English color-term modifiers examined with color-survey data: brightness, lightness, paleness, and more

Data from an unconstrained color-naming survey allowed focal points to be located in the color space not just for color terms but also for their modified versions. After converting each modified focus into a displacement from the focus of the unmodified term, the meaning of a given modifier can be operationalized as the bundle of displacements across a range of plain terms, while the dissimilarity between a given pair of modifiers can be calculated as the vector angle between the corresponding bundles. The results for seven basic terms and 12 modifiers, including "light," "dark," "pale," "deep," "bright," and "dim," show how the use of these terms in color science departs from their use in common language. I argue that modifiers fall along a gradient of increasing "basicness," analogous to the concept of "basic" for a color term or category.