This study attempts to investigate emotional expressions with English color terms and to suggest an underlying motivation for them. Color terms are widely used to express human basic emotions (e.g., joy, anger, sadness, and fear). Following are some examples in English. Pink is used to represent joy; red, black, purple, and green are used to represent anger; black, blue, brown, gray are used to represent sadness; white, gray, black, yellow, blue are used to represent fear. Expression of emotions with English color terms can be analyzed by four motivation factors: (1) the metonymy mechanism using facial colors, (2) the metaphorical model derived from opposition between light and dark, (3) Hippocrates four humors theory, and (4) the influence of European Romanticist trends in literary theory.
1. Introduction
2. Emotions and Color Terms
2.1. Emotions
2.2. Color Terms
3. Color Terms Based on Emotions
3.1. Joy
3.2. Anger
3.3. Sadness
3.4. Fear
4. Motivations for Emotional Expressions with Color Terms
4.1. Facial Colors
4.2. Light and Dark
4.3. Humoral Theory
4.4. Romanticism
5. Conclusion
References
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