The linguistic and cultural aspects of color meanings in the language picture of the world (Based on the material of English and Russian languages)

Abstract

The study of the color picture of the world is of interest in the linguistic and cultural aspect, since color is one of the most important means of emotional impact on the reader, color meanings express the author’s view of the world, and are also important for constructing a national picture of the world. There are some patterns that link color values in diff erent cultures of the world. It is worth noting that there are diff erences in color symbols in diff erent languages. It depends on the historical past of the people, its geographical location, etc. Despite this, we trace some similarities using examples of phraseological units with elements of color designations. An important factor is that color has a psychophysiological eff ect on a person. In Russian and English, “red” has a positive connotation to a greater extent. This is their common feature, although in both languages there are more or less negative characteristics of this color. The similarity can also be seen in phraseological units with the color component. There are quite a lot of equivalents in both Russian and English. Along with the common symbolic features that still prevail, there are also distinctive features that are associated with Russian and English history and culture.

Keywords

• color picture
• language picture of the world
• color symbols
• color designations
• color meanings