There are no "color universals" but there are universals of visual semantics

The search for the "universals of color" that was initiated by Berlin and Kay's classic book is based on the assumption that there can be, and indeed that there are, some conceptual universals of color. This article brings new evidence, new analyses, and new arguments against the Berlin and Kay paradigm, and offers a radically different alternative to it. The new data on which the argument is based come, in particular, from Australian languages, as well as from Polish and Russian. The article deconstructs the concept of "color," and shows how indigenous visual descriptors can be analyzed without reference to color, on the basis of identifiable visual prototypes and the universal concept of seeing. It also offers a model for analyzing semantic change and variation from "the native's point of view.".