Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-6kn8j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-31T04:46:46.831Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Colour and colour terminology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

N. B. McNeill
N. B. McNeill
Affiliation:
Psycholinguistic Laboratories, The University of Chicago
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The continuous gradation of colour which exists in nature is represented in language by a series of discrete categories. Athough there is no such thing as a natural division of the spectrum, every language has colour words by which its speakers categorize and structure the colour continuum. The number of colour words and the manner in which different languages classify the colour continuum differ. Bassa, a language of Liberia, has only two terms for classifying colours; hui and ziza (Gleason, 1955: 5). Hui corresponds roughly to the cool end of the spectrum (black, violet, blue, and green) and ziza corresponds to the warm end of the spectrum (white, yellow, orange and red); in Bambara, one of the languages of the Congo area, there are three fundamental colour words: dyema, blema and fima (Zahan, 1951: 52). Dyema includes white, beige, and natural (cotton) colour; blema denotes reddish, brownish shades; and finally fima includes dark green, indigo and black. Maerz and Paul (1930) list over 3000 colour names in English, but generally it is considered to have eight basic names: black, white, red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , April 1972 , pp. 21 - 33
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

André, J. (1949). Étude sur les termes de couleur dans la langue latine. Paris: Klincksieck.Google Scholar
Arnheim, R. (1969). Art and visual perception. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Beaglehole, E. & Beaglehole, P. (1938). Ethnology of Pukapuka (Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin No. 150). Honolulu: Bernice P. Bishop Museum.Google Scholar
Berlin, B. & Kay, P. (1969). Basic color terms: their universality and evolution. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Boas, F. (1911). On grammatical categories. In Hymes, D. (ed.). Language in culture and society. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Brown, R. W. (1958). Words and things. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Brückner, A. (1957). Slownik Etymologiczny fęzyka Polskiego. Warszawa: Wiedza Powszechna.Google Scholar
Chiri, M. (1953). Bunrui Ainu-go fiten – Daiikkan Shokubutsu-hen (Dictionary of Ainu, Vol. 1: Plants). Tokyo: Nihon Jomin Bunka Kenkyusho.Google Scholar
Conklin, H. C. (1955). Hanunoó color categories. In Hymes, D. (ed.), Language in culture and society. 180–192. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Durbin, M. (1970). Review of Berlin & Kay, 1969. To appear in Semiotica.Google Scholar
Ernout, A. & Meillet, A. (1967). Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine: histoire des mots. 4th Ed.Paris: Klincksieck.Google Scholar
Forbes, R. J. (1964). Studies in ancient technology. (Second Revised Edition), Vol. 4. Leiden: E. J. Brill. 99–127.Google Scholar
Gatschet, A. S. (1879). Adjectives of color in Indian languages. The American naturalist 13, 8: 475–485.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gipper, H. (1964). Purpur. Glotta 43, 39–69.Google Scholar
Gleason, H. A. (1955). An introduction to descriptive linguistics. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Goethe, J. W. von (1840). Theory of colours. (Eastlake, C. L.). London: John Murray.Google Scholar
Haile, B. (1951). A stem vocabulary of the Navaho language, Vol. 2. St Michaels: St Michaels Press.Google Scholar
Kluckhohm, C. & Leighton, D. (1946). The Navaho, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Krech, D., Crutchfield, R. S. & Livson, N. (1969). Elements of psychology. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Landar, H. J., Ervin, S. M. & Horowitz, A. E. (1960). Navaho color categories. Lg 36, 368–382.Google Scholar
Laudermilk, J. (1949). The bug with a crimson past. Natural History (03 1949), 114–118.Google Scholar
Le Coeur, C. (1956). Grammaire et textes Teda-Daza. Mémoires de l'institut français d'Afrique noire 46, 250–394.Google Scholar
Linskz, A. (1964). An essay on color vision and clinical color vision tests. New York: Grune & Stratten.Google Scholar
Linskz, A. (1952). Physiology of the eye, Vol. 2: Vision. New York: Grune & Stratton.Google Scholar
MacCaughey, V. & Emerson, J. S. (1913). The Kalo in Hawaii. The Hawaiian forester and agriculturalist. 225–231, 280–288, 315–323, 349–358.Google Scholar
McGregor, G. (1935). Notes on the ethnology of Pukapuka. Occasional papers (Bernice P. Bishop Museum of Polynesian Ethnology and Natural History), 9, 6: 3–52. Honolulu: Bernice P. Bishop Museum.Google Scholar
Machek, V. (1957). Etymologický slovník – jazyka českého a slovenského. Praha.Google Scholar
Maerz, A. & Paul, M. R. (1930). Dictionary of color. New York: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Miklosich, F. (1886). Etymologisches Wörterbuch der Slavischen Sprachen. Wien: Wilhelm Braumüller.Google Scholar
Morohashi, T. (1960). Daikanwa Jiten (Chinese-Japanese Dictionary), Vol. 9. Tokyo: Daishukan.Google Scholar
Murray, J. A. H. (1909). A new English dictionary on historical principles. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Uemura, R. (1943). Manyosenshoku no Kenkyu (Studies in the Manyo Dyes). Tokyo: Kobunsha.Google Scholar
Uemura, R. & Yamazaki, K. (1943). Nihon Shikimei Taikan (Dictionary of Japanese Colour Terms). Tokyo: Kodori Shorin.Google Scholar
Vasmer, M. (1955). Russisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, Vol. 2. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar
Wada, S. (1954). Shikimei Daijiten (Dictionary of Colour). Tokyo: Sogensha.Google Scholar
Walde, A. & Hofmann, J. B. (1938). Lateinisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar
Whorf, B. L. (1956). Language, thought and reality. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Woodworth, R. S. (1910). The puzzle of color vocabularies. The psychological bulletin, 7, 10. 325–334.Google Scholar
Woodworth, R. S. & Schlosberg, H. (1955). Experimental psychology. New York: Holt.Google Scholar
Zahan, D. (1951). Les couleurs chez les Bambara du Soudan français. Notes Africaines (Bulletin d'Information et de Correspondance de l'Institut français d'Afrique Notre), 50, 52–56.Google Scholar