A Corpus Analysis of Color-Term Conceptual Metaphors in Persian Proverbs

This study investigated the distribution of color terms in Persian proverbs in three Iranian proverbs books and their metaphoric reflection in the users’ beliefs, ideas, or values. Through investigating as many as 4710 proverbs in the pertinent books, a corpus of 56 Persian proverbs with color terms in content was selected and analyzed. The results suggested that colors are not distributed equally in Persian proverbs and that they stood for both positive and negative connotations. Since metaphoric expressions are inseparable feature of scientific and non-scientific writings, language users are suggested to attain adequate awareness of these expressions in different domains.