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Usage-based analysis for color term categorization

A case study of Chinese color term lü and qing

Lapkei Lei

National Taiwan Univerity

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Statement of Purpose

Traditional study Vs. Present study

1. Semantically autonomous

2. Problem

1. Semantically dependent

2. Solution

What are the principles guiding the mental process of color categorization?

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Outline

• The problem of traditional color terms study.– Background– The problems

• Usage-based model for color terms study.– Definition– The proposed color terms categorization– The meaning of color terms

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Traditional color term analysis

• How to define the color category?– (ex.) 綠 (lü ‘green’ hereafter)

lü

lü lü

lü

Focal color/ prototype

=lü

Munsell Color Chip: Color Term = HSB = (H)ue + (S)aturation + (B)rightness

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Traditional color term analysis (cont.)

=lü

lüshu

‘Green tree’

lüye

‘Green leaf’

lü lü

lücha

‘Green tea’

lüsongshi

‘Turquoise’

kongquelü

‘peacock green’

? ? ?

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The underlying principle of traditional color terms analysis

• The traditional analysis (cf. Berlin & Kay 1969; Xu 2007) treats color terms as being semantically autonomous.– The standard color term analysis defines the c

olor term independently of the composite structure, viz [COLOR ENTITY], in which it occurs in.

‘green tree’ ‘green precious stone’

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Problem of traditional analysis

• (Xu, 2007), 青 (qing ‘cyan’ hereafter)

qing

So what exactly does qing mean???

It depends.

A B

C

qingcao ‘cyan grass’

qingtian ‘cyan sky’

(for example)

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Problem of traditional analysis (cont.)

綠 vs. 青

The color term is defined independently of the composite structure in which it occurs in.

The color term is defined in term of the composite structure in which it occurs in.

[qing cao] [qing tian]

qingqingcao qingqingtian

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Present study

• The meanings of CTs are contextually dependent. – The Basic and primitive unit: [COLOR ENTITY]– Color terms are defined in terms of the composite structure they

occur in. (e.g.ColorColorEntity [COLOR ENTITY])

Traditional study Present study

[lüshu] “green tree” lü lülüshu

[lübaoshi] “green precious stone

lü lülübaoshi

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Usage-based analysis for color term categorization

• Color terms are unique to each composite structure,– but they are not unstructured.

• The derived color terms form a structured inventory of a speaker’s knowledge of the convention of their language.

• This structured inventory is usually represented by the taxonomic network.

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The taxonomic network of color term

‘green tree’ ‘green grass’ ‘green jacket’

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The taxonomic network of color term

Each derived color term constitutes a node in the taxonomic network, these nodes, however, are NOT equal weight.

‘green tree’ ‘green grass’ ‘green jacket’

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The taxonomic network of color term (cont.)

– Hypothesis 1:• The entrenchment of a word form, regular or irregu

lar, is a function of its token frequency.

‘green tree’ ‘green grass’ ‘green jacket’

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The taxonomic network of color term (cont.)

– Hypothesis 2:• The entrenchment of a schema is a function of the

type frequency of the instances of the schema.

‘green tree’ ‘green grass’ ‘green jacket’

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Datalu and qing

• we examine the Chinese CT lü ‘green’ and qing ‘grue/cyan’ in Chinese Gigaword corpus. – Lü serves as a representation of the regular C

olor terms. It denotes a single color, GREEN. Other examples are hong ‘red’ for RED and lan ‘blue’ for BLUE.

– Qing serves as an exceptional representation. It saliently denotes two colors, GREEN and BLUE.

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Frequency and entrenchment:Result of lu

‘green tree’ ‘green grass’ ‘green jacket’

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Frequency and entrenchment:Result of qing

‘cyan mountain’ ‘cyan grass’ ‘cyan sky’

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Conclusion (1)

• Color terms are contextually dependent. Color terms are defined in terms of the composite structure [COLOR-ENTITY] in which they occur.– Color terms are unique to each composite structure.

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Conclusion (2)

• Color terms are structured by a taxonomic network formed in a speaker’s knowledge of the convention of their language.

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Conclusion (3)

• The categorization of Color terms by taxonomic network could be explained by the usage-based model.– Higher frequency of a unit or pattern of CT res

ults in a greater degree of entrenchment, which affects the processing of a unit.

– This entrenchment determines the prototypicality of color terms.

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Thank you!