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Name That Tone

1) Different languages categorize colors differently, with some distinguishing fewer colors than English. Having specific color words helps people remember and identify colors. 2) The vocabulary used to describe colors has evolved differently in various language communities and cultures based on what distinctions were important to communicate. 3) Studies have found that factors like gender and hobbies can influence what color terms individuals are more likely to use when naming shades. Having exposure to color through activities makes people more precise with color language.

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108 views12 pages

Name That Tone

1) Different languages categorize colors differently, with some distinguishing fewer colors than English. Having specific color words helps people remember and identify colors. 2) The vocabulary used to describe colors has evolved differently in various language communities and cultures based on what distinctions were important to communicate. 3) Studies have found that factors like gender and hobbies can influence what color terms individuals are more likely to use when naming shades. Having exposure to color through activities makes people more precise with color language.

Uploaded by

bamaybe1
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Name that Tone

Color Vocabularies and Where They Come From


Bethany May
Snow White
Starting in the snow with native
tongues and Nancy Lord
Although every person with normal vision sees the same
spectrum of light, not all cultures recognize the same colors.
Some languages . . . Indentify only twoblack and white, ore
dark and light. Navajo, like Latin, distinguishes between the
black of darkness and the black of coal; it has one word for gray
and brown, includes some of what we would call green in its
word for blue, and others in its word for yellow. (483)
Experiments have demonstrated that people from
cultures with large and precise color vocabularies are
better able to remember and pick out colors they have
been previously shown. Having words for colors helps
us remember them. (483484)
The Necessity of a Color Lexicon
Alaskan natives needed to perceive and
communicate slight differences in the landscape.
Have names for different shades and tints
similarly evolved in the language communities
of designers?
Universal Experience of Color
Berlin and Kays Basic Color Terms: Their
Universality and Evolution (1969)
Linguistic Relativist View
Does language give us a way to talk about our
experience?
Or are words a lens through which we
experience?
Blue Black
Learning Olive
In 1978 Susan Carey and Elsa J. Bartlett worked with children
learning names of colors.
Man or Woman? Name these
Colors.
Gender and Color Vocabulary
Katherine S. Greene and Malcolm
D. Gynther tested college
students abilities to name shades
based on vocabulary skills, GPA,
test scores, and hobbies related to
color.
Feminine behaviors like
shopping, sewing, wearing
makeup, indicated a participant
would be more likely to use the
fancier color terms. The men
who also indicated color-related
hobbies (painting or designing, for
example) were less likely to use
the basic color terms.
Color Codes: The New
Vocabulary
Pantone (standard)
CMYK (print)
RGB (digital)
Hexidecimal (web)
Rose by Any Other Name
Nancy Lord learned the word, htashtchul. It
is the fresh-scrubbed, brightened, new-
world look, the way the whole world looks
clean after a rain. Shed seen the rain stop
and clouds part before, but having a word to
put to the experience makes her feel more a
part of the land. Thats the way I feel about
juniper, wisteria, or cornflower blue.
Sources
Berlin, Brent, and Paul Kay. Basic Color Terms; Their Universality and Evolution. Berkeley: University
of California, 1969. Print.
Katherine S. Greene and Malcolm D. Gynther (1995) Blue versus Periwinkle: Color Identification and
Gender. Perceptual and Motor Skills: Volume 80, Issue . pp. 27-32 Academic Search
Complete. Web 2 Mar. 2013.
Lord, Nancy. Native Tongues. Language introductory readings. Seventh Edition. Ed. Virgian Clark,
Paul Escholz, Alfred Rosa. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins. 2008.480487.Print.
Miller, George A. and Patricia M. Gildea. How Children Learn Words. Language introductory
readings. Seventh Edition. Ed. Virgian Clark, Paul Escholz, Alfred Rosa. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martins. 2008. pp. 643651. Print
Pilling, Michael, and Ian R.L Davies. Linguistic Relativism And Colour Cognition. British Journal of
Psychology 95.4 (2004): 429-455. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Mar. 2013.

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