A Cross-Cultural Investigation Of Color-Related Idioms In English And Azerbaijani Literary Works: A Case Of William Shakespeare’s Versus Nizami Ganjavi’s Works

Abstract

This thesis presents a cross-cultural investigation on color-related idioms in the English and Azerbaijani literary traditions, while considering only the works of William Shakespeare and Nizami Ganjavi. The principal purpose is to investigate the manner through which cultural, philosophical, and historical factors influence the meanings, symbolic associations, and functions of color idioms in two disparate literary canons from the perspective of culture. Most of the previous research concentrated on the linguistic facet of idioms, whereas this research endeavors to fill this gap by adopting an interdisciplinary framework merging linguistic discourse analysis with cultural and historical contexts. This study employs a qualitative research method: the data contain color idioms, which were selected from Shakespeare's plays and Nizami Ganjavi’s narrative poems. The analysis reveals both considerable agreement and divergence concerning the symbolic implementation of colors, linking to a contrast of cultural values, philosophical worldviews, and historical experiences as inscribed within the English and Azerbaijani literary traditions. For example, certain colors appear to have a similar symbolic meaning in both corpora, whereas some other colors seem to develop differing interpretations from one culture to another, based on its philosophical and historical background. This study highlights intercultural dimensions that deepen the understanding of idiomatic language as an expression of cultural identity and literary culture. In addition, the results present new insights into the contrastive idiomatic study, giving emphasis to the interdisciplinary cultural and historical framework crucial in linguistic and literary cross-cultural studies. Hence, the present dissertation would also be useful for linguists, comparatists, those interested in translation studies, and scholars of intercultural communication.