Lexical and grammarical characteristics words with the root рыж- (red-) in the poetry of the first third of the XX century
- DOI
- 10.5922/vestnikpsy-2025-2-4
- Pages
- 41—50
Abstract
The study examines the description of the artistic color space constructed with lexemes containing the root ryzh- (“reddish-brown” or “ginger”), which differ in their grammatical characteristics, in Russian poetry of the first third of the 20th century. It is revealed that color designations with the meaning ryzhiy were predominantly used by poets in 1916, with the most frequent usage observed in the poetry of E. Bagritsky, I. Selvinsky, V. Mayakovsky, Sasha Chyorny, and M. Tsvetaeva. Uneven frequency of use is identified among the various grammatical forms of lexemes with the ryzh- root in the poetry of this period. The study demonstrates that the diversity of these color terms supplies the poetic language with grammatically varied means that contribute to realizing the author’s artistic vision. A structural-morphological classification of ryzhiy color nominations is proposed, taking into account the number of stems. The research draws upon a rich body of poetic material from the first third of the 20th century, illustrating five linguistic groups of color terms containing the ryzh- root morpheme: simple single-stemmed nominations represented by different parts of speech; compound adjectival forms; syntactic constructions; comparative constructions; and figurative-semantic units composed of several linguistic elements. The findings may be of interest to literary scholars researching the works of Russian poets of the Silver Age and may also be applicable in the practice of lexicography.