E-mail: oksana_mykytenko@hotmail.com
Tel.: +38 044 278 34 54;
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Full Professor (Folklore Studies), leading researcher, Rylsky Institute of Art Studies, Folklore and Ethnology National Academy of Sciences Ukraine
The colour code of the funeral lamenting language is focused upon the following symbolically impressive colour attributes: the black that implies unambiguously negative semantics and is of the highest frequency; the white that conveys the idea of the light/holiness and indicates the magic nature of the image (in the Balkan-Slavic tradition). The motley colour is correlated with chthonic images; the red appears mainly in the position of metaphorical nomination of the deceased which is usual in the formulaic nomination of a young person; the golden and the silver serve for glorification in appealing to the deceased; the green describes the semantic sphere of “life” in both spatial and age-specific aspects indicating the premature death in the young age; whereas the grey/ bluish grey implies to the elder person bearing the mediator connotation The blue which is isomorphic -semantically to the black becomes the marginal colour attribute in the lamenting text appearing in traditional formula which is used by lamenting person to convey her inability to mourn and to glorify the perished properly enough in order to keep the heroes in memories for the successors. The information contained in colours of the funeral mourning doesn’t only represent the ceremony text but also strengthens its entire aspiration. This is manifested by means of colour opposition, contrast of the major chromatic scale, which symbolizes the life, and dark colours, primarily the black, which mark the sphere of the death.
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