Call for Abstracts - Metaphors, Metonymies and Colours
Metaphors, Metonymies and Colours
When we talk about a diverse society, see red or lament black-and-white thinking, one thing becomes clear: colours and how we perceive them are an integral part of everyday language and fundamental to many metaphorical and metonymic expressions. Certain discourses are hardly imaginable without the metaphorical recourse to colours. Most recently, during the World Cup, we saw in the news coverage once again how soccer teams are discussed in terms of colours, with La Roja, “the Reds,” claiming victory while others turned green with envy. Texts on sustainability are characterized by the colour green while in many cultures, mourning is symbolised by black clothing whereas innocence is represented by white. Colours and their verbal representation have thus cognitive, cultural, and symbolic relevance when it comes to making emotions, political goals, or social issues tangible.
The open-access journal metaphorik.de (double-blind peer-reviewed) aims to publish a special issue on the metaphorical and/or metonymic use of colours in texts, discourses and other media. We welcome submissions that explore colours as both the source and target of metaphorical concepts, as well as the use and potential of colours within metonymic processes. The focus can be on both historical and contemporary discourses while culture- and language-specific or cross-cultural and cross-linguistic studies are welcome. Questions that could be addressed include, for example:
1. To what extent do metaphorical framings of colours differ?
2. Are there convergences – or even universals – in colour metaphors across languages or language families?
3. What linguistically and culturally specific forms do colour metaphors exist?
4. Are there discourse domains in which colour metaphors are prevalent, and if so, why?
5. Under what conditions do colour terms become metonymies?
6. What role do colour metaphors and metonymies play in phraseology?
7. How are colour metaphors and metonymies used multimodally, particularly in the interplay between image and text?
Abstracts for article proposals, limited to one page, may be submitted via the website metaphorik.de by November 30th 2026. Once authors have been invited to submit their manuscripts (by January 15th 2027), papers should be submitted by June 30th 2027 to secure that the special issue can be published in the end of 2027.
References:
Cacciari, C. / Massironi, M. / Corradini, P. (2004): "When Colour Names Are Used Metaphorically: the Role of Linguistic and Chromatic Information, in: Metaphor and Symbol 19:3, 169-190.
Redondo, A.L./Molina Plaza, S. (2007), “Colours We Live by?: Red and Green Metaphors in English and Spanish”, in: CULTURA, LENGUAJE Y REPRESENTACIÓN 7, 177-193
Tóth, M. (2016), "Farbige Düfte: Metonymie und verbale Synästhesie", in: Argumentum 12, 152-170.
Zhao, Q. / Castaneda A./ Castaneda Abdullah, A. Q. (2024), "Metaphorical meanings of color symbols in literature", in: Chinese Semiotic Studies 20:4, 625-646. (https://doi.org/10.1515/css-2024-2030)
