Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
    • Front Matter Portal
    • Journal Club
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses
  • Submit
  • Submit
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • PNAS Staff
    • FAQ
    • Accessibility Statement
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Site Map
  • Contact
  • Journal Club
  • Subscribe
    • Subscription Rates
    • Subscriptions FAQ
    • Open Access
    • Recommend PNAS to Your Librarian

User menu

  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Home
Home
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
    • Front Matter Portal
    • Journal Club
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses
  • Submit
Research Article

Color naming reflects optimal partitions of color space

Terry Regier, Paul Kay, and Naveen Khetarpal
  1. aDepartment of Psychology, University of Chicago, 5848 South University Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637;
  2. cDepartment of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720; and
  3. dInternational Computer Science Institute, 1947 Center Street, Berkeley, CA 94704

See allHide authors and affiliations

PNAS January 23, 2007 104 (4) 1436-1441; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0610341104
Terry Regier
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: regier@uchicago.edu paulkay@berkeley.edu
Paul Kay
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Naveen Khetarpal
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  1. Contributed by Paul Kay, November 21, 2006 (received for review October 15, 2006)

  • Article
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

The nature of color categories in the world's languages is contested. One major view holds that color categories are organized around universal focal colors, whereas an opposing view holds instead that categories are defined at their boundaries by linguistic convention. Both of these standardly opposed views are challenged by existing data. Here, we argue for a third view based on a proposal by Jameson and D'Andrade [Jameson KA, D'Andrade RG (1997) in Color Categories in Thought and Language, eds Hardin CL, Maffi L (Cambridge Univ Press, Cambridge, U.K.), pp 295–319]: that color naming across languages reflects optimal or near-optimal divisions of an irregularly shaped perceptual color space. We formalize this idea, test it against color-naming data from a broad range of languages and show that it accounts for universal tendencies in color naming while also accommodating some observed cross-language variation.

  • cognitive modeling
  • color categories
  • color terms
  • semantic universals

Footnotes

  • bTo whom correspondence may be addressed. E-mail: regier{at}uchicago.edu or paulkay{at}berkeley.edu
  • Author contributions: T.R. and P.K. designed research; T.R. and N.K. performed research; T.R. and N.K. analyzed data; and T.R. and P.K. wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • ↵ eThe WCS data, including genetic affiliation and other particulars about the languages, are available at http://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/wcs/data.html.

  • ↵ fIn this mode map, as in some others reported here, there are a few isolated chips for which the modal color term was one that was not widely used; these chips are therefore colored differently from most others in the array (e.g. here, the light-blue and brown chips in columns 4–10).

  • ↵ gCIEL*a*b* is a 3D space. The L* dimension corresponds to lightness, whereas the a* and b* dimensions define a plane orthogonal to L* such that the angle of a vector in that plane, rooted at the L* axis, corresponds to hue and the radius of such a vector corresponds to saturation. Despite this reference to polar coordinates in linking positions in the space to psychological quantities, the CIELAB distance metric is standard Euclidean distance. We converted our Munsell coordinates to CIELAB by using Wallkill Color Munsell conversion software, version 6.5.17, which assumes illuminant C, 2 degree standard observer.

  • ↵ hAlthough all simulations are based on distances in 3D CIELAB space, we display the results as overlays of the actual 2D stimulus palette, which is based on the Munsell system. We display our results this way because the palette is widely used as a reference frame in the literature on color naming and cognition.

  • ↵ iThe rotation is in Munsell coordinates, although our well-formedness calculations are in CIELAB. We chose to rotate in this manner because it is simple to convey the idea with these displays and because doing so does not affect the logic of our argument.

  • Abbreviation:
    WCS,
    World Color Survey.
  • © 2007 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA
View Full Text
PreviousNext
Back to top
Article Alerts
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on PNAS.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Color naming reflects optimal partitions of color space
(Your Name) has sent you a message from PNAS
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the PNAS web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Color naming reflects optimal partitions of color space
Terry Regier, Paul Kay, Naveen Khetarpal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jan 2007, 104 (4) 1436-1441; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0610341104

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Request Permissions
Share
Color naming reflects optimal partitions of color space
Terry Regier, Paul Kay, Naveen Khetarpal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jan 2007, 104 (4) 1436-1441; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0610341104
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Mendeley logo Mendeley
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 104 (4)
Table of Contents

Submit

Sign up for Article Alerts

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Abstract
    • The World Color Survey
    • Formal Specification
    • Optimal Color-Naming Schemes
    • Well-Formedness of Attested and Unattested Color-Naming Schemes
    • A More General Test
    • Discussion
    • Acknowledgments
    • Note.
    • Footnotes
    • References
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

You May Also be Interested in

Water from a faucet fills a glass.
News Feature: How “forever chemicals” might impair the immune system
Researchers are exploring whether these ubiquitous fluorinated molecules might worsen infections or hamper vaccine effectiveness.
Image credit: Shutterstock/Dmitry Naumov.
Reflection of clouds in the still waters of Mono Lake in California.
Inner Workings: Making headway with the mysteries of life’s origins
Recent experiments and simulations are starting to answer some fundamental questions about how life came to be.
Image credit: Shutterstock/Radoslaw Lecyk.
Cave in coastal Kenya with tree growing in the middle.
Journal Club: Small, sharp blades mark shift from Middle to Later Stone Age in coastal Kenya
Archaeologists have long tried to define the transition between the two time periods.
Image credit: Ceri Shipton.
Illustration of groups of people chatting
Exploring the length of human conversations
Adam Mastroianni and Daniel Gilbert explore why conversations almost never end when people want them to.
Listen
Past PodcastsSubscribe
Panda bear hanging in a tree
How horse manure helps giant pandas tolerate cold
A study finds that giant pandas roll in horse manure to increase their cold tolerance.
Image credit: Fuwen Wei.

Similar Articles

Site Logo
Powered by HighWire
  • Submit Manuscript
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • RSS Feeds
  • Email Alerts

Articles

  • Current Issue
  • Special Feature Articles – Most Recent
  • List of Issues

PNAS Portals

  • Anthropology
  • Chemistry
  • Classics
  • Front Matter
  • Physics
  • Sustainability Science
  • Teaching Resources

Information

  • Authors
  • Editorial Board
  • Reviewers
  • Subscribers
  • Librarians
  • Press
  • Cozzarelli Prize
  • Site Map
  • PNAS Updates
  • FAQs
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Rights & Permissions
  • About
  • Contact

Feedback    Privacy/Legal

Copyright © 2021 National Academy of Sciences. Online ISSN 1091-6490