Semantics and prototypes of figurative light and color terms in the Yakut language

The article studies semantics and prototypes of figurative adjectives and verbs of the Yakut language that denote darkness, light and gloss. 36 lexemes were selected via continuous  sampling from dictionaries and then combined into groups by their parent figurative verb. The groups are presented in the order of increasing degree of lightness, ending with the designations of gloss. The study shows that the figurative light and color terms represent a separate group in the color-designating vocabulary of the Yakut language. Their semantics, unlike the names  of the actual “colored” flowers, has not previously been subject to a detailed description, although the light plays if not primary, then key role, since in the absence of light it is impossible to distinguish colors. The human ability to see the world around and perceive various visual images underlies the figurative verbs of light perception in the Yakut language and the figurative  adjectives derived from them. The semantics of figurative vocabulary has a whole complex of various semes as dynamics, temporality, object shape, etc., but their unifying seme is the seme of light. Comparative-contrastive and etymological analyses show that the figurative light semantics of the Yakut language, like their parent verbs, originate from Mongolian vocabulary, many lexemes have Proto-Altaic roots. Based on their semantics in synchrony and diachrony, prototypes have been identified for some groups of figurative words – objects of the surrounding world with which native speakers associate a particular light phenomenon: dark mess (group with figurative verb будулуй), dark silhouette (group with figurative verb барый), dust, ash, fog (күдээр), faded  grass (кубарый), sunbeam (сандаарый), as well as dairy food (тунаарый, туналый) and the reflection of the tip (кылбаар, килбэй).

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