Description:
The 1969 publication of Brent Berlin and Paul Kay's Basic Color Terms proved explosive and controversial. Contrary to the then-popular doctrine of random language variation, Berlin and Kay's multilingual study of color nomenclature indicated a cross-cultural and almost universal pattern in the selection of colors that received abstract names in each language. The ensuing debate helped reform the views of anthropologists, linguists, and psychologists alike. After four decades in print, Basic Color Terms now has a sequel: in this book, the authors authoritatively extend the original survey, studying 110 additional unwritten languages in detail and in situ. The results are presented with charts showing the overall palette of color terms within each language as well as the levels of agreement among speakers.
Brief description: Paul Kay is emeritus professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. He joined the University in 1966 as a member of the Department of Anthropology, transferred to the Department of Linguistics in 1982, and then became a Senior Researcher in artificial intelligence at the International Computer Science Institute. He is best known for his work with Brent Berlin on color, first published in Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution.