Denominación de las categorías de color básicas: procesos ontogenéticos y semántico-cognitivos

Abstract

The basic colour terms are studied from four approaches: linguistic relativism (Gleason & McNeill), linguistic universalism (Berlin & Kay), the neurophysiological model (Kay & McDaniel) and cognitivism (Wierzbicka). Terms of colour share a common chromatic feature. According to Coseriu, they form a two-dimensional lexical area, non-sequential, which would be interpreted as a multidimensional lexical area, hierarchical, non-sequential, from the approach of Wierzbicka. The paper discusses the consequence for language if the hypothesis is correct that, from a physiological point of view, there is a hierarchy in the colour field focused on the RGB model, where the chromatic occupies a nuclear place and the achromatic a peripheral one. Although the paper includes colour terms from several languages, special attention is paid to Spanish and Chinese. The following aspects are in focus: 1) Reference and denotative meaning – their symbolic value; 2) Reference and denotative meaning – their connotative sense.