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Lexical Color Categories
Delwin T Lindsey1,2, Angela M Brown2
1Department of Psychology, Ohio State University, Mansfield, Ohio 44906, USA.
Annual Review of Vision Science
|September 15, 2021
Summary
Human languages have few basic color terms despite distinguishing millions of colors. This review explores how perception and communication create universal, yet diverse, color lexicons.
Area of Science:
- Linguistics
- Cognitive Psychology
- Anthropology
Background:
- Humans perceive a continuous spectrum of color but use limited basic color terms in language.
- Cross-linguistic studies reveal significant variation in the number of color terms across languages.
- Despite variation, lexical color categories show remarkable cross-cultural similarities.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the factors contributing to the formation of color lexicons.
- To understand how color categories influence perception and cognition.
- To explain the universal regularities and diversity in world color lexicons.
Main Methods:
- Review of psychological studies on color perception and categorization.
- Analysis of linguistic data on color terminology across diverse languages.
- Examination of computational models simulating color category development.
Main Results:
- Color lexicons are shaped by a combination of human perceptual constraints and societal communication needs.
- Universal patterns in color categorization emerge across languages, influenced by visual system regularities.
- Lexical diversity arises from cultural and historical factors, leading to variations in term granularity.
Conclusions:
- Color categorization is a product of both universal biological factors and diverse cultural influences.
- The interplay between perception and communication drives the evolution of shared, yet distinct, color lexicons.
- Understanding color lexicons provides insights into human cognition, perception, and social interaction.
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