The Morpho-Syntactic Representation of Color Terms in Kurdish: A Distributed Morphology (DM) Perspectiv

Abstract

This study investigates the morphological and semantic properties of color terms in the Central Dialect of Kurdish, adopting the framework of Distributed Morphology (DM). The research challenges the traditional view of color terms as static adjectives, proposing instead that they are category-neutral roots (Root) that acquire syntactic and semantic identities through their interaction with structural functional heads. The study explores three primary dimensions: the conceptual insertion of colors in livestock and environmental terminology, the verbalization of colors through inchoative and causative constructions, and the symbolic representation of colors in Kurdish poetry (Nali, Mahwi, Goran). The results demonstrate that color terms in Kurdish are subject to (Late Insertion) and (Syntactic Contextuality), where the mental lexicon and the syntactic derivation interact to produce complex idiomatic and metaphorical meanings. The findings conclude that Kurdish speakers possess a high degree of morphological awareness, enabling the dynamic deconstruction and reconstruction of color-based linguistic units. This study follows the Descriptive Analytical Method. On the one hand, based on the data of Abdulwahhab Shekhani's Dictionary of Colors, which gives a detailed description of color terms in Kurdish. On the other hand, in a scientific manner and using the tools of distributed morphology theory (Distributed Morphology), we conduct a morpho-semantic analysis of the structures to explain how these words are formed at the level of morphemes and roots.