imported>The Anome: linking

2025-04-03T06:26:31Z

linking

New page

{{For|the concept|Color term}}
{{Short description|Linguistics book by Brent Berlin and Paul Kay}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution
| author = [[Brent Berlin]] and [[Paul Kay]]
| language = English
| country = [[Berkeley, California]], USA
| genre = [[Linguistics]]
| publisher = [[University of California Press]]
| isbn = 1-57586-162-3
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = Basic Color Terms Their Universality and Evolution.jpg
| caption = First edition
| illustrator =
| cover_artist =
| subject =
| pub_date = 1969
| english_pub_date =
| media_type = Print
| pages = 178
| dewey =
| congress = P341.B4
}}
{{Italic title|force=true}}
'''''Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution''''' (1969; {{ISBN|1-57586-162-3}}) is a book by [[Brent Berlin]] and [[Paul Kay]]. Berlin and Kay's work proposed that the basic [[color term]]s 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 either [[yellow]] or [[green]].

Berlin and Kay posit seven levels in which cultures fall, with Stage I [[language]]s having only the colors black (dark–cool) and white (light–warm). Languages in Stage VII have eight or more basic color terms. This includes [[English language|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 just 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 (colour)|orange]], or [[gray]]

The work has achieved widespread influence. However, the constraints in color-term ordering have been substantially loosened, both by Berlin and Kay in later publications, and by various critics. Barbara Saunders questioned the methodologies of data collection and the cultural assumptions underpinning the research,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Saunders |first=Barbara |date=2000 |title=Revisiting Basic Color Terms |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2660766 |journal=The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=81–99 |issn=1359-0987}}</ref> as has [[Stephen C. Levinson]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Levinson |first=Stephen C. |date=June 2000 |title=Yeli Dnye and the Theory of Basic Color Terms |url=http://doi.wiley.com/10.1525/jlin.2000.10.1.3 |journal=Journal of Linguistic Anthropology |language=en |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=3–55 |doi=10.1525/jlin.2000.10.1.3 |issn=1055-1360|hdl=11858/00-001M-0000-0013-2A6B-F |hdl-access=free }}</ref>
__NOTOC__
== See also ==
* [[Linguistic relativity and the color naming debate]]
* [[Blue–green distinction in language]]
* [[Color blindness]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* Witkowski, Stanley, and Brown, Cecil. (1977). "An Explanation of Color Nomenclature Universals." ''American Anthropologist,'' 79(1):50-57.
* Saunders, Barbara and Brakel, J. van (Jaap) (Fall 2002). "The Trajectory of Color". ''Perspectives on Science'', 10(3):302–355.
* Saunders, Barbara A. C. (1992). ''The Invention of Basic colour terms.'' Utrecht I.S.O.R.
* Newcomer, Peter and Faris, James (October 1971). "Basic Color Terms". ''International Journal of American Linguistics'', 37(4):270–275.
* Kay, P. and McDaniel, K. (1978). "The Linguistic Significance of the Meanings of Basic Color Terms". ''Language'', 54(3): 610–646.
* Levinson, Stephen C. (2000). "Yélî Dnye and the theory of basic color terms". ''Journal of Linguistic Anthropology'' 10(1):3–55.

==External links==
* [http://wals.info/feature/description/133 Chapter 133: "Number of Basic Colour Categories"], by Paul Kay and Luisa Maff, World Atlas for Language Structures Online.
* [http://www1.icsi.berkeley.edu/wcs/ The World Color Survey] by Paul Kay and Richard Cook.

{{Color topics}}

[[Category:1969 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Color names]]
[[Category:Linguistics books]]
[[Category:University of California Press books]]
[[Category:Books about color]]

Basic Color Terms - Revision history

imported>The Anome: linking