PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS WITH COLORONYMS WHITE, BLACK AND RED IN THE ENGLISH, RUSSIAN AND MARI LANGUAGE WORLDVIEW

Abstract

The study conducts a cross-linguistic examination of idiomatic expressions integrating chromatic elements across three languages representing distinct typological classifications: Russian, English, and Mari. The obtained results have shown that the maximum emotional charge is possessed by the red color and the achromatic palette, accumulating a wide range of associative connections, which determines their dominant role in the formation of phraseological units with heterogeneous semantics. The study reveals interlanguage parallels demonstrating full or partial equivalence in the symbolic and semantic structure of phraseological units. This phenomenon is due to the universality of cognitive mechanisms of perception of objective reality, the commonality of mental patterns, as well as the influence of tracing and lexical borrowing processes. At the same time, the uniqueness of the semantics of color lexemes in individual languages correlates with the ethnocultural specifics of associative models formed under the influence of linguistic and extralinguistic factors — historical transformations, ethnic traditions and social practices. Systematization of phraseological units made it possible to develop a classification, the key component of which is the colorative, representing the anthropocentric orientation of these units. Coloratives actualize the description of the emotional and psychological states of a person, his interaction with external objects, which confirms the property of anthropocentrism of the phraseological picture of the world. The latter is manifested in the projection of the human dimension on the interpretation of events, natural phenomena, social processes and cognitive activity, emphasizing the dominant role of man in the structuring of linguistic space.