International audienceDwelling on lexicographical research and specific surveys, this study presents the strategies used for expressing colour in Palikur, an Arawakan language spoken in French Guyana and Brazil. It includes a presentation of the protocol used in the surveys, followed by a description of the resulting colour terms and of the role held by colour in denominative and descriptive strategies. Data analysis corroborates previous findings regarding the small number of colour names per se, but it also allows identifying other strategies (morphological, syntactic and semantic) used for describing coloured objects and discussing their underlying semantic mechanisms, as well as the characteristics of the elements used as a referential basis in metonymies employed for designating colours, and the universal nature of these mechanisms
