What is it about?
The Finnish word harmaa ('grey') is a semantically flexible colour term. Based on natural language data, I show that its meaning varies, referring not only to specific colours or colour categories, but also to any unsaturated colour or set of colours.
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Why is it important?
Grey, black, and white, as achromatic colours, are often viewed as separate from chromatic colours (e.g., red, yellow, green). This has affected how the words denoting these colours are treated in colour semantics. Moreover, the relationship between colour sensation and the meanings of colour terms is often presented as straightforward in many colour studies. In this study, by showing the variation within the meaning of a single colour term, I propose a more flexible view of colour semantics.
Perspectives
To me, the line between achromatic and chromatic colours seems somewhat artificial. Most of the colours we see around us are not pure, and the same applies to achromatic colours. For some reason, however, this division is taken for granted in colour studies. When we look at language use, we may see familiar phenomena in new forms—ones we may not have considered before. With this study, I call on colour researchers and scientists to look beyond the established understanding of colour and its aspects. I also invite everyone to question what we think we know about colour.
Veera Hatakka
University of Helsinki
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Conceptualizing achromaticity, Review of Cognitive Linguistics, December 2023, John Benjamins,
DOI: 10.1075/rcl.00167.hat.
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