scholarly journals Intergenerational differences in Russian color naming in the globalized era: linguistic analysis

Author(s):  
Yulia A. Griber ◽  
Dimitris Mylonas ◽  
Galina V. Paramei

AbstractThe present study is an apparent-time analysis of color terms in Russian native speakers (N = 1927), whose age varied between 16 and 98 years. Stratified sampling was employed with the following age groups: 16–19, 20–29, and so on, with the oldest group of 70 years and over. Color names were elicited in a web-based psycholinguistic experiment (http://colournaming.com). Participants labeled color samples (N = 606) using an unconstrained color-naming method. Color vocabulary of each age group was estimated using multiple linguistic measures: diversity index; frequency of occurrences of 12 Russian basic color terms (BCTs) and of most frequent non-BCTs; color-naming pattern. Our findings show intergenerational differences in Russian color-term vocabulary, color-naming patterns, and object referents. The CT diversity (measured by the Margalef index) progressively increments with speakers’ juniority; the lexical refinement is manifested by the increasing variety of BCT modifiers and growing use of non-BCTs, both traditional and novel. Furthermore, the most frequent Russian non-BCTs sirenevyj “lilac”, salatovyj “lettuce‐colored”, and birûzovyj “turquoise” appear to be the emerging BCTs. The greatest diversity and richness of CT inventory is observed in Russian speakers aged 20–59 years, i.e., those who constitute the active workforce and are enthusiastic consumers. In comparison, speakers of 60 and over manifest less diverse color inventory and greater prevalence of (modified) BCTs. The two youngest groups (16–29 years) are linguistic innovators: their color vocabulary includes abundant recent loanwords, predominantly from English and, not infrequently, CTs as nouns rather than adjectives. Moreover, Generation Z (16–19 years) tend to offer highly specific or idiosyncratic color descriptors that serve expressive rather than informative function. The apprehended dynamics of color naming in apparent time reflects intergenerational differences as such, but even more so dramatic changes of sociocultural reality in the post-Soviet era, whereby Russian speakers, in particular under 60 years, were/are greatly impacted by globalization of trade: new market product arrivals resulted in adoption of novel and elaboration of traditional CTs for efficient communication about perceived color

i-Perception ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 204166951879206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasmina Jraissati ◽  
Igor Douven

So far, color-naming studies have relied on a rather limited set of color stimuli. Most importantly, stimuli have been largely limited to highly saturated colors. Because of this, little is known about how people categorize less saturated colors and, more generally, about the structure of color categories as they extend across all dimensions of color space. This article presents the results from a large Internet-based color-naming study that involved color stimuli ranging across all available chroma levels in Munsell space. These results help answer such questions as how English speakers name a more complex color set, whether English speakers use so-called basic color terms (BCTs) more frequently for more saturated colors, how they use non-BCTs in comparison with BCTs, whether non-BCTs are highly consensual in less saturated parts of the solid, how deep inside color space basic color categories extend, or how they behave on the chroma dimension.


2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 487-495
Author(s):  
Don Dedrick

AbstractRecent work on color naming challenges the idea that there are shared perceptually salient colors or color categories that are "hardwired" into homo sapiens and provide the basis for one of the most famous cross-cultural claims of all time, Brent Berlin and Paul Kay's claim that there is a small number of "basic" color terms (eleven), and that some subset of these terms is present in every human language (Berlin & Kay, 1969; see Kay and Maffi, 1999; Kay and Reiger, 2003; and Kay 2005 for updates).


2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingyi Gao ◽  
Urmas Sutrop

In this paper the theory of the evolution of basic color terms introduced by Berlin & Kay is applied to Mandarin Chinese. The data was collected using the fieldwork methods, color list and color-naming tasks. The rainbow order of colors does not affect the list task results. The results, i.e. basic color terms, are calculated according to the procedure in Davies & Corbett. There are nine basic color terms in Mandarin. Ranked according to the cognitive salience criterion they are the following: hóng ‘red’, huáng ‘yellow’, lu ‘green’, lán ‘blue’, hēi ‘black’, bái ‘white’, zǐ ‘purple’, fěn ‘pink’, and huī ‘gray’. Of the fully developed set of BCTs only the terms for ‘brown’ and ‘orange’ are absent. There are no real gender differences for the BCTs. Mandarin is a Stage VII basic color vocabulary language. The absence of the Stage VI term for ‘brown’ is explained using the wild-card theory. As a result Mandarin is not a counter-example to the theory of basic color terms. We suggest that the term chéng ‘orange’ is the next candidate for basic status in Mandarin. There are two competing terms for basic ‘brown’ zōng and hè. If one competing term for ‘brown’ (with high probability the term zōng) becomes basic, Mandarin Chinese will have a full set (eleven) of basic color terms.


2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 119-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Don Dedrick ◽  
David Bimler ◽  
Kimberly Jameson ◽  
Debi Roberson

AbstractIn "Does the Basic Color Terms discussion suffer from the Stimulus Error?" Rolf Kuehni describes a research stumbling block known as the "stimulus error," and hints at the difficulties it causes for mainstream color naming research (Kuehni, is Issue). Among the issues intrinsic to Kuehni's "stimulus error" description is the important question of what can generally be inferred from color naming behaviors based on bounded samples of empirical stimuli. Here we examine some specifics of the color naming research issues that Kuehni raises. While we share Kuehni's view regarding potential problems caused by the "stimulus error" and his concern regarding its prevalence, Kuehni's commentary seems primarily aimed at stimulating a general discussion of color naming research implications, because the articles he critiques do not actually commit the "stimulus error" in any serious sense. Based on Kuehni's comments, we further examine some of the relevant empirical and theoretical implications for cross-cultural color naming research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 70-85
Author(s):  
Yulia A. Griber ◽  

Introduction. The professional education received and the professional activity carried out have a tangible impact on many spheres of human life. A professional environment influences a person’s consciousness, changes his/her conceptual thinking and lexical content of everyday communication. The purpose of the research is to test whether growing color competence affects the size, variability, and quality of the color vocabulary of native Russian speakers. Materials and methods. The data were collected in an online experiment involving 1737 native Russian speakers with different professional backgrounds and levels of color competence: 1103 participants were not professionally involved with color (hereafter referred to as non-professionals); 509 were students, in the process of professionally mastering the theoretical foundations of color science and colorism, and had basic color competence (hereafter referred to as novice professionals); 125 participants were practicing colorists and color consultants, designers and architects (hereafter referred to as experienced professionals). Results. The research showed that the growth of professional experience and coloristic competence noticeably affects the color vocabulary and color naming patterns. Compared to non-professionals, novice and experienced professionals use more complex color naming patterns and a greater variety of chromatic and achromatic modifiers (the Shannon diversity index increases from 6.55 to 7.52 and 7.12 respectively), but fewer basic color names (they account for 47% of non-professional, 43% of novice and 38% of experienced professionals’ vocabulary). The influence of professional education and professional culture is most pronounced in the choice of referent objects for describing connotations. 132 of the 320 referent objects proposed by non-professionals, and 113 of the 301 objects proposed by professionals, were “endemic” to each of these groups and were not used by representatives of other groups. Non-professionals most often described hues using naturally occurring substances, plants, flowers, artifacts, and body products as prototypes. Color specialists chose as referents dyes, pigments, paint brands, and exotic terms that fill modern advertising. Conclusions. The results confirm the hypothesis that, in addition to the universal perceptual factors that control color categorization, color-related cognitive processes are also influenced by social and cultural factors. The revealed professional differences of color vocabulary and color naming patterns can be used in the practical implementation of the process of formation of linguodidactic design of professional personality of a wide range of professionals, whose activities are directly or indirectly related to the choice of color and color design.


1983 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-194
Author(s):  
Ronald P. Schaefer

The synchronic distributional pattern of potential basic color terms in one dialect of Tswana is examined in a wide range of construction types. From this pattern the non-basic status of the term lephutsi emerges, as well as a constraint requiring the exclusion of animals from the semantic extension of basic terms designating hue. Accepting lephutsi as non-basic, however, leaves a pattern of semantic reference violating a widely assumed universal constraint governing historical stages in the evolution of color names. To resolve this dilemma, a comparative analysis of color term reference in the Sotho languages is undertaken. Based on this analysis, the semantic reference for one basic color term in Tswana is hypothesized to have undergone a historical change, whereby the universal constraints on color naming give way to the constraint governing basic terms for hue.


Linguistics ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
IAN DAVIES ◽  
GREVILLE CORBETT

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