E305/505 Korean Language and Culture
Spring 2004 (Sec. #1593/9566)

Color Terms

Wardaugh (2002)

1. How are "basic" color terms defined?
   
   

2. What are the universals of color terms claimed in Berlin and Kay's (1969) research?
   
   
   

3. There are two aspects on the universality of color terms. What are they? What is the evidence for each position?
   
   
   

Kim (1985):

1. Kim claims that Korean has only five basic color categories instead of eleven as claimed in Berlin & Kay (1969). What are they?
   
   
   

2. In terms of color term development, what stage would the Korean color term system be at?
   
   
   

3. What are his arguments for his claim?
   
   
   

4. What are the differences between the five color terms Kim claims to be basic in Korean and the remaining six color terms that are included in the eleven color terms B&K postulate for basic color terms in Korean?
   
   
   

5. What is the 'GRUE' phenomenon?
   
   
   

6. Kim presents color misnomers as an example of 'GRUE' phenomenon in Korean. What are the examples of the color misnomers in Korean?
   
   
   What does such a phenomenon signify with regard to the development of color terminology?
   
   
   Do you agree with Kim's assessment on this matter?
   
   
   
   

7. There's a native color term pola 'purple.' How does this term differ from the other native Korean color terms?
   
   
   How does the existence of such term fair with the universals of color terms? Cf. Russian's color term for 'blue.'
   
   
   

8. There is a claim that the color terms development is correlated with the degree of cultural complexity.
   
   What is Kim's argument regarding the relationship between color vocabulary size and cultural complexity?
   
   
   

Wardaugh (2002) gives a discussion item as follows:

It has been reported that males speakers of English 'usually display less ability than females in dealing with matters having to do with color, including the actual use of color terminology.' How would you account for this?

• Is there a preferential discrepancy between male and female on the perception of colors?
  

• Is it true that females are more keen on color distinctions than males?

Cf. Tyson (1997)

1. What are the potential factors that Tyson argues exist in differences among Korean speakers in terms of color categories and color terms recognized?