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COLORS AND CULTURES

COLORS AND CULTURES Semiotica 16:1, pp. 1-22. © Mouton Publishers, 1976. MARSHALL SAHLINS COLORS AND CULTURES1 It seems no exaggeration to claim for Berlin and Kay's Basic Color Terms (1969) a place among the most remarkable discoveries of anthropological science. If exaggeration there be, it would consist in attributing the results to the authors alone, without reference to the development of the methods by Lenneberg and Roberts (1956) or the anticipation of the conclusions in the early researches of Magnus and Rivers -- the debt to all of whom Berlin and Kay generously acknowledge. Within a few short years, knowledge of the Berlin-Kay results has been widely diffused and intensely debated. For the purposes of the present commentary, it will be sufficient to mention briefly the three findings of most general and fundamental import: first, that despite the proven ability of human subjects to discriminate thousands of color percepts, natural languages manifest only a very limited number of 'basic color terms', such as are applicable to a wide variety of objects; the number ranges from two to eleven, corresponding to English 'black', 'white', 'red', 'green', 'yellow', 'blue', 'brown', 'grey', 'purple', Orange', and 'pink'. Secondly, these terms show a regular, cumulative order http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Semiotica - Journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies / Revue de l'Association Internationale de Sémiotique de Gruyter

COLORS AND CULTURES

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Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 Walter de Gruyter
ISSN
0037-1998
eISSN
1613-3692
DOI
10.1515/semi.1976.16.1.1
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Semiotica 16:1, pp. 1-22. © Mouton Publishers, 1976. MARSHALL SAHLINS COLORS AND CULTURES1 It seems no exaggeration to claim for Berlin and Kay's Basic Color Terms (1969) a place among the most remarkable discoveries of anthropological science. If exaggeration there be, it would consist in attributing the results to the authors alone, without reference to the development of the methods by Lenneberg and Roberts (1956) or the anticipation of the conclusions in the early researches of Magnus and Rivers -- the debt to all of whom Berlin and Kay generously acknowledge. Within a few short years, knowledge of the Berlin-Kay results has been widely diffused and intensely debated. For the purposes of the present commentary, it will be sufficient to mention briefly the three findings of most general and fundamental import: first, that despite the proven ability of human subjects to discriminate thousands of color percepts, natural languages manifest only a very limited number of 'basic color terms', such as are applicable to a wide variety of objects; the number ranges from two to eleven, corresponding to English 'black', 'white', 'red', 'green', 'yellow', 'blue', 'brown', 'grey', 'purple', Orange', and 'pink'. Secondly, these terms show a regular, cumulative order

Journal

Semiotica - Journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies / Revue de l'Association Internationale de Sémiotique – de Gruyter

Published: Jan 1, 1976

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