‘Italian blues’: A challenge to the universal inventory of basic colour terms

‘Blue’ is one of the 11 basic colour terms (BCTs) in languages with a developed colour term inventory [1]. In a challenge to the Berlin-Kay model, Italian appears to require more than one BCT to name the blue area: blu ‘dark blue’, azzurro ‘light (-and-medium) blue’ and celeste ‘light blue’. We addressed the proposition of multiple Italian ‘blue’ BCTs in a psycholinguistic study. Eight Munsell charts embracing the BLUE area of colour space (7.5BG-5PB, Value 2-9, Chroma 2-12) were employed to explore colour name mapping in Italian speakers compared to English speakers. Participants were Italian monolinguals (N=13, Alghero; N=15, Verona) and English monolinguals (N=19; Liverpool). An unconstrained colour naming method was used; this was followed by indicating the best example (focal colour) of blu, azzurro and celeste (Italian) or blue and light blue (English). Choices of focal colours, in Munsell notation, are reported for each of the terms. In addition, distances between centroids of the focal colours, in CIELAB notation, are reported for each of the three participant groups. The dominant focal English blue and Italian blu appeared to concur in Hue (2.5PB, 5PB), but not in lightness (blue: Value 5; blu: Value 2-3). Italian speakers required, in addition, the azzurro term for naming light/medium blue colours. Notably, for the Algherese, azzurro indicates the ‘medium blue’ and is complemented by celeste for denoting light blue shades, similar to English light blue. In contrast, the Veronese use azzurro for ‘light-and-medium blue’; celeste was named conspicuously less frequently, overlapping with azzurro. The present study adds to psycholinguistic evidence that Italian possesses two BCTs, blu and azzurro, differentiating ‘blues’ along the lightness dimension. Celeste is a contender for a third BCT for the Alghero speakers. Cognitive representation (i.e. prototype) of azzurro as well as the status of celeste appear to vary markedly across Italian dialects

Türgi, eesti ja vene keele värvisõnavara: Millised on põhivärvinimed?

Brent Berlin ja Paul Kay loodud põhivärvinimeteooria sai alguse ideest, et teatud värvinimed on universaalsed. Nad eeldasid, et igas keeles on olemas piiratud arv sõnu värvi tähistamiseks. Neid universaalseid värvinimesid nimetasid nad põhivärvinimedeks. Kas keeles võib olla vaid üks sinine? Eelnevad uurimused kinnitavad, et sinine võib jaguneda kaheks: vene keeles on omaette kategooriad kahele sinise kategooriale, SINIJ ‘sinine’ ja GOLUBOJ ‘helesinine’. Järelikult on ka teisi võimalusi peale üheainsa sinise kategooria. Sinise jagunemine toetab keelelise relatiivsuse teooriat. Kas ka eesti sinine jaguneb (ala)kategooriateks? Kas türgi keeles on samuti kaks sinise kategooriat, nagu eelnevad uurimused (vt Özgen ja Davies 1998) kinnitavad? Vastuse saamiseks küsitleti türgi (N=56), eesti (N=39), ja eestivene (N=30) keelejuhte. Neilt küsiti loetelukatses kõikide värvide kohta, mida nad teavad. Nimeandmiskatses esitati neile ükshaaval värvipaberiga kaetud tahvlikesi küsides: „Mis värvi see stimul on?“. Eesti ja eestivene keelejuhid osalesid loetelu-ja nimeandmiskatse vahe peal ka sorteerimiskatses, kus nad sorteerisid sarnasuse alusel tahvlikesi gruppidesse ja pärast sorteerimist andsid neile gruppidele nimed.The theory of basic colour terms by Brent Berlin and Paul Kay (1969) started with an idea that certain colour categories are universal. They proposed that in every language there is a small, limited amount of words for designating colour. They called these universal colour names basic colour terms. From the theory of basic colour terms and previous research into Turkish, Estonian and Russian basic colour terms arise the questions of whether the behaviour of one blue is universal, and how the category of blue might be divided. There being only one blue category reinforces the universalist view of colour terms, while the appearance of more than one blue category, especially in the sorting task, supports a weak relativist approach. Russian is exceptional because both SINIJ ‘blue’ and GOLUBOJ ‘light blue’ mark blue equally. Are Turkish terms MAVI ‘blue’ and LACIVERT ‘dark blue’ similar? Is Estonian SININE ‘blue’ influenced by Russian and therefore also divided into more than one blue category? Turkish (N=56), Estonian (N=39) and Estonian Russian (N=30) participants were questioned to find an answer to those questions. The participants were asked about all the colours they knew in the list task. In the naming task the participants named coloured stimuli one by one answering the question: “What colour is it?”. Estonian and Estonian Russian participants also completed a sorting task between the list and naming tasks. They sorted coloured stimuli into groups by similarity and after sorting named the groups

Metaphors in Italian and Croatian compounds

In this paper, the metaphorical NN and NA/AN compounds in the Italian and Croatian language are described using the contrastive method. A narrow semantic corpus analysis is performed using the generative lexical models, and the metaphorical meanings are shown in the framework of cognitive linguistics

Colour terms in five linguistic images of the world : the semantic perspective

Social and cultural factors shape the linguistic perception of colour. At the same time, colour terms co-create the linguistic image of the world, which allows us to interpret reality and profile our statements and beliefs. This paper presents six basic colour terms: white, black, red, green, yellow, and blue (both as adjectives and as nouns) in the five different linguistic images of the world of the following languages: English, French, Italian, Polish, and Japanese. The methodological framework is based on cultural linguistics theory and the basis of semantics. The study explores denotative and connotative meanings of colour terms with their collocations. The data gathered from monolingual, bilingual, collocation, and phraseological dictionaries is analysed from the lexical-semantic point of view. The paper discusses semantic differences between contrasting cultures, especially in the blue-green and red lexis. Simultaneously, the findings point to transcultural and global aspects of colour meanings. Both the contexts of cultural diversity and of geographic location are emphasised in the colour semantics. Colours as linguistic signs can specify and categorise reality in terms of feelings, mental attitudes, or sensual reactions. The examined words also refer to location, nature, and the human body. The study shows that colour terms are multifunctional units in the linguistic image of the world, both in terms of the analysed languages separately and as an illustration of the cultural community of different ethnic languages