Hadza Color Terms Are Sparse, Diverse, and Distributed, and Presage the Universal Color Categories Found in Other World Languages

Hadza Color Terms Are Sparse, Diverse, and Distributed, and Presage the Universal Color Categories Found in Other World Languages

In our empirical and theoretical study of color naming among the Hadza, a Tanzanian hunter-gatherer group, we show that Hadza color naming is sparse (the color appearance of many stimulus tiles was not named), diverse (there was little consensus in the terms for the color appearance of most tiles), and distributed (the universal color categories of world languages are revealed in nascent form w...

Color Categories Are Not Arbitrary Color Categories Are Not Arbitrary

1. Challenges to the Universals and Evolution theory of basic color term naming A theory of basic color term meanings based on the observation of semantic universals and evolutionary regularity in the naming of colors across languages was proposed by Berlin and Kay (1969). This model has undergone numerous revisions. I will refer to the various versions collectively as the UE model. A constant ...

Focal colors across languages are representative members of color categories.

Focal colors, or best examples of color terms, have traditionally been viewed as either the underlying source of cross-language color-naming universals or derived from category boundaries that vary widely across languages. Existing data partially support and partially challenge each of these views. Here, we advance a position that synthesizes aspects of these two traditionally opposed positions...

Color Terms in Pama-Nyungan Languages

Hunter-Gatherer Color Naming Provides New Insight into the Evolution of Color Terms

Most people name the myriad colors in the environment using between two and about a dozen color terms, with great variation within and between languages. Investigators generally agree that color lexicons evolve from fewer terms to more terms, as technology advances and color communication becomes increasingly important. However, little is understood about the color naming systems at the least t...