| Saunders, B., van Brakel, J. Are there non-trivial constraints on colour categorization Behavioral and Brain Sciences 1997 (20)2 [html] |
| In this target article the following hypotheses are discussed: (1) colour is autonomous: a perceptuo-linguistic and behavioural universal; (2) it is completely described by three independent attributes: hue, brightness and saturation; (3) phenomenologically and psychophysically there are four unique hues: red, green, blue, yellow; (4) the unique hues are underpinned by two opponent psychophysical and/or neuronal channels: red/green, blue/yellow. The relevant literature is reviewed. We conclude: [i] psychophysics and neurophysiology fail to set nontrivial constraints on colour categorization; [ii] linguistic evidence provides no grounds for the universality of basic colour categories; [iii] neither the opponent hues red/green, blue/yellow nor hue, brightness and saturation are intrinsic to a universal concept of colour; (iv) colour is not autonomous. |
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| Kay, P. MIT Encyclopedia of the cognitives sciences 1999 [ps] |
| Lexical color categorization consists in the division of the colorsensations into classes corresponding to the significata of the color words of a particular language. Perceptual color categorization consists in the division ofthe color sensations into classes by the perceptual processes of an organism - human or non-human, adult or neonate, possessed of knowledge of alanguage or not so possessed. Conflict among views on the relation of lexical to perceptual color categorization has prevailed for over a century.Nineteenth century classicists, anthropologists and opthalmologists were aware that all languages do not reflect identical lexical classifications of color.Some, such as the classicist (and statesman) William Gladstone, concluded that differences in color lexicons reflect differences in perceptual abilities, e.g.,"... that the organ of color and its impressions were but partially developed among the Greeks of the heroic age" (see Berlin and Kay 1969 [B&K]: 135).Others, like the opthalmologist Hugo Magnus, recognized that failure to distinguish colors lexically need not indicate inability to distinguish themperceptually (see B&K: 144f). These and other late nineteenth century scholars tended strongly to view differences in color lexicons in evolutionaryterms. |
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| Kay, P., Regier, T. Resolving the question of color naming universals Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 2003 (100)15:9085-9 [pdf] |
| The existence of cross-linguistic universals in color naming is currently contested. Early empirical studies, based principally on languages of industrialized societies, suggested that all languages may draw on a universally shared repertoire of color categories. Recent work, in contrast, based on languages from nonindustrialized societies, has suggested that color categories may not be universal. No comprehensive objective tests have yet been conducted to resolve this issue. We conduct such tests on color naming data from languages of both industrialized and nonindustrialized societies and show that strong universal tendencies in color naming exist across both sorts of language. |
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