English D, degree thesis 10 points

Spring 2005 ________________________________________________________________ Course: English D

COLOUR TERMS

Interpretation of Linguistic Signs Author: Henrika Florén Supervisor: Jonathan White

COLOUR TERMS Internal Representation of a Linguistic Sign

Abstract This study has investigated what mechanisms influence categorisation of colour terms, when only the internal representation of the colour term as a linguistic sign is available as a guide. The aim was to study what happens when only internal references are used for categorising colour terms. The results are based on the data from a questionnaire where twenty informants have categorised, without visual reference, a list consisting of eighty six English colour terms into eleven possible categories of basic colour terms; white, black, red, green, yellow, blue, brown, purple, pink, orange and grey. When the colour term is unknown word structure becomes important, but for some colour terms word structure is not enough and psychological mechanisms are used to determine the colour category of a colour term. The hypothesis is that when the task of categorising colour terms without visual reference is performed, linguistic and psychological mechanisms work in parallel. The outcome of this study contributes a piece of information on how grammatical and psychological mechanisms interact when the complex task of linguistically categorising labels, such as colour, is performed. Keywords: basic colour terms, categorisation, colour terms, colour words, internal references, linguistic mechanisms, linguistic sign.

Table of Contents Abstract 1. Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1 Aim and hypothesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.2 The survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.3 Overview of the essay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2. Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2.1 Language history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2.1.1 Colour shift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2.1.2 Secondary colour terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2.2 Development of BCT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 2.2.1 White . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 2.2.2 Black . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 2.2.3 Red . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2.2.4 Green . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2.2.5 Yellow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2.2.6 Blue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 2.2.7 Brown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 2.2.8 Purple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2.2.9 Pink . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2.2.10 Orange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2.2.11 Grey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

2.3 Linguistic Anthropology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 2.3.1 Sapir Whorf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 2.3.2 Berlin & Kay 1969 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

2.4 Linguistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 2.4.1 Compounding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 2.4.2 Coordinate structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

2.5 Psychological aspects and boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 3 Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

3.1 The survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 3.2 Informants and collecting information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 3.3 Reliability and validity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 3.4 Method considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 3.5 Anonymity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 3.6 Method of analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

4. Results and conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

4.1 Patterns and problems in categorisation of colour terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 4.1.1 White. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 4.1.2 Black. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 4.1.3 Red . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 4.1.4 Green . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 4.1.5 Yellow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 4.1.6 Blue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 4.1.7 Brown. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 4.1.8 Purple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 4.1.9 Pink . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 4.1.10 Orange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 4.1.11 Grey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

4.2 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 5. Discussion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

5.1 Discussion of method. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 5.1.1 Reliability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 5.1.2 Validity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

5.2 Discussion of results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 5.2.1 Stage I - white and black . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 5.2.2 Stage II - red. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 5.2.3 Stage III/IV - green and yellow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 5.2.4 Stage V - blue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 5.2.5 Stage VI - brown. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 5.2.6 Stage VII - purple, pink, orange and grey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

5.3 Linguistic mechanisms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 5.4 Psychological mechanisms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 5.5 Conclusion and results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 5.6 Further study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

List of sources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Appendices:

Appendix 1: The survey Appendix 2: Analysis 1: Numerical distribution of categorisations Appendix 3: Analysis 2: Numerical distribution of categorisations grouped after BCT

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1. Introduction

Colour is continuous, but it is divided linguistically and psychologically into categories,

which have boundaries. When we hear or read a word a mental response is triggered. The

noun chair will, for the English speaker, evoke the memory and idea of the object ‘chair’.

Adjectives such as colour terms trigger instead a set of properties and the internal

representation of these properties. Some colour terms are firmly established in the English

lexicon, others have been added more recently. Language is not static. It changes constantly.

New words are invented or borrowed into a language, while other words are redefined and yet

others are lost with time and disappear from a language. This applies to the colour lexicon as

to language in general.

Previous research in the field of colour vocabularies and categorisations (Berlin & Kay

1969 and following research) is based on the visual perception of colour, i.e. there is some

external representation, which is named, or should be named. This study differs in that it is

only the internal representation of a linguistic sign which is used as the basis for analysis.

1.1 Aim and hypothesis

The aim of this study is to investigate what mechanisms guide the categorisation of colour

terms when no external visual references are available. There are different mechanisms and

strategies at work when the task of categorising colour terms without visual reference is

performed, some of these mechanisms are linguistic in nature and some are psychological.

The study will also give an estimate of how well established in English different colour terms

are. The hypothesis is that when the colour term is unknown word structure becomes

important, but for some colour terms word structure is not enough and psychological

mechanisms are used to determine the colour category of the colour term.

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1.2 The survey

The survey (see Appendix 1) consists of a letter of introduction, questions about age and sex,

and a list of colour terms. The same list of colour terms is found in the Sun X11 rgb-94 file,

and was used in an earlier study by the author, Development of Colour Words in rgb-files

(Florén 2000). RGB stands for Red, Green, Blue, and by mixing these three colours on a

computer screen, or a TV, all colours can be seen. An rgb-file is a list of numerical colour

definitions which defines how much red, green and blue should be used to show a colour on

the screen. The questionnaire is a list of colour terms in alphabetical order taken from the file

SunX11 rgb-94. The informants categorised the colour terms from the list in one of eleven

possible categories. The categories correspond to the eleven basic colour terms white, black,

red, green, yellow, blue, brown, purple, pink, orange and grey (Berlin & Kay 1969).

1.3 Overview

In the introductory section (1.1 Introduction) the topic of the study, aim, hypothesis, have

been presented.

Section 2 provides background information about the history of colour terms in the English

language, and Casson’s (1994, 1997) work about the English colour shift and the development

of basic and secondary colour terms. The historical development (in Casson 1997) of the

eleven basic colour terms (Berlin & Kay 1969), has been given a separate heading (2.2

Development of BCT) for easy reference. This is followed by an overview on research in

linguistic anthropology (2.3 Linguistic anthropology); the Sapir Whorf hypothesis about

linguistic relativity (Sapir 1929, Whorf 1940), which is the idea that thought is dependent on

language; Berlin & Kay (1969) and their realisation that there is a universal system of basic

colour categorisation which applies to all languages. The linguistic mechanisms of

compounding and coordinate structures are outlined. Rosch’s (1978) research in

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psychological aspects of colour naming and representation gives a psychological background

to the mechanisms at work in colour categorisation.

The section on background is followed by a description of method (3 Method), which

presents the method used and the informants. It includes a discussion on reliability and

validity. The study is based on a survey (Appendix 1) and quantitative methodology.

The results are presented, and analysed in section four (4 Results and conclusions). The

analysis of the survey follows the Berlin & Kay (1969) eleven basic colour categories; white,

black, red, green, yellow, blue, brown, purple, pink, orange, and grey. The appendices include

charts with numerical results of the analysis (Appendix 2 & 3) and the questionnaire

(Appendix 1) given the informants.

Section five (5 Discussion) is a discussion of results, and the linguistic and the

psychological mechanisms at work when the task of categorising colour terms without a

visual reference is performed. The essay ends with a comment on further study.

2. Background

2.1 Language history

2.1.1 Colour shift

From its beginning in the fifth century the English language had seven basic colour terms;

white, black, grey, red, yellow, green and blue, that were derived from Indo-European

ancestral sources (Casson 1997: 227). Modern English has eleven basic colour terms (BCT);

white, black, red, green, yellow, blue, brown, purple, pink, orange and grey (Berlin & Kay

1969: 5). The Berlin & Kay hypothesis (1969) states that all languages share a universal

system of basic colour categorisation and that there are basic colour categories, which are

added to a language in a specific order. A language has at most eleven basic colour lexemes.

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In the Old English period (c. 600-1150) brown was added to the seven already present,

making a total of eight BCT: black, white, grey, red, green, blue, yellow and brown. These

colour terms had largely brightness colour meaning (ranging form light to dark Casson 1997:

238), as hue (which is determined from electromagnetic wavelengths and has colour value,

red, green, blue, etc. 238) was only minimally conceptualised in the Old English period, and

there were no secondary colour terms yet (224).

During the Middle English period (c.1150-1500), hue became salient in conceptualisations

of colour. The first secondary colour terms, which are all hue terms, did not enter the English

colour vocabulary until the late Middle English period (c.1350-1500). According to Casson

(1997: 224), this marks the turning point of the English colour shift.

The color shift is also evident in the development of English basic color terms [...] the

eight Old English terms that evolved into basic color terms were predominantly

brightness terms that had minor hue senses (except red, which had a dominant hue

sense) all eight terms – black, white, gray, red, green, blue yellow and brown – survived

and became strictly or primarily hue terms by the late Middle English period. Red,

green, yellow, blue and brown retained only minor brightness senses or none at all, while

black, white and gray were largely hue terms but continued to have brightness senses in

the Middle English period and after (Casson 1997: 226-227).

Secondary colour terms increased gradually during the Early Modern English period (1500-

1700) and the Modern English period (1700-present), with a rapid increase after c.1850 (24).

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2.1.2 Secondary colour terms

The shift from Old English brightness terms to Middle English hue terms, culminated in the

late Middle English period (1350-1500), and it was at this time that the first simplex

secondary colour terms entered the English language. The secondary colour terms are what

Casson (1997: 232) defines as the “second set of lexical innovation that define the English

colour shift”. Secondary colour terms are either simplex or complex lexemes. Simplex

lexemes are lexemes whose meanings are not determinable from internal components, for

example black, green, orange, purple, scarlet, blond, indigo puce, eggshell. Complex

lexemes are derived through word-formation processes of modification (Ljung 1990: 123) and

compounding (Johannesson 1990: 245), and have paraphrastic meanings. Yellowish, light

green, orange-red, wine red and tea rose are examples of complex lexemes (232).

Simplex secondary terms all have hue senses. They all have, or had, object senses as nouns

in addition to colour senses as adjectives. According to White (1990: 188), they are derived

from five object domains: plants, animals, minerals, food and artefacts. Violet, lilac, rose are

flowers; Cherry, orange, lemon, lime, chocolate, olive and peach are foods; Sapphire,

turquoise, ruby, and emerald are stones; Rust, terracotta, cobalt, silver, and gold are minerals;

Vermilion, crimson, and carmine are worms or insects; Canary and cardinal are birds; Salmon

is a fish and purple is originally from a shellfish. However, Magenta and Sienna are places.

Secondary terms also have, or had, “polysemous entity-colour relationships” (Casson 1997:

232). Transparent terms are synchronically polysemous, having both object senses as nouns,

and colour senses as adjectives. Opaque terms are currently monosemous, their earlier object

senses having become obsolete today. Entity and colour senses are, or were, related

metonymically. Lemon, which as a noun refers to a fruit, is extended metonymically to the

yellow colour of lemons and becomes an adjective. Casson's (1994) study of secondary

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English colour terms support a “priority of entity senses and a unidirectionally of metonymic

development from entity sense to color sense” (Casson 1997: 232-33).

2.2 Development of BCT

Berlin & Kay (1969) (see 2.3.2 Berlin & Kay 1969) claimed that all languages share a

universal system of basic colour categorisation and that there are basic colour categories, and

at most eleven basic colour lexemes, added to a language in a certain order. The Berlin & Kay

(1969) hypothesis defines seven language stages (see 2.3.2 Berlin & Kay 1969). Low numbers

for language stages indicate a rudimentary level. Higher numbers denote languages with more

differentiated colour lexicons for basic colour terms (BCT). BCT with low numbers have

been present in the English lexicon for a long time, and are therefore firmly established in the

English language.

Stage I-VI:

2.2.1 White (stage I)

A colour term for white has been present in English since the fifth century. Hwit, the old

English term for white, was primarily a brightness term, but the term also had a hue sense.

Middle English whit still had a brightness sense, but was used primarily for hue (in Casson

1997: 227).

2.2.2 Black (stage I)

The Old English basic black term was predominantly a brightness term, but it also had the

conventional hue sense as for ‘burnt’, ‘scorched’ carried over from Germanic. Middle English

blak continued to have a significant luminous sense as black still does, but its hue sense was

primary during the period (in Casson 1997: 227-8).

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2.2.3 Red (stage II)

A colour term for red has been present in English since the fifth century. Read, the old

English term for red, was a hue-dominated term referring, for example, to roses and the

blood-reddened cross. But it also denoted reflectivity and luminosity in reference to flames,

fire and lightning, dawn and sunset, gold, sword edges, and the water of the Red Sea. Middle

English reed was also used for luminosity in referring to fire, flames, dawn and sunset. Its

red-hue sense was much more widely used in reference to pigments and dyes, complexion,

skin and lips, hair and beards, the eye or iris, cloth and garments, blood, coral rose, ruby,

grapes, wine, ripe wheat, soil and earth (in Casson 1997: 228-229).

2.2.4 Green (stage III or IV)

A colour term for green has been present in English since the fifth century. The Old English

grene was basically a hue term, but also had significant brightness sense. In Middle English,

grene, became a predominantly hue term, referring to grass and foliage, herbs and vegetables,

the earth; cloth and clothing; emerald, jasper; unripe corn and unripe pears; and skin and

complexion of a ”pale and sickly or bilious hue” (Casson 1997: 227, 229).

2.2.5 Yellow (stage III or IV)

A colour term for yellow has been present in English since the fifth century. Old English

geolo was primarily a brightness term, but also had an established hue sense. Middle English

yelou had minor reflectivity and luminosity senses in reference to the sun, gold, crystal, but

was primarily a hue term referring to pigments, fabrics, the yolk of an egg, discoloured paper,

ripe corn, faded leaves, sulphur, wax, hair, the complexion in age or disease, and various

flowers, fruits and root (in Casson 1997: 227, 229).

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2.2.6 Blue (stage V)

A colour terms for blue had initially had both luminous and hue senses, denoting pale grey,

pale blue, pale green. Later haewen (OE) was increasingly used to denote blue specifically,

and furthermore, all types of blue. Haewen was used in reference to dye, sapphire, indigo, and

blue-black cinders. Haewen did not survive into Middle English, but was replaced by blew(e).

apart from such brightness referents as the sky and the deep sea, Middle English blew(e) was

predominantly a hue term. Its hue referents included flowers, pigments, dye and enamel, cloth

and clothing, and skin or complexion affected by severe cold (OED; MED, Burnley 1976:42).

Azure, which belongs to the blue category, has been present in English since the Middle

English period (in Casson 1997: 230).

2.2.7 Brown (stage VI)

A colour term for brown has been present in English since the fifth century, but was probably

not a basic colour term in Old English. It was added to the basic colour lexicon in the Middle

English period, not as a general colour term, but rather as a restricted term limited to specific

sets of objects. Old English brun was restricted to horses, other animals, birds, metals human

skin, and water. Brun had not lost its primary reflectivity signification nor moved very far

towards its modern hue meaning. Middle English broun developed its general hue sense, and

became a basic colour term referring almost exclusively to hue by the end of the Middle

English period. Two broun brightness senses continued in the middle English period. Among

the hue referents are pigments; cloth and yarn, bread and jugs; grain and bran; hair, eyebrows,

and beards; faces, complexions, and persons; varieties of plants, animal and minerals (in

Casson 1997: 227, 230-231).

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Other colour terms that belong to the brown category; Beige is an eighteenth-century

Modern English colour term. Khaki has been part of English since the eighteenth century, and

Sienna has been present in English since the eighteenth century just like beige and khaki

(235).

Stage VII: The three Modern English basic terms, purple orange, and pink, were added later

in the evolution of the basic colour lexicon. They were always strictly hue terms (Casson

1997: 231).

2.2.8 Purple (stage VII)

Purple did not come from Indo-European or Germanic sources. It entered English as a loan

word from church Latin late in the Old English period, as purpure, purple cloth, in about 893,

and the colour purple in about 975. Purple was a restricted term from its initial appearance in

Old English until the late Middle English period. It did not become a basic colour term with a

general range of reference until about 1398 (OED; MED in Casson 1997:231). Purple was

exclusively a hue term in both the Old English and Middle English periods (231).

2.2.9 Pink (stage VII)

Pink was the last basic colour term to enter English. It was never a brightness term. It came

into English by 1573, as the name for a species of flower. Pink did not become a basic colour

term until the Modern English period by about 1720 (in Casson 1997: 232).

2.2.10 Orange (stage VII)

Orange was borrowed into Middle English in the fourteenth century from Old French. It was

a fruit name in English for almost 300 years before it became a colour term in the Early

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Modern English period before 1600 (OED; cf. Conklin 1973). Orange is the only basic colour

term that has a transparent entity sense. It never had a brightness sense (in Casson 1997: 231-

32).

2.2.11 Grey (stage VII)

A colour term for grey was present in Old English. Grey differs in this from the other stage

VII colour terms. Graeg, the basic term in Old English, had both hue and brightness senses,

but the brightness sense was predominant. Middle English grei continued brightness senses

from Old English graeg and developed a general hue sense during the Middle English period.

Grei maintained both the luminosity sense as in ‘dim’, ‘dull’ (morning, twilight) and the

reflective sense ‘bright’, ‘gleaming’ (sea, stars, and eyes) throughout the Middle English

period, and retained the luminosity sense, but probably not the reflectivity sense, into the

Modern English period (in Casson 1997: 228).

2.3 Linguistic Anthropology

2.3.1 Sapir Whorf

The concept of colour and its linguistic expressions is a research topic, with the starting point

in the Sapir Whorf hypothesis (Sapir 1958 [1929], Whorf 1940 in Chandler 2005). The Sapir

Whorf hypothesis is the idea that thought is dependent on language, and that the language/s

we speak shape the way we think and perceive the world. This would imply that speakers of

languages with few colour terms would see fewer colours. Empirical studies following the

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, such as Berlin & Kay (1969), Kay & McDaniel (1978) and Kay &

Kempton (1984), disputed this and re-evaluated the hypothesis of linguistic relativity. They

came to the conclusion that the number of colour terms in a language lexicon does not saffect

the colour perception of its speakers.

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2.3.2 Berlin & Kay 1969

The colour spectrum is continuous. There are no fixed transitions from one part of the colour

spectrum to the next. Instead, there is a steady flow which slowly changes from one colour to

the next. However, language is not continuous. It breaks up the colour spectrum with labels,

red, blue, green, yellow and so on. Languages differ in how they divide the colour spectrum

verbally. According to Berlin & Kay (1969) the number of colour terms varies from two to

eleven. Berlin and Kay studied colour terms cross-linguistically. They did empirical studies of

colour terms in twenty languages and looked at literature in seventy-eight more (Kay &

McDaniel, 1978: 610). Berlin & Kay (1969) argue that there are semantic universals in the

domain of colour, i.e. that all languages share a universal system of basic colour

categorisation and that there are basic colour categories that are added to a language in a

“constrained, universal order” (Kay & McDaniel, 1978: 610) with at most eleven basic colour

lexemes. The hierarchy which presupposes the order of how colour terms are added to a

language according to Berlin & Kay (1969) is as follows;

stage 1 - white and black

stage 2 - red

stage 3 - green or yellow

stage 4 - yellow or green

stage 5 - blue

stage 6 - brown

stage 7 - purple, pink, orange, grey.

12

Kay & McDaniel (1978) find strong constraints operating in colour classification across

languages and explain these findings as a consequence of human biology. They argue that if

unrelated languages end up with similar classification systems, there must be principles of

linguistic encoding that are language independent. These findings dispute the Sapir Whorf

hypothesis. Following research in the World Colour Survey (Kay, Berlin & Merrifield 1991;

Kay, Berlin, Maffi & Merrifield 1997) confirms the Berlin & Kay (1969) hypothesis with

only small adjustments.

2.4 Linguistics

2.4.1 Compounding

Compounding is a “word formation process using free morphemes as building elements”

(Johannesson 1990: 345), which serves to modify the meaning of another word (Ljung 1990:

123). It is a way of building words by combining lexical categories; nouns, adjectives, verbs

and prepositions. The resulting compound is usually a noun, a verb or an adjective. The

rightmost morpheme determines the category of the entire word in most compounds, (but see

exocentric compounds below). The morpheme, that determines the category of the compound,

is called the head (O’Grady & de Guzman 1996: 151).

Compounds, where the general word-class is identified by the rightmost morpheme are

called endocentric. Dog food, food for dogs, is an example of an endocentric compound

(O’Grady & de Guzman 1996: 154). Forest green in the questionnaire (Appendix 1), the green

colour of a forest, is an example of an endocentric compound colour term. There are also a

small number of cases of compounds, which do not follow the meaning of its parts. These are

called exocentric compounds. An example of an exocentric compound is green-bottle.

“Green-bottle is not a type of bottle; rather, it is a fly of the genus lucilia” (O’Grady & de

13

Guzman 1996:154-5). Cornsilk from the questionnaire is an example of an exocentric

compound colour term.

According to Hallander (1990: 254), compounding was extremely common in Old English.

It did not diminish in any significant way with the French influence on English and is

increasing again today.

2.4.2 Coordinate structures

Coordinate structures “are formed by joining two or more elements of the same type with the

help of a conjunction such as and or or ”(O’Grady 1996: 192). A category at any level can be

coordinated, but coordinated categories must be of the same type (O’Grady 1996: 223).

2.5 Psychological aspects and boundaries

We can perceive 7.5 million colours (White 1990:188) and languages divide colour between

two and eleven basic colour terms (BCT). Each BCT is a category of colours. The blue of the

sky at night and the blue of a corn flower are very different colours and yet we ’know’ they

are both blue. Categories such as colours and forms have psychological basis (Rosch 1978:

28, 36-37). According to Rosch (1978: 27, 29), there are two basic principles of

categorisation. The first is a drive toward cognitive economy combined with the second

principle, structure in the perceived world.

[M]ost, if not all, categories do not have clear-cut boundaries [...] cognitive economy

dictates that categories tend to be viewed as being separate from each other and as clear

cut as possible. One way to achieve this is by means of formal, necessary and sufficient

criteria for category membership [...] Another way to achieve separateness and clarity of

actually continuous categories is by conceiving of each category in terms of clear cases

14

rather than its boundaries [...] categorical judgements become a problem only if one is

concerned with boundaries (Rosch 1978: 35-36).

Maroon is an example of boundary colour term. According to Quinn, Rosano & Wooten

(1988) in Wooten & Miller (1997: 81-82) maroon is a colour compound of red and black, in

the Natural Color System colour space. The Natural Color System (NCS) is a

“theoretical/cognitive system for estimation and identification of colors in any situation”

(Sivik 1997: 174). Turquoise is another boundary colour term between blue and green. There

are indications that turquoise may evolve as a derived basic colour term between blue and

green (Zollinger 1984: 405).

3. Method

This was a quantitative study (Trost 1994), with a high degree of standardisation, based on a

survey about English colour terms. The questionnaire (appendix 1) consisted of fixed

questions with predefined alternative answers. No deviation from the fixed alternatives was

accepted as valid material for the numerical analysis. The choice of a quantitative study,

based on the analysis of a questionnaire was a matter of convenience. It made it possible to

gather information from informants in different parts of the world, something which would

otherwise not have been possible within the limits of this study. The study investigated mental

representations of colour terms, i.e. what colour did the informants associate a colour term

with when there was no visual reference.

3.1 The survey

15

The survey (Appendix 1) consisted of a letter of introduction, questions about age and sex, and

a list of colour terms. The information about sex and age was not used for this essay, but was

put in for possible further analysis. The list of colour terms used can be found in any PC rgb-

file, in this case the Sun X11 rgb-94 (Florén 2000). Rgb-files are lists of colour terms with rgb

definitions, and RGB is an abbreviation for Red/Green/Blue. These are the additive colours

used by computers to display colours on a screen. An image is produced by mixing

combinations of red, green and blue (Field 1999: 436). The questionnaire was a list of colour

terms in alphabetical order (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Layout of the questionnaire.

Only eighty six definitions, out of a hundred and thirty six, were used. Definitions such as

medium sea green were considered redundant. Only sea green in this example was used, as it

was only the value of hue and not brightness that was sought for the colour terms. The

informants were asked to categorise the colour terms under one of eleven possible categories.

The categories corresponded to the eleven basic colour terms (BCT) (see Introduction 1.3);

white, black, red, green, yellow, blue, brown, purple, pink, orange and grey (Berlin & Kay

1969). The participant marked with an [x] if s/he was sure, and [?] if uncertain. If s/he could

not place the word at all, it was marked with [-]. In some cases colour terms had been skipped

or marked in such a way that the information did not fit within the framework of the

questionnaire. These categorisations were marked with [Ø] in the analyses.

white black red green yellow blue brown purple pink orange greyalice blue

… Yellow-green

16

3.2 Informants and collecting information

There were twenty informants who were kind enough to help with this study by completing a

questionnaire. All the informants were adults. They lived, at the time background information

was collected, in three different countries; Sweden, the UK and the USA. They were all native

English speakers and spoke British, Irish, Australian and American English.

The choice of informants was a matter of convenience. Native English speakers were

necessary for validity and reliability reasons. Högskolan Dalarna where this essay is written is

situated in Sweden, and finding native English speaking informants had to be done through

personal connections and contacts over the net. Some informants were contacted directly by

the author and given a paper copy of the questionnaire. Several were kind enough to help find

more informants, and to collect the surveys and bring them in personally or post the

completed questionnaire. Contacts over the internet helped find informants in the UK and the

USA. Surveys from the UK and the USA were sent, and returned completed, by e-mail.

Fourteen informants completed a paper copy of the survey and six completed the

questionnaire over the Internet.

3.3 Reliability and validity

A study should be stable and not subject to random influences. The concept of reliability

(Trost 1994: 57-58) can be divided into four parts; congruency, objectivity, constancy and

precision. Congruency is about the similarity of questions when the purpose is to measure the

same thing. Congruency for this study was high as all the informants were given the same

questionnaire and asked to preformed the same task. Constancy is important for quantitative

studies. An answer should not vary if it is given today or tomorrow. Constancy for this study

was high. The answers were not influenced by when they were made. The typographical form

17

is important for precision. The easier and clearer a questionnaire is the better the precision.

Precision for this study could have been better. It was too easy to make mistakes in marking

the questionnaire.

Validity (Trost 1994: 59) is about how well a study measures that which it sets out to do.

This study was valid. The informants were all native English speakers, which insured that any

difficulties in categorising were not due to language difficulties. The study investigated the

mechanisms at work when categorising colour terms was preformed, which was the aim.

3.4 Method considerations

Finding informants and then collecting the questionnaires took several weeks. Only about half

of the questionnaires delivered over the Internet could be used. There were problems with

corrupted files and quite a few surveys could not be used. At first the aim was only to collect

paper copies of the questionnaires, and when the study expanded to informants in other

countries it was already too late for a pilot study.

The first two questionnaires given out had the last two colour terms on a third page, which

was missed by the informants. Later questionnaires were adjusted to avoid that problem.

These two questionnaires were used in the analysis of the material. The questionnaires #1 and

#2 were judged valid for analysis by the supervisor of this study.

3.5 Anonymity

The nature of the questions in this study was not sensitive, still care was taken to insure the

anonymity of the informants. Everyone who participated in the study was informed that that

their identity would be kept anonymous. There was a line for ‘name’ on the first page of the

questionnaire, but this was optional. Some informants marked their name and others did not.

18

The questionnaires were numbered 1 through 20 in the order they were received. In the

analysis no identifying information was included.

3.6 Method of analysis

The information from the questionnaires was first analysed numerically on several analysis

sheets. These analyses are summarised in Analysis 1 (Appendix 2), which shows the numerical

distribution of categorisations and the level of certainty for these categorisations. The results

from Analysis 1 were used as a starting point for Analysis 2 (Appendix 3). In Analysis 2, the

colour terms were grouped under BCT categories and graphically displayed with colour

charts, which show in colour the exact distribution of the results from the twenty

questionnaires. A filled box indicates that the informant was certain of the colour, a dotted

box indicates that the informant was not sure. The boxed are marked in colour.

These quantitative analyses were used as a basis for the qualitative part of the analysis (see

4. Results and conclusion).

Analysis 2 is the only analysis used and referred to in Results and conclusions below.

However, the analyses are based on the earlier Analysis 1, which is why all the different steps

in the analyses are described here.

19

4. Results and conclusions

The pattern of categorisation is analysed separately for each BCT heading. In Analysis 21

(Appendix 3), the colour terms from the questionnaire (Appendix 1) are grouped in eleven

categories corresponding to eleven basic colour terms, BCT (Berlin & Kay 1969). The BCT

category the colour terms have been placed and analysed under, in this study, is only

determined by empirical results. This means that swhere and how colour terms are listed

under BCT headings below is a result of how the informants have categorised the colour

terms in the questionnaire. The BCT category in the questionnaire where the majority of

informants have placed a colour term, decides under which BCT area that colour term is

analysed. Each BCT area is analysed in detail below. To follow the results below refer to

Analysis 2: Numerical distribution of categorisations grouped after BCT (Appendix 3).

4.1 Patterns and problems in categorisation of colour terms

4.1.1 White (stage I)2

The white category includes the colour terms antique white, blanched almond, floral white,

ghost white, ivory, linen, navajo white, old lace, orchid, sea shell, snow, white and white

smoke.

Antique white is categorised as white (19/20) by nineteen informants. Of these only one

used a [?] to mark being unsure. One informant marks antique white as grey (1/20). Ghost

white follows the same pattern with nineteen marks for white (19/20) and one for grey (1/20).

Floral white is marked as white (19/20) in nineteen questionnaires. One person marks floral

green as green (1/20). White smoke is marked as white (13/20) by thirteen informants, and as

1 When looking at Appendix 3 please note that reproducing colour is difficult. The printed colour may differ from the colour seen on the computer screen, unless a calibrated printer is used. 2 For the Berlin & Kay (1969) language stages (see 2.3.2 Berlin & Kay 1969)

20

grey (7/20) by seven. Navajo white is categorised as white (20/20) by all twenty informants.

White and snow are marked as white (20/20) by all twenty informants. Ivory is marked as

white (19/20) by nineteen informants, and as black (1/20) by one.

There are two more colour terms, which are placed under the BCT category white and these

are orchid and sea shell. One questionnaire cannot be used for analysis [Ø] of sea shell,

leaving nineteen questionnaires. It is marked as white (10/19) by ten informants, four

categorise it as pink (4/19), one as yellow (1/19) and one as brown (1/19), and three

informants ‘cannot place the colour term’ [-] (3/20). There is also one questionnaire with an

invalid categorisation [Ø] for orchid which cannot be used for analysis, leaving nineteen

questionnaires. Orchid, is marked as white (4/19) by four informants. The rest of the

categorisations spread over several different categories. There are four purple (4/19), three

pink (3/19), two green (2/19), and five ‘cannot place the colour term’ [-] (5/19) at all. For

blanched almond there are two questionnaires which cannot be used for analysis [Ø], leaving

eighteen. Blanched almond is categorised under white (8/18) by eight informants, by eight

under brown (8/18) and by one under yellow (1/18). Blanched almond has an equal number

of marks for white and brown, and has been placed under the BCT category white as seven of

eight informants who categorised this as white marked it with an [x] (certain) whilst only four

of eight informants marking blanched almond as brown felt sure, the other four marked this

with [?] (uncertain) (see Appendix 3) . For linen there is one questionnaire marked in a way,

which cannot be used [Ø], leaving nineteen for the analysis. Fifteen informants place linen

under white (15/19), but four categorise it under brown (4/19). Old lace shows much the same

pattern with fifteen marks for white (15/20), and then one mark each for brown (1/20), yellow

(1/20), grey (1/20), and black (1/20). Four informants have marked that they [‘cannot place

the colour term’] (4/20) old lace.

21

Colour terms that include the morpheme white are placed by a majority of the informants

under the category white. Most colour terms in the white area appear, in this study, to be well

established in the English language, orchid, sea shell and lace being the exceptions. Off

whites are generally categorised under white by the informants, but colour terms which may

be associated with either beige3, or off-white show some uncertainty as to where to categorise

them. This includes blanched almond linen and old lace.

4.1.2 Black (stage I)

The black category includes the single colour term black (see Appendix 3). Twenty informants

of twenty possible mark black in the column for BCT black (20/20). Black is a BCT and a

stage I colour term and firmly established in English, as shown by the results of this study.

4.1.3 Red (stage II)

The red category includes the colour terms indian red, firebrick, maroon, red (see Appendix

3).

One questionnaire has an invalid classification [Ø] for red and the other nineteen all

categorise red under the category red (19/19). Tomato is marked as red (19/20) by nineteen

informants, and green (1/20) by one. Indian red is marked by eighteen informants as red

(18/20). There is one mark for brown (1/20) and black (1/20) respectively. Maroon has

twelve marks for red (12/20), seven for purple (7/20) and one for brown (1/20). Firebrick is

judged to be red (14/20) by fourteen informants, two choose orange (2/20), two brown (2/20),

one black (1/20), and one person cannot place the word at all [-] (1/20).

Maroon has the largest deviation from red. Two distinct areas, red and purple, are found

with the marks for purple one third of those for red. Firebrick is the colour term in the red

3 Beige is not grouped under white but belongs to the brown category in this material.

22

area, which gives evidence of the most confusion with marks spread over four colour areas.

As a whole, this study shows that the red area colour terms in this material are easily placed

and well established in English.

4.1.4 Green (stage III or IV)

The green category includes the colour terms forest green, green, lime green, olive green, sea

green, spring green and yellow-green (see Appendix 3).

BCT green, lime green and olive green all score a full twenty out of twenty possible marks

for the green (20/20) category. The other secondary colour terms in the green area are marked

with eighteen or nineteen marks for green. Forest green has eighteen marks for green (18/19)

and one for white (1/19). One questionnaire is marked in such a way that it cannot be analysed

[Ø]. Eighteen informants have marked sea green as green (18/20), then there is one mark for

yellow (1/20), and one for blue (1/20). For spring green there are nineteen questionnaires

where this is marked green (19/20) and one yellow (1/20). For yellow-green there are eleven

marks for green (11/18) and seven marks for yellow (7/18). Two questionnaires leave yellow-

green blank [Ø].

The results in this study show that the green area colour terms are firmly established in

English. The colour terms in the green colour area in this material are categorised with a very

high degree of certainty and accord. The only colour term which shows any discrepancies is

yellow-green.

23

4.1.5 Yellow (stage IV or III)

The yellow category includes chiffon, cornsilk, gold, goldenrod, honeydew, lemon, papaya

whip, wheat and yellow (see Appendix 3).

For the BCT yellow one questionnaire cannot be used for analysis [Ø], but the other 19

unanimously mark it yellow (19/19). Goldenrod yellow has a full twenty marks for yellow

(20/20) and lemon chiffon has twenty marks for yellow (20/20) as well, while goldenrod only

have 18 marks for yellow (18/20), and one mark for orange (1/20), and there is one informant

who ‘cannot place the colour term’ [-] (1/20). Nineteen informants mark gold as yellow

(19/20) and one as green (1/20).

For cornsilk there was one questionnaire which was not marked in a way which can be used

for analysis [Ø], leaving nineteen questionnaires for analysis. One informant had marked

[‘cannot place the colour term’] (1/19). The categorisation spread over five colour areas with

eleven marks for yellow (11/19), five for white (5/19), one for grey (1/19) and one for brown

(1/19). Honeydew has eleven marks for yellow (11/20) and then three for green (3/20), two

for white (2/20) and four informants ‘cannot place the colour term’ [-] (4/20). Wheat has

seven marks for yellow (7/18), five for white (5/18), four for brown (4/18) and the odd one is

for blue (1/18). Only one questionnaire is marked ‘cannot place the colour term’ [-] (1/18).

Papaya whip has only got five marks for yellow (5/20) and then four for orange (3/20), two

for green (2/20) and one for brown (1/20) and one for red (1/20). Eight questionnaires are

marked with ‘cannot place the colour term’ [-] (8/20).

The yellow area of colour terms displays some uncertainties and less accord than the black,

red and green areas. In this study, it appears that most of the colour terms in the yellow area

are well established with the exception of papaya whip and wheat. Cornsilk and honeydew

also show uncertainties but less so than papaya whip and wheat.

24

4.1.6 Blue (stage V)

The blue category is a large colour area in this study and includes alice blue, aquamarine,

azure, blue, cadet blue, cornflower blue, cyan, dodger blue, midnight blue, navy blue, powder

blue, royal blue, sky blue, slate blue, steel blue and turquoise (see Appendix 3).

Blue, navy blue and royal blue are categorised as blue (20/20) by all the informants.

Dodger blue, cadet blue, cornflower blue, powder blue and sky blue, have nineteen marks for

blue (19/20) each. Dodger blue has nineteen marks for blue (19/20) and one invalid mark [Ø].

Cadet blue has nineteen marks for blue (19/20) and one mark for black (1/20). Powder blue

has nineteen marks for blue (19/20) and one mark for brown (1/20). Cornflower blue has

nineteen marks for blue (19/20) and one mark for white (1/20). Sky blue has nineteen marks

for blue (19/20) and one mark for grey (1/20). Midnight blue has eighteen marks for blue

(18/20), one for purple (1/20), and one for white (1/20). There are three questionnaires which

cannot be used for analysis [Ø] leaving seventeen questionnaires for analysis. Alice blue has

fifteen marks for blue (15/17) and one for grey (1/17), and one informant ‘cannot place the

colour term’ [-] (1/17). For slate blue there are twelve marks for blue (12/20) and eight for

grey (8/20). The figures for steel blue there are fifteen marks for blue (15/20) and five marks

for grey (5/20).

The four remaining colour terms in the blue area are aquamarine, azure, cyan and

turquoise. Aquamarine have fifteen marks for blue (15/20) and four for green (4/20) and one

mark for white (1/20). Azure has sixteen marks for blue (16/20), two yellow (2/20), one white

(1/20), and one informant ‘cannot place the colour term’ [-] (1/20). Turquoise has one

categorisation, which cannot be analysed [Ø], leaving nineteen for analysis. Twelve

informants mark turquoise as blue (12/19), three green (3/19), two purple (2/19), and one

yellow (1/19). The last term in the blue area is cyan. There is one invalid categorisation [Ø]

for cyan, leaving nineteen questionnaires to be analysed. There are seven informants who

25

categorise cyan as blue (7/19), and three marks for green (3/19), three for purple (3/19), one

for red (1/19) and one for black (1/19). Three surveys ‘cannot place the colour term’ [-]

(3/19).

Overall, the blue area displays a fairly large degree of accord for blue in categorisations

with the major exception of cyan. Aquamarine, slate blue, steel blue and turquoise are colour

terms on the borders of two colour areas, and this becomes evident in the categorisations.

There is a significant minority who categorise aquamarine under green, and slate blue and

steel blue under grey. Turquoise is a colour term on the border of blue and green in the

Natural Color System (see 2.5 Psychological aspects and boundaries), but the categorisations

show evidence of confusion for turquoise with secondary categorisations for green, purple

and yellow.

4.1.7 Brown (stage VI)

The brown category includes beige, brown, chocolate, khaki, moccasin, rosy brown, saddle

brown, sandy brown, sienna and tan (see Appendix 3).

Brown and chocolate are unanimously categorised by all informants under the category

brown (20/20). Saddle brown and tan have nineteen marks for brown (19/20) and one for

grey (1/20). Sandy brown has sixteen marks for brown (16/20) and three for yellow (3/20) and

one for white (1/20). Rosy brown is categorised by a majority of fourteen informants as brown

(14/20), as red (4/20) by four informants, and two choose pink (2/20). Beige is categorised

under brown (15/20) by fifteen informants, under white (4/20) by four and grey (1/20) by one

informant. For khaki the classifications are divided between brown and green, with a majority

of thirteen surveys marking khaki as brown (13/20). Six categorise khaki as green (6/20), and

there is one mark for white (1/20). Moccasin has fourteen marks for brown (14/20) and one

for grey (1/20). Five informants ‘cannot place the colour term’ [-] (5/20) moccasin at all.

26

Sienna has seven marks for brown (7/20) three marks for blue (3/20), two for red (2/20), one

for orange (1/20) and one for black (1/20). Burlywood has thirteen marks for brown (13/20)

and the remaining seven cannot place [-] (7/20) burlywood. Bisque has one invalid [Ø]

categorisation leaving nineteen for analysis. Bisque has eight marks for brown (8/19), four

marks for white (4/19), one for grey (1/19), one for yellow (1/19) and one for pink (1/19). For

Peru there are three invalid [Ø] survey answers, leaving seventeen for analysis, and seven

informants have marked that they cannot place it [-] (7/17). Only six informants try to

categorise peru. Five of the six mark their choice with a [?]. The one person who uses an [x]

when categorising peru places it under brown (1/17). There is a total of two marks for brown

(2/17) one an [x] the other a [?]). This is why peru is analysed with the brown area colour

terms. The other areas marked are red (1/17), blue (1/17), grey (1/17) and black (1/17).

There is evidence of more confusion in the brown colour area than in the white, black, red,

green, yellow and blue colour areas. Sienna and peru show the most evidence of confusion.

Peru seems not to be a part of the English colour vocabulary at all from the results in this

study. The brown area includes two border colour terms, khaki on the border between brown

and green, and rosy brown between brown and red, which show up in the categorisations.

Other colour terms in the brown area appear to be very well established in the English

lexicon, brown, chocolate and tan, but also the colour terms with one the morphemes BCT

brown.

4.1.8 Purple (stage VII)

The purple category includes blue violet, lavender, lavender blush, magenta, plum, purple,

thistle, violet and violet red (see Appendix 3).

Purple is marked as purple (20/20) by all twenty informants. Violet has seventeen mark it as

purple (17/20), two as pink (2/20) and one as blue (1/20). Blue violet has thirteen marks for

27

purple (13/20) and seven for blue (7/20). For violet red there are eleven surveys where this is

placed under purple (11/20) and eight under red (8/20). sThere is also one odd mark for black

(1/20). Lavender shows fourteen informants categorising it under purple (14/20), five under

blue (5/20), one under pink (1/20). One questionnaire cannot be used for analysis of the colour

term lavender blush [Ø]. Lavender blush has twelve marks for purple (12/19) and four for

blue (4/19), and one single mark for pink (1/19). There are two informants who ‘cannot place

the colour term’ [-] lavender blush. For plum fourteen categorise it as purple (14/20), four as

red (4/20) and one as yellow (1/20) and blue (1/20) respectively. There is one questionnaire,

which cannot be used for analysis of magenta [Ø]. Magenta is marked as purple (5/19) by

five informants, another five mark it as red (5/19) and pink (5/19) respectively. In both the

pink and red group of categorisations for magenta there is one [?], but for purple all

informants marked with an [x] (certain), which is why magenta is placed under the BCT

category of purple, and there are two marks for blue (2/19). Thistle is categorised as purple

(6/20) by six informants. There are also three marks for brown (3/20), two for green (2/20),

two for grey (2/20), one for white (1/20) and one for black (1/20). Blue violet has thirteen

marks (13/20) for purple and seven for blue (7/20). For violet red there are eleven marks for

purple (11/20) and eight for red (8/20) and one for black (1/20).

For the purple colour area there is some confusion and overlap to other colour areas. Mainly

the blue and red/pink area. Unlike the other colour areas previously discussed, there is a clear

pattern of blue or red/pink as second colour area for blue violet, lavender and lavender blush

with blue, and magenta, plum and violet red with red/pink.

28

4.1.9 Pink (stage VII)

The pink category includes misty rose, pink and salmon (see Appendix 3). Pink has nineteen

informants categorising it as pink (19/20). The one person who does not places it under red

(1/20). Misty rose is categorised as pink by sixteen informants (16/20), but there are a

minority of four informants who place misty rose in the red colour area. For salmon there is

one invalid categorisation [Ø] leaving nineteen answers to analyse. Sixteen informants

categorise salmon under pink (16/19), but there is also one mark for orange (1/19), grey

(1/19), and white (1/19), respectively.

Although pink was added late in the history of the English language, the three colour terms

in this area appear to be well established in this study.

4.1.10 Orange (stage VII)

The orange category includes coral, orange, orange red, peach puff (see Appendix 3).

For BCT orange all twenty informants categorise the colour term under orange (20/20).

Orange red spread over the orange and red areas with fourteen questionnaires where orange

red is categorised under orange (14/20) and six where it is found under red (6/20). For coral

there is one questionnaire which cannot be used for analysis [Ø]. There are six questionnaires

where coral is placed under orange (6/19), five where it is categorised under pink (6/19), but

there are also three questionnaires where coral has been placed under red (6/19) and three

where it is white (6/19). There is one mark for brown (1/19) and one for blue (1/19). For

peach puff seven think or guess this to be orange (7/20), four think it is pink (4/20), another

four yellow (4/20), one red (1/20), and one black (1/20). Three informants ‘cannot place the

colour term’ [-] (3/20) peach puff.

The colour terms in the orange area display some confusion and appear less well established

in the English colour lexicon than the colour terms in the pink area.

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4.1.11 Grey (stage VII)

The grey category includes grey (20/20), and slate grey (19/19) (see Appendix 3). Both are

unanimously placed under grey, but for slate grey there is one invalid answer [Ø], which

cannot be used for analysis.

The two colour terms in the grey area appear to be well established, in this study, in the

English colour lexicon.

4.2 Conclusion

When all colour areas are compared we can see from Analysis 2 (see Appendix 3) the

following; that black and grey display full accord in categorisation, but are also very small

colour areas with only one colour term for black and two for grey, which does not leave much

room for discord. Green, red and pink are areas where the colour terms in the survey list of

words appear to be well established in the English colour lexicon as the informants categorise

the colour terms in these colour areas without any major difficulties. Blue is a large category

with well established colour terms as well, which can be seen from the pattern of

categorisations in the blue area. The yellow and brown areas give evidence of more

uncertainties, as do purple, white and orange, which can be seen from the categorisations in

these areas.

The seven basic colour terms that have been present in English from the fifth century; white,

black, grey, red, yellow, green and blue (Casson 1997: 227) and the corresponding colour

areas have caused least confusion for the informants as can be seen from the patterns of these

colour areas in Analysis 2. The longer a BCT colour term has been present in the language

the better established secondary colour terms under that colour area appear to be. Among

these seven colour areas the white and yellow show most discrepancies in Analysis 2. In the

30

white area (and brown), a subcategory of off-whites appears to cause uncertainty between

white and brown categorisation. The yellow category in this material also show border

uncertainties (see section 2.5 Psychological aspects and boundaries) at the intersections of

yellow/green, yellow/orange and yellow/brown. Purple is the colour area which gives

evidence of most confusion or uncertainty. For all colour areas except black and grey, there

are areas where two colour categories intersect or are close which cause uncertainty in

categorisation which becomes clear from Analysis 2.

5 Discussion

5.1 Discussion of method

There were problem with corrupted files for questionnaires sent over the net. Quite a few

questionnaires could not be used because of this. These problems could have been avoided

through a pilot study where the methods of delivering and returning the questionnaires were

tested and adjusted before the actual study started. The first two questionnaires given out had

the last two colour terms on a third page, which was missed by the informants. This mistake

could also have been avoided by a pilot study. In all, the method of collecting information

worked well, and being able to access informants in other parts of the world was an

advantage, which outweighs the disadvantage of corrupted files.

5.1.1 Reliability

Congruency (Trost 1994: 58) is high for this study. The questionnaire (Appendix 1) has the

same layout throughout the list of colour terms, and for all colour areas the categorisations

31

have been made in the same way. All informants were given the same questionnaire with the

same list of words. No informant had a visual colour reference for colour terms categorised.

However, in the first two questionnaires yellow-green was left blank. The informants may

have missed turning the page as they had been given a form where yellow-green was found on

the last page by itself. Once this was noted the survey form was adjusted.

Objectivity (58) in the study was high. The categorisations of colour terms were not

dependent on who had delivered the questionnaire to the informants, or how it was delivered.

Constancy (58) was high in the study. Language is changing constantly but these are not

processes that happen overnight.

Precision (58), however, could have been better. The questionnaire needs adjusting, as

quite a few questionnaires were marked in a way that it is likely that the informant may have

marked the column next to the one intended. This affects the precision of the study negatively.

Examples of possible problems with precision are; Ivory with one mark for black which may

be a mistake in marking as the column for white and black are next to each other. Tomato is

marked as green by one informant, and the columns for red and green are found next to each

other. Indian red has a mark for black, and the columns for black and red are found next to

each other. The fact that forest green is followed by ghost white in the questionnaire can

explain the one mark for white as a mistake. Sea green is listed between sandy brown and

seashell. Possibly sandy brown has influenced the one mark for yellow. Midnight blue has one

mark for white (1/20), and the columns for white and black are adjacent. The informants had

to mark a box in a column when categorising the colour terms. To avoid this, eleven separate

boxes instead of columns can be used.

5.1.2 Validity (Trost 1994: 59) - As the informants are given no visual reference they have no

choice but to use their own internal references for the colour terms. The informants may have

32

asked the help of someone else as they were not in a controlled environment when answering

the questionnaire. However another person helping with the list of colour terms also had to

use internal representation so this should not affect the study negatively.

To summarise, both reliability and validity for this study are high, but precision is the study’s

weak link.

5.2 Discussion of results

5.2.1 Stage I - white and black

The compound colour terms which include white as one morpheme are placed under white by

the large majority of informants, which is consistent with the grammatical rules of English

where the rightmost morpheme determines the category of a compound (O’Grady & de

Guzman 1996: 151). The one categorisation that deviated from this pattern for antique white

and floral white respectively was probably caused by psychological and not linguistic

mechanisms. If you buy paint with the label antique white it has a light grey tint. The

informant who categorises antique white as grey most probably uses his/her knowledge of this

when categorising. Knowledge of the world here takes precedence of grammar (151)

influencing the category of antique white. The informant who categorises floral white as

green most likely let the entity sense (Casson 1997: 232-234) of floral guide categorisation,

and associates floral with greenery. White smoke has been marked as white by 2/3 and as grey

by 1/3 of the informants. The head in white smoke is smoke, but white is a ‘true’ colour term

carrying no other primary meaning but colour. ‘Smoke’ is a noun and the word ‘white smoke’

would be a noun, if it was not explicitly stated in this particular case that white smoke is a

colour term. As a colour term white smoke functions as an exocentric compound (O’Grady &

de Guzman 1996: 154), and becomes an adjective. The first morpheme of the compound

white smoke is the adjective (and basic colour term) white and in this case, determines the

33

category of the compound. Smoke is a noun which carries colour meaning by association and

the entity sense (Casson 1997: 232-234) of smoke guides categorisation. In this example, the

true colour term carries more weight, as the mental task performed is categorising colour.

The colour terms orchid and sea shell can both can be considered as difficult as neither

contain a BCT as a morpheme nor a word which is obvious in its colour association, although

they both have an object sense, and hence both display a high level of uncertainty. Orchid and

sea shell are both nouns functioning as adjectives when used as colour terms (Casson 1997:

232, White 1990: 188). In this case they are difficult nouns to use for categorisation as neither

has an obvious colour association, as for example tomato does (see 5.1.3 Red). Off whites

show some uncertainty in categorisations, and one informant makes up an extra category of

beiges and adds that to the eleven existing columns in the survey form.

Black is firmly established in the English language, and predictably poses no problem in

classification. Apart from the off-white colour terms, white too is firmly established in English

as shown by this study and according to Casson (1994, 1997) and Berlin & Kay (1969).

5.2.2 Stage II - red

Red, Indian red and Tomato pose no problems for the informants when classifying. Indian red

is a compound with the second morpheme a BCT, and predictably most informants mark this

as red. There is one informant who marked indian red as brown and in this lets the first

morpheme guide categorisation associating indian with brown. Here is an example of a colour

term which contains a BCT as a second morpheme which normally will determine the

category of a compound in English (O’Grady & de Guzman 1996. 151), and yet the colour

term is categorised in the brown area. When a secondary colour terms is a compound with one

morpheme a BCT the other morpheme acts as a modifier (Ljung 1990: 123) to the BCT and

34

can skew the internal perception of the colour term away from the BCT spelled out, as in

indian red above.

In this study, the secondary colour term in the red area, which shows the largest deviation

from red is maroon. Maroon is, in this study, found on the border of the red and purple areas,

which shows up in the results of the red analysis (Appendix 3), but in the Natural Color

System (see 2.5 Psychological aspects and boundaries) maroon is found to be a colour

compound of red and black (Miller & Wooten 1997: 81).

Firebrick, with neither morpheme a BCT, has to be categorised either by the colour

association with ‘fire’ or with ‘brick’. This is the colour term in the red area which gives

evidence of the most confusion. Unlike tomato which is well established in the colour lexicon

of the people participating in this survey firebrick has no obvious or well established

association to guide in categorisation. Neither does it contain a BCT to help in the task of

categorising.

5.2.3 Stage III / IV - Green and Yellow

The colour terms with one morpheme green do not cause problems for the informants. The

results in this study show BCT green and the secondary green colour terms to be firmly

established in English. As green has been present since its inception into English in the fifth

century (Casson 1997: 227), and is a stage III or IV colour term in the Berlin and Kay (1969)

hierarchy, this is expected. One person has marked sea green as blue. The explanation for this

can be the association of the word sea, and its object sense (Casson 1997: 232-234) with blue.

For yellow-green which is a compound with both morphemes a BCT there are some divided

opinions whether this is green or yellow. It is also a colour term on the border (Rosch 1978:

35-36) of yellow and green, just like maroon in the red area. Yellow green and maroon show

the same 2/3 vs. 1/3 distribution of categorisations between the two adjacent colour areas.

35

Yellow-green can either be analysed as a compound in which case the second morpheme

green determines the category of the word, but it can also be seen as a co-ordinate structure

(O’Grady 1996,:192, 223) which allows both the leftmost and the rightmost morpheme to

influence the choice of colour category.

BCT yellow is firmly established in the English language in this study and as shown by

previous research such as Casson (1997) and Berlin & Kay (1969). The same applies to

goldenrod yellow, lemon chiffon and gold (see 2.2.5 Yellow). With cornsilk there are

discrepancies. The answers are spread over five colour areas. Neither corn nor silk is a BCT.

Of these two morphemes silk, as the leftmost, has grammatical precedence in guiding

classification, but it does not have any obvious colour association. Silk is a fabric which

comes in many different colours. Corn on the other hand can more easily be associated to

colour. Ripe corn is yellow. If the second morpheme of a compound colour term does not

help in categorisation, then the first morpheme must be given that task. With honeydew there

is less evidence of confusion than for cornsilk, with the answers only spread over three colour

areas, but there are more informants who cannot place honeydew than cornsilk. For honeydew

either dew or honey must be given the task of guiding colour association. Dew is moisture on

vegetation and has less object colour association than honey, which is yellowish. The object

sense of honey can be extended metonymically to the yellow colour of honey, but the

informants who have placed honeydew in the green area probably do so because of the

association of dew to vegetation which is green. Wheat and papaya whip are more difficult to

place. Whip carries no colour association at all. Whip being a verb does not have the colour

association to an object that a noun does. Papaya, which is a tropical fruit and hence a noun,

does have colour association, but the answers spread over four colour areas and with eight

informants unable to place it clearly indicate that papaya whip is not well established in the

English lexicon.

36

5.2.4 Stage V - Blue

The colour terms in the blue area, which have one morpheme BCT blue, are easily categorised

as blue by the informants, which is consistent with the grammatical rules of English.

Cadet blue has one mark for black. There are languages that have the modern English blue

and black as one colour category as English once did according to Casson (1997: 228) (see

2.2.6 Blue).

Alice blue, which also has blue as its rightmost morpheme only hass fifteen marks for blue.

Alice in alice blue must in some way cause confusion as there ought not be any difficulty in

placing alice blue in the blue area. If fact it is clear that this is blue by the colour term itself,

and the grammatical rules of English (O’Grady & de Guzman 1996: 154), yet there are

unexpected discrepancies.

For slate blue and steel blue, there is a large minority who categorise these as grey. In these

two cases it is the colour association of slate and steel to grey which guides those who

categorise these colour terms in the grey area taking precedence over grammatical rules.

The four remaining colour terms in the blue area do not contain blue as a morpheme in the

colour term. These are aquamarine, azure, cyan and turquoise. Just as sea green is placed in

the blue colour area there are four informants who place aquamarine in the green area. The

colour of the sea is described by both aquamarine and sea green, and there is an overlap

between the green and blue areas for these colour terms. sEven though azure (Casson 1997:

230) has been present in English since the Middle English period, it displays some confusion

in the answers being spread over three colour areas, although there is a fairly large degree of

accord for blue.

There is some confusion for turquoise and answers spread over four colour areas but there is

not a marked preference for green as a second to blue. Turquoise is a colour term on the

border of blue and green (see 2.5 Psychological aspects and boundaries) Cyan which displays

37

marks fairly evenly spread over five categories with a small majority for blue. Cyan is a

colour term used in the printing industry and associated areas of work, but it is not well

anchored in the lexicon of the people participating in this survey.

5.2.5 Stage VI - Brown

Although both saddle brown and sandy brown have a BCT as the second morpheme of the

compound. ‘Sandy’ is associated to yellow while ‘saddle’ reinforces the brown area rather

than modifying in another direction of colour areas. This is also the case for rosy brown where

‘rosy’ influence four informants to chose red and two to chose pink, despite the second

morpheme brown being grammatically leading, (although a majority categorise it under

brown).

Beige is an eighteenth-century Modern English colour term (Casson 1997: 235) in the

brown category and is already well established in English. A majority categorise it under

brown. As for the four informants who place beige under the white category there appears to

be some uncertainty when it comes to off-whites (see white). For khaki the classifications are

divided between brown and green, with a 2/3 majority for brown over green. Khaki is closer

to the green category than beige which influences the categorisations. Khaki too has been part

of English since the eighteenth century just like beige. Although sienna has been present in

English since the eighteenth century just like beige and khaki the categorisations spread over

several colour areas other than brown. The results indicate that sienna is not as well

established in English, as beige and khaki even though it has been present for just as long.

The informants who categorise moccasin have a large majority for brown. Moccasin has an

object sense, and the informant’s knowledge of what a moccasin looks like and the colour it

usually is, guides classification in this case.

38

The remaining three colour terms in the brown area are bisque, burlywood and peru. Of

these colour terms burlywood causes least problems. The second morpheme of burlywood is

wood, a noun and an object, which is often brown. The association of wood-colour to brown

guides categorisation. Burlywood would be a noun had it not explicitly been stated to be a

colour term which makes it an adjective. Secondary colour terms which may never have been

seen or heard before have to be approached by association to known objects (nouns) or

colours (adjectives) when the choice of in which colour area the ‘new’ colour terms is placed.

Bisque and peru both spread over several colour areas. Peru is the overall most difficult

colour term in the material. There is no evidence that it is a colour term present in English at

all. The six informants who have a go at categorising peru seem to make wild guesses.

5.2.7 Stage VII - purple, pink, orange and grey

Predictably, the informants have no problems categorising purple, as it is a basic colour term.

Blue violet is divided under two colour areas with a majority for purple and the rest under

blue. As blue is a BCT and placed as rightmost morpheme this is expected, however it is

violet, which carries the more weight when categorisations are made here. For violet red, there

are only a small majority of categorisations under purple compared to red. The mechanisms at

work when categorising are the same as for blue violet above. Lavender blush has a one mark

for pink, likely guided by the association of blush to the face colour of someone blushing. For

those choosing lavender as a guide when placing the colour term lavender blush the answers

follow the same pattern as for lavender. There is a majority of categorisations under purple

and a minority for red. The colour terms appear fairly well established but bear evidence of

some confusion with categorisations under four colour areas.

For magenta and thistle there is a lot of confusion. Magenta just like cyan in the blue area,

is mostly used in the printing industry. The answers for this colour term are spread over four

39

colour areas. Thistle is a plant with purple flowers. There is evidence of confusion with, the

answers spread over six colour areas.

The purple area shows evidence of confusion and overlap into other colour areas, mainly

the blue and red/pink area. This is interesting as purple appears late in the evolution of basic

colour terms, and should be less well established than the earlier BCT in the language.

In the pink colour area there are only three colour terms in this material, misty rose, pink and

salmon. These do not show any evidence of confusion or difficulties, but interestingly enough

one informant categorises pink under red. What we call pink today would have belonged to

the red colour area before pink appeared as a BCT in English (Casson 1997: 232). Pink is the

last BCT colour term to enter English and categorising pink under red can be seen as a

remnant of older divisions of colour categories in the English language.

Categorising BCT orange is not difficult, as is expected. All BCT are well established in

English (Berlin & Kay 1969, Casson 1997). Orange red spread over the orange and red areas

and in this follows the same pattern as double BCT colour terms analysed in previous colour

areas.

Grey does not pose any problems in categorisation, which is as expected since grey is BCT

and has been present in English for a long time. The categorisations of slate grey follow the

same pattern of categorisations of compound colour terms with the second morpheme a BCT.

5.3 Linguistic mechanisms

English has many more colour terms than the eleven basic colour terms. Secondary colour

terms can be either simplex or complex lexemes (Casson 1997: 232). Simplex lexemes have

meanings, which cannot be determined from internal components. They all have or had non-

colour physical-object senses in addition to colour senses (White 1990: 188) (see section 2.1.2

Secondary colour terms). The basic colour terms are simplex lexemes. Examples of secondary

40

colour terms used in this study that are simplex lexemes are blanched almond, ivory, linen,

old lace, orchid, sea shell, snow, firebrick, maroon, tomato, cornsilk, gold, honeydew, papaya

whip, wheat, aquamarine, azure, cyan, turquoise, beige, bisque, burlywood, chocolate, khaki,

moccasin, sienna, tan, peru, lavender, magenta, plum, thistle, violet, salmon, coral and peach

puff.

Complex lexemes are derived through compounding and modification (see section 2.4.1

Compounding). Complex lexemes have paraphrastic meanings. Examples are antique white,

floral white, ghost white, navajo white, white smoke, indian red, orange-red, forest green,

lime green, olive green, sea green, spring green, yellow green, goldenrod, goldenrod yellow,

lemon chiffon, alice blue, cadet blue, cornflower blue, dodger blue, midnight blue, navy blue,

powder blue, royal blue, sky blue, slate blue, steel blue, rosy brown, sandy brown, blue violet,

lavender blush, violet red, misty rose, orange red and slate grey. Words like yellowish and

light blue are also examples of complex lexemes but colour terms such as these are not

included in this study (see section 3.1 The survey).

Secondary colour terms either have or have had polysemous entity colour relationships

(Casson 1994, Casson 1997: 232-33). If the colour term has both entity sense and colour

sense, it is a transparent colour term. An example is tomato that is a noun referring to a

vegetable but which by metonymic development extends to the red colour of tomatoes and

becomes and adjective. Other examples from this survey are ivory, linen, old lace, orchid, sea

shell, snow, tomato, gold, wheat, turquoise, chocolate, khaki, moccasin, lavender, magenta,

plum, thistle, violet, salmon, coral and orange. Orange (Casson 1997: 231-32, White 1990:

188) is the only BCT which retains a transparent entity sense. If the colour term has lost its

original entity sense and is now monosemous it is an opaque colour term. An example of

this is the basic colour term purple, which was originally the name of a shellfish from which a

41

purple pigment was extracted (White 1990: 188). The other BCT are also opaque colour terms

(see section 2.2 Development of BCT).

Maroon is categorised under red by proximately 2/3 of the informants while the other 1/3

of the informants categorise maroon under purple. Slate blue is another such colour term with

the same pattern, approximately 2/3 for blue and 1/3 for grey. Khaki, 2/3 brown and Coral

shows the same pattern with about 1/4 of categorisations in the orange, pink and red areas.

These colour terms are found at the border (Rosch 1978: 35-36) of different colour areas and

this becomes evident from the categorisations in this study. However, turquoise, which is a

blend of green and blue only has a few (3) informants placing it under green. The large

majority place turquoise under blue.

Colour terms, which contain at least one morpheme that can guide categorisation after

metonymic extension, do not generally show confusion in categorisation, but there are some

exceptions. Orchid, sea shell, old lace, papaya whip, wheat, thistle, peach puff. These

secondary colour terms in the questionnaire do not appear to be well established in English

and the informants have to use their own inner references, what they know of the colour

properties of these colour terms object references. Obviously, these differ between the

informants.

Compounding is a word formation process common in many languages. According to

Hallander (1990: 254), it was extremely common in the Old English period and is increasing

again today. Free morphemes of different lexical categories, nouns, adjectives, verbs and

prepositions, are used as building elements and serve to modify another word (Ljung 1990:

123). The rightmost morpheme of a compound is called the head and, in most cases,

determines the category of the entire word (O’Grady & de Guzman 1996: 154). Compounds

where the rightmost morpheme determines the category of the word are called endocentric

(154). Dog food is one example of an endocentric compound. From the list of colour words

42

in the questionnaire antique white, floral white, ghost white, navajo white, indian red, forest

green, lime green, olive green, sea green, spring green, goldenrod yellow, alice blue, cadet

blue, cornflower blue, dodger blue, midnight blue, navy blue, powder blue, royal blue, sky

blue, slate blue, steel blue, rosy brown, saddle brown, sandy brown, misty rose and slate grey

are endocentric colour terms. Exocentric compounds (154-55) do not follow the meaning of

their parts. Green-bottle, is not a green bottle, it is a kind of fly. Exocentric colour terms in

this survey are for example blanched almond, old lace, sea shell, (white smoke), firebrick,

cornsilk, (goldenrod), honeydew, lemon chiffon, papaya whip, burlywood, (lavender blush),

misty rose and peach puff.

Most colour terms in the questionnaire are compounds. For the many colour terms, which

are endocentric compounds with the rightmost morpheme a BCT there are no problems for

the informants when categorising. For example, sky blue is blue, olive green is green, etc.

These categorisations follow the grammatical rules of English compounds and the rightmost

morpheme is leading, which confirms part of the study’s hypothesis that grammatical rules of

English guide categorisation of colour terms when no visual reference is available.

In the case of white smoke it must be regarded as a exocentric compound otherwise it would

not be a colour term, but smoke of a white colour. Still the colour term contains a BCT as its

leftmost morpheme and as the word white carries nothing but colour association, and smoke

only carries colour association by metonymic extension and also has a entity sense. It is a

majority of the informants (65%) who let the white in white smoke lead categorisation. The

other 35% of the informants chose to categorise white smoke as grey, letting the rightmost

morpheme guide categorisation by association to the colour of smoke, and thus following the

grammatical rules of compounding in English.

Coordinate structures are formed by joining elements of the same type with a conjunction

(O’Grady 1996: 192). There are some colour terms in this material which are better regarded

43

as coordinate structures rather than compounds. These are yellow green, blue violet, violet red

and orange red. In these cases the conjunction and can be thought of as implicit. Yellow green

is yellow and green, orange red is orange and red, etc.

Yellow green can either be approached as a compound, or as a coordinate structure by the

informants. If yellow green is approached as a compound then the grammatical rules for

compounds (O’Grady & de Guzman 1996: 154) become leading. It has to be regarded as an

endocentric compound, and the rightmost morpheme is then leading which makes yellow

green belong to the green category. A majority of the informants (61%) categorise yellow

green under green. A minority (38%) instead categorise yellow green under the yellow

category, which means they have let the leftmost morpheme guide categorisation. One

possible explanation for this is that they approach yellow green as a coordinate structure. Blue

violet is categorised as violet by a majority (65 %) over blue (35%), which makes violet at the

rightmost morpheme leading. However for violet red it is the other way round, here there is a

small majority (55% ) for purple over red (40%). Orange red has the leftmost morpheme

orange leading categorisation in a majority of informants (70%), only a third of the

informants categorise orange red as red (30%).

These double BCT compound colour terms show evidence of the informants using different

strategies when categorising. Yellow green, and blue violet are categorised by a majority after

the rightmost morpheme following the grammatical pattern of compounds in English, but for

violet red and orange red it is instead a majority of informants who let the leftmost morpheme

lead categorisation, which indicates they are approaching the colour terms as a coordinate

structure. This suggests an informant may use both strategies when approaching the task of

categorising double BCT colour terms. These two strategies are both linguistic and confirm

the first part of the hypothesis in this study, that grammatical rules of the English language

44

that governs word structure, guide the informants when they perform the task of categorising

colour terms without visual reference.

5.4 Psychological mechanisms

Categories such as colour and form have a psychological basis (Rosch 1978: 28, 36-37),

Cognitive economy dictates that all categories tend to be viewed as separate from each other

and as clear cut as possible. Problems with categorisation then only occur if one is concerned

with boundaries, but categorising colour will be a problem, because the colour spectrum is not

divided into separate categories. Colour is continuous, but it is divided linguistically and

psychologically into categories, which have boundaries. This means there is a field of tension

between the human continuous perception of colour and the drive to divide and categorise

colour in language, which can be seen from the patterns of categorisations in Analysis 2 (see

Appendix 3). There are several cases of border colour terms on the border between two colour

areas found in this study; Off-whites and beige, maroon, wheat, aquamarine, slate blue, steel

blue and turquoise, khaki, magenta, lavender, plum and coral.

Exocentric compound colour words show a high degree of uncertainty in categorisation.

When performing the task of categorising exocentric colour terms in this study the informants

have to rely on their knowledge of the world and what possible colour associations they can

find in the exocentric colour terms in the questionnaire, blanched almond, old lace, sea shell,

firebrick, cornsilk, honeydew, lemon chiffon, papaya whip, burlywood and peach puff.

Blanched almond and old lace are both exocentric and belong to the group off colour terms

which can be labelled off-white. Two circumstances which make categorisation difficult.

Since exocentric colour terms do not follow the meaning of their parts the informants have to

use their knowledge of the world and colour association to objects by metonymic extension,

when performing the mental task of categorisation. They have to think about what colour the

45

objects blanched almond, old lace, sea shell, firebrick, cornsilk, honeydew, lemon chiffon,

papaya whip, burlywood and peach puff can have, and then use their knowledge about these

objects in the physical world to guide categorisation. It becomes a system of educated

guessing guided by the association of colour terms to objects. This confirms the second part

of the hypothesis in this study, that psychological mechanisms guide the informants when

they have to categorise colour terms without visual reference.

5.5 Conclusion and results

The aim of this study was to investigate what mechanisms guide the categorisation of colour

terms when no external visual references are available, and to have an estimate of how well

established in English different colour terms are. The hypothesis is that when colour terms are

unknown word structure becomes important, but for some colour terms word structure is not

enough and psychological mechanisms are used to determine the colour category of the colour

term.

Previous studies (Berlin & Kay 1969, Kay & MacDaniel 1978, Kay, Berlin & Merrifield

1991, WCS) in the field of colour vocabularies have started from some form of visual colour

reference. This study differs in that it is only the inner mental representation of a linguistic

sign, in this case colour terms, which is studied. If there is no visual reference the informant is

forced to use inner mechanisms when judging the colour value of a colour term. S/he has to

use his/her knowledge of the world and the English language to be able to carry out the task

of categorising eighty six colour terms and grouping them under the eleven BCT categories;

white, black, red, green, yellow, blue, brown, purple, pink, orange and grey (Berlin & Kay

1969). Note that the list of colour terms used in this material is found as a rgb-file in a PC,

and no attempt has been made to select among the colour terms found there.

46

Language history is important to understand the background in development of colour terms

in English. This essay uses the work of Casson (1994, 1997) for historic background

information. Casson’s work provides a reference for how well established in English the basic

colour terms and their corresponding colour areas are in this study. The tendency we can see

from Analysis 1 and Analysis 2 is that the basic colour terms which have been present in

English for a long time have more secondary colour terms under that BCT colour area which

appear to be well established, than is the case for the more recent BCT colour areas.

The categorisations are analysed in Analysis 1 (Appendix 2) and Analysis 2 (Appendix 3) of

which Analysis 2, where the colour terms are grouped under the eleven BCT colour areas, is

the most important. The analyses show that two separate mechanisms seem to be at work in

the mental task of classifying colour terms. One is the grammatical structure and rules of the

English language. Word structure becomes important. The other mechanism at work is

psychological. This becomes evident when occasionally grammar is disregarded and the

informant’s knowledge of the world takes precedence over English grammatical rules guiding

word structure. The analyses confirm the study’s hypothesis. The conclusion is that when

only internal references are used for categorising colour terms, linguistic and psychological

mechanisms work simultaneously and parallel when colour terms are judged for their colour

‘value’.

47

5.5 Further study

This study contributes to research on how grammatical and psychological mechanisms

interact when the complex task of linguistically categorising labels such as colour is

performed. How the mind works and the human processes of thinking expressed through

language is valid research as it expands the knowledge and insights into human nature and the

mind. For further study, to better establish the inner mechanisms at work when the task of

categorising colour terms is performed, a list of colour terms carefully selected and judged for

their psycological and morphological properties should be used.

48

List of sources Berlin, B., Kay, P. 1969. Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution. Berkley:

University of California Press. Burnley, J. L. 1976. Middle English colour terminology and lexical structure. Linguistische

Berichte 41: 39-49. In Casson 1997 Colour shift: evolution of English color terms from Brightness to hue.

Casson, R W. 1994. Russet, rose and raspberry: the development of English secondary colour

terms. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 4(1): 5-22. Casson, R W. 1997. Color shift: evolution of English color terms from brightness to hue. In

Hardin and Maffi, Color categories in thought and language. New York: Cambridge University Press. 224-239.

Chandler, D. 2005.The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.

http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/whorf.html. 2005-06-07 Conclin, H. C., 1973. Color Categorization. American Anthropologist 75: 931-942. In Casson,

R W. 1997. Color shift: evolution of English color terms from brightness to hue. Field, G. 1999. Color and Its Reproduction. Sewickley: GATFPress. Florén, H. 2000. Development of Colour words in rgb-files. Falun: Högskolan Dalarna. Hallander, L-G 1990. Aspects of Language Change. In N-L Johannesson, The Dress of

Thought: Aspects of the Study of Language. Lund: Studentlitteratur. Kay, P., Kempton, W. 1984." What is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis?". American

Anthropologist 86(1). 65-79. Kay, P., Berlin, B., Maffi, L., & Merrifield, W. 1997. The World Colour Survey: Colour

Naming Across Languages. In C. L. Hardin and Luisa Maffi (ed.). Color Categories in Thought and Language. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Kay, P., Berlin, B., Merrifield, W. 1991. ”Biocultural Implications of Systems of Color

Naming”, Journal of Linguistic Anthropology.1: 12-25. Kay, P., McDaniel, C. K., 1978. The Linguistic Significance of the meanings of basic color

terms. Language 54(3): 610- 646. Kurath, H., Kuhn, S. M. (eds.) 1954. Middle English Dictionary. Ann Arbor: University of

Michigan press. In Ronald Casson. 1997. Colour shift: evolution of English color terms from Brightness to hue.

Johannesson, N-L. (ed.), 1990. The Dress of Thought. Aspects of the study of Language.

Lund: Studentlitteratur.

49

Ljung, M. 1990. Word-formation. In N-L Johannesson, The Dress of Thought: Aspects of the Study of Language. Lund: Studentlitteratur.

Murray, J. A. H., Sir (ed.) 1933. The Oxford English Dictionary. 13 vols. London: Oxford

University Press. In Casson. 1997. Colour shift: evolution of English color terms from Brightness to hue.

O’Grady, W. 1996. Syntax: the analysis of sentence structure. In O’Grady, William.

Dobrovolsky, Michael. Katamba, Francis. ed. Contemporary Linguistics An Introduction. London: Longman. 151-156

O’Grady, W., de Guzman, W., P. 1996. Morphology: the analysis of word structure. In

O’Grady, William. Dobrovolsky, Michael. Katamba, Francis. ed. Contemporary Linguistics An Introduction. London: Longman. 151-156

Quinn, P.C., Rosano, J. L., Wooten, B. R. 1988. Evidence that brown is nor an elemental

colour. Perception and Psychophysics 43(2): 156-164. Rosch, E. 1978. Principles of Classification. In Rosch, Eleanor. Lloyd, Barbara B. ed.

Cognition and Categorization. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. publishers, 27-48.

Sapir, E. 1929: 'The Status of Linguistics as a Science'. In E. Sapir 1958: Culture, Language

and Personality (ed. D. G. Mandelbaum). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Sivik, L. 1997. Color Systems for cognitive research. In Hardin and Maffi, Color categories

in thought and language. New York: Cambridge University Press. 163-193. Sun X11 rgb-94 Trost, J. 1994. Enkätboken. Studentlitteratur. Lund. White, J., V. 1990. Color for the Electronic Age. New York: Watson-Guptil Publications. Whorf, B. L. 1940. 'Science and Linguistics', Technology Review 42(6): 229-31, 247-8. Also

in B. L. Whorf (1956): Language, Thought and Reality (ed. J. B. Carroll). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Wooten, B., Miller, D. L. 1997. The pshychophysics of color. In Hardin and Maffi, Color

categories in thought and language. New York: Cambridge University Press. 59-88. Zollinger, H. 1984. Why just turquoise? Remarks on the evolution of color terms.

Psychological Research. 46: 403-409

1

Appendix 1

Falun, March 2003

Dear participant,

There are many new colour words appearing in the English language.

Some vary with fashion from season to season, others are renamed to

create the impression of something new. Lists of colour words can also be

found in any PC with colour processing. Some are obvious such as 'blue'

or 'red', but others are new and hence more difficult to place unless you

look at a sample of that particular hue and colour. I would like to know

how you, who have English as your first language, would categorise these

colour words.

I am doing this survey for my D-essay in English linguistics at

Högskolan Dalarna. If you have any questions you can reach me at home

on 023-30162.

Thank you for your participation and help with this survey.

Sincerely,

Henrika Florén

2

Name (optional):______________________________________ (please mark) Sex: male____ or female____ Age: <25____ 25-55____ >55____

There are 11 basic categories: white, black, red, green, blue, brown, purple, pink, orange and grey. Please mark where you would place each colour word in the list with:

x if you are certain ? if you are unsure - if you cannot place the word.

white black red green yellow blue brown purple pink orange grey

alice blue antique white aquamarine azure beige bisque black blanched almond blue blue violet brown burlywood cadet blue chocolate coral cornflower blue cornsilk cyan dodger blue firebrick floral white forest green ghost white gold goldenrod goldenrod yellow green green yellow grey honeydew indian red ivory khaki lavender lavender blush

3

white black red green yellow blue brown purple pink orange grey

lemon chiffon lime green linen magenta maroon midnight blue misty rose moccasin navajo white navy blue old lace olive green orange orange red orchid papaya whip peach puff peru pink plum powder blue purple red rosy brown royal blue saddle brown salmon sandy brown sea green seashell sienna sky blue slate blue slate grey snow spring green steel blue tan thistle tomato turquoise wheat white white smoke violet violet red yellow yellow green

Appendix 2Analysis 1: Numerical distribution of categorisations , level ( [x]+[?]): colour terms in alphabetical order [x] = certain categorisations, [?] = uncertain categorisations, [-] 'cannot place the colour term', [Ø] invalid categorisation

white black red green yellow blue brown purple pink orange grey Ø -alice blue 14[x] 1[x] 3 1antique white 18[x] 1[x]aquamarine 1[x] 4[x] 15[x]azure 1[x] 1[x] +1[?] 15[x] 1beige 3[x] +1[?] 14[x]+1[?] 1[x]bisque 3[x] +1[?] 1[x] 7[x]+1[?] 1[x] 1[x] 1 4black 20[x]blanched almond 7[x] +1[?] 1[x] 4[x]+ 4[?] 2 1blue 20[x] blue violet 7[x] 11[x] brown 20[x]burlywood 6[x]+ 7[?] 7cadet blue 1[x] 18[x] chocolate 19[x]+ coral 3[x] 1[x] +2[?] 1[x] 1[x] 5[x] 6[x] 1cornflower blue 1[x] 15[x] cornsilk 2[x] +3[?] 7[x] +4[?] 1[x] 1[x] 1 1cyan 1[x] 1[x] 3[x] 5[x] +2[?] 1[x] 2[x] +1[?] 1 3dodger blue 15[x] 1firebrick 1[x] 14[x] 2[x] 1[x] +1[?] 1floral white 15[x] 1[x] forest green 1[x] 18[x] 1ghost white 18[x] 1[x]gold 1[x] 19[x] goldenrod 14[x] 1[x] 1goldenrod yellow 18[x] green 20[x] green yellow 13[x] 3[x]+1[?] 1grey 20[x]

white black red green yellow blue brown purple pink orange grey Ø -honeydew 2[x] 3[x] 7[x] +4[?] 4indian red 1[x] 1[x] 17[x] 1[x]ivory 18[x] 1[x] khaki 1[x] 5[x] +1[x] 13[x]lavender 5[x] 14[x] 1[x]lavender blush 4[x] 7[x] +5[?] 1[x] 1 2maroon 12[x] 1[x] 6[x] +1[?]midnight blue 1[x] 17[x] 1[x]misty rose 3[x] +1[?] 14[x] moccasin 12[x] 1[x] 5navajo white 16[x] navy blue 20[x] old lace 9[x] +3[?] 1[x] 1[x] 1[x] 1[x] 4olive green 20[x] orange 20[x]orange red 5[x] +1[?] 14[x]orchid 4[x] +1[?] 1[x] +1[?] 3[x] +1[?] 3[x] 1 5papaya whip 1[x] 2[x] 4[x] +1[?] 1[x] 3[x] 8peach puff 1[x] 1[x] 3[x] +1[?] 3[x] +1[?] 4[x] +3[?] 3peru 1[x] 1[x] 1[x] 1[x] +1[?] 1[x] 3 11pink 1[x] 19[x]plum 4[x] 1[x] 1[x] 12[x] powder blue 19[x] 1[x]purple 20[x]red 19[x] 1rosy brown 2[x]+2[?] 11[x] 1[x] +1[?] 1royal blue 20[x] saddle brown 19[x] salmon 1[x] 16[x] 1[x] 1[x] 1sandy brown [x] 3[x] 15[x] sea green 17[x] 1[x] 1[x] seashell 6[x] +4[?] 1[x] 1[x] 2[x] +2[?] 1 3sienna 1[x] 1[x] 2[x] 1[x] +2[?] 7[x] 1[x] 1[x] 5sky blue 19[x] 1[x]

white black red green yellow blue brown purple pink orange grey Ø -slate blue 12[x] 7[x] +1[?]slate grey 19[x] 1snow 19[x]+1[?]steel blue 15[x] 5[x]tan 19[x] thistle 1[x] 1[x] +1[?] 1[x] 1[x] +2[?] 6[x] 1[x] +1[?] 5tomato 18[x] 1[x] turquoise 3[x] 1[x] 12[x] 2[x] 1 1wheat 4[x]+1[?] 7[x] 1[x] 3[x] +1[?] 1+1 1white 20[x]white smoke 13[x] 6[x] +1[?]violet 1[x] 17[x] 1[x] +1[?]violet red 1[x] 7[x] +1[?] 9[x] +2[?]yellow 19[x] 1yellow green 10 5[x] +2[?] 2

Appendix 3

Analysis 2: Numerical distribution of categorisations grouped after BCTThe empirical result of the survey governs under which BCT group a colour terms has been placed.filled box: [x] = certain categorisation, patterned box: [?] = uncertain categorisation,[-]: cannot place the word, [Ø] : invalid categorisation

BCT White 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20antique white w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w gryblanched almond w w w w w w w w br br br br br br br br y - Ø Øfloral white w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w grnghost white w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w gryivory w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w blalinen w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w br br br br Ønavajo white w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w wold lace w w w w w w w w w w w w y br gry bla - - - -orchid w w w w w pur pur pur pur pi pi pi grn grn - - - - - Øsea shell w w w w w w w w w w pi pi pi pi y br - - - Øsnow w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w wwhite w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w wwhite smoke w w w w w w w w w w w w w gry gry gry gry gry gry gry

BCT Black 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20black bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla

BCT Red 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20firebrick r r r r r r r r r r r r r r o o br br bla -indian red r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r br blumaroon r r r r r r r r r r r r pur pur pur pur pur pur pur brred r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r Øtomato r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r grn

BCT Green 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20forest green grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn w Øgreen grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grnlime green grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grnolive green grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn sea green grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn blu yspring green grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn yyellow green grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn grn y y y y y y y Ø Ø

BCT Yellow 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20cornsilk y y y y y y y y y y y w w w w w gry br - Øgold y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y grngoldenrod y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y o -goldenrod yellow y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y yhoneydew y y y y y y y y y y y grn grn grn w w - - - -lemon chiffon y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y ypapaya whip y y y y y o o o r br grn grn - - - - - - - -wheat y y y y y y y w w w w w br br br br blu - Ø Øyellow y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y Ø

BCT Blue 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20alice blue blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu gry - Ø Ø Øaquamarine blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu grn grn grn grn wazure blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu y y w -blue blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blucadet blue blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blacornflower blue blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu wcyan blu blu blu blu blu blu blu grn grn grn pur pur pur r br w - - - Ødodger blue blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu Ømidnight blue blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu wnavy blue blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blupowder blue blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu brroyal blue blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blusky blue blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu gry slate blue blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu gry gry gry gry gry gry grysteel blue blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu gry gry gry gry gryturquoise blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu blu grn grn grn pur pur y - Ø

BCT Brown 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20beige br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br w w w w grybisque br br br br br br br br w w w w gry y pi - - - - Øbrown br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br brburlywood br br br br br br br br br br br br br - - - - - - -chocolate br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br brkhaki br br br br br br br br br br br br br grn grn grn grn grn grn wmoccasin br br br br br br br br br br br br br br gry - - - - -rosy brown br br br br br br br br br br br br br br r r r r blu pisaddle brown br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br grysandy brown br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br y y y wsienna br br br br br br br blu blu blu r r o pur w - - - - -tan br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br br gryperu br br r blu gry w - - - - - - - - - - - Ø Ø Ø

BCT Purple 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20blue violet pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur blu blu blu blu blu blu blulavender pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur blu blu blu blu blu pilavender blush pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur blu blu blu blu pi - - Ømagenta pur pur pur pur pur r r r r y y y y pi pi blu blu - - Øplum pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur r r r r y blupurple pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur purthistle pur pur pur pur pur pur br br br grn grn gry gry w blu - - - - -violet pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pi pi bluviolet red pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur pur r r r r r r r r bla

BCT Pink 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20misty rose pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi r r r rpink pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pisalmon pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi pi o gry w Ø

BCT Orange 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20coral o o o o o o pi pi pi pi pi r r r w w w br blu Øorange o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o oorange red o o o o o o o o o o o o o o r r r r r rpeach puff o o o o o o o pi pi pi pi y y y y r w - - -

BCT Grey 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20grey gry gry gry gry gry gry gry gry gry gry gry gry gry gry gry gry gry gry gry gryslate grey gry gry gry gry gry gry gry gry gry gry gry gry gry gry gry gry gry gry gry Ø