SYNAESTHETIC PECULIARITIES OF LATIN ADJECTIVES DENOTING TOUCH PERCEPTION (ON THE MATERIAL OF THE TEXTS OF VERGIL, HORACE, OVID)

←2019. – Vol. 14

Solomiya A. Antonyuk-Kyrychenko 
PhD., lecturer
Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/StudLing2019.14.7-18

FULL TEXT PDF (UKRAINIAN)

ABSTRACT

The empirical Latin adjectives, including tactile ones, have the capacity for synesthesia. Synesthetic nature have tactile nominations, which, in addition to tactile sensation, in a certain context, get an additional, peculiar to this sphere sensation. Tactile adjectives in the very semantics of which is a syncretic combination of several sensory characteristics are also considered synesthetic. The basis of the transition of tactile adjectives is the phenomenon of synesthesia, both in the narrow and a broad sense: there were recorded cases of transition of tactile lexemes due to the phenomenon of synesthesia to other areas of the sensory sphere, in particular, to the auditory, visual, gustatory, and non-sensory vocabulary (mental sphere), serving to denote the character traits of people and rarely of animals, as well for the depiction of the feelings, especially love.

Synesthetic transpositions of the meanings of adjectives are not unidirectional, but they are accomplished in one direction more often than in another. Latin sensory adjectives are characterized by unilateral synesthetic transitions from lexical and semantic field of touch to other spheres. The unidirectionality of the synesthetic connections of tactile adjectives is related to the nature of the visual, auditory, gustatory and olfactory sensations. Unlike tactile and gustatory sensations which belong to less organized, lower cognition levels, they do not require direct contact with the subject.

The use of tactile adjectives to signify the sensations of other fields is caused by a certain deficiency of expressive means in a particular field; the need for synaesthetic transfer of meanings emerges for the liquidation of this deficiency.

Synesthetic transpositions of the meanings of the adjectives denoting touch perception arose not only as a consequence of the economy of lingual means, but also in order to enrich the structural and semantic resources of the language and were a powerful tool for increasing of the functional flexibility of the Latin vocabulary.

Key words: synaesthesia, lexical and semantic semantic field, tactile adjectives.

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