Contrastive Analysis of English, Russian, and Hebrew Red Idioms

1.    Introduction

Hebrew is the official language of Israel, a multilingual country, where Russian is spoken by about 1.5 million people and English is widely used for international communication (Bat-Zeev Shildkrot 2004, 90; Naiditsch 2004, 108). Since there are a significant number of similar colorful idioms in the three languages, it is possible to learn idioms at the beginning of language acquisition for effective communication because of a linguo-methodological category as a chain of associations in an associative row or a set of words-reactions to a word-stimulus and the use of ... a chain of associations in ... teaching contributes to the formation of a student's bilingual personality (Onyakova $ Ruzhitsky 2016, 187).

Russian scientists are actively involved in Colorative Cultural Linguistics that deals with "the linguistic picture of the world ... a set of color ideas with lexical meanings that contain an element of color designation in their semantics" (Guz 2010, 5). Numerous comparative studies study coloration idioms in Russian and English, and also in French, German, Chinese, Tatar, and Mari (Bolotina, Shabasheva 2011; Kulinskaya 2015; Vostrikova&Leonova 2018; Guz 2010). Gataullina 2005; Yakovleva et al. 2015).

Red is one of the brightest colors of the world due to its long wavelength (Pasturo, 2016; Matveeva, 2020; Kulinskaya, 2015). In English and Russian, Bolotina and Shabasheva (2011) distinguished four common microsystems (associative chains) of RIs meanings, and Kulinskaya (2015: 130) listed RI common meanings in Russian and French, as well as national color idioms.

In the Explanatory Dictionary of Translation Studies, an association is defined as a combination of linguistic units according to some criterion and microsystem or subsystem, - a naturally organized part of the overall system Language) (Nelyubin 2003, 23 156). In general, comparative studies are a small number of the most common RIs and organized a small number of ACs (unite linguistic units following a formal or logical-semantic property).

Colors in ancient Hebrew (colors in the Bible) have been studied extensively, but not in modern Hebrew and not in a comparative aspect. This work, as part of the Trilingual Linguocultural Color Project, completes the gap in Hebrew and trilingual comparative studies. We processed extended material in three modern languages; united microsystems or subsystems, follow Nelubin (2003, 156) - a naturally organized part of the overall system Language) of associative chains, and identified not included in associative chains or extra-associative RIs as we called them.

2.     Materials and procedure

Statistical, comparative, linguistic, and cultural-linguistic methods of analysis were used to study 46 English, 33 Russian, and 29 Hebrew RIs and their interpretations in electronic explanatory and phraseological dictionaries, electronic versions of printed dictionaries, and the Internet.

This paper addresses the following questions:

1.    What are the trilingual RI associative chains?

2.     What are the trilingual microsystems of associative chains?

3.     What are the Trilingual extra-associative RIs?

3.     Results

3.1     Trilingual RI associative chains and microsystems

In this part of the work are presented RI meanings based on meanings in explanatory and phraseological dictionaries and united in associative chains and microsystems.

1.    Color of blood, health, vitality, energy, and activity (positive connotation): (as) red as cherry/rose, red-blooded (full of life); кровь с молоком (blood and milk), с румянцем во всех щеках.

Inflammation , sickness (negative): rubella/краснуха/אדמת (a disease with a red skin rash); a redeye flight (an overnight flight); без кровинки в лице (no blood in the face- painful appearance).

Medical and humanitarian organizations names (positive): International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement/ Организация Красного креста и полумесяца/ מגן דוד אדום (Red Magen David - National Emergency Medical Services Organization in Israel).

Nervous excitement, embarrassment, shame, irritation(negative): red as a turkey-cock, a cougar, a poppy flower/ красный, как маков цвет (red like poppies), красное лицо (red face), покраснеть до самых ушей/до корней волос (to blush to the very ears / to the roots of the hair).

Anger, rage, fury, aggressiveness (strong negative): red as a beet /красный как свекла/ םודא

trilingual idiom) כמו סמרטוט אדום לשור כסלק; кыб ан акпярт яансарк как / llub a ot gar der a ekil/

and the only Hebrew expression about anger and rage); to get/ to become red in the face / have a red face/ the face becomes red with anger/ red as a fire / one's ears are red (to feel very angry); к лицу прилила кров, лицо вспыхнуло,кровь бросилась в лицо, глаза налились кровью (bloody yes).

Crime, murder, guilt (strong negative): blood on one's hand/руки в крови/ דם על הידיים, caught red-handed (catch someone in a crime or the negative act)/поймать с поличным (lack of color in equivalent).

2.    Flame, fire (common): red as fire/ красный как огонь /אדום אש (color of face). Some popular in past idioms are now obsolete.

Importance, attractiveness (only in modern English): a red-hot campaign or news (an emotionally evoking campaign or news), red light (attracting attention); red ticket item (important item), red tag sale (special sale).

3.    Danger, alarm, warning (common): to see the red light (to feel danger, trouble); red flag/ красный флаг דגל אדום/ (attack signal; communism ideology; Hebrew - forbidding to swim); Red List of Threatened Species (endangered flora and fauna species by IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature); A Red Notice (the Interpol request for a criminal person); red zone/красная зона (Russian - a law enforcement territory); בע אדוםאזעקת צ (red signal - a rocket attack warning).

In the 21 century Red-green idioms actively creating neologisms related to sports, customs, computers, the stock exchange, and the coronavirus pandemic: Red Card/красная карточка / כרטיס אדום (disqualification, removal of a player or compulsory termination of activities in sports or other fields); red channel/ красный коридор/ מסלול אדום (the airport corridor for customs control of goods, in opposite to green free passage); red-zone / красная зона / אדומהנעילה - stock exchange falling shares; in computing - no modification zone); עיר אדומה (red city) ;Red List of dangerous countries or territories for travelers מדינה אדומה /(red country - high corona dangerous in opposite to a green country) .

Prohibition, limit, boundary: Red Line/красная черта, линия/; קו אדום cross the red line/перейти, пересечь красную черту, линию /לעבור קו אדום; ехать на красный/ לנסוע לאור אדום (Russian, Hebrew- a conscious violation of rules). In the Sea of Galilee there are two conditional קוים אדומים (upper and lower Red Lines - warning of flood / drying up).

Red-green (common) is the international antonymy (dangerous - safe, forbidding - permissive, prohibition - permissive, negative-positive, impossible - possible, no - yes) based on the traffic light color scheme and its accompanying connotation (Bolotina and Shabasheva (2011): red light / красный свет /אור אדום.

4.    Revolution, socialism, communism, extremism, anarchism, leftist ideologies. Many idioms that were popular in the twentieth century are now obsolete: red-white/ красный-белый/ לבן-אדום (revolutionary vs. anti-revolutionary); red - blue/ כחול-אדום (alien vs our - the antonymy military metaphor). According to Bolotina & Shabasheva (2011) the red-white antonymy is intrinsic) in Russian language culture.

5.    Prestige, celebration, holiday: cut (through) (the) red tape / перерезать красную ленточку/ אדום לגזור סרט (grand official opening); put out the red carpet/расстелить красную дорожку / לשים שטיח אדום (respectful attitude to the important person and sometimes a really red carpet); red-letter day / красный день календаря (Russian, English - a day off that marked in red color in calendar).

6.   Euphemism for Sex (common): the red-light district/квартал красных фонарей/ הרובע האדום (sex workers area) but surprisingly, we didn't find RIs as a symbol of femininity, love, or eroticism.

7.   Red object's color: red-black search tree / красно-черное дерево поиска / שחור-עץ אדום (modern, binary search tree for organizing fragments of text or numbers) ; Red Rock/ красная скала / הסלע האדום (Sandstone, in red coloration) ;Red Everlasting / דם המכבים (Maccabees red blood is a legend about a drop of blood that spilled on the ground in the place where flowers grew, Russian - бессмертник /immortelle, an noncolor equivalent); red / אדום (Russian - рыжий, ginger, another hue); red / אדום (Indian); red meat )בשר אדום/ beef -in opposite to white meat, a euphemism for pork , in Jewish religious prescriptions the meaning allowed - forbidden; יבל דרוםפסט אדום(Southem Red Festival - massive excursions to the Negev during the red anemones bloom in early spring); the Red Sea / Эйлатское , Красное море / הים האדום (due to seasonal blooming of red microscopic algae).

Optical red explains the motivation and etymology of the many RIs: a ruddy or angry face, blood and fire events, a painful rash, a visual symbol of the Red Cross Movement, a traffic lights, a revolution flag, a grand opening ribbon, an honor carpet, a holiday in the calendar and lanterns of the notorious quarter. New technologies and computer English idioms have become international because of globalization. Innumerous RIs, red is opposite to green, white, blue, and black.

3.2    Extra-associative RIs (not included in associative chains)

This section identified 11 English, 5 Russian, and one Jewish extra-associative RIs that not included in associative chains because of its unique meanings that linked to the country's and nation's history and culture.

English: to paint the town red ( noisy fun); a red herring (a distraction that refers to the practice of using a fragrant smoked fish to distract hunting dogs from the track); Red Nose Day ( charity events in England); red tape (government bureaucracy); redneck (a farmer from a small town); red hot (a spicy food); not a red cent(money difficulties), to be in the red/red phrase (a loss, a debt), come out of the red (to stop the money problems) ; a red and blue pill (antonymy - truth or blissful ignorance).

Russian: Красная площадь (the main square - the name from the 17th century); красная рыба (sturgeon family fish); красное словцо (witty, apt expression); красная строка (a new paragraph in ancient times ornamented with multi-colored letters); красный диплом (red diploma- honors degree); долг платежом красен (debt payment is red - is good for both sides).

The historical connotations of the red lexeme, according to Bakhilina (1975: 162-163), are lovely, beautiful, precious, best, high-quality, and noble, and the English term red ticket item (valuable) is equal to this Russian meaning. Kulinskaya (2015: 130) named this RIs: national color idioms.

Hebrew: םימודא הלעמ (red climb or city on the side of a mountain near Jerusalem).

Discussion and Conclusions

Based on the examination of 43 English, 31 Russian, and 18 Hebrew RI, uniting them in the trilingual associative chains, then organizing seven RI microsystems and indicating the trilingual extra-associative RI, the following conclusions could be made.

1.   In quantitative terms, English RIs prevail, followed by Russian and Hebrew RIs.

2.    There are more equivalent idioms in English &Hebrew than in English & Russian; Russian and Hebrew obviously due to the close countries' and peoples' ties:(English, Hebrew, red - blue, alien-ours; English, Russian - the red day of the calendar). Accordingly, the idiom red-blue, alien- ours own is a lacunar for Russian, and in red (losses and debts) is a lacunar for Russian and Hebrew.

3.   There are many trilingual equivalent RIs and their number is growing due to the globalization of the world community: red-green antonymy, red-black search tree.

4.    The symbolization of phenomenon in many, if not most RIs based on it an optical red color.

5.   The multiple RIs meanings could be organized within seven microsystems: 1. Color of blood - health, vitality, energy, activity; inflammation, sickness; medical, humanitarian help; nervous excitement, embarrassment, shame, irritation; anger, rage, fury, aggressiveness; crime, murder, guilt. 2. Flame, fire, importance, attractiveness. 3. Danger, alarm, warning; prohibition, limit, boundary; prohibition, limit, boundary; Red-Green (dangerous - safe, forbidding - permissive, prohibition - permissive, negative-positive, impossible - possible, no - yes). 4. Revolution, socialism, communism, extremism, anarchism, leftist ideologies. 5. Prestige, celebration, holiday. 6. Sex. 7. Red object's color.

6.   RI is characterized by ambiguity (red zone / אדומה נעילה-; in computing - no modification zone; stock exchange falling shares); red and blue (English - the truth of life and a military term) /

7.   The RI meanings may differ in different languages: red - white (Russian - revolutionary-anti­revolutionary; Hebrew - permitted - prohibited meat).

8.    RIs could belong to several microsystems at the same time: red light

(English, danger, and attractiveness); red-blooded (vitality, energy, activity, and sex); red as fire (color of blood and flame).

9.   We found extra-associative 11 English, 6 Russian, and 3 Hebrew RI with the meaning that does not adjoin to any associative chains. Usually, they are unique for only one language: red tape (English- bureaucracy).

10.   RIs form an antinomy with different colors: red-green, red-black (international symbols), red-white (different meanings in Russian, Hebrew), and red-blue (English, Hebrew).

11.   RIs actively form global neologisms in computer technology, the stock market, the coronavirus pandemic and demonstrate the importance of RI in modern languages and linguistic culture, for example, the red-green antonymy (ban vs permission, dangerous vs safe, stranger's vs ours, negative vs positive).

12.   Over time, RIs acquires new meanings: red light (English, prohibition of movement­attractiveness); red zone (Russian, administrative territory- no modification zone computers, stock exchange falling shares).

13.   Earlier, English was characterized by CIs with polarized connotations (murder - medical care), in Russian, they were connotatively positive, and in Hebrew, they were connotatively neutral. Today, the lexeme red has more positive meanings in the English language than before and serves as an informative rather than an emotional symbol.

Further research on antonymy in three languages, concepts of other colorative idioms versus RI, describing the didactic use of this material in translation, and teaching a second language for both children and adults are promising.