Color naming reflects optimal partitions of color space

Color naming reflects optimal partitions of color space.

The nature of color categories in the world's languages is contested. One major view holds that color categories are organized around universal focal colors, whereas an opposing view holds instead that categories are defined at their boundaries by linguistic convention. Both of these standardly opposed views are challenged by existing data. Here, we argue for a third view based on a proposal by...

Color naming across languages reflects color use.

What determines how languages categorize colors? We analyzed results of the World Color Survey (WCS) of 110 languages to show that despite gross differences across languages, communication of chromatic chips is always better for warm colors (yellows/reds) than cool colors (blues/greens). We present an analysis of color statistics in a large databank of natural images curated by human observers ...

Color Naming and Sunlight

Lindsey and Brown (2002) proposed an intriguing explanation for the existence and geographical distribution of languages that lack a distinct word for the color blue. Many such languages include blue in a color term that also encompasses green, yielding a green-or-blue (‘‘grue’’) term. Others include blue in a color term that also encompasses dark colors such as black, yielding a black-or-blue ...

Multilingual/Bilingual Color Naming/Categories

The influence of culture on color perception and categorization is most often studied by comparing the use of single-word (monolexemic) color terms to name color categories across different languages, as in the World Color Survey [1, 2]. Color categorization and naming have been studied across a wide range of cultures to explore questions about the universality of basic color categories, relati...

Color naming and sunlight Color naming and sunlight : Commentary on Lindsey and Brown ( 2002 ) Terry Regier