Russian constructions with syntactic reduplication of colour terms: a corpus study

(14) Xis Y-Y (Sneg belyj-belyj `The snow is white-white') = `X is very Y, and the speaker did not expect it'

On the other hand, the preferred fillers of the Russian repetition construction are adjectives denoting human properties, which tend to avoid reduplication, because their repetition produces a pragmatically more acceptable effect of emotional emphasis, and not pure degree intensification.

The general proportion of repetition to reduplication with “human” adjectives is 2: 1, and adjectives expressing attitudes are top fillers in the former. Thus, combinations like milyj, milyj `dear, dear' are twice as frequent in the corpus as combinations like milyj-milyj `dear-dear'. The suggested semantic explication of this repetition construction is as follows: Xis Y, Y (Moj milyj, milyj drug `My dear, dear friend', On strashnyj, strashnyj `He is scary, scary') = `X is Y, and the speaker feels something very good or very bad about it'

In English, the construction of repetition appears close in meaning to the Russian construction of repetition, rather than being an equivalent of both reduplication and repetition constructions. This is confirmed by the frequency data: there are few isolated examples of the English repetition construction with colour terms, but quite a few examples of its use with adjectives denoting human qualities, especially those expressing attitudes, with dear, dear being the most frequently repeated adjective. Interestingly, repetition occurs not only in the English translations, but in English originals as well:

(15) "Yes, rabbit. My good, good rabbit. Now we go (Ernest Hemingway. For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940))

(16) And when the joke had been duly digested and they came back, she was sobbing, "Dear, dear Frona.” (Jack London. A Daughter of the Snows (1902))

(17) "Wicked, wicked Darzee!” said Nag, lashing up as high as he could reach (Rudyard Kipling. The Jungle Book: Other Stories (1894))

(18) It is a mild, mild wind, and a mild looking sky (Herman Melville. Moby-Dick (1851))

(19) "Oh! thoughtless, thoughtless Lydia!” cried Elizabeth when she had finished it (Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice (1813))

Thus, English and Russian constructions with repetition of adjectives may, at least on the basis of this preliminary data, be considered as sufficiently close equivalents. Their primary fillers are adjectives denoting human properties, especially those expressing speaker's attitude, such as `good', `nice', `dear', `wicked', `happy', etc.

Their emphatic use in the construction of repetition appears to be a mark of a certain emotional state of mind, almost of affectation. They are frequently used in forms of address, which supports the analysis of their primary meaning as denoting a strong (often positive) emotion:

(20) Nu chego ty stesnyaeshsya, ty milyj, milyj, milyj, ya lyublyu tebya `What are you shy of, you are nice, nice, nice, I love you' (V. Makanin, 1977).

Their comparative usage in modern texts remains a subject for further study, as current findings are based on the limited material of the Russian-English National Subcorpus of the Russian National Corpus.

Generally, the fact that repetition of such adjectives is reasonably well-represented both in English originals and English translations of Russian texts may indicate a special type of semantic shift that repetition produces when applied to `attitude' adjectives as opposed to other semantic classes. It adds a special emotional and emphatic value to an expression, and for that reason it might be more acceptable in English, which generally avoids repetition with other semantic classes of adjectives.

Lexicographically, the fact that certain adjectives favor reduplication and other intensification constructions, such as is the case with certain colour terms, appears worth mentioning in a dictionary, especially in a dictionary of a productive type. For that reason, it is suggested that respective information about complete syntactic reduplication with a hyphen, such as belyj-belyj `white-white', intensified reduplication with the prefix pre `overly', such as belyj-prebelyj `white-overly-white', and constructions with comparative, such as belee belogo `whiter than the white' should appear in the dictionary entries of corresponding adjectives.

2.4 Colour term reduplication in the language of poetry

Interestingly, certain tendencies in the functioning of reduplicated colour term constructions observed in the Main Subcorpus of the Russian National Corpus, do not seem to hold for the language of poetry. Indeed, the Poetic Subcorpus displays a nearly total lack of colour reduplications with a hyphen of the belyj-belyj type. Out of about 150 occurrences of repeated colour terms in the Poetic Subcorpus, only two are hyphenated:

(21) Vjetsja v topke plamen' belyj

Belyj-belyj, budto sneg (N. Rubtsov, 1955--1957)

`A white flame is curling in the furnace White-white, as if snow'

(22) Utro budet sinim-sinim,

Sinim budet nebosvod (I. Utkin, 1935)

`The morning will be blue-blue,

Blue will be the sky'.

The rest of the occurrences employ repetition with a comma, which denotes emotional emphasis and is usually reserved for adjectives denoting human properties. Consider some well-known lines from the poetry of the Silver Age (there are only a few isolated examples of repeated colour terms in poetry before the turn of the century):

(23) Za oknom krylami veet

Belyj, belyj Duhov den (A. Akhmatova, 1930)

`Outside the window flutters wings White, white Holy Spirit Monday'

(24) Vidish den' bezzakatnyj izhguchij I lyubimyj rodimyj svoj kraj, Sinij, sinij, pevuchij, pevuchij, Nepodvizhno-blazhennyj, kak raj (A. Blok, 1914)

`You see a day without sunset and fiery

And your beloved native country,

Blue, blue, sonorous, sonorous,

Blissfully motionless, as paradise'

(25) A belyj, belyj sneg do boli ochi est (O. Mandelshtam, 1922)

`And white, white snow is painfully gnawing at the eyes'

(26) Chernyj chelovek,

Na krovat ko mne saditsya (S. Esenin, 1923--1925)

`Black man,

Black, black,

Black man

Sits down on my bed'

How can one explain this deviation from a strong tendency found in non-poetic language for colour terms to occur in the construction of reduplication with a hyphen?

It appears that there are two factors at play. First of all, the language of poetry, by virtue of the genre itself, is more expressive and involves more emotional emphasis than the language of prose. Thus, even in situations when the primary expected interpretation is that of degree, namely, in colour reduplication constructions, in poetry we are faced with their interpretation as constructions of emotional emphasis. Clearly, all the quoted examples carry strong sentiment. Even in cases where colour intensity is in the focus, as evidenced by the use of other degree constructions (underlined in the examples below), still the construction of choice is repetition with a comma, whose primary meaning is emotional emphasis:

(27) A sneg dymitsya kruzhevom ryzhim,

Ryzhim, ryzhim, ryzhej vina (Z. Gippius, 1918--1938)

`And the snow is smoking as red lace,

Red, red, redder than wine'

(28) O temnyj, temnyj, temnyj put'

Zachem tak temen ty i dolog (S. Parnok, 1922)

`Oh dark, dark, dark path Why are you so dark and long'

Moreover, in poetic language, even terminological colour terms can be repeated in the comma construction:

(29) Budut, trepetny i zorki,

I na Krasnoj, Krasnoj gorke Obvenchayutsya, kak vse (M. Kuzmin, 1916)

`There will, tremulous and sharp-sighted,

Couples run around while the dew is still on the ground,

And at Red, Red Mountain,

Will get married, as everybody'.

Red mountain', or Krasnaja gorka, is a folk name of the first Sunday after the Orthodox Easter. Obviously, in this idiomatic combination, `red' is not a colour term, yet it does get repeated, because, it seems, emotional emphasis can be added to any linguistic expression. Thus, one reason for the overwhelming prevalence of repetition of colour terms over their reduplication in poetic language hinges on the very nature of poetry with its heightened expressive power and emotionality. However, there is another reason why colour reduplication is practically absent in the Corpus of poetic language. There is a certain pragmatic quality in this construction that is for the most part incompatible with poetry. Namely, it is different from repetition with a comma not only in its semantics, but also in pragmatics and register.

As reflected in its semantic explication, reduplication also carries a certain emotional load, namely, the idea of surprise at being faced with such a high degree of a certain characteristic. When we say belyj-belyj `white-white', strashnyj-strashnyj `scary-scary', we are not only noting a very considerable degree of whiteness or scariness, we are also expressing our surprise and trying to convey it to the hearer. This particular pragmatic message is, as it turns out, mostly limited to a particular group of speakers and addressees; namely, this quality of breathless surprise is typical of children.

Accordingly, constructions with colour reduplication are found in the Subcorpus of Children's literature considerably more frequently than in the Main Corpus. There are 94 cases of colour reduplication with a hyphen in the Children's literature subcorpus (the total number of tokens is 5.8 mln), and 810 cases of colour reduplication with a hyphen in the Main Corpus, which includes Children's literature (the total number of tokens is 283 mln).

Thus, the absolute frequency of colour reduplication with a hyphen in the Children's literature subcorpus is 16.2 i.p.m, whereas in the Main Corpus it is only 2.8 i.p.m, i.e., over five times less. The fact that the construction with reduplication is, to an extent, a feature of children's speech or speech intended for children, may account for its rarity in the Poetic Corpus. The latter does not contain any children's poetry, and there is an apparent stylistic contradiction between the lofty style of the “adult” poetry represented there and the colloquial childish ring of the reduplication construction.

Conclusions

To sum up, our findings yield the following conclusions.

First, reduplication construction with a hyphen and repetition construction with a comma are two distinct entities in Russian. The former is characterized by prosodic unity, denotes a surprisingly high degree of a certain characteristic and is used with gradable adjectives. In different contexts, in particular, in combination with colour terms, it develops additional implicatures. The latter is pronounced as two distinct words, denotes primarily emotional emphasis, and is possible with non-gradable adjectives.

Colour terms tend to occur in the reduplication with the meaning of high degree: belyj-belyj `white-white, very white, spotlessly white'.

However, not all colour terms are equally possible with reduplication: while certain terms, such asfioletovyj `purple', cannot be reduplicated, others, such as chernyj `black', goluboj `light blue', belyj `white' are perfectly possible in this construction. Moreover, certain color terms, such as sinij `medium-to-dark blue', demonstrate unexpectedly high percentages of reduplicated forms. Their level of compatibility with reduplication construction partly depends on their gradability, which, in turn, somewhat parallels Berlin-Kay hierarchy of basic colour terms. However, there are additional pragmatic factors that influence the ability of colour terms to occur in the hyphenated reduplication construction. Namely, colour terms that co-occur with the names of culturally and cognitively salient objects, such as denotations of human appearance (face, hands, skin, eyes, hair) or landscape features (sea, sky, fire, grass) are more likely to be used in constructions of reduplication. Moreover, aesthetic or emotional evaluation of such objects (`blue-blue eyes', `green-green grass') is also a factor that is conducive to their occurrence in the construction of reduplication.

The hierarchies of basic colour terms are to an extent language-specific: e.g., in Russian, goluboj `light blue' and ryzhij `carroty-red' have a claim for basicness, due to their salience as characteristics of human appearance and/or natural surroundings. syntactic colour term lexicography

Reduplication of colour terms is to an extent register-specific: namely, it is almost absent in the language of poetry. Instead, in poetic language, comma repetition of colour terms (belyj, belyj `white, white') with the meaning of emotional emphasis dominates their reduplication with the meaning of high degree (belyj-belyj `white-white'). This deviation may be explained by the stylistic limitations of reduplication with a hyphen, which tends to be a feature of children's literature, as well as by heightened emotionality of the language of poetry as compared to other language registers.

To sum up, our findings establish the importance of corpus methods in the study of colour terms and reduplication, demonstrate that the use and interpretation of lexical and syntactic items hinges both on semantic and pragmatic factors, and add to the understanding of semantics and pragmatics of Russian colour terms and reduplication construction.

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