THE CONCEPT OF COLOR IN THE ENGLISH AND UKRAINIAN ADVERTISING INTERNET DISCOURSE

Abstract

The  paper  focuses  on  the  analysis  of  the  color  usage  as  an  instrument  of influence on the English and Ukrainian advertising website users. The study also reveals common features of the COLOR concept functioning in the English and Ukrainian languages. Hence, it seems obvious that there is a similar color perception in the languages of different lingua-cultural areas. Modern sciences have been studying colors as psychological, philosophical, culturological and cognitive categories. Many researchers in language area studies focus on the concept of COLOR because it is a source of historical, cultural, intellectual and emotional information. COLOR as a concept has a great effect on physical and psycho-emotional state of people, being at the same time a means of logical and sensу and representational perception of the world. The paper deals with modern English and Ukrainian advertising websites that allow one to see particular features and differences in COLOR objectification and usage in both societies. In particular, the use of colors is treated as a manipulative strategy of web designers who seek to decorate their web-site in the manner that will positively affect the consumers’choice of products or services advertised. The purpose of the research is to find if English and Ukrainian web-designers use the same color schemes when creating advertising websites. In addition, the authors have analyzed phraseological expressions containing color nominations in the English and Ukrainian languages in order to establish the similarity of associative fields in the worldview of both societies. The authors have found that color names are quite numerous and make up a great part of English lexical array, functioning actively in various thematic fields. The same is almost true of the Ukrainian language. Numerous coincidences in the choice of colors allow making an assumption that associative fields are much defined by similar   etymologies   of   color   names   in   both   languages.   Although   historical development has added specific features to their use within each of the national linguistic cultures, one can clearly see the proximity of the two languages belonging to different lingua-cultural areas. This can be explained by the rapid development and spread of cultures, as well as the ability of COLOR concepts to be a kind of intermediary in the interethnic environment. The similarities found prove that the concept of COLOR functions quite in the same manner both in the English and Ukrainian advertising Internet discourse. Therefore, the technology of color manipulation as a tool in web-design can be thought of as universal for both cultures. In addition, color is not only a powerful tool of manipulative influence in the Internet advertising discourse, but also a means of communication and the subject of aesthetic and spiritual exchange both within a local and international environment, i.e. between countries, whose political and ideological doctrines differ from each other.