O Norwidowskich obrazach barwy żółtej
On Norwid’s Depiction of the Yellow Colour

Summary/Abstract: The word-formative range of żółty ‘yellow’is not distinctly developed in Norwid’s writing (it encompasses eight lexemes). Likewise, few forms of particular lexical items are used (a total of forty uses). However, the fact that they very rarely inform simply about the colour of somebody or something is of particular interest. As it turns out, the lexical items more frequently carry a clear axiological load: either (though rarely) contextually positive or (typically) more or less negative one. In order to express this negative evaluation Norwid seldom uses systematic word-formative measures (e.g. derivatives pożółkły ‘yellowed’, zżółknąć ‘to turn yellow’). Much more frequently, he uses various lexical, syntactic or textual means of expression. In many cases, only reading a broader context or being aware of the cultural facts that are not linguistically entrenched enables us to comprehend properly the negative evaluation of lexis denoting the colour. Norwid attributes the colour yellow on a regular basis to a variety of artefacts, clothes being the most numerous group. The other extensively explored thematic area is the plant world. Considerably less often dożółty and its derivatives refer to other thematic spheres, for instance “man” and “Universe: sky and celestial bodies”, and only in individual cases of us-age they refer to the spheres of “the animal world” and “inanimate nature”.

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