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Colour idioms in the English, German and Russian languages
Список литературы:
1. Алефиренко Н. Ф. Спорные проблемы семантики: Монография/Н. Ф. Алефиренко. - Волгоград: Перемена, 1999. - 274 с.
2. Попова З. Д. Понятие «концепт» в лингвистических исследованиях/З. Д. Попова, И. А. Стернин. - Воронеж: Изд-во Воронежского гос. университета, 1999. -30 с.
3. Стернин И. А. Методика исследования структуры концепта/И. А. Стернин//Методологические проблемы когнитивной лингвистики/ - Воронеж: ВГУ, 2001. - С. 54-61.
4. Collins Cobuild Dictionary of Idioms. - HarperCollinsPublishers. - Glasgow, 1997. - С. 21-121.
Kurylova Varvara Maksimovna, Moscow State Linguistic University, Graduate student, the English Language Faculty E-mail: varya.kurylova@yandex.ru
Colour idioms in the English, German and Russian languages
Abstract: The research is aimed at conducting an analysis of idioms with the headwords denoting colour terms in English, German and Russian. The object of the research is discrepancies in the emotional colouring of the idioms in the languages under analysis.
Keywords: colour idioms, semantic analysis, interpretation of colours, phraseological stock, degree of correspondence, phraseological units, negative/positive polarity, types of equivalence
The present work was created with the purpose to The way we see it, idioms possess the following features:
analyze idioms containing colour as the headword and belonging to the group of basic colours — blue, yellow, red, green, white and black (according to Berlin and Kay) in 3 different languages — English, German and Russian. The results of the present research contribute to the development of phraseology and provide reliable material that can be used for pedagogical purposes while working on vocabulary of the studied language with ESL students.
Like in any study, aimed at examining ofsome linguistic phenomena, the crucial concept in examining the idioms is correspondence. In the research, correspondence is defined semantically, which means the comparison of idioms takes into consideration the meaning of the idiom as a whole and this meaning is composed of the meanings of the individual parts of the idiom in question.
It is only natural that the semantic criterion has
been chosen as the means of the analysis because idioms are known to be composed of words, which, taken on their own, have a different meaning from the meaning attributed to them in the idiom. It is rarely the case that one can understand an idiom judging only from the items which an idiom is composed of.
For the research we created our own definition of the term "idiom" that reflects the essence of our work.
they consist of one or more words, and their meanings differ from the meanings of their constituent parts; they represent a fuzzy category; they are semantically opaque and metaphorical; their distinguishing features are figuration and figurativeness.
The idioms were gathered for the sole purpose of this thesis. The principal source of idioms was dictionaries. These included general language dictionaries, dictionaries of idioms, monolingual, and bilingual dictionaries. Several examples were taken from the Internet sites. In order to carry out a comprehensive analysis of idioms with the headwords denoting colour terms in the three languages, 535 examples were collected, 208 for English, 152 for German and 175 for Russian.
The analysis shows that the English, German and Russian colour terms possess rather similar symbolic interpretations and evoke very similar associations. There were only 2 examples found of the difference which is expressed by idioms in 3 analyzed languages.
1) The first specific instance is the expression of the praise to something and recognition of the object as the best one of the group, and it is portrayed by the following colours: yellow, red, white, black and blue. For example, English idioms express this recognition of the superiority of a thing over another one making use
Section 1. Linguistics
of the blue (to be blue-ribbon), and black (to be in the black) colours. German idioms with the same meaning contain only the yellow colour (das Gelbe vom Ei sein) whereas in Russian this meaning is expressed by the white (белая изба, белый царь, белянка) and red colours (красный угол, красные дети, красный зверь, красная доска).
2) Another discrepancy in the associations evoked by the colours under analysis concerns the negative attitude towards the consumption of alcohol and its effects on the health and is expressed making use of the present colours: red, green and blue. In German exist the following expressions in which the condition of alcoholic intoxication is described with the help of the colour blue: blau wie ein Veilchen/eine Frostbeule/wie tausend Mann sein. In English people under influence are called admirals of the red. As can be seen, in the present case the red colour is employed. Finally, in Russian the mentioned condition is expressed making the use of the green, blue and white colours (пить до белой горячки, допиться до синих чертиков, зеленый змий).
Another finding we got concerns positive and negative polarity of the idioms under analysis. In the course of the research we got the following results:
• In English, 27% of the analysed idioms denote positive emotions, whereas 55% show negative associations.
• A very similar situation occurs in the German language where 23% of the analysed instances convey positive and 62,5% negative emotions.
• In Russian, unexpectedly, more idioms with positive associations employ colour terms: 29% of the analysed idioms belong to the group of positive emotions and 39% belong to negative.
The percentage differs, especially between 2 Western and the Russian language, but a clear tendency prevails, and it is that idioms with colour words are mostly employed for expressing negative associations.
The analysis has also revealed that the number of particular colours in English, German and Russian idioms differs. The dominant colours in all three languages are black and white. They are followed by red (in case of Russian), blue (in case of English) and green (in case of German).
• Black as a headword appears in 49 English, 43 German and 41 Russian idioms. The black colour seems to be the most popular one in the English language.
• White is found in 40 English, 22 German and 54 Russian instances. Again, white colour is mostly preferred by the Russian language.
• Red appears in 38 English, 22 German and 33 Russian idioms, thus it is most popular in the English idiomatic expressions.
• Green is the colour which is found in 23 English, 33 German and 17 Russian idioms.
• Blue is especially numerous in English (48 instances); however, it is not so popular in German (22 instances) or Russian idioms (18 instances).
• The last analyzed colour, yellow, occurs relatively rare in all three languages. It is the least popular colours used in idioms.
Even though English, German and Russian idioms contain all the above mentioned colours, their distribution across languages differs.
• In English, the most popular colour is black (49 samples), whereas the least popular is yellow (10 instances).
• In German, the most favoured colour used in idioms is also black (43 instances).The least favoured one is yellow, with 10 instances, thus, the distribution of the leading colours coincides with the situation in English. The results make it possible to assume that such a coincidence is not accidental. On the contrary, it proves that the languages are not only very much alike in their linguistic structure and their origin, but also share common phraseological stock, which points at similarities in mentality, culture and even worldview.
• In Russian, on the other hand, the situation is quite different: the most popular colour is, unlike in English and German white (54 instances), whereas the least popular colour is the same as in the English and German languages, yellow (11 examples).
It is interesting to note that there are several correspondences in meaning between English, German and Russian idioms with the same colour word as a headword, which means that the idioms are treated as possessing total equivalence and can thus be characterized as expressions which have an identical semantic, structural, lexical and figurative form. There are 10 idioms, which are alike in all the three languages and might suggest either a common source of origin or the universal perception of ideas: blue blood (=blaues Blut= голубая кровь), to give the green light (jemandem grünes Licht geben= дать кому-то зеленый свет), to be a red rag to the bull (=ein rotes Tuch für jemanden sein= (как) красная тряпка для быка), to be green with envy (=vor Neid grün sein= позеленеть от зависти), to have a black day (=schwarzen Tag ha-ben= черный день), a black list (=die schwarze Liste= черный список), black market (=der Schwarzmarkt=
Lexical interpretation units of God the Creator in the Turkic languages
черный рынок), to be black and white (=schwarz auf weiß= черным по белому), (the) Black Death (=der schwarze Tod= черная смерть), to be black as night (=schwarz wie die Nacht= черен как ночь)
Only 5 instances of correspondence were found in German and Russian idioms: проходить красной нитью (=sich wie ein roter Faden ziehen), белая ворона (ein weißer Rabe), желтый билет (=der gelbe Pass), красный петух (=der rote Hahn), черная душа (=schwarze Seele) Finally, between Russian and English 7 instances of correspondence were found: a white knight (=белыйрыцарь), a black mark (=черное пятно), black Tuesday (=черный вторник), blue collars (=синие воротнички), white collars (=белые воротнички), until you blue in the face (=пока не посинеешь), to be white as a sheet (=бел как бумага), to drive somebody
to white heat (=доводить до белого каления)
Therefore, the analysis of the data from the three languages demonstrates that idioms with the headwords denoting colour terms are specific to a given language. Colours, even though perceived in the same way, evoke different associations and convey emotions in different cultures. The hypothesis of the research was that idioms with the headwords denoting colour terms in English, German and Russian reflect ethnical mentality and therefore differ in the associations that a particular colour evokes in each language and culture. This hypothesis was corroborated only partially: there is some variation within the positive and negative connotations evoked by colours but the basic pattern of positive and negative associations is quite uniform across the three languages.
References:
1. Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms. Электронный ресурс: URL: http://dictionaries.cambridge. com (Accessed 03.02.2016).
2. Bennett Т. J. A. (1988) Aspects of English Colour Collocations and Idioms. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universi-tatsverlag.
3. Berlin B., and Kay P. 1969. Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution. Berkley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
4. Duden. Redewendungen und sprichwörtliche Redensarten. Mannheim; Leipzig; Wien; Zürich: Dudenverlag, 1992.
5. Brockhaus Enzyklopädie (1992): Band 19, 18. Auflag e. Mannheim: Brockhaus.
6. Большой толково-фразеологический словарь Михельсона М. И. Электронный ресурс: URL: http://dic. academic.ru (Accessed: 13.01.2016).
Mammadova Samire Jamal, Baku Slavic University doctoral student of Turkology Department E-mail: s.mamedova81@mail.ru
Lexical interpretation units of God the Creator in the Turkic languages
Abstract: The article is subjected to the historical and comparative analysis of lexical units that express the concept of "God", "Creator", which is associated with ancient religious views of Turkic people. Their intensity of use reveals in ancient Turkic monuments and literary language of modern Turkic people. For instance, expression which is taken from the language of Orkhon-Yenisey monuments. This expression «tengri» which is analysing and can be found in different phonetic variants with different semantic nuances. Also, expressions such as «kuday», «5alab//5akap», «tanritaala», «Allah», «haqtaala», «bayat», «acu», «idi», «ogan//ugan», are exposed to the semantic and etymological analysis, that express the same concept. Keywords: Turkic religious thought, Creator, God, holy beings, religious terms.
