In:Lexicalization patterns in color naming: A cross-linguistic perspective
Edited by Ida Raffaelli, Daniela Katunar and Barbara Kerovec
[Studies in Functional and Structural Linguistics 78] 2019
► pp. 333–356
Universals and variability of color naming in Icelandic, Icelandic Sign Language, and North American Icelandic
Published online: 9 October 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/sfsl.78.14bec
https://doi.org/10.1075/sfsl.78.14bec
Color naming remains a lively area of debate pitting
supporters of universal neuro-psychological constraints against
cultural relativists. The Evolution of Semantic Systems project
offered an extensional semantic approach, using statistical methods
to measure relative variability. This chapter uses a similar
methodology to compare color naming in Icelandic with a
typologically unrelated sign language (Icelandic Sign Language) in
the same community, and with a heritage language developing in an
English-speaking environment (North American Icelandic). Data from
North American English and British English are provided for context.
The statistical analysis shows very little variation in naming
patterns. However, a more detailed analysis of formal mechanisms of
color naming (compounding, object-naming, opaque lexemes) shows rich
variation obscured by a methodological emphasis on transparent
semantic heads and basic color terms.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Background
- 3.Method
- 3.1Participants
- 3.2Data elicitation
- 3.3Coding
- 4.Results
- 4.1Statistical analysis
- 4.1.1Color naming task
- 4.1.2Focal color task
- 4.2Main terms and dominant terms
- 4.2.1Main coded terms
- 4.2.2Dominant terms
- 4.3Morphology and semantics of full responses
- 4.3.1Derivation
- 4.3.2Compounding
- 4.3.3Semantic feature analysis
- 4.1Statistical analysis
- 5.Conclusion
Acknowledgment Notes References
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