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    Research On Colour Words

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    Anonymous BQcnG1
    Berlin and Kay's 1969 study proposed that the basic color terms in a language are predictable based on the total number of terms. They identified 11 basic color terms in English and proposed that languages evolve through 7 stages of acquiring color terms, starting with only black and white and eventually reaching a maximum of 11 terms including purple, pink, orange and gray. However, their work has been criticized for having narrow samples that were not random, laboratory errors, and other empirical deficiencies.

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    Research On Colour Words

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    Anonymous BQcnG1
    182 views4 pages
    Berlin and Kay's 1969 study proposed that the basic color terms in a language are predictable based on the total number of terms. They identified 11 basic color terms in English and proposed that languages evolve through 7 stages of acquiring color terms, starting with only black and white and eventually reaching a maximum of 11 terms including purple, pink, orange and gray. However, their work has been criticized for having narrow samples that were not random, laboratory errors, and other empirical deficiencies.

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    A research on Basic colour terms based on Berlin & kay's Universality of colours theory

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    Research on Colour Words

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    Berlin and Kay's 1969 study proposed that the basic color terms in a language are predictable based on the total number of terms. They identified 11 basic color terms in English and proposed that languages evolve through 7 stages of acquiring color terms, starting with only black and white and eventually reaching a maximum of 11 terms including purple, pink, orange and gray. However, their work has been criticized for having narrow samples that were not random, laboratory errors, and other empirical deficiencies.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    182 views4 pages

    Research On Colour Words

    Uploaded by

    Anonymous BQcnG1
    Berlin and Kay's 1969 study proposed that the basic color terms in a language are predictable based on the total number of terms. They identified 11 basic color terms in English and proposed that languages evolve through 7 stages of acquiring color terms, starting with only black and white and eventually reaching a maximum of 11 terms including purple, pink, orange and gray. However, their work has been criticized for having narrow samples that were not random, laboratory errors, and other empirical deficiencies.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 4

    Research on Colour Words

    According to Berlin and Kay (1969) 'Basic Color Terms, their Universality and
    Evolution'
    There are 11 basic colour terms in English:

    red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown, grey, black and white.
    Languages evolved from having only 2 basic colour terms, and gradually added
    more over time until they reached a maximum of 11 basic terms.
    Berlin and Kay's work proposed that the basic color terms in a culture, such as black, brown or red,
    are predictable by the number of color terms the culture has. (All cultures have terms for black/dark
    and white/bright. If a culture has three color terms the third is red. If a culture has four it has yellow
    or green...)
    Berlin and Kay posit seven levels in which cultures fall, with Stage I languages having only the
    colors black (darkcool) and white (lightwarm). Languages in Stage VII have eight or more basic
    color terms. This includes English, which has eleven basic color terms. The authors theorize that as
    languages evolve, they acquire new basic color terms in a strict chronological sequence; if a basic
    color term is found in a language, then the colors of all earlier stages should also be present. The
    sequence is as follows:
    Stage I: Dark-cool and light-warm (this covers a larger set of colors than English "black" and
    "white".)
    Stage II: Red
    Stage III: Either green or yellow
    Stage IV: Both green and yellow
    Stage V: Blue
    Stage VI: Brown
    Stage VII: Purple, pink, orange, or gray

    Current doctrine in linguistics and anthropology holds that each language and
    culture expresses a unique world view by its particular way of slicing up reality into
    named categories. (See Sapir-Whorf hypothesis).
    This says that it is difficult to make exact translations between languages because
    hearers see the world in a way governed by their own language.
    Colour vocabulary is a possible example of this.
    According to accepted doctrine, basic colour words are not translatable across
    languages.

    21 languages:

    2 Amerindian 16 African 1 Pacific 1 Australian


    Aboriginal 1 South India

    WHITE BLACK RED GREEN

    Stage IIIa

    8 languages:

    6 African 1 Philippine 1 New Guinea

    WHITE BLACK RED YELLOW

    Stage IlIb

    9 languages:

    2 Australian Aboriginal 1 Philippine 3


    Polynesian 1 Greek (Homeric) 2 African

    WHITE BLACK RED GREEN YELLOW

    Stage IV

    18 languages:

    12 Amerindian 1 Sumatra 4 African 1 Eskimo

    WHITE BLACK RED GREEN YELLOW BL Stage V


    UE
    8 languages:

    5 African 1 Chinese 1 Philippine 1 South India

    WHITE BLACK RED GREEN YELLOW BL Stage VI


    UEBROWN
    5 languages:

    2 African 1 Sumatra 1 South India 1


    Amerindian

    COMPLETE ARRAY OF COLOURS

    Stage VII

    20 languages:

    1 Arabic 2 Malayan 6 European 1 Chinese 1


    Indian 2 African 1 Hebrew 1 Japanese 1
    Korean 2 South East Asian 1 Amerindian 1
    Philippine

    However Berlin and Kaye's work has been criticised, for example in "Revisiting Basic
    Color Terms" by Barbara Saunders who claims that Berlin and Kaye's work is
    fundamentally flawed.
    In one of her less wordy paragraphs Saunders says:
    "Though Berlin and Kay insist their tests were 'empirical', it is worth looking at
    them more closely. There were labelling, transcription and factual errors,
    empirical deficiencies in the experiments, a language sample that was not
    random, and a bilingual and colonial factor that was ignored. The informants
    were narrowly homogenous, often with one bilingual speaker for each of
    nineteen language, all foreign students, presumably at Berkeley (Rosch
    1972).26. Finally, fifteen of the twenty mapped languages were at
    Evolutionary Stage Seven, meaning that B&K's hardest datum - the universal
    clustering of foci - was a foregone conclusion."

    A correspondent to this author says:

    It's also worth noting that the phrase "complete range of colours" is meaningless
    unless precisely defined. Colour identification is partly physiological (most humans
    can naturally "see" the full spectrum) and partly cultural / linguistic (individual

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