STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC PECULIARITIES OF COLOR NOMINATIONS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (BASED ON MODERN BRANDS OF MAKE-UP COSMETICS)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of units denoting color, i.e., their semantics and structure and is based on the material of the English language units nominating colors and their shades for lipsticks, eyeshadows, blushes, highlighters, bronzers, and nail polishes used by British and American brands in 2010s and the beginning of 2020s. The material was obtained by continuous sampling method from official websites of the brands (629 units, both lexemes and word-combinations). The topicality of the present research is mainly predetermined by dynamic character of the color nominations system in modern highly competitive make-up market environment which leads to the search of new dimensions for color nominations. The research allows to arrive at conclusion that color characteristics, among other features of the object, functions as its distinctive feature defined by the peculiarity of human visual perception of the world, transmitting information through two major channels: natural associations and psychological or cultural symbols. The empiric database analysis confirms the overall tendency to rethinking traditional standards of color nominations to attract the customers’ attention and create a more appealing image of the products on the market. The above tendency leads to the fact that the accuracy of the color transmission (including its shades) shifts to the periphery, moving to the center emotional and psychological components involved to the nomination process. Quantitative analysis demonstrates that highly productive semantics models are nominations coined from names of animals, plants, and nature phenomena; less productive are color nominations related to magical creatures, solar system objects, geographical names, proper names, modern slang, nouns denoting drinks and food. Structural dominance is manifested by mono-component models ‘noun’ and ‘adjective’, and double-component models ‘adjective + noun’ and ‘noun + noun’. Mono-component models ‘numeral’ and ‘interjection’; double-component models ‘verb + adverb’, ‘adjective + adjective’, ‘verb + pronoun’, etc. are characterized by low productivity.