The Influence Of Professional Color Competence On Color Lexicon And Naming Pattern

Abstract

We explored sociolectic differences in color lexicon of Russian speakers. The study aim was twofold: (i) to investigate the influence of growing competence in individuals professionally working with color (henceforth: “color professionals”) on the pattern of color names and (ii) to compare color-naming patterns in groups of participants with different levels of professional competence (beginner, intermediate, and advanced). For intergroup comparison, we employed the following indices: (1) frequency of occurrence of recurring color terms; (2) number of words in color descriptors; (3) occurrences of basic color terms (BCTs), monolexemic nonBCTs, and polylexemic BCT-derivatives; and (4) the scope of objects used as color-term referents. An unconstrained color-naming method was used in an online experiment, with total 600 standardized color stimuli presented across respondents. Final dataset contained 48,687 responses of 1,737 native Russian speakers (1,204 females, 526 males), with different levels of color expertise and aged between 16 and 95 years. Results show that both color vocabulary and linguistic patterns of naming color change considerably with respondents' increasing professional experience and expertise. Specifically, the growing color competence is reflected in advanced specificity of naming colors; prevalence of complex patterns of color descriptors that contain greater number of nonBCTs, along with BCTs; greater variety of modifiers and emotionally-laden linguistic components, and professionally-specific object referents, such as dyes, pigments and paint brand names.