Collocations with Red in Polish and English Languages

Abstract

The paper touches upon the subject of collocability of the lexeme “czerwony” (red) in Polish and English. The authors have conducted the analysis which shows that the lexeme “czerwony” (red) exhibits high collocability in both languages, as it forms approximately 80 collocations. Some of them refer to the prototypes of red, namely blood (2 in Polish, 4 in English) and fire (9 in Polish, 2 in English). However, it should be noted that they are not richly represented in the analyzed languages. “Czerwony” (red) shows greater collocability with the names of plants and body parts. Based on the expressions and collocations presented in the paper, it can be concluded that both in Polish and English, negative connotations dominate when it comes to red. Users of both languages associate red with negative emotions such as anger, irritation, and annoyance, as well as danger and threat. However, dictionaries also provide examples of phrases that refer to positive associations with red. There are many analogies between these two languages regarding the issue discussed in the present paper, which clearly shows that Polish and English belong to the same cultural sphere, with differences mainly related to the quantitative representation of certain collocations and their formal-structural properties.