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The meaning of color terms in Korean and visual universals

  • Korean Semantics
  • 2008, 27(), pp.151-178
  • Publisher : The Society Of Korean Semantics
  • Research Area : Humanities > Korean Language and Literature

Jeong-Ae Lee 1

1전북대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to explain meanings of the color terms in Korean and to provide some evidences for visual universals. Berlin and Kay's study on color has been based on the assumption that there are some conceptual universals of color. Based on NSM(Natural Semantic Metalanguage) theory, this study challenges the Berlin and Kay paradigm. At first, by using semantic atoms and molecules, this paper shows that indigenous visual descriptors can be analyzed without reference to color. Secondly, these visual descriptors are based on identifiable visual prototypes and the universal concept of seeing rather than universals of color. The prototypes conceptualize the most salient and easily recognized objects in natural environments. For example, we perceive the cycle of day and night as being be light and dark, and connect it to colors of white and black. In the same sense, sun, fire and blood are the prototypes of red, while sky, sea and grass are the prototypes of blue and ground is the prototype of yellow. Third, explication of colors in this study also explains color naming practices in Korean, suggesting that colors are not arbitrary symbols but are based on some reasons.

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