Phrasemes with 'color' Component in South Slavic Context

Abstract

Subject of our interest are chromatic phrasemes, i.e. those containing a ‘color’ component, bearing in mind that colors have always been perceived as a special phenomenon, so their rich symbolism is reflected in folk culture, in literature, and in phraseology.
Our analysis is based on phraseological and explanatory dictionaries, and papers concerning the phraseology of Serbian, Bulgarian and Croatian languages, including some new phrasemes that have been confirmed in the language of the media and within Macedonian literature as well. The phrasemes are being grouped by the ʻcolor’ component, indicating their affiliation to separate semantic fields according to the phraseological meaning, in order to discover the similarities and differences in the compared languages.
The analyzed material confirms the universality of color conceptualization in the Macedonian language, confirming similar situation within the compared languages. However, many cases highlight the uniqueness and the diversity of these Slavic peoples from an ethno-cultural point of view.