Chromatic phrases of fauna and flora: from denominative variation to the web interface

Abstract

This project is part of a doctoral research whose object of study is the vocabulary of fauna and flora composed of color names belonging to the chromatic sub-domains black, white, yellow, blue, orange, gray, green, brown, red, pink, violet, purple and indigo, found in two sub-areas of Biology: Botany, specifically Angiosperms (monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous), and Zoology, specifically Vertebrates (fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals). After having analyzed during master's research the composition of these specialized lexical items in Portuguese and developed a specialized dictionary in printed format, we decided to expand our scope of analysis by studying the correspondents of such phrases in English and Italian, considering possible factors that act in the composition of popular and vernacular denominations of species of these two areas. Thus, we aim to investigate the phenomenon of denominative variation in the terminology of fauna and flora by observing the relationship between the real referent, i.e., the species itself, the mental process responsible for the apprehension of its characteristics and that will make possible the construction of the concept, and its linguistic realization. Once denominative variation is a frequent phenomenon in terminology of these two domains in Portuguese, we attempt to examine, firstly, the reason why it occurs; secondly, the differences among its motivating factors in the studied languages. At the same time, we propose to implement a web interface for the dictionary cited previously that describe semantically and conceptually the vocabulary discussed. (AU)