - in the same dim, colourless voice [A. Azolsky. Monks (2000)]); dry (сухой): Слушаю, - произнес сухой бесцветный голос [П. Галицкий. Цена Шагала (2000)] (Hello, - a dry colourless voice said [P. Galitsky. Shagal's Price (2000)]); soft (тихий): ...сказал судья тихим, бесцветным голосом [М. Дяченко, С. Дя-ченко. Привратник (1994)] (the judge said in a soft, colourless voice [M. Dyachenko, S. Dyachenko. Doorkeeper (1994)]), it has steely notes (со стальными нотками): Бесцветный голос со стальными нотками, несмотря на почти полное отсутствие моего внимания, продолжал внятно и расстановисто отчеканивать сентенции... [В. Пелевин. Generation «П» (1999)] (A colourless voice with steely notes went on chopping sentences clearly, though I almost paid no attention to it, ... [V. Pelevin. Generation «P» (1999)]). A similar example is found in BNC. Colourless voice is deliberately cold, reserved: I told you I wanted to talk,' she reminded him in a carefully colourless voice [Ransacked heart. Bauling, Jane. Richmond, Surrey: Mills & Boon, 1993].
Conclusion
Handling the problem of synaesthetic metaphor, S. Ullmann wrote about the necessity of formulating it in precise quantitative terms, which might serve as a starting point in the search of semantic universals [10]. Today, when the problem of synaesthetic metaphor is integrated with the problem of synaesthesia, studying this phenomenon in general and in comparative aspect in particular acquires a new meaning. For example, the president of the American Synaesthesia Association S. Day points out that «By comparative investigation of synaesthetic metaphors... the chart of synaesthesia might become better defined: any hard-wired synaesthetic associations might be in low percentage globally, but they should appear world-wide regard-
less of culture or/and language group; metaphors... will appear in pockets, and the associations should vary from culture to culture» [15]. We suppose our work demonstrates the productivity of using corpora for solving such tasks. On the other hand it shows that linguistic data only is not enough for understanding the phenomenon of synaesthetic metaphor. A wide range of sensorimotor and culturological data should be taken into consideration, which makes it necessary to establish interdisciplinary connections while studying this language phenomenon.
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DATA ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bardovskaya Anastasia Igorevna, PhD, associate professor of the Germanic Languages Chair of the Vyatka State University of Humanities
Vyatka State University of Humanities
26, Krasnoarmeyskaya Str., Kirov, 610002, Russia
Email: nastya978@inbox.ru
ДАННЫЕ ОБ АВТОРЕ
Бардовская Анастасия Игоревна, кандидат филологических наук, доцент кафедры германских языков Вятского государственного гуманитарного университета
Вятский государственный гуманитарный университет ул. Красноармейская, д. 26, г. Киров, 610002, Россия Email: nastya978@inbox.ru
