The Symbolism of Colour in English Language”
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
THE MINISTRY OF HIGHER AND SECONDARY SPECIALIZED EDUCATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN The uzbek state world languages university II ENGLISH PHILOLOGY FACULTY “ENGLISH APLIED SCIENCES” DEPARTMENT QUALIFICATION PAPER on “The symbolism of colour in English language” Written by the student of the 4 course Group 427 B Abdukarimona N.A ___________________________ Scientific supervisor PhD Atahanova G.Sh. ______________________________ This qualification paper is considered and admitted to defense Protocol №___9_______of ”_27_”___aprel____2011 TASHKENT 2011 Contents Introduction ……………………………………………………………… 3 Chapter I THE MAIN ASPECTS OF COLOR 1.1 Development of theories of color……………………………..……….6 1.2 Color naming and associations……………………………...……..…10 1.3 Color term ………………………………………………..…….…..…12 Chapter II THE ANALYSIS OF COLOR TERMS 2.1 Semantics of Symbol …………………………………………....……..18 2.2 Structural Features of Symbol…………………………….……..…….22 2.3 Comparative Analysis of Semantics and main tropes – metaphor and metonymy………………………………………………………….…..27 2.4 Semantic and Stylistic Analysis of Color Terms…………………..…51 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………….…63 Bibliography ……………………………………………………………..…65 INTRODUCTION It is probably useless to prove that vocabulary is an important part of language and hence its importance for any student of English Our work deals with words and expressions denominating colours, therefore the term colour words is used. Due to their nature knowledge of such words and some stores to look for them are essential for advertising, art students and other. Nowadays more and more people get access to different types of texts written in English. Understanding of fiction of different types, advertisements, names of food-stuffs and other goods, appearing both in typographic print and in the Internet become a professional and everyday need of more and more people. While reading a text in English readers face a certain number of problems. One of such problems is to understand and to translation/interpret colour words. To interpret here means not only to translate orally, but to reveal the underlying meaning. Colour words are freely used by the authors to describe different things, such as features of the characters faces, clothes, jewellery, make-up, cars, landscapes and seascape, pieces of art etc. Look at the sky in Blue Eys by T.Hardy: the sky gray of the purest melancholy; a lemon- hued expanse of western sky; the pale glow of the sky; it was a familiar September sunset, dark-blue fragments of cloud upon an orange-yellow sky; a violet sky; rich indigo hue of a midnight sky; a rosy sky; in a sky of ashen hue. In eager wish to express their thoughts and ideas most precisely, authors hunt for more suitable and most unusual words. W. Somerset Maugham in Theatre describing Julias bedroom uses Nattier blue, the colour that connects Julia with the world of arts and artists, hints at her French origin and reveals her bright vivid nature. Oscar Wilde in Portrait of Dorian Gray wishing to express the brightness of the June day and of Dorians beauty, uses rose, pink, vermilion, purple, lilac, yellow, green and coal-black. He paints the portraits of his characters with ivory, scarlet, rose-red, rose-white, white and olive; he finds pink and scarlet on their lips, and blue, black, amethyst in their eyes. Sometimes colour words become main characteristics of a famous character, we find such characters in Grimms Fairy Tales: Little Red Riding-Hood, Bluebeard, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears. And the Fairy with blue hair proves it. Colours are widely used to describe clothes. J.K.Rowling clothes her superficial character Gilderoy Lockhart in robes in forget-me-not-blue, aquamarine, turquoise, deep, plum, jade-green, lilac and midnight blue, demonstrating his love for outstanding looks. Her characters also wear green, purple and black robes. To give more examples of such words in clothes, lets recall of Robin Hood and his merry men, clad in Lincoln green, Black Cloak and Little Red Riding Hood. Colour and words of colour became the moving power of stories. In Rouge we learn about a servant, whose deadly paleness so much disturbed her mistress, that the latter ordered the poor maid put some rouge on her cheeks. The colour words used to subscribe the shades of skin and complexion are really diverse. Characters blush, grow red, go scarlet and pink, glow and even get black eyes! A yellow face was not only the title but also the starter of a story by A.C.Doyle. The descriptions of pieces of art require accuracy as well as poetical way of thinking. Such descriptions are generously used by different authors Maugham (The Moon and the Sixpence), Wilde (Picture of Dorian Gray), Priestly (Jenny Willers) and many more. The actuality of the qualification paper is determined by increased interest of linguistic in studying the origin of words of colour. Still much is left to investigate. The purpose of the qualification paper is determine the words of colour in English language. The tasks of the investigation include: • to study color naming and associations. • to find out semantics of symbol and structural features of symbol • to investigate semantic and stylistic analysis of Color Terms. The novelty of this work consists in revealing essence, in the description and detailed, complex analysis of Color Terms in the English language. In this work we attempt to give out and classify the linguistic aspects of Color Terms. The problem under consideration in the qualification paper possesses definite theoretical value, for, fist of all, it is based on the principles of approach, which is revealed on all the stage of investigation. The results of the investigation present interest for a number of fields of contemporary linguistics: linguistic typology, theory of translation, stylistics, lexicology, theoretical grammar, lexicography. Practical significance of the results of investigation consists in the fact they can be used in: 1. in teaching English for Uzbek and Russian students. 2. in compiling practical courses of English. 3. in compiling bilingual dictionaries. 4. in writing lectures on lexicology, stylistics and theory of translation. Investigations have been carried out on a vast language material, based on lexicographic sources. We used mainly monolingual, bilingual and encyclopedic dictionaries. The structure of the qualification paper. It includes introduction, chapters, conclusion, list of used literature. Chapter I is dedicated to the study of theories of color, color naming and associations , color term In the 2 nd Chapter semantics of symbol, structural features of symbol, comparative analysis of semantics and main tropes – metaphor and metonymy, semantic and stylistic analysis of Color Terms has been discussed. CHAPTER 1 THE MAIN ASPECTS OF COLOR 1.1 Development of theories of color Color or colour is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, green, blue and others 1. Color derives from the spectrum of light (distribution of light energy versus wavelength ) interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors . Color categories and physical specifications of color are also associated with objects, materials, light sources, etc., based on their physical properties such as light absorption, reflection, or emission spectra. By defining a color space , colors can be identified numerically by their coordinates. Because perception of color stems from the varying spectral sensitivity of different types of cone cells in the retina to different parts of the spectrum, colors may be defined and quantified by the degree to which they stimulate these cells. These physical or physiological quantifications of color, however, do not fully explain the psychophysical perception of color appearance. The science of color is sometimes called chromatics. It includes the perception of color by the human eye and brain, the origin of color in materials, color theory in art , and the physics of electromagnetic radiation in the visible range (that is, what we commonly refer to simply as light ). Spectral colors The familiar colors of the rainbow in the spectrum – named using the Latin word for appearance or apparition by Isaac Newton in 1671 – include all those colors that can be produced by visible light of a single wavelength only, the pure spectral or monochromatic colors . The table at right shows approximate frequencies (in terahertz ) and wavelengths (in nanometers ) for various pure spectral colors. The wavelengths are measured in air or vacuum (see refraction ). The color table should not be interpreted as a definitive list – the pure spectral colors form a continuous spectrum , and how it is divided into distinct colors 1 Berlin, Brent; Kay, Paul; Merrifield, William R. The world colour survey. Dallas: Academic Publications of the Summer Institute of Linguistics. - 1991. linguistically is a matter of culture and historical contingency (although people everywhere have been shown to perceive colors in the same way). A common list identifies six main bands: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. Newton's conception included a seventh color, indigo , between blue and violet. Optical scientists Hardy and Perrin list indigo as between 446 and 464 nm wavelength. The intensity of a spectral color, relative to the context in which it is viewed, may alter its perception considerably; for example, a low-intensity orange-yellow is brown , and a low-intensity yellow-green is olive-green. Although Aristotle and other ancient scientists had already written on the nature of light and color vision , it was not until Newton that light was identified as the source of the color sensation. In 1810, Goethe published his comprehensive Theory of Colors . In 1801 Thomas Young proposed his trichromatic theory , based on the observation that any color could be matched with a combination of three lights. This theory was later refined by James Clerk Maxwell and Hermann von Helmholtz . As Helmholtz puts it, "the principles of Newton's law of mixture were experimentally confirmed by Maxwell in 1856.