Cultural Code Of Color Terms In Chinese And Russian Languages

Abstract

This article presents the research of the semantics of units denoting three basic colors - red, white, yellow. The choice of these colors as an object of study was reasoned by the fact that it is possible to trace the universal principles of nomination in languages of different origin and structure on the material of basic colors. It was significant to identify the similarities and differences in the semantics of color terms in multi-structured languages and to explain the semantic fullness of color codes in Chinese and Russian. The study focused on color codes in Chinese and Russian linguo-cultures. The objectives of the analysis are to identify the area of coincidence of color semantics in Chinese and Russian languages; to explain the misalignment of the color code in indicated languages, which is implied by cultural reasons and the lexical-grammatical structure of Chinese and Russian languages. The study was conducted on the material of color-nominating vocabulary and phraseological units, which include color terms in Chinese and Russian languages. It was important for the authors to trace the presence of color terms in two investigated linguo-cultures, which is the most semantically, cognitively, axiologically extensive, and color terms, which demonstrate a smaller semantic extent. In addition, red color is abstract in origin in the languages of the Indo-European family, and yellow color is of subject origin. In the isolating Chinese language, primary colors reveal a greater subject correlation than in Russian language.