Colorative Markers of Modernity in Contemporary Cultural Conflicts
https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2025-14-8-181-204
Abstract
This study investigates coloratives (color nominations) as markers of modernity and indicators of current cultural, social, and political conflicts. It explores how color vocabulary contributes to the formation of public discourse, reflecting key trends and contradictions of the 21st century. Approximately 80 significant colorative units from the “Word of the Year” rankings between 2014 and 2024 are analyzed. The sources include official “Word of the Year” lists from the Oxford English Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache, FundéuRAE, and Instituto Cervantes. The materials for analysis are drawn from public corpora, news archives, social media, and analytical reviews accompanying annual linguistic rankings. Contexts in English, German, and Spanish are examined. The nominations Black Lives Matter, Greenwashing, White Supremacy, and White Parties are interpreted. The study raises the issue of how coloratives are increasingly employed to construct ideological positions and mobilize audiences. It demonstrates that the dynamics of color semantics directly correlate with socio-political shifts: for instance, the rising use of coloratives denoting ‘black’ is linked to the global anti-racist movement, while ‘green’ is associated with the environmental agenda and its commercialization. The novelty of this research lies in its systematic cross-linguistic reconstruction of the evolution of coloratives as markers of modernity based on authoritative linguistic rankings.
About the Authors
N. L. Shamne
Volgograd State University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Nikolay L. Shamne, Doctor of Philology, Professor, Department of Foreign Language Communication and Linguodidactics
Volgograd
V. S. Mayer
Volgograd State University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Valeriya S. Mayer, PhD in Philology, Department of Foreign Language Communication and Linguodidactics
Volgograd
References
1. Aristov, E. V., Larionova, M. A. (2021). On the issue of concepts of citizenship. Ex Jure, 1: 37—45. (In Russ.).
2. Bogatyreva, E. N. (2016). Cultural conflict in the context of socio-cultural analysis. Proceedings of the Saratov University. New Series: Philosophy. Psychology. Pedagogy, 16 (2): 130—134. (In Russ.).
3. Doynikova, M. I. (2019). Phraseological units with the blau (blue) color designation component in the German language. Gramota, 12 (10): 201—205. (In Russ.).
4. Dubinina, N. V. (2019). Realization of the linguocreative potential of coloratives in speech activity. Bulletin of the V. N. Tatishchev Volga State University, 2: 81—87. (In Russ.).
5. Egede, L. E., Walker, R. J., Campbell, J. A. (2023). Consequences of Historic Redlining: Finding a Path Forward. J Gen Intern Med, 38 (6): 1534—1537. DOI: 10.1007/s11606023-08051-4
6. Gornostaeva, A. A. (2024). Analysis of the deviant usage of criticism of discursive innovations in the culture of cancellation and woke culture. Proceedings of the Baikal State University, 34 (2): 389—396. DOI: 10.17150/2500-2759.2024.34(2) .389-396. (In Russ.).
7. Hailu, M. F., Sarubbi, M. (2019). Student resistance movements in higher education: An analysis of the depiction of Black Lives Matter student protests in news media. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 32 (9): 1108—1124. DOI: 10.1080/09518398.2019.1645905.
8. Hardin, C. L. (2016). Berlin and Kay Theory. Encyclopedia of Color Science and Technology, 3: 77—80. DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4419-8071-7_62.
9. Ju Ts. (2022). The semantic meaning of idioms in which coloratives with the meaning “green” are represented. Modern pedagogical education, 10: 193—196. (In Russ.).
10. Kalashnikov, A. M. (2013). “Blue Stream” as an important factor in the development of Russian-Turkish relations. Power, 2: 100—102. (In Russ.).
11. Katerina, V. V., Komogortseva, A. S. (2021a). Colorative vocabulary in the artistic space of Oscar Wilde’s works. Theoretical and applied aspects of the study of speech activity, 14: 64—69. (In Russ.).
12. Katerina, V. V., Yachenko, E. A. (2021b). Semantic analysis of the hashtag #BLACKLIVESMATTER. Philology and man, 4: 120—128. DOI: 10.14258/(2021)4-10. (In Russ.).
13. Kerimov, R. D. (2013). Linguistic symbols of color in German-speaking political culture. Political linguistics, 2: 107—124. (In Russ.).
14. Korobova, A. N. (2014). Color dominants in Feng Jicai’s prose (on the question of color meanings in modern Chinese prose). Society and the state in China, 2: 822—835. (In Russ.).
15. Krivoshlykova, L. V. (2014). Phraseological units of the comparative type with the component “black” as part of the cultural picture of the world of the British. In: I Firs readings. Modern problems of intercultural communication: materials of the reports and reports of the International Scientific and Practical Conference (Moscow, April 23—24, 2014). Moscow: RUDN University. 165—167. (In Russ.).
16. Kuehni, R. (2010). What the World Color Survey tells about hue based color categories. Journal of Vision, 6 (13): 18—20. DOI: 10.1167/6.13.18.
17. Kuzmina, A. V. (2011). Frequency coloratives in P. I. Karpov’s poetry. Bulletin of the Volgograd State University. Series 2. Linguistics, 1 (13): 248—251. (In Russ.).
18. Masolova, E. A. (2019). Achromatic coloratives in L. Tolstoy’s Late Fiction: semantics and functions. Problems of Historical Poetics, 4: 193—214. DOI: 10.15393/j9.art.2019.7082. (In Russ.).
19. Mayer, V. S. (2024). Linguistic portrayal of the neologism NEPO BABY as a linguistic marker of modernity in current cultural conflicts. Modern science: actual problems of theory and practice. Series: humanities, 112: 223—226. DOI: 10.37882/2223-66812982.2024.12.27. (In Russ.).
20. Mikhaleva, E. S. (2018). Color as a key element involved in creating the image of fear in the stories of Ambrose Bierce. Russian philology, 1: 84—93. DOI: 10.18384/23107278-2018-1-84-93. (In Russ.).
21. Narochnitskaya, E. A. (2019). France: the movement of the “Yellow Vests” — a year later. Scientific and Analytical Bulletin of the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 6: 132—138. (In Russ.).
22. Okhritskaya, N. M. (2011). Universal and national in the structure of polysemous adjectives denoting white in Russian and Spanish. Bulletin of the Chelyabinsk State University, 37: 96—98. (In Russ.).
23. Popova, E. A. (2018). Coloratives of the Spanish language as a source of difficulties in intercultural communication. Linguistic existence of a person and an ethnic group, 20: 103—109. (In Russ.).
24. Reitman, M. (2006). Uncovering the white place: whitewashing at work. Social & Cultural Geography, 7 (2): 267—282. DOI: 10.1080/14649360600600692.
25. Ruban, Yu. O. (2020). Structural, semantic and pragmatic aspects of the use of coloratives in English and Spanish children’s literature. In: Issues of translation studies, intercultural communication and foreign literature: collection of scientific articles, Cheboksary, April 29—30, 2020. Cheboksary: I. Ya. Yakovlev Chuvash State Pedagogical University. 269—275. (In Russ.).
26. Sapiga, E. V. (2015). Color designation in modern linguistics: semantic and semiotic aspects. Historical and socio-educational thought, 8 (2/2): 192—194. (In Russ.).
27. Shamne, N. L., Mayer, V. S. (2023). Words of the year as linguistic markers of cancellation culture. The world of science, culture, and education, 1 (98): 288—290. DOI: 10.24412/1991-5497-2023-198-288-290. (In Russ.).
28. Shapochkin, D. V. (2019). Color definitions in German political discourse. Bulletin of Tyumen State University. Humanitarian studies. Humanitates, 4 (20): 53—63. DOI: 10.21684/2411-197X-2019-5-4-53-63. (In Russ.).
29. Slesareva, T. P. (2015). The epithets-coloratives “black” and “white” in Boris Vasiliev’s novel “Not listed”. Onomastics in Smolensk and Vitebsk: problems and prospects of research, 4: 180—184. (In Russ.).
30. Urazmetova, A. V. (2014). The history of the USA, recorded in the toponymic nicknames of the states. Bulletin of Kostroma State University, 20 (2): 177—180. (In Russ.).
31. Vliet, H. (2021). White Saviors Get Gold Trophies: Colorblind Racism and Film Award Culture. Film Matters, 12 (3): 140—151. DOI: 10.1386/fm_00182_1.
32. Zaraisky, A. A. (2000). Semantic aspect of lexical compatibility in English. Language units and their functioning. Interuniversity collection of scientific papers, 6: 104—111. (In Russ.).
33. Zhemchuzhnikova, A. K. (2022). The language of the value component of the concept of Black Lives Matter. Bulletin of Perm University. Russian and foreign philology, 14 (1): 38—45. DOI: 10.17072/2073-6681-2022-1-38-45. (In Russ.).
34. Zimina, N. V. (2019). Semantic features and linguistic symbols of German color designations weiß, schwarz, blau, grün, rot, gelb. Proceedings of the Volgograd State Pedagogical University, 9 (142): 184—190. (In Russ.).
Review
For citations:
Shamne N.L., Mayer V.S. Colorative Markers of Modernity in Contemporary Cultural Conflicts. Nauchnyi dialog. 2025;14(8):181-204. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2025-14-8-181-204
Views:
56
Email this article 