ETD

• anisomorfismo
• colori
• cromonimia
• linguistica contrastiva lituano-italiana

Contrastive Lithuanian-Italian chromonymy
The aim of this thesis is to analyse and compare the expression of colours in Lithuanian and Italian. The main objectives are: 1) to introduce the basic concepts and theories of colour studies; 2) to discuss the main colours in Lithuanian and Italian, their meanings, etymology, symbolism, synonyms and shades; 3) to present diachronic examples (from early Lithuanian texts (Martynas Mažvydas) and translations of the main monuments of Lithuanian culture into Italian (Kristijonas Donelaitis, Antanas Baranauskas) to contemporary literature); 4) to present synchronic examples (proverbs, expressions), to group them and comment; 5) to highlight the problem of anisomorphism in both languages.
Looking at the data from a synchronic and diachronic point of view, it is clear that, in order to transfer certain chromonymic concepts from one language to another, priority is always given to the transmission of the meaning of a particular colour or shade in a particular context, which very often does not coincide with the literal translation. While basic chromonyms easily find equivalents in both languages, there can be more challenges when colours are used figuratively. Shades are more complicated, as they usually have no exact equivalents and sometimes none at all. For this reason, it is sometimes necessary to make a literal, descriptive translation, or simply to apply a hyperonymous chromonym to a shade. Such cases particularly emphasise the phenomenon of anisomorphism in chromonymy.