| Abstract: |
This paper examines the meaning of the colour term red in English and Hausa from a semantic perspective. Previous studies have analysed English and non-English colour terms as hue terms which has resulted in some aspects of the meaning of colour terms to be overlooked. Thus the dimensions used to define color terminology, hue, saturation, brightness and tone are critically studied and they are found to be suitable for English colour terminology but not for Hausa colour terms. Using examples from English and Hausa it was found thatEnglish red is primarily a hue term, and though traditionally classified as an adjective, red in English could be used as a noun and verb. In Hausa, Jaa (red) is also classified as an adjective. However, while it can be used as a hue term, it also can be used as a term which indicates ripeness and cooked quality of certain foods. This is another aspect of the meaning of Hausa jaa that is not accounted for by the usual terminology used for describing colour in English colour studies. The paper concludes that further research needs to be carried out in order to develop a framework that could account for the meaning of colours in Hausa, and possibly other African languages. |
EBONYI JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE
