Blue as a Component of Collocations and Idioms in German and Bosnian Languages in Print Media and Electronic Publications

Abstract

This paper presents a contrastive analysis of idioms and collocations featuring the color blue in German and Bosnian print media and electronic publications. The aim of the analysis was to identify differences at the morphological, syntactic, and lexical levels, as well as to determine cultural differences between the two languages. The corpus included 22 examples: five collocations in German, seven in Bosnian, three idioms in German, and four in Bosnian. The corpus also included compounds as translation equivalents (e.g., “blue-collar” and “blue-collar worker”), as German increasingly relies on such structures. The paper notes instances where concepts were directly translated from English (e.g., “blue wall,” “Blue Monday”) and identifies examples without equivalents in the other language (e.g., “blue book,” “blue spring,” “blue phone”). The contrastive analysis aimed to assess the extent to which collocations and idioms involving the color blue align with their counterparts in the target language. The results show that the meanings and contexts in which collocations and idioms with the component of blue appear largely coincide. In most examples, the color blue carries positive connotations, symbolizing peace, security, agreement, neatness, reliability, clarity, justice, and empathy. A small number of examples suggest negative connotations, where blue can symbolize suppressed melancholy (e.g., “Blue Monday,” “blue phone”). The analysis demonstrated a significant influence of social factors, culture, and tradition on the formation of new collocations and idioms involving the color blue in the language. Newer, modern lifestyles (“Blaue Nacht” / “blue night,” “das Blaue Herz” / “blue heart”), migration (“blaue Karte” / “blue card”), social status (“blue-collar worker”), and various social and political situations (“der Notruf für die Seele” / “blue phone,” “Blue Monday,” “blaue Welle” / “bluewave”) have contributed to the creation of new collocations and idioms. We can conclude that social order, culture, and historical circumstances play a significant role in the creation of new collocations and idioms featuring the color blue. In most cases, these expressions carry similar connotations, indicating the universality of blue as a symbol. This can be attributed to the geographic proximity of the countries and their belonging to a similar cultural sphere. The paper demonstrates that new collocations and idioms continue to emerge in both languages. Examples such as “Blue Monday,” “blue card,” and “blue wave” illustrate the global influence of modern lifestyles, trends, migration, and social and political changes, all contributing to the creation of new expressions. The conclusions drawn in this paper apply only to the analyzed corpus.