Universality of color names

Delwin T. Lindsey · Angela M. Brown

154 citations0/0 files storedProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

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Categorization, perception, and language Color Science and Applications Color perception and design

Abstract

We analyzed the World Color Survey (WCS) color-naming data set by using k-means cluster and concordance analyses. Cluster analysis relied on a similarity metric based on pairwise Pearson correlation of the complete chromatic color-naming patterns obtained from individual WCS informants. When K, the number of k-means clusters, varied from 2 to 10, we found that (i) the average color-naming patterns of the clusters all glossed easily to single or composite English patterns, and (ii) the structures of the k-means clusters unfolded in a hierarchical way that was reminiscent of the Berlin and Kay sequence of color category evolution. Gap statistical analysis showed that 8 was the optimal number of WCS chromatic categories: RED, GREEN, YELLOW-OR-ORANGE, BLUE, PURPLE, BROWN, PINK, and GRUE (GREEN-OR-BLUE). Analysis of concordance in color naming within WCS languages revealed small regions in color space that exhibited statistically significantly high concordance across languages. These regions agreed well with five of six primary focal colors of English. Concordance analysis also revealed boundary regions of statistically significantly low concordance. These boundary regions coincided with the boundaries associated with English WARM and COOL. Our results provide compelling evidence for similarities in the mechanisms that guide the lexical partitioning of color space among WCS languages and English.

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References

1973Basic color terms: their universality and evolution. By Brent Berlin and Paul Kay. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1969. Pp. xi, 178. $8.50.1971Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution.1978The Linguistic Significance of the Meanings of Basic Color Terms 1954A study in language and cognition.2000Color categories are not universal: Replications and new evidence from a stone-age culture.1997Color Categories in Thought and Language 1976Color vision and hue categorization in young human infants.2003Resolving the question of color naming universals

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