Colour-Related Idiomatic Expressions in English and Kurdish

Abstract

Colour is a powerful communication tool and can convey different positive and negative messages. Apart from their denotative meanings, colours have different connotations in different languages and cultures. Many of these connotations are very clearly observed in their use of colour idiomatic expressions. This study explores the different meanings and connotations of the basic colour terms and their usage in idiomatic expressions in English and Kurdish to find out areas of similarity and difference between them. To this end data were collected from different English dictionaries and from English idiom dictionaries; while for the Kurdish idiomatic expressions data were collected from Kurdish idiom booklets and sources (See methodology 4.1 &4.2). The findings obtained from the analysis of the data show that despite similarities in the number of the basic colour terms and their general meanings and connotations in the two languages, the symbolic use of the colour terms in idiomatic expressions is, to a great extent, culture and language specific.