Abstract
AbstractThe ways in which languages have come to divide the visible spectrum with their color terminology, in both their variety and the apparent universal tendencies, are still largely unexplained. Building on recent work in modeling color perception and categorization, as well as the theory of signaling games, we incrementally construct a color categorization model which combines perceptual characteristics of individual agents, game-theoretic signaling interaction of these agents, and the probability of observing particular colors as an environmental constraint. We also propose a method of transparent evaluation against the data gathered in the World Color Survey. The results show that the model’s predictive power is comparable to the current state of the art. Additionally, we argue that the model we suggest is superior in terms of motivation of the principles involved, and that its explanatory relevance with respect to color categorization in languages is therefore higher. Our results suggest that the universal tendencies of color categorization cannot be explained solely in terms of the shape of the color space induced by our perceptual apparatus. We believe that only by taking the heterogeneity of the phenomenon seriously can we acquire a deeper understanding of why color categorization takes the forms we observe across languages.
Highlights
The decades since the landmark work by Berlin and Kay[1] have seen an immense research effort concerning the issue of color categorization, or naming, in the languages of the world
We propose a method of transparent evaluation against the data gathered in the World Color Survey
At least remarkable cross-linguistic tendencies, in how different languages categorize the spectrum of visible color by their “basic” color terminology? If so, how can we explain the existence of such patterns? For a long time, the discussion had been polarized between two opposing camps, the universalists and the relativists, who suggest different answers to both these questions
Summary
The decades since the landmark work by Berlin and Kay[1] have seen an immense research effort concerning the issue of color categorization, or naming, in the languages of the world. The universalists defend the existence of variously strong universal patterns of color naming, from the firm implicational hierarchy of color terms as put forward by Berlin and Kay[2], progressively mitigated later[3], This work is licensed under the Creative to weaker statements of non-randomly strong cross-linguistic patterns[4]. The relativists, on the other hand, highlight the differences and peculiarities of color naming in particular languages and criticize the methodology behind the universalist findings, including the procedures of the World Color Survey[8]. As opposed to the perceptuobiological constraints on color categorization, relativists of this sort emphasize that the evolution of a color naming system is essentially a socio-cultural process, and they note that if there are strong crosslinguistic patterns in color categorization, this may be caused partly by the history of language contact, notably by the influence of the Western colonial languages[10]
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