Basic Color Terms

Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution (1969; <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 1-57586-162-3) is a book by <a href="/facts/Brent_Berlin/RorzFnHm">Brent Berlin</a> and <a href="/facts/Paul_Kay/Ex8JS1rJ">Paul Kay</a>. Berlin and Kay's work proposed that the basic <a href="/facts/Color_term/GUGLVf53">color terms</a> in a culture, such as <a href="/facts/Black/Sl9vnhcG">black</a>, <a href="/facts/Brown/QQNvjboh">brown</a>, or <a href="/facts/Red/gLnFAVx4">red</a>, are predictable by the number of color terms the culture has. All cultures have terms for black/dark and white/bright. If a culture has three color terms, the third is <a href="/facts/Red/gLnFAVx4">red</a>. If a culture has four, it has either <a href="/facts/Yellow/KrLNgk4v">yellow</a> or <a href="/facts/Green/gFTac7St">green</a>.
Berlin and Kay posit seven levels in which cultures fall, with Stage I <a href="/facts/Language/IRcTok2q">languages</a> having only the colors black (dark–cool) and white (light–warm). Languages in Stage VII have eight or more basic color terms. This includes <a href="/facts/English_language/tpkxGt7b">English</a>, which has eleven basic color terms. The authors theorize that as languages evolve, they acquire new basic color terms in a strict chronological sequence; if a basic color term is found in a language, then the colors of all earlier stages should also be present. The sequence is as follows:

<ul><li>Stage I: Dark-cool and light-warm (this covers a larger set of colors than just English "<a href="/facts/Black/Sl9vnhcG">black</a>" and "<a href="/facts/White/L2qjm4G0">white</a>".)</li>
<li>Stage II: <a href="/facts/Red/gLnFAVx4">Red</a></li>
<li>Stage III: Either <a href="/facts/Green/gFTac7St">green</a> or <a href="/facts/Yellow/KrLNgk4v">yellow</a></li>
<li>Stage IV: Both green and yellow</li>
<li>Stage V: <a href="/facts/Blue/DHWb8MUa">Blue</a></li>
<li>Stage VI: <a href="/facts/Brown/QQNvjboh">Brown</a></li>
<li>Stage VII: <a href="/facts/Purple/PVL40QPo">Purple</a>, <a href="/facts/Pink/fHod9nJE">pink</a>, <a href="/facts/Orange_(colour)/FNScAQvv">orange</a>, or <a href="/facts/Gray/wGvycLY0">gray</a></li></ul>
The work has achieved widespread influence. However, the constraints in color-term ordering have been substantially loosened, both by Berlin and Kay in later publications, and by various critics. Barbara Saunders questioned the methodologies of data collection and the cultural assumptions underpinning the research, as has <a href="/facts/Stephen_C._Levinson/nCtDIzHm">Stephen C. Levinson</a>.

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Basic Color Terms