LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 16:2 February 2016
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIALS

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2015
M. S. Thirumalai
Custom Search

Colour Terms in Languages

Dr. V. Suntharesan, M.Phil., Ph.D.

Abstract

Colour terms are found to exist in all languages and they contribute vitally in stressing ideas or conveying meanings in a subtle but significant manner. Colour terms, apart from their indication to the concrete visual characteristic, have certain connotative meanings. The connotative meanings of colour terms apparently correlate with the culture of the respective language. This paper attempts to briefly compare English and Tamil in terms of their colour terms. In this way, the writer also intends to identify the cultural similarities and dissimilarities between these two languages.

Keywords: Connotative meaning, Symbolic expression Cultural niches, Cultural similarities

Introduction
Colour Terminology

Colour seems to be a subject that has drawn the attention since the olden days. The origins of colour symbolism go so far back in time that it is impossible to ascertain where they came from. As an object of study in the field of optics, colour has been studied extensively. Its applications in experimental and clinical psychology are still modern. Medicine too has found a use for colour, though in a somewhat unconventional way. With the exception of optics, whose main objective is to understand the physical realization of colour as a visual phenomenon, the other areas mentioned above are all concerned with what colour means, either in apparently absolute terms or in a subjective, idiosyncratic sense, despite the fact that, objectively speaking, colour has no meaning as such as it is simply an optical manifestation. For this reason, Peirce (1965) placed it in the grouping which he calls qualisigns: the group reserved for phenomena such as colour and musical tones whose nature is qualitative and devoid of inherent meaning. Yet one can find the existence of a very strong perception refuting any suggestion that colours are semantically empty. This assumption is created in terms of the fact that colours are an extraordinarily rich source of symbolism. They are full of connotative and affective meanings which are institutionalized by the fusion of academic knowledge and mainstream culture.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Dr.V. Suntharesan, M.Phil., Ph.D.
Senior Lecturer
English Language Teaching Centre
University of Jaffna
Sri Lanka
suntharesan@yahoo.com
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.