Color naming across languages reflects color use
Color naming across languages reflects color use
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DOI：
10.1073/pnas.1619666114
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发表时间：
2017-10-03
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Conway, Bevil R.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Gibson, Edward;Futrell, Richard;Conway, Bevil R.
是什么决定了语言如何对颜色进行分类？我们分析了110种语言的世界色彩调查（WCS）的结果，结果表明，尽管语言之间存在明显差异，但暖色（黄/红）的色彩芯片的沟通总是比冷色（蓝/绿）更好。我们对一个大型自然图像数据库中的颜色统计数据进行了分析，该数据库由人类观察者为显著物体策划，并表明物体往往具有暖色而不是冷色。这些结果表明，颜色命名效率的跨语言相似性反映了颜色的普遍有用性，并提供了一个原则（颜色使用）的解释，该原则支配着颜色类别的产生。通过在三个群体中使用两个极端版本的颜色命名任务收集原始数据，我们表明WCS的潜在方法问题不会破坏信息论分析：Tsimane'，一个偏远的亚马逊狩猎采集者；Bolivian-Spanish扬声器;和说英语的人。这些数据还使我们能够测试颜色有用性假设的另一个预测：语言之间颜色分类的差异是由颜色对文化的总体有用性差异引起的。作为支持，我们发现提斯曼人的颜色命名交流效率相对较低，而且提斯曼人在描述熟悉的物体时不太可能使用颜色术语。与自然物体相比，在命名人工着色物体时，Tsimane的颜色命名率提高了，这表明工业化促进了颜色的有用性。
What determines how languages categorize colors? We analyzed results of the World Color Survey (WCS) of 110 languages to show that despite gross differences across languages, communication of chromatic chips is always better for warm colors (yellows/reds) than cool colors (blues/greens). We present an analysis of color statistics in a large databank of natural images curated by human observers for salient objects and show that objects tend to have warm rather than cool colors. These results suggest that the cross-linguistic similarity in color-naming efficiency reflects colors of universal usefulness and provide an account of a principle (color use) that governs how color categories come about. We show that potential methodological issues with the WCS do not corrupt information-theoretic analyses, by collecting original data using two extreme versions of the colornaming task, in three groups: the Tsimane', a remote Amazonian hunter-gatherer isolate; Bolivian-Spanish speakers; and English speakers. These data also enabled us to test another prediction of the color-usefulness hypothesis: that differences in color categorization between languages are caused by differences in overall usefulness of color to a culture. In support, we found that color naming among Tsimane' had relatively low communicative efficiency, and the Tsimane' were less likely to use color terms when describing familiar objects. Color-naming among Tsimane' was boosted when naming artificially colored objects compared with natural objects, suggesting that industrialization promotes color usefulness.