The Linguo-colour Image of the World as a Framework for the Analysis of Colour Terms: A Cross-Linguistic Study of the Uzbek and English languages

Abstract

This study applies a comparative cognitive‑semantic framework to investigate colour terminology in Uzbek and English. The linguo-colour image of the world is defined as the culturally informed set of knowledge and evaluative attitudes that shape colour naming. Analysis of associative fields, connotative shifts and diachronic developments reveals that identical colour labels map onto different semantic domains across these languages. For instance, Uzbek blue (koʻk) links to mourning [1;450], British English blue to political conservatism [2;11549] and American English blue to intoxication [3;]. The semantics of Uzbek black (qora) shows historical elevation alongside contemporary pejoration. These findings indicate that colour semantics are embedded in national mentalities and historically mutable, underscoring the need to integrate national‑cultural codes into cross‑linguistic semantic analysis and bilingual lexicography.