International Journal of Society, Culture and Language (Dec 2020)
A Comparative Study on Phraseological and Paroemiological Units with Coloronyms Black in German, Russian, and Tatar
Abstract
This article deals with a comparative analysis of phraseological and paroemiological units with the component coloronym black / Schwarz, черный, кара in German, Russian, and Tatar. We have analyzed 85 phraseological units and paroemias in German, 50 in Russian, and 99 in Tatar, extracted by a continuous selection from etymological, lexical, and phraseological dictionaries. The paper exposes similarities and differences in the perception of the coloronyms black / Schwarz, черный, кара by representatives of different cultures. As a result of the analysis, we have found eight symbolic meanings of the coloronyms, which coincide in all three languages. The explication of the meanings ‘bad, evil, insidious, malicious, dishonest, untruthful’ is of high frequency in German, Russian, and Tatar. The second and third places are occupied by symbolic meanings ‘unhappy, unsuccessful, sad; heavy, difficult’ and ‘shameful’, respectively. In the linguistic world-image, the three symbolic meanings of the coloronym Schwarz are lacunar for the German language.