Collaborative Research:Universals and Variations in Cross Language Color Naming

合作研究：跨语言颜色命名的共性和变体

• 批准号: 0418404
• 负责人: Paul Kay
• 金额: $ 7.36万
• 依托单位: International Computer Science Institute
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-09-15 至 2007-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0418404&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Universals; Variations; Cross

Does our language determine the way we see color or does our perception of color determine the way we talk about it? This question constitutes a major research focus of the broader 'linguistic relativity' question of the influence of language on perception and of perception on language. It has been established by prior research that the color naming systems of different languages (a) are not all alike but (b) differ from one another in a constrained fashion. In particular, there appear to be a few universally privileged or salient percepts -- ideal black, white, red, yellow, green, blue, and perhaps purple -- around which almost all the major color terms of almost all the world's languages are formed. But the boundaries of the colorterms of different languages can differ dramatically. For example, the color words of most languages of the world do not draw a boundary between green and blue; that is, green and blue are included in the reference of a single word. With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Paul Kay and Dr. Terry Regier will investigate the degree to which the boundaries of named color categories can be predicted from the locations of the privileged or 'focal' colors, using existing models of how categories are generalized from given examples. The research involves (1) discovering the universal focal colors by analyzing the results of the World Color Survey, in which the reference and bestexamples of the major color words were collected in the field for 110 unwritten languages, (2) assessing the boundaries of the named colorcategories in the same sample of languages from the same data base and(3) applying three different general models of category formation from the cognitive psychology literature to see if the data in (2) can be predicted from the data in (1). To the degree this effort is successful, it will both validate the hypothesis of universal focal colors and demonstrate the interaction of domain specific constants (the focal colors) with general cognitive principles (of category formation). It will also show that variable cognitive behavior need not be lawless, but may result from the subtle interaction of a variety of constraints.

是我们的语言决定了我们看待颜色的方式，还是我们对颜色的感知决定了我们谈论颜色的方式？这个问题构成了更广泛的“语言相对论”问题的主要研究焦点，即语言对感知的影响和感知对语言的影响。先前的研究已经确定，不同语言的颜色命名系统（a）并不都是一样的，但（B）以受约束的方式彼此不同。特别是，似乎有几个普遍享有特权或突出的感知-理想的黑色，白色，红色，黄色，绿色，蓝色，也许还有紫色-几乎所有世界语言的几乎所有主要颜色词都是围绕这些颜色词形成的。但是不同语言的颜色词的边界可能会有很大的不同。例如，世界上大多数语言的颜色词并没有在绿色和蓝色之间划出界限;也就是说，绿色和蓝色都包含在单个词的指称中。 在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，Paul Kay博士和Terry Regier博士将研究命名颜色类别的边界可以从特权或“焦点”颜色的位置预测的程度，使用现有的模型来描述类别如何从给定的例子中概括。 本研究包括：（1）通过对世界颜色调查结果的分析，发现了世界上110种不成文语言的主要颜色词的参考和最佳范例，（2）在来自同一数据库的同一语言样本中评估命名颜色类别的边界，以及（3）应用认知心理学文献中三种不同的范畴形成的一般模型，看看（2）中的数据是否可以从（1）中的数据预测出来。在这种努力是成功的程度上，它既验证了普遍的焦点颜色的假设，并证明了领域特定的常数（焦点颜色）与一般的认知原则（类别形成）的相互作用。它还将表明，可变的认知行为不一定是无法无天的，但可能是各种约束的微妙相互作用的结果。