A semantic and grammatical classification of colour terms in the English language

The author analyzes terms nominating colours. Semantics of color terms is investigated. The author offers a classification based on the lexical-semantic criterion taking into account the symbolic meaning of colour terms. The new term «colour phraseme» is introduced to express the meaning ‘color’. Data for analyses are phraseological units selected from the English-Russian dictionary edited by A.V. Koonin, using the method of continuous sampling. The article contributes to the development of the study of phraseology.