DESCRIPTIVE DATA ANALYSIS

(n=123) in Turkish and English, which is followed by the idioms with white (n=100), red (n=64), blue (n=41), yellow (n=38), green (n=36), pink (n=12), brown (n=11), grey (n=8), purple (n=5), and orange (n=0) respectively.

This ranking conforms to Berlin and Kay’s theory in which they asserted that basic colour terms exist in languages hierarchically which means that the languages in the world do not use the colours equally in their idioms and some are used more than the others.

Table 5 is also similar with the statements of Berlin and Kay (1969) in the sense that the first three most common colours in Turkish and English are black, white, and red, as it is the case in the other world languages (p. 18).

4.1.2. Comparison of the Number of Basic Colour Terms in Turkish and English Idioms

This part demonstrates the similarities and differences between the number of the idioms with basic colour terms in each language separately. Comparing both languages from the point of view of distribution of basic colour terms revealed that there are both commonalities and differences in Turkish and English in terms of the frequency of use of the basic colour terms in the idioms as illustrated in Table 6 and Table 7.

Table 6. Frequencies of the Basic Colour Terms in Turkish (n=180) and English (n=265)

Basic Colour Term in Turkish Frequency Basic Colour Term in English Frequency

Black 41.66% White 19.76%

White 27.22% Black 18.60%

Red 11.11% Red 17.05%

Yellow 10.54% Blue 14.34%

Green 3.88% Green 11.24%

Pink 2.76% Yellow 7.36%

Blue 2.22% Brown 4.26%

Purple 0.55% Grey 3.10%

Grey 0% Pink 2.71%

Brown 0% Purple 1.55%

Orange 0% Orange 0%

Table 6 reconforms to Berlin and Kay’s proposal in terms of the the first three most common colours in the world languages -white, black, and red- which is also observed in Turkish and English.

As illustrated in Table 6, there are three commonalities in Turkish and English in terms of the rankings in accordance with the frequency of the basic colour terms used in the idioms. These are red which ranks the third and green which is the fifth and orange which is non-existant in both languages.

Furthermore, the frequency of the use of the colour pink, yellow, purple in Turkish and English idioms is very close to each other with the rate of 2.76% in Turkish and 2.71% in English for the colour pink, 10.54% in Turkish and 7.36%

in English for yellow, 0.55% in Turkish and 1.55% in English for purple.

Nevertheless, when it comes to the differences, the greatest difference can be observed in the frequencies of the colour black which is 41.66% in Turkish and 18.60% in English. Despite the common associations of the colour black that are death, evil, mourning, magic, bad luck, mystery, etc., between the two languages, Turkish people tend to use this colour much more in their idioms when compared to English speakers. Another interpretation may result from the black and white dichotomy. While white commonly represents purity, peace, morality and cleanliness and there is not as much difference as in the case of the colour black in Turkish and English languages, this may be interpreted as Turkish speakers prone to be more pessimistic in their daily lives and use the colour black more when compared to the colour white and English speakers.

Moreover, the variation between the frequencies of the use of the blue in Turkish and English is interesting which are 2.22% and 14.34% respectively.

Although the speakers of both languages see the colour blue in the same way and describe it as the colour of sea, water, and sky, English speakers tend to use this colour more in their idioms and add more emotive associations to this colour such as sadness as described in Oxford Dictionaries online and use the colour blue in their idioms for such emotive conceptualizations.

Another noteworthy difference is that although the colour green is ranked the fifth in both languages, the frequency of its use varies between the two language with 3.88% in Turkish and 11.24% in English. This is interesting because of the fact that although green means more than being the colour of nature and freshness to Turkish culture, as it is also the colour used in the holy places in Islamic religion (Mazlum, 2011, p. 134), it is used less in Turkish idioms than in English idioms.

Furthermore, Table 7 illustrates calculation of the difference between the percentages of each colour term in Turkish and English.

Table 7. Difference Between the Percentages of the Basic Colour Terms in Turkish and English

Basic Colour Term Difference

Black 23.6%

Blue 12.12%

White 7.46%

Green 7.36%

Red 5.94%

Brown 4.2%

Yellow 3.18%

Grey 3.1%

Purple 1%

Pink 0.05%

Orange 0%

It is clear in Table 7 that the highest percentage of difference is observed in the black colour idioms, which is the same with the result of Table 6. Nevertheless, the second highest difference is observed in the colour blue, as the number of the idioms constructed with blue is very low in Turkish when compared to English. Also the colour white ranks the third, as the number of the white colour idioms is similar in these languages.

In terms of the lowest percentage of difference, it must be taken into consideration that the colour with the lowest percentage of difference indicates imilarity at the same time. As it can also be observed in Table 6, while pink is the first colour which have the lowest percentage of difference, purple is the second colour and grey is the third colour with the lowest percentage of difference. Among the basic colour terms, orange is never conceptualized in Turkish and English.

The quantitative and descriptive data analysis demonstrated that despite the similarities in the number of use of some basic colour terms, the differences are more than the commonalities which could be observed through Table 6 and Table 7.