I colori nelle espressioni idiomatiche inglesi ed italiane

The purpose of this work is to analyse the figurative and metaphorical meanings of colours in English and Italian, focusing on the analysis and comparison of colour idioms in these two languages and cultures. The study starting point is the assumption that language and culture are inextricably related: they influence and modify each other, and both contribute to shaping our world-view. English and Italian colour idioms will be presented, compared and contrasted. Each colour is introduced by its figurative meaning in the two cultures. It is also shown whether and how the symbolic meaning is reflected in idiomatic language. The approach to English and Italian idioms is contrastive in order to show cases of direct correspondence (i.e. same colour, same meaning), partial correspondence (i.e. different colour or different idiom but same meaning) and cases peculiar to each language that lack of an idiomatic equivalent in the other language.