Color

1
Color

• Classification

2
Overview

• Relativism and Universalism
• How humans see color.
• History of UE (Universals and Evolution) approach
  to color classification.

3
Relativism and Universalism

• Early studies treated color classification as an
  example of extreme cultural relativism
• e.g., Conklin's study of Hanunoo color categories
  (attributes attended to include surface texture
  and sheen, not just hue, brightness, and
  saturation).

4
Early Relativism

• Cultural relativism is expectable, given the
  nature of the domain.
• Colors vary continuously from one another
• hue (wavelength)
• brightness (white black)
• saturation (mixture with the complement)
• People in different cultures should cut the
  continuum up differently, if there is no
  intrinsic structure to the color space.

5
How humans see color.
6
(No Transcript)
7
(No Transcript)
8
(No Transcript)
9
(No Transcript)
10
(No Transcript)
11
(No Transcript)
12
(No Transcript)
13
(No Transcript)
14
(No Transcript)
15
(No Transcript)
16
(No Transcript)
17
(No Transcript)
18
(No Transcript)
19
(No Transcript)
20
(No Transcript)
21
Early Relativism

• But not at all right.

22
Early Relativism

• But not at all right.
• It is not nearly as difficult to learn the
  meanings of the color terms of other languages as
  would be implied by a extreme relativist
  position.

23
Berlin Kay (1969)

• Basic Color Terms.

24
Berlin Kay (1969)

• 11 basic color terms (black, white, red, yellow,
  green, blue, brown, gray, pink, orange, purple).

25
Berlin Kay (1969)

• Pattern interpreted as the sequential encoding of
  foci in a limited number of combinations.

26
Berlin Kay (1969)

• 2 terms black, white
• 3 terms black, white, red
• 4 terms black, white, red, yellow or
• black, white, red, green
• 5 terms black, white, red, yellow, green
• 6 terms black, white, red, yellow, green, blue
• 7 terms black, white, red, yellow, green, blue,
  brown
• 8 or more terms black, white, red, yellow,
  green, blue, brown plus gray, pink, orange,
  purple in no particular order

27
(No Transcript)
28
Berlin Kay (1969)

• But not quite right.

29
Berlin Kay (1969)

• But not quite right.
• "white" term in Dani focuses in white, yellow or
  red (warm/light).
• "green" term in Mayan and elsewhere focuses in
  green or blue (GRUE).

30
Kay McDaniel (1978)

• The Linguistic Significance
• of the Meanings
• of Basic Color Terms.

31
Kay McDaniel (1978)

• Pattern interpreted as the successive
  differentiation of existing color categories.

32
Kay McDaniel (1978)

• Union of unique hue points
• 2 terms WRY / GBK
• 3 terms W / RY / GBK
• 4 terms W / R  / Y / GBK or W / RY / GB / K
• 5 terms W / R  / Y / GB / K
• Identity of unique hue points
• 6 terms W / R / Y / G / B / K

33
Kay McDaniel (1978)
Stage IIIa
34
Kay McDaniel (1978)
Stage IIIb
35
Kay McDaniel (1978)

• Argued that cross-cultural universals have their
  origin in the neuro-physiology of color vision.
• Not the cones, but the Lateral Geniculate Nuclei.

36
Kay McDaniel (1978)

• Three families of opponent process cells
• RG channel excited by red light, inhibited by
  green light (or vice versa).
• YB channel excited by yellow light, inhibited by
  blue light (or vice versa).
• WK channel responds to brightness levels
  independent of other two channels.

37
Kay McDaniel (1978)

• Explains why there might be universals in the
  classification of a structureless domain.
• Structure is imposed by the neuro-physiology.

38
Kay McDaniel (1978)
39
Kay McDaniel (1978)
40
Kay McDaniel (1978)

• But not quite right.

41
Kay McDaniel (1978)

• But not quite right.
• Anomalous composite categories found (YGB, YG,
  BK).
• The actual opponent process system would put
  unique hue points in the wrong places.
• True axes are closer to cherry (red) - teal, and
  chartreuse violet.

42
Kay, Berlin, Merrifield (1991)

• Biocultural Implications of
• Systems of Color Naming.

43
Kay, Berlin, Merrifield (1991)

• World Color Survey
• 111 languages, 2 hour interview with 25 native
  speakers in their own societies.

44
Kay, Berlin, Merrifield (1991)

• Pattern interpreted with
• Composite Category Rule
• "A possible composite category is any fuzzy union
  of a subset of fundamental neural response
  categories which, in Figure 2, forms an unbroken
  associational chain not crossing the diagonal
  line."

45
Kay, Berlin, Merrifield (1991)
46
Kay, Berlin, Merrifield (1991)

• Composite categories in KMcD (1978) RWY, GBK,
  RY, GB
• Composite categories in K,BM (1991) YGB, WY,
  YG, BK
• Allowed by rule, but not yet found
• YGBK

47
Kay, Berlin, Merrifield (1991)

• But not quite right.

48
Kay, Berlin, Merrifield (1991)

• But not quite right.
• Composite category rule is arbitrary statement of
  permitted categories offering no explanation of
  the logic of the rule.

49
Kay, Berlin, Maffi, Merrifield (1991)

• Color Naming across Languages.

Kay Maffi (1999)
Color Appearance and the Emergence and Evolution
of Basic Color Lexicons.
50
K,B,M,M (1991) KM (1999)

• Pattern interpreted as five evolutionary
  trajectories.

51
K,B,M,M (1991) KM (1999)
52
(No Transcript)
53
W Y R K/G/B
W Y/R K/G/B
W Y R K G/B
W Y/R K G/B
W/Y/R K/G/B
W Y R K G B
54
W Y R K/G/B
W Y R K/B G
W Y/R K/G/B
W Y R K G/B
W Y/R K G/B
W/Y/R K/G/B
W Y R K G B
W R K Y/G B
W R K Y/G/B
55
K,B,M,M (1991) KM (1999)

• Four Principles
• (0) Partition In notational domains of universal
  or quasi-universal cultural salience (kin
  relations, living things, colors, etc.),
  languages tend to assign significata to lexical
  items in such a way as to partition the denotata
  of the domain.

56
K,B,M,M (1991) KM (1999)

• Four Principles
• (1) Black and White Distinguish black and white.
  
• (2) Warm and Cool Distinguish the warm primaries
  (red and yellow) from the cool primaries (green
  and blue).
• (3) Red Distinguish red.

57
K,B,M,M (1991) KM (1999)
58
Sunset