The Metaphorical Meanings of the Color Term Black E-Book

Lena Groß

• Herausgeber: GRIN Verlag
• Sprache: Deutsch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Miscellaneous, grade: 3,0, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, language: English, abstract: This paper is to demonstrate the varied metaphorical meaning of the color term black. Despite the fact that colors play an important role in everyday life and occur everywhere, they do not receive much attention. Therefore, using the example of black the author’s intention is to illustrate the importance of a color and the correlations people unconsciously make. First of all, with the help of some literature and common phrases in society, positive and negative associations of black are collected. Afterwards the grouped characteristic significances of black are compared to two dictionaries, namely the Oxford English Dictionary and the Longman English Dictionary to see if there is a difference between the symbolism of black and its original denotation. Following the metaphorical meanings of black are collocated by means of The Corpus of Contemporary American English to analyze its actual occurrences in language use. Concluding, black has a wide range of meanings, but is predominantly combined with a negative connotation. Some associations only exist in society or special literature, because the transfer to sorrow or death cannot be found in a dictionary or corpus. This is because dictionaries and the corpus cover the general and literal linguistic usage of black and not its entire symbolism, which arose over a period of years and does not explicitly contain the word black.

Leseprobe

Impressum:

Copyright (c) 2015 GRIN Verlag / Open Publishing GmbH, alle Inhalte urheberrechtlich geschützt. Kopieren und verbreiten nur mit Genehmigung des Verlags.

Bei GRIN macht sich Ihr Wissen bezahlt! Wir veröffentlichen kostenlos Ihre Haus-, Bachelor- und Masterarbeiten.

Jetzt beiwww.grin.com

Table of Contents

1 Abstract

2 Introduction to the effect of colors

3 Associations with Black

3.1 Antithesis of black and white

3.2 Negative connotations

3.3 Positive connotations

4 Dictionary entries of black

5 Comparison with Corpus

5.1 Description of methodology

5.2 Corpus-based research

6 Critical discussion of the results

7 Conclusion

References

1 Abstract

This paper is to demonstrate the varied metaphorical meaning of the color term black. Despite the fact that colors play an important role in everyday life and occur everywhere, they do not receive much attention. Therefore, using the example of black the author’s intention is to illustrate the importance of a color and the correlations people unconsciously make. First of all, with the help of some literature and common phrases in society, positive and negative associations of black are collected. Afterwards the grouped characteristic significances of black are compared to two dictionaries, namely the Oxford English Dictionary and the Longman English Dictionary to see if there is a difference between the symbolism of black and its original denotation. Following the metaphorical meanings of black are collocated by means of The Corpus of Contemporary American English to analyze its actual occurrences in language use. Concluding, black has a wide range of meanings, but is predominantly combined with a negative connotation. Some associations only exist in society or special literature, because the transfer to sorrow or death cannot be found in a dictionary or corpus. This is because dictionaries and the corpus cover the general and literal linguistic usage of black and not its entire symbolism, which arose over a period of years and does not explicitly contain the word black.

2 Introduction to the effect of colors

 „Colors are not only experienced with our heart and our emotions,

but also our mind“ (qtd. in Vollmar 2011: 7), Liane Collot d´Herbois once stated. Even though colors are anywhere, people do not pay much attention to them. However, something unconsciously happens to us, because colors have an effect on a person. They express feelings and create a certain atmosphere (see Vollmar 2011: 7). Every color nuance features its own resonance and people automatically associate something with it. The way a color affects us is defined through its actual context and long lasting connected experiences with it (see Heller 2011: 13). Over hundreds of years a characteristic universal symbolic meaning of every color arose (see Heller 2011: 14). Thus, it should be changed that just a few humans are aware of a color’s effects even though they interact with them every day.

 In the following paper, we will concentrate on the color term black only. "Black is real sensation, even if it is produced by entire absence of light. The sensation of black is distinctly different from the lack of all sensations" (Helmholtz 1924: 131). The absorption of all the light in the color spectrum makes black a very special color, because it expresses the primordial void, darkness and the absence of stimulation to the retina (see Dimmick 1929: 60). Therefore, black, like any other color, is more than just a color term; it carries a metaphorical meaning and conveys a certain feeling. On the following pages, the correlations with black, its varieties, and a color’s importance relating to one’s feelings will be outlined.

3 Associations with Black

3.1 Antithesis of black and white

 From the beginning of human history a huge importance has been attributed to black and white. The two colors embody the principles of light and darkness, good and bad, life and death. One could state they are the greatest antitheses in our world (see Vollmar 2011: 233). Whereas white represents words with positive connotations, black as an achromatic color is predominantly associated with negativity. This is probably because black refers to the Germanic adjective “swarz”, which means dark, dirty or dense fog (see Vollmar 2011: 234). Additionally, black is able to convert any positive symbolism of a color into its opposite (see Heller 2011: 89). In the following, the author will try to cover a wide range of correlations relating to the color black taken from everyday scenarios by dividing them into their respective negative and positive denotations.[1]

3.2 Negative connotations