color categories

COLOR NAMES: LINGUISTIC AND COGNITIVE CATEGORIES José Luis CAIVANO caivano@fadu.uba.ar

University of Buenos Aires and National Council for Research Argentine Color Group

Linguistic and cognitive categorization in the domain of color

gwyrdd ————— green ————— blue glas ————— gray ————— ————— llwyd brown

Louis Hjelmslev: lack of coincidence in the domains covered by color names between English and Welsh.

Linguistic and cognitive categorization in the domain of color

[green] [light blue] [dark blue]

verde ————————— glaucus, caerulus golubej ————— azul sinij

Umberto Eco: differences between Russian, Spanish, and Latin.

Linguistic and cognitive categorization in the domain of color

golubej celeste ———————————— sinij azul

[light blue] [dark blue]

Similarities between Russian and the Spanish spoken in Argentina

basic color terms

instrument used to make the survey on color names: array of Munsell colors

Berlin & Kay – Mexican Spanish

Berlin & Kay – American English

Berlin & Kay – Mexican Spanish

Berlin & Kay – American English

BERLIN & KAY THESIS Basic Color Terms. Their Universality and Evolution

(1969)

2 terms [I stage] white and black (lightness - darkness) 7 languages in New Guinea + ngombĂŠ of Zaire, paliyan of India 3 terms [II stage] + red (1st color) 21 languages, some in Zaire: kikongo, lingala, swahili 4 terms [III stage] + green or yellow arunta, in Australia 5 terms [IV stage] + green + yellow 18 american languages: hopi, navajo, apache, esquimo 6 terms [V stage]

+ blue

8 languages: mandarin (literary chinese), masai (Kenya), hausa (Niger)

7 terms [VI stage] javanese (Java)

+ brown

11 terms [VII stage] + violet, pink, orange and gray most present languages in industrial and urban societies: French, German, English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, etc.

other studies on color categorization: Taft and Sivik; comparison between Swedish and Croatian

Robert MacLaury’s Mesoamerican color survey

Association Internationale de la Couleur International Color Association Internationale Vereinigung f端r die Farbe

www.aic-color.org