Time synaesthesia in W. Shakespeare’s texts: the semantics and pragmatics of colour
Abstract
The article analyzes the features of synesthetic conceptualization of time through the prism of the category of color, based on the works of W. Shakespeare. It is demonstrated that color, not being an independent entity but a quality, acquires in the space of the literary text additional metonymically conditioned meanings through its correlation with the phenomena of existence, in some cases rising to the level of value-laden symbolic co-meanings. The semantics and pragmatics of each color that shades time in Shakespeare’s texts are determined by metonymic correlation with the phenomena of the external and internal world. Thus, black color, identified with the darkness of night, becomes a methonymic-metaphorical name for the unknown, danger, and suffering. Grey color, associated with the transition from darkness to light, correlates with the images of morning, youth, and hope, becoming an element of vivid authorial metaphors of personification. Red color allows for polar interpretations, being both a sign of trials and a symbol of life, strength, and energy. Yellow color serves as a sign of fading, old age, and, in a psychological aspect, sadness. Green color is metonymically associated with the ideas of novelty, youth, and at the same time inexperience and vulnerability. Artistically reinterpreted, the metonymic parallels are generalized into metaphorical images reflecting the author’s perception of the complex diversity of existence. A conclusion is drawn that the conjugation of temporal and color semantic elements individualizes both time and color, providing each moment of Shakespeare’s text with unique singularity.