The meaning of colour words in a cross-linguistic perspective

Anna Wierzbicka

doi:10.1017/CBO9781107337930.015

The meaning of colour words in a cross-linguistic perspective

Anna Wierzbicka

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review

Abstract

People in a given speech community have words they need in order to talk easily about things they often want to talk about. Words which have their exact equivalents in all languages can be called, somewhat loosely, 'universal words'. Linguists prefer to call them 'lexical universals': obviously what are really universal are not words as such but only their meanings. Since some words have more than one meaning, if we want to establish what is really universal we need to focus in each case on a specific meaning.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Handbook of Color Psychology
Editors	Andrew J Elliot, Mark D Fairchild and Anna Franklin
Place of Publication	Cambridge
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
Pages	295-316
Volume	1
Edition	1st
ISBN (Print)	9781107043237
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107337930.015
Publication status	Published - 2015

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10.1017/CBO9781107337930.015

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abstract = "People in a given speech community have words they need in order to talk easily about things they often want to talk about. Words which have their exact equivalents in all languages can be called, somewhat loosely, 'universal words'. Linguists prefer to call them 'lexical universals': obviously what are really universal are not words as such but only their meanings. Since some words have more than one meaning, if we want to establish what is really universal we need to focus in each case on a specific meaning.",

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The meaning of colour words in a cross-linguistic perspective

Abstract

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