Stable expressions with the color adjective orange in the Russian language of the 20th century

Abstract

The article presents a structural and semantic analysis of stable expressions of the 20th century with the adjective orange, many of which are based on metaphorical and associative-symbolic use of their constituent components. Among the ways of the author's transformation of such lexical units, the authors note the addition and replacement of significant parts of speech with other forms of the same word or synonyms, as well as a change in the location of the components of the expression in relation to each other, which not only does not destroy the idiom, but, on the contrary, intensifies its meaning. The evolution of the original meaning of expressions with the color adjective orange is shown, which is due to the change (expansion) of the circle of nouns combined with the adjective, the implication of evaluation, the formation of new synonymous links with metaphor. Particular attention is paid to stable expressions with political significance, the largest number of which began to appear since 2013 in connection with political events taking place in Ukraine, where orange was chosen for the symbols of the Ukrainian opposition. The development of negative connotations in the expression orange revolution is explained by the corresponding semantic potential of the adjective orange itself, for which semes with negative connotations are productive in speech. The expansion of the compatibility of the adjective orange in modern Russian has led to the emergence of new meanings for the adjectival. Using examples extracted from the newspaper subcorpus of the National Corpus of the Russian Language, representing a collection of texts of printed newspapers and electronic agencies of the 2000s, it is shown that the use of stable expressions with the color adjective orange reflects the tendency characteristic of the development of the modern Russian language to expressivize the written text in connection with the formation of an evaluative statement capable of conveying the attitude of a journalist to social, cultural, political events. At the same time, the expressed social axiological assessment performs various functions in the text: from attracting attention and overcoming the standard to manipulating the consciousness of the mass reader.