Kolor biały i czerwony w poezji Józefa Bohdana Zaleskiego a współczesne teorie prototypu

Abstract

The reference-point for conducted in the paper analysis of a vocabulary connected with white and red colours in poetic works by J.B. Zaleski are modern theories of prototypical categories. The notion of prototypical reference was adopted from R. Tokarski's treatise on semantics of names of colours. The prototypical reference for biel whiteness is śnieg snow and dzień day while for czerwień redness—krew blood, ogień fire, and słońce the sun, especially when it is setting. Zaleski often enough refers to the connections between whiteness and day or snow (even if more numerous is the conventionalized expression biały anioł a white swan). Designated things to which the poet ascribes the white colour are also gołąb a pigeon, łabędź a swan, and lilia a lily and such comparisons are characterized by strong cultural grounds. In few poetic contexts the following compounds are used: czerwona krew/ red blood and czerwony ogień/red fire, a little more often the red colour (and its shades) appears in pictures of sunsets and a non-typical enough compound biala krew/white blood was introduced twice.