Culturological specificity of the semantic field of colour (a case study of Arabic colourisms)
The article deals with the influence of national culture on the formation of the semantic field of colour. It considers the multilevel features of the semantic field of the colour in the Arabic language, which are present due to the nature of the prevailing worldview of the Arabs. The article focuses on those semantic meanings of colourisms that sharply contrast with European value ideas about colours, as well as on the uniqueness of the linguistic forms of Arabic colourisms. The analysis of the contextual use of words reflecting the core concepts of Arab culture makes it possible to identify a number of specific lexical units denoting colour, with limited compatibility. The author of the article concludes that the semantic field of colour reflects, to a large extent, the cultural attitudes of the people. The culturological nature of the semantic field of colour manifests itself in various aspects - from the quantitative representation of certain shades and the presence of certain grammatical categories that are relevant exclusively to colour, to the limited classes of objects involved in the secondary nomination of colours and groups of words that are the most productive ones in this sphere, as well as in additional semantic shades of lexical units and in non-equivalent vocabulary.