Studies of Languages and Color Labels

Transcription

1 Studies of Languages and Color Labels Franziska Kolbe and Olaf Hochmuth Institute of Computer Science of Humboldt University Berlin Abstract. We can assume several hundred thousand colors, but we cannot differentiate between and designate them all. Two opposite theses describe whether our color perception is impressed by the native language or whether the language is influenced by the inherent color perception. Worldwide internet based experiments with test persons with different native backgrounds can improve the knowledge about the connection between color perception and language. Key words: colors, color perception, native language, internet based experiments, native backgrounds 1 The number of perceptible colors The question which arises on this issue is: How many different colors can a person perceive and distinguish? The opinions about this number vary widely. Likewise, there were many different answers throughout history. The German scholar Tobias Mayer the Elder published a scripture on this subject in He reported the existence of five main colors, namely black, white, yellow, red, and blue. In addition, he had three pigments for mixed colors. These were vermilion, azure blue and the golden color orpiment. With additional whites and blacks, he was able to mix 819 different colors. Today, the estimates of the number of perceptible colors are considerably higher. However, they vary depending on the calculation methods and experimental conditions. Some experts estimate the number at 15,000 to 20,000, some even at 500,000. Andreas Schwarz even says: Under optimal conditions, a non-colorblind man can differ up to 10 million colors. How does one find a way around in this huge amount of colors, if one loses overview and orientation with a little more than 50 colors? 1 Jacques Roire assumes that the number of colors distinguishable by the human eye is about 100,000. This number is also dependent on the type and intensity of illumination and also specific test conditions. 1 Schwarz, Andreas: Farbsysteme und Farbmuster. Die Rolle der Ausfärbung in der historischen Entwicklung der Farbsysteme.

2 2 Studies of Languages and Color Labels A scientific explanation says: 2 The human visual system can distinguish 128 shades, 130 color saturations, and 16 (in the yellow area) to 26 (in the blue area) different brightness levels. This results in a total of approximately 380,000 different colors. Other investigations revealed that the reliable differentiation of colors shown at the same time is only about Color Names How many of the large number of perceptible colors can we label? Labeling means here to give an object a distinctive name 3. Depending on the number of actually distinguishable colors, one would have to create many new concepts and be able to apply it correctly. This is quite unrealistic. We can label perhaps between 500 and 1000 colors. Since the ancient world there are two different ways for labeling colors, the direct and the indirect color labeling. Direct color names are directly related to a perceived basic color, without specifying an exact tone. Examples include blue, red, or yellow. In contrary, indirect color terms refer to comparisons in the environment, such as canary yellow, ruby red, or sapphire blue, or the manufacturing process, e.g. in the case of cyan blue (from the dye of cyan algae). To provide a more precise description, colors are additionally specified in brightness and color saturation. A French standardization of color concepts includes nine attributes for the more accurate indication of a hue. Therefore, the brightness and saturation are divided into three stages. Fig. 1. A French standardization of color names, e.g. for red. 4 The resulting identifying characteristics can determine a saturated yellow shining, a pink pale, or gray and a purple deep. 2 Hußmann, Heinrich: Digitale Medien WS 2008/2009, Licht, Farbe und Bilder, VL 6, slide Roire, Jacques: Im Namen der Farbe. 4 Reproduction, original in Roire, Jacques: Im Namen der Farbe.

3 3 Language and color perception Studies of Languages and Color Labels 3 Does the mother tongue determine how we perceive colors, or conversely, is the language established for describing our existing perception of colors? According to these both theories, the color researchers and scientists are split into two groups. After a series of studies a lot of pros and cons were found. The basis of the dispute is found in the categorization of colors in different tones, even though, physically there is a smooth transition between them. For example, many people see in a rainbow discrete color sections instead of a more continuous gradient. Also, some people classify turquoise as blue, others as green. 3.1 The Universalists The group of scientists, known as universalists, explains a different categorization by hard-wired color categories in the brain, which are the same for all people. In fact, each of the six basic colors black, white, red, green, blue, and yellow are already appearing in the nerve cells of the retina. Here the stimuli of the S, M and L cones are converted into the primary colors. Verifiable, this already takes place in the brain of children before they learn to speak. 5 The universalists believe, that all people perceive colors the same way and that language and culture cannot influence it. The Study by Brent Berlin and Paul Kay. Two well-known representatives of the universalists are Paul Kay, an American linguist and anthropologist at the University of California, and Brent Berlin, also an American anthropologist at the University of Georgia. In 1969 they investigated 98 languages, 20 thereof more thoroughly 6. They prompted native speakers of each language to label colors. The focus was on the basic color terms, which should be mono-lexemic (not: light brown), commonly used (not: indigo), not context limited (not: blonde), and not hyponym to another basic color term of that language (not: scarlet). A color chart (the color array by Munsell) was shown to the participants, on which they had to mark the most typical exemplar for each basic color term, and the color area, which it refers to. 5 Warum manche Menschen zwischen Braun und Gelb keinen Unterschied machen. In: Farbimpulse, Berlin, B.; Kay, P.: Basic color terms: Their universality and evolution.

4 4 Studies of Languages and Color Labels Fig. 2. Color Array of Munsell 7 The study showed that the number of basic color terms of a language is always between two and eleven. In German, for example, these are the eleven colors: white, black, red, green, yellow, blue, brown, purple, pink, orange, and gray. In addition, the basic color terms don t categorize the color space arbitrarily. The category boundaries are very variable, but arise around eleven focal points (the six basic colors, and five resulting mixed tones). Fig. 3. Boundaries of color categories (points: typical color values, numbers: numbers of investigated languages) 8 Only 22 combinations of the 2 11 possible once were found, from which seven language levels can be derived: Blutner, Reinhard: Welchen Anteil hat die Sprache an der Erfahrung.

5 Studies of Languages and Color Labels 5 Language level I II III/IV V VI VII Color category Black, Red Green/ Blue Brown Violet/Pink/ White Yellow Orange/ Gray Origin Day, Blood, Nature, Water, Earth Night Flesh Sun Sky In 2005, Kay renewed his study 9 and prompted each 24 speakers of 110 languages of not-industrialized countries to label color categories in their native language and to choose the typical color for that category. The result confirmed his position that language in fact reflects the already existing perception in the brain, because the selected colors were again concentrated close to the focal points of the previous investigations. A web-based color names experiment, inspired by the studies of Kay, is provided on a web page, supported by a PHP interpreter. The experiment is a result of a seminar in summer 2009 organized by two departments of the Humboldt University Berlin, the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Computer Science. 10 The Dani from Irian Jaya. The American psychologist Eleanor Rosch from the University of California examined the color perception of the Dani in the province of Irian Jaya in New Guinea. They know only two color terms: mola for bright and warm colors, and mili for dark and cool colors. The Dani were examined and compared to Americans. The groups were equal and had the same age and sex structure. The participants should label 40 color plates of ten hues in four levels of brightness and same saturation. Then they had to identify them from memory again and distinguish color pairs that are directly neighboring in the color spectrum. It resulted that the Dani remembered the shown colors in a similar way as the Americans. They did not confuse green and blue, had equal preferences for typical red and memorized typical colors very easily. It was found that color categories can have multiple foci. In addition, it was discovered that the two color categories mola and mili are not achromatic (light or dark), but panchromatic. 9 Kay, Regier, Cook: Focal colors are universal after all. 10 Reinacher, Anna: shtml 11 Blutner, Reinhard: Welchen Anteil hat die Sprache an der Erfahrung.

6 6 Studies of Languages and Color Labels Fig. 4. Color categories of the Dani illustrated on the Munsell array 11 Thus, the thesis of the universalists, that everyone perceives colors in the same way and language and culture have no influence, seemed to be confirmed. 3.2 The Relativists The opposing group of the universalists are the relativists. They are followers of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: People are exposed at the mercy of the language that has become in their society, the means of expression. 12 The human perception will be engraved through the use of a particular language. To support this hypothesis in a cross-cultural study 13 of Jules Davidoff and Debi Roberson (University of London), and Ian Davies (University of Surrey) was compared how the English and the inhabitants of Papua New Guinea perceive and describe colors. The Berinmo from Papua New Guinea. The people of the Berinmo live as hunters and gatherers in Papua New Guinea. Conspicuous, is the use of only five color terms: wap for very pale colors, kel is very dark, mehi for red, pink, orange, wor includes yellow, orange, brown, khaki, green, nol combines green and blue. First, the Berinmo and English were presented a card with 160 colors (again similar to the color array of Munsell). They were asked to classify and name each color sample. This resulted in diagrams with category classifications, which significantly differed. For the Berinmo there was no difference between green and yellow. They had also only one category for a range of colors that the English classified in green and blue. In contrast, the English classified the colors close to the border between nol and wor just as green. 12 Paulus, Jochen: Der blüne Ozean. 13 Davidoff, J.; Davies, I.; Roberson, D.: Colour categories in a stone-age tribe. 14 ibid: F1.html

7 Studies of Languages and Color Labels 7 Fig. 5. Color categories as defined by English and Berinmo 14 To strengthen these findings, there was a further test series. Color plates were presented to the participants. They should keep in mind the hue and recognize it few seconds later on a color chart. The mistakes that were made were related mostly to the particular language patterns. Thus, the Berinmo often were confused in the case of green, blue, yellow, and brown. But they could identify greens on the border of nol and wor more easily than the English. To verify if the color perception does not follow universal valid principles, the English practiced the difference between nol and wor and the Berinmo practiced the difference between green and blue, green and yellow. In addition, an arbitrary distinction between two tones of green has been trained, for which there was no name in both languages before. However, both language groups continued to make errors in color plates labeling.

8 8 Studies of Languages and Color Labels Explanation for Bleenity. The so-called bleen languages in which there is only one word for blue and green, namely bleen, are mostly located in the tropics. Therefore, the psychologists Delwin Lindsey and Angela Brown of the Ohio State University found a simple reason for their existence 15. The strong UV radiation of the sun damages the eyes and deprives them of the color blue. On one hand, the UV light damages the S cones, which respond to blue. On the other hand, the sun radiation can age the lens faster. Over time, yellow pigments accumulate in it, which absorb the short-wave radiation at the blue end of the spectrum. Thus, only the green part of the colors between green and blue arrives the retina, pure blue is dark. Therefore, in some languages, dark is used for blue. To test this hypothesis, the researchers investigated the word blue in 203 languages. Which resulted in a significant connection: the higher the local UV radiation, the less the presence of the word blue. Furthermore, the aging process of the lens was simulated in a laboratory. For this, colors were displayed on a screen that was changed by the computer according to the different aging levels of the lens. The results gave the evidence: the more the simulated lens was blurred, the more a green color was perceived instead of a blue one. In addition, there were differences in the transition from green to yellow, which did not exist before. Not all the speakers of bleen languages have damaged lenses. But when a part of the speakers has damaged lenses, it makes no sense for the non-affected to use the word blue, because they are not understood. 4 Conclusions Who is right, the universalists, or the relativists? Because in both theories there is a bit of truth there should be a model that combines the elements of both. Since the separation of the six basic categories is defined neurologically, the basis of color perception is independent of culture. The existence of the focal points seems to be proved to be centers of categories. However, variations occur between the focal points caused by color name systems of individual languages. Thus, category boundaries can vary widely and categories of one language can include several ones of another. Also color terms are no labels for the memorybased concepts. They probably emerge to explain natural and environmental phenomena. These include day and night, fire, sun, plants, sky, and earth. Scientists also have an explanation for the diversity of color terms: Neither the colors of the environment nor their neurological processing are based on a single wavelength. Rather, they reflect a larger section of the spectrum and that leaves plenty of room for different interpretations Brown A.M., Lindsey D.T.: The color blue: A physiological explanation for a linguistic phenomenom. 16 Warum manche Menschen zwischen Braun und Gelb keinen Unterschied machen. In: Farbimpulse,

9 Studies of Languages and Color Labels 9 References 1. Berlin, Brent; Kay, Paul: Basic color terms: Their universality and evolution. Berkeley [u. a.]: Univ. of California Press, Blutner, Reinhard: Welchen Anteil hat die Sprache an der Erfahrung Brown, Angela M., Lindsey, Delwin T.: The color blue: A psychophysical explanation for a linguistic phenomenon [Abstract]. Journal of Vision, 1(3):59, 59a, 2001, 4. Davidoff, Jules; Davies, Ian; Roberson, Debi: Colour categories in a stone-age tribe. In: Nature, vol. 398, 18th March 1999, p Hußmann, Heinrich: Digitale Medien WS 2008/2009 LMU München, Licht, Farbe und Bilder, VL 6, slide 15, dm_ws05/vorlesung/dm6d_2fps.pdf 7. Paul; Regier, Terry; Cook, Richard S.: Focal colors are universal after all. PNAS June 7, 2005, vol. 102 no , full 8. Mangin, Loic: Die Farben der Papuaner. In: Spektrum der Wissenschaft, Spezial: Farben, Nachdr. 2004, S Paulus, Jochen: Der blüne Ozean, In: DIE ZEIT, Ausgabe 10/ Reinacher, Anna: Farben scheinen uns ein Rätsel aufzugeben (Wittgenstein) Farben aus Sicht der Technik, Naturwissenschaft und Philosophie, informatik.hu-berlin.de/sv/lehre/prosemin.shtml 11. Roire, Jacques: Im Namen der Farbe. In: Spektrum der Wissenschaft, Spezial: Farben, Nachdr. 2004, S Rosch, Eleanor: Universals in color naming and memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology 93, 1972, S Schwarz, Andreas: Farbsysteme und Farbmuster. Die Rolle der Ausfärbung in der historischen Entwicklung der Farbsysteme. Hannover: BDK-Verlag, N.N.: Warum manche Menschen zwischen Braun und Gelb keinen Unterschied machen. In: Farbimpulse, , artikel/titel/warum_manche_menschen_zwischen_braun_und_gelb_keinen_ Unterschied_machen/0/266.html