北外外研中心普通语言学及应用考研libre

1、THE EVOLUTION OF BASIC COLOR TERMS IN CHIJianshe WuBeijingernational Studies UniversityABSTRACTThis pr makes an attempt to construct a framework of how Chibasic colorterms evolve over the past 4000 years, which is dividedo several periods, by anysis of the relevant literature in history on the basis

2、 of word frequency counts.Then we discuss what stage each period should be classifiedo under Berlin &Kays framework and its recent developments. Against these findings, the similaritiesand differenbetn our corpus and Berlin & Kays amptions areyzedand presented. In addition, the replacement of Chi by

3、 Hong is also discussed withreference to the Lexical Diffutheory.SUBJECT KEYWORDSBasic Color Terms Diachronic StudyLexical DiffuColor Category1.RODUCTIONIn 1969, Berlin & Kay advanced the followino hypotheses: 1 the referentsfor the basic color terms of all languages appear to be drawn from a set of

4、 elevenuniversal perceptual categories, and 2 these categoriese encodedhehistory of a given language in a partially fixed order (Berlin & Kay 1969: 4-5).Accordingly, they formulated a temporal-evolutionary ordering as follows:Figure 1: The Berlin & Kays hierarchy of basic color terms (1969: 4)THE EV

5、OLUTION OF BASIC COLOR TERMS IN CHI77Their theory of color universals runs counter to then standard Whorfian doctrineand marks a “phase-shift” in our understanding of the color categories. Before theirwork the prevailing view wast color categories were culturally relative. Since 1969,the dominant vi

6、ew has shifted toward a be f in color universals.Following Berlin & Kays (1969) study, a large amount of cross-linguistic data concerning the basic color terms have been collected. This has led to four substantialtheoretical revis (Kay & McDaniel 1978; Kay, Berlin & Merrifield 1991; Kay,Berlin, Maff

7、i & Merrifield 1997; Kay & Maffi 1999)., according to Kay & McDaniel (1978), the idea of exactly eleven universal perceptual categories has been replaced with the six Hering (1964) primaries (black,white, red, green, yellow, blue) along wirestricted subset of theirsible unions(i.e. Comite categoriec

8、h as red or yellow,bluereen) andersections(i.e., Derived categoriech as orange, purple, pink, gray, brown).hisformulation, sets of color categories below Stage V must includeeast oneo the twocomite category and any comite categories should have dissolvedprimary categories before the appearance of an

9、y derived categories; all languageswith moren six basic color terms should haveeast one derived color category;and “grey” has been listed as “Less predictable” (as shown in Figure 2).Figure 2: The evolution of basic color categories (Kay & McDaniel, 1978: 639)Second, based on the findings of the Wor

10、ld Color Survey (WCS), Kay,Berlin & Merrifield (1991) proe some relaxations to the constras of Kay &McDaniels (1978) ver. The comite category “grue (green or blue)” could bepanied by the derived categories “brown” or “purple” and either brown or78JOURNAL OF CHILINGUISTICSVol. 39 No. 1 (2011)purple o

11、r both not infrequently appear before the green/blue comite is dissolved;and a scheme (see Figure 3), allowing nine of the logicallysibly 63 comiteite categories so far sibilities at Stage IIIcategories to occur, has been proed to include the comobserved; at the same time, they present five evolutio

12、naryand three at Stage IV.Figure 3: Permissible comite categories: Observed comite categories (Kay et al. 1991)Third, Kay, Berlin, Maffi & Merrifield (1997) classify the 110 basic colorterminology systems of the WCSo eleven basic types, based on the combinations ofHerings primary terms they contain

13、(Figure 4 This is an adapted verconsistingonly of nine types). Their theory now concern only those basic color terms and derivedcolor categories are not incorporatedhose types, where every stage contains onemore basic color termn the preceding stage and an arrow indicates the transitionsfrom the typ

14、e occurring on its left to the type toward which it po s.Figure 4: Types and evolutionary stages of basic color term systems (Kay, Berlin,Maffi & Merrifield 1997, as cited in Kay & Maffi 1999: 748)THE EVOLUTION OF BASIC COLOR TERMS IN CHI79Fourth, Kay & Maffi (1999) place 83% (91 out of 110 language

15、s, see numbersin Figure 5) of the languages somewhere on the main line of five evolutionarytrajectories of basic color term systems. And a mof one language-basedprinciple Partition and three color-appearance-based principles Black & White,Warm & Cool and Red has been presented to account for the dat

16、a in WCS.hism, they claim an order of application of those principles as 0) Partition Principle:languages tend to assign significao lexical items in such a way as to partition thedeno a of the; 1) Black & White Principle: “black” and “white” should bedistinguished; 2) Warm & Cool Principle: the warm

17、 primaries (red and yellow)should be distinguished from the cool primaries (green and blue); and 3) Red Principle: “red” should be distinguished.Figure 5: Main line (Trajectory A) of evolutionary development of basic colorlexicons (Kay & Maffi 1999: 750)By adopting the above-mentioned revis, it is b

18、e vedt the theory ofuniversality and evolutionary emergence of basic color terms moves gradually out ofanthropological linguisticso color science (Saunders 2000).he wake of thispros, revolving around two questions (1 Is color naming across languageslargely a matter of arbitrary linguistic convention

19、? 2 Do cross-language differenin color naming cause corresponding differenin color cognition? Kay & Regier2006), a number of empirical studies (Heider 1971, 1972; Heider & Olivier 1972;Rosch 1973; Berlin & Berlin 1975; Kay 1975; Kay & Kempton 1984; R iff 1976; De Valois & De Valois 1993; MacLaury 19

20、97; Davies & Corbett 1998; Regier, Kay& Cook 2005), computer ming and simulations (Belpaeme 2002; Steels &Belpaeme 2005; Belpaeme & Bleys 2005; Dowman 2002, 2007, 2008) and disputes(Wierzbicka 1990; Saunders 1992, 1999,2000; Saunders & Brakel 1997, Lucy 1997a, 1997b; Lyons 1997; Roberson, Davies & D

21、avidoff 2000, Roberson, Davidoff, Davies & Shapiro 2005) ensue.80JOURNAL OF CHILINGUISTICSVol. 39 No. 1 (2011)Nonetheless, among all those inspiring works, it is very rare to locate adiachronic study of basic color terms, whether in English or in any other languages,based on the relevant literature

22、in history available now. It is be vedt therelationship betn language and society could be understood in a morecomprehensive way through such diachronic study and it will reveal to us additionalinformation more reliable anderesting. And it is for this puret the presentpr will turn to Chibasic color

23、terms.he following parts, after a generalreview of contemporary works concerning the studies of basic color terms in Chiwe attempt to conduct a corpus-based diachronic study of basic color terms in,Chi. We arguet the evolution of Chibasic color terms might not fullymatch the main-line trajectory of

24、Berlin & Kays hypothesis as illustrated above.Meanwhile, how words and naming are progressing with the development of societyhas been discussed in view of our findings. In song,xpectt such adiachroniccould provide a supplementary look at other synchronicstudies and simulation studies.2. BASIC COLOR

25、TERMS RESEARCH IN CHINAThere exist a number of researches on Chibasic color terms (henceforthCBCT). In general, synchronic studies prevail. Some ground their studies solely onOracone inscriptions (甲骨文, hereinafter called OBI), Bronze Inscriptions (金文), Shijing ( 诗经, or The Book ogs), or Shuowen jiez

26、i ( 说文解字, theetymological dictionary compiled by Xu Shen 许慎c. A.D. 58-148he secondcentury.)(Hu 1941, Zhang 1991, Xu 1995, Baxter 1983, Wang 1993); some reviewCBCTs development from a lexical and /rammatical poof view (Zhang 2001,Xu 2003, Li 2003); some attempt to explicate the cultural and sol signi

27、ficanceunderlying CBCT; whereas, at the same time, a diachronicevolution could also be found.ysis of CBCTsAfteryzing each hieroglyph form of Bai ( 28 , “white”), Chi ( 赤,“red”)(including Dan , “red” and Zhu 朱, “vermillion”), Huang (黄, “yellow”),Hei (黑, “black”) and Qing (青, “blackrue bluereen”) in O

28、BI, Hu (1941)deduits respective pros of being generated.Zhang (1991) bases his study on OBI, Bronze Inscriptions, Erya (尔磉 or NearCorretness), Shuowen jiezi, in which the semconstituents of those color termsareroduced and the cultural conno ions in “Chi, Hei, Huang, Bai” are revealed.THE EVOLUTION O

29、F BASIC COLOR TERMS IN CHI81Xu (1995) re s his study more on Shuowen jiezi. All the color terms arecounted and their frequencies are listed so as to determine which should be classifiedas CBCT (in China, the distinction betn Zheng se 橫色, “Pure Color” and Jianse 间色, “Secondary Color” is more or less

30、equal to the BCT and non-BCT ) while which not.Viewing from grammatical angle, Zhang (2001) lays more emphasis on theadjectives in OBI and higgestion of the color terms used att time are Bai, Hei,You (幽 or 黝, “bright black”), Chi, Huang, Li (利 or 黎, “multi-colored or black”).Xu (2003) alsoyzes the a

31、djectives in OBI. The color terms listed includesChi, Huang, Zhi ( 戠 , “red or clayey”), Bai, You, Hei, Wu ( 勿 or 物 ,“multi-colored”).Li (2003) has studied the grammar of OBI andast produced a list ofadjectives of the following color terms: Bai, Hei, You, Xuan, Chi, Zhi, Huang, Li.In Zhang (2003), h

32、e presents a general review of the studies on vocabulary and grammar of OBI. Therein Wang Shaoxin (王绍新) has mentioned: Bai, Chi, Huang, L (绿, “green”) as the color terms; Xiang Xi (向熹) has included Bai, Chi, Huang, L, You in his list of adjectives; and Guan Xiechu (管燮初) presents Bai, Huang, You whil

33、e Cheng Mengjia (陈梦家) claims Bai, Huang, Hei, You, Chi instead. LiangYinfeng (梁银锋) identifies seven color terms: Wu, You, Hei, Bai, Chi, Huang, Zhiand at the same time,Fengbin (杨逢淬) reviews all the adjectiveed byeach scholar andast figures out a list of You, Huang, Hei, Bai, Chi.Based on his study o

34、n the culture of the Shang (商) dynasty, Zhao (2000) works out a list of Chi, Huang, Hei, You, Bai. Moreover he pos out the wider conno ionas shown in each color terms.These studies are mainly concerned with the development of ancient Chi.In contrast, a modern study of color terms could be found in X

35、ies unpublisheddoctoral disser ion, in which each basic color terms areyzederms ofsemfield and codability. Consequently a list of contemporary color terms isgiven (Xie 2004).A more comprehensive work has been done by Yao (1988), who reviews the history of color studies and in view of Berlin & Kays t

36、heory of Basic Color Terms,divides the Chihistoryo five stages: the Late Shang dynasty (ca. 1500-1122B.C.), the Western and Eastern Zhou (西周周) through Qin (秦) dynasties (ca.1121-207 B.C.), the Han (汉) through Jin (晋) to Southern & Northerndynasties82JOURNAL OF CHILINGUISTICSVol. 39 No. 1 (2011)(南漆朝)

37、 (ca. 206 B.C. 589 A.D.), the Tang (唐) through Song (宋) to Qing (清)dynasties (ca. 581-1911 A.D.) and Modern China (x当代中肉) (ca. 1911-present) soas to present an evolutionary pattern of basic color terms in Chi. He concludest the evolution of CBCT from the Late Shang to Tang Dynasty does not complywit

38、h Berlin & Kays theory, and he is expecting a more elaborated explanation.Three additional researches concerning Chibasic color terms are carriedout respectively by Baxter, a famous American sinologist, Wang Tao, a Britishcitizen of Chiorigin, and Cheung Sauying (张秀英). Baxter has compared theCBCThe

39、Ear r Period (referring to the Shang and Western Zhou 西周dynasties ca. 1500-771 B.C., having recourse to Shijing and the reconstruction ofOld Chi) with thosehe Late Period (extending from the Eastern Zhou 周through the Han 汉 dynasty ca. 770 B.C. -220 A.D, with the help of Shuowen jieziand Shijing) in

40、relation to Berlin & Kays evolution theory of basic color terms. Heproes “two stages of the Chilanguages: a lateriod, perhaps ending withthe Han dynasty, which had five basic color terms (a stage IV system: Bai, Huang,Hei, Chi and Qing), and an ear r period, probably ending withof theWestern Zhou dy

41、nasty or somewhat ear r, which had four basic color terms (a stageIIIb system: Bai, Huang, Xuan 玄, “reddish black”, Chi)”(Baxter 1983: 21). The study conducted by Wang Tao complements Baxters. By his particular review of theuse of “Chi, Xing (双, “red-yellow”), Bai, Wu, Zhi, Huang, Hei, You, Xuan”heL

42、ate Shang OBI, he assertst Baxtersis overall correct, but subject tosome minor modifications (Wang 1996). Cheungs study on Chi and Hong (红, “red”)provides us both synchronic and diachronicysis on their usageshe corpora,focusing on semextens of color terms towards non-physical color senses.As a resul

43、t, the replacement of Chi by Hong is discussed against the framework oflexical diffutheory and prototype theory and an Object-Pros-Quality prosin semchange of color terms is highlighted (Cheung 2004).In summary, the above studies, except Yaos review and Cheungs corpus-basedstudy, could be classified

44、 as some synchronic then-descriptions abohicolorterms (not nesarily basic color terms). Even though some have touched on itsevolution, it is either not so comprehensive or confined to a short time span. Amongthem, Yaos work is really pioneering and more related to ourresearch here extens ofCBCT in h

45、is(Cheungs study is also closely connected to ourysis on sembasic color terms here). However, the sequential appearance ofTHE EVOLUTION OF BASIC COLOR TERMS IN CHI83framework is questioned by many scholars (see Xie 2004), and such doubt should beclarified; moreover, his diviof Chihistoryo five stage

46、s could be furtherdelineated in hopes of locating the specific dynasty in which each CBCT turns up as the basic color term; and furthermore, in Yaos review, all the relevant evidence areomitted due to the limits of space length. Admittedly, it is of great regret to see thosenesary supporting details

47、 missing.3. METHODSIn view of both the s us quo of basic color term studies lacking in adiachronic study and these discreet literature found in Chistudies, we attempt toreveal the evolution pros of Chibasic color terms by s istic counting on acontinuum of 25 history books1 from Western Han Dynasty (

48、206B.C.25A.D.) toQing Dynasty(1644A.D.-1911A.D.). In dosing, we also wish to establish acomparison betn our findings and Berlin & Kay (1969), Kay & McDaniel (1978),Kay et al. (1991), Kay, Berlin, Maffi & Merrifield (1997), Kay & Maffi (1999). It is specified as follows:1 The corpus is based on The T

49、wenty-Five Histories (十五史, “Dynastichistories from remote antiquity till the Qing Dynasty”) and its spel editingtradition makes this diachronic studysible. And for the dynasties which have notbeen covered by these books, i.e., before Western Han and after Qing Dynasty, wecomplement these 25 volumes

50、of history books with Oracone InscriptionsheheLate Shang dynasty (殷商时期) (ca. 1500-1122 B.C.), Bronze InscriptionsWestern Zhou dynasty (西周时期) (ca. 1121-771 B.C.), and Zhu zi bai jia (诸子29家,“The classics from all schools in ancient China”)he Spring & Autumn andWarring S es Periods (春秋期) (ca. 770-221 B

51、.C.) for the former (there isno any other book available today for these periods), and with Modern NovelCollectionsodern times for the latter.2 To ensure the corpus is not biased by the offiling system, wefurther add those books written in vernacular Chio our corpus for comparisonpure (see each sect

52、ion below for details). And such relevant etymologicaldictionaries as Shuowen jiezi, Yu pian (玉篇), Lei pian (类篇) are also included forreference pure.3 All those books, wifew exceptions (e.g., OBI, the color words arehandpicked by the author), are in electronic ver, within which these color words84JO

53、URNAL OF CHILINGUISTICSVol. 39 No. 1 (2011)have been searched with the help of Acrobat software (Ver7.0).4 To exclude the same words which are not used as color words here, the author further identifies each color words based on the searching results produced by Acrobat software.5 The number of colo

54、r words for each item is added up and the percentage is calculated within each table.6 Whether a color word belongs to basic color terms or not is judged withthe guidelines provided by Berlin & Kay (1969), i.e.,These color terms are known by all speakers; These color terms are highly sa nt;These col

55、or terms do not denote a subset of colors denoted by another word;The meaning of these color terms is not predictable from themeaning of their parts.And their four complementing features are also considered.4. FINDINGS CONCERNING THE EVOLUTION OF CBCTReferring to Wang (1958), L (1985) and Xiang (199

56、3), we group the Chihistoryo eight periods, for the pure of ourysis. They are: the Late Shangdynasty (殷商时期) (ca. 1500-1122 B.C.), the Western Zhou dynasty (西周时期) (ca.1121-771 B.C.), the Spring & Autumn and Warring Ses Periods (春秋期)(ca. 770-221 B.C.), the Qin and Han dynasties (秦汉时期) (ca. 221 B.C.-22

57、0 A.D.),the Three Kingdoms, through Jo Southern & Northern dynasties (肉两晋南漆朝时期) (ca. 220 589 A.D.), the Sui through Tang, Five Dynasties & Ten Kingdoms to Song dynasties (隋唐五代十肉两宋时期) (ca. 581-1279 A.D.), the Yuan throughMing to Qing dynasties (元明清时期) (ca. 1271-1911 A.D.), Modern China (x当代中肉) (ca. 1

58、911-present). We willroduce each stage as follows:4.1 The Late Shang Dynasty (ca. 1500-1122 B.C.)Basic Color Terms:Bai (white), Huang (yellow), You (black), Chi (red)We have searched The Dictionary of OBI (Xu 1988), The Concise Dictionary ofTHE EVOLUTION OF BASIC COLOR TERMS IN CHI85OBI (Cui 2001) a

59、nd The Collected Prs on OBI (Li 1965), and it is foundt inthe Late Shang dynasty, the basic color terms could be:2Bai, Emerging at Period I, II, III, IV and VCui 786: 叀28羊又大雨 (hui / bai-white / sheep / have / big / rain: We shouldsacrifice a white sheep, and there will then be heavy rain.)Huang, Eme

60、rging at Period I and VCui 545: 叀黄牛 (hui / huang-yellow / ox: We should sacrifice a yellow ox.)ZhiEmerging at Period I, II, III, IV and VHeji 35995: 其戠牛圏用 (qi / zhi- red or clayey / ox / this / use: We shall perhaps sacrifice a red ox. This was used.)Jin,(堇3)Emerging at Period I and IICui 551: 其用堇牛