Colour and semantic change : a corpus-based comparison of English green and Polish zielony
The purpose of my research is to investigate the processes and mechanisms of semantic change in two basic colour terms: green in English and zielony in Polish. My research methodology focuses on existing English and Polish corpora, namely the British National Corpus, the Corpus of Contemporary American English and the National Corpus of Polish. I analyze my data both synchronically and diachronically (comparing two periods of time: 1985-1994, 2001-2010). My study also evaluates the use of corpus evidence for the purpose of investigating the processes of semantic change. Various factors have caused the Basic Colour Terms (BCTs) green and zielony to form metaphorical and metonymical meanings that have been conventionalised in English and Polish respectively. These processes have long played an important role in our understanding of the surrounding world. Investigating semantic changes in these two colour terms and two periods of time is key to my cross-cultural research, and this entails answering the questions: Why do green and zielony develop different senses? What are the similarities and differences between these two colour terms? How have these two terms developed and might they develop new senses in future?
Warth-Szczyglowska, Magdalena Malgorzata
P Philology. Linguistics ; PE English ; PG Slavic, Baltic, Albanian languages and literature
Colour and semantic change : a corpus-based comparison of English green and Polish zielony. The purpose of my research is to investigate the processes and mechanisms of semantic change in two basic colour terms: green in English and zielony in Polish. My research methodology focuses on existing English and Polish corpora, namely the British National Corpus, the Corpus of Contemporary American English and the National Corpus of Polish. I analyze my data both synchronically and diachronically (comparing two periods of time: 1985-1994, 2001-2010). My study also evaluates the use of corpus evidence for the purpose of investigating the processes of semantic change. Various factors have caused the Basic Colour Terms (BCTs) green and zielony to form metaphorical and metonymical meanings that have been conventionalised in English and Polish respectively. These processes have long played an important role in our understanding of the surrounding world. Investigating semantic changes in these two colour terms and two periods of time is key to my cross-cultural research, and this entails answering the questions: Why do green and zielony develop different senses? What are the similarities and differences between these two colour terms? How have these two terms developed and might they develop new senses in future?
colour semantic_change corpus_based comparison_english green polish purpose_investigate process mechanisms semantic_change two_basic colour term green english polish focus exist english polish corpus namely british_national_corpus corpus contemporary american english national corpus polish analyze data synchronically diachronically compare period_time study also evaluate use corpus evidence purpose_investigate process semantic_change various_factor cause basic colour terms green form metaphorical metonymical meaning conventionalise english polish respectively process long play_important_role surround world investigating semantic_change colour term period_time key cross_cultural entail answer_question green develop different_sens similarity_difference colour term term develop might develop_new sens future