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Universal 613: purple V pink V orange V grey ⇒ brown ⇒ blue ⇒ green & yellow ⇒ red ⇒ black & white

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 613: purple V pink V orange V grey ⇒ brown ⇒ blue ⇒ green & yellow ⇒ red ⇒ black & white

Original
If a language encodes fewer basic colour categories, then there are strict limitations on which categories it may encode. The distributional restrictions of colour terms across languages are:
1. All languages contain terms for white and black.
2. If a language contains three terms, then it contains a term for red.
3. If a language contains four terms, then it contains a term for either green or yellow (but not both).
4. If a language contains five terms, then it contains a terms for both green and yellow.
5. If a language contains six terms, then it contains a term for blue.
6. If a language contains seven terms, then it contains a term for brown.
7. If a language contains eight or more terms, then it contains a term for purple, pink, orange, grey, or some combinations of these.
Standardized
IF PURPLE or PINK or ORANGE or GREY , THEN BROWN.
IF BROWN, THEN BLUE.
IF BLUE, THEN YELLOW and GREEN.
IF YELLOW or GREEN, THEN RED.
IF RED, THEN WHITE and BLACK.
Keywords
colour terms hierarchy
Domain
lexicon
Type
implicational hierarchy
Status
achronic but presumably diachronically motivated
Quality
absolute
Basis
over 100 languages in Berlin & Kay 1969
Source
Berlin & Kay 1969
Counterexamples

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP

    1. Tsakhur (Lezgian, E. Caucasian) has a basic colour term for TURQUOISE. Russian (Slavic, IE) has two basic colour terms for BLUE and LIGHT BLUE. Russian up to early 19th century had no basic colour term for PURPLE. Hungarian (Ugric, Uralic) has two basic colour terms for RED1 and RED2. 2. In Jaqaru (Andean), there are eight basic colour terms, four are for various kinds of red (shocking pink, burgundy, reddish brown, and wine red) (Hardman 1981). 3. For the discussion see also Kay & McDaniel 1978.

    1. May 2020

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