Semantic employment of basic and elaborate colours in Oscar Wilde's novel "The picture of Dorian Gray"

This research paper deals with contextual meaning of colour terms in Oscar Wilde's novel "The picture of Dorian Gray". The purpose of the research is to investigate semantic employment of the basic and elaborate colour vocabulary in description of images used in the novel by O.Wilde. The investigation of the colour vocabulary is based on statistical (score of colour terms, their frequency) and analytical methods (functions of colour terms in description of images). In the novel there are used four types of colour terms: basic colour terms, basic colour term derivations, elaborate colour terms, elaborate colour term derivations. They make total score of sampled colour 249. The research results show that basic colour terms as well as elaborate colour terms are used to describe different kinds of phenomena: environment, people and abstract phenomena. The most extend group of colour terms is comprised of environment descriptions. All types of colour terms are important aesthetic and semantic elements of varying system of images in the novelVytauto Didžiojo universitetasŠvietimo akademij