Color naming in Italian language

Abstract

The present study investigated Italian basic color terms (BCTs). It is an extension of our previous work that explored Italian basic color categories (BCCs) using a constrained colornaming method, with 11 Italian BCTs allowed, including blu for naming the BLUE area. Since a latter outcome indicated a categorization bias, here monolexemic color-naming method was employed, enabling also use of azzurro, deeply entrenched Italian term that designates light blue. In Experiment 1, colors (N=367), sampling the Munsell Mercator projection, were presented on a CRT; color names and reaction times of vocalization onset were recorded. Naming consistency and consensus were estimated. Consistency was obtained for 12 CTs, including the two blue terms; consensus was found for 11 CTs, excluding rosso 'red'. For each consensus category, color with the shortest RT was considered focal. In Experiment 2, consensus stimuli (N=72) were presented; on each trial, observers indicated the focal color ("best example") in an array of colors comprising a consensus category. For each of the 12 Italian CCs, centroid was calculated and focal color (two measures) estimated. Compared to English color terms, two outcomes are specific to Italian color naming: (i) naming of the RED-PURPLE area is highly refined, with consistent use of emergent non-BCTs; (ii) azzurro and blu both perform as BCTs dividing the BLUE area along the lightness dimension. The findings are considered in the framework of the weak relativity hypothesis. Historico-linguistic, environmental and pragmatic communication factors are discussed that conceivably have driven the extension of the BCT inventory in Italian.

A similarity‐based cross‐language comparison of basicness and demarcation of “blue” terms

“…). Focal Italian blu is darker than focal “blue” in English . Conversely, the present data found Lithuanian mėlyna to be focused significantly lighter than the focus of blu , closer to English “blue,” with choices of good exemplars emphasizing the tiles B‐Hue, Bc‐Hue, Bw‐Hue, and B‐EX.…”

“…It has become a BCT, sometimes used as an inclusive umbrella term encompassing the entire range of blues (“Tout court”) . However, its focus is significantly darker than focal blue in English, creating room for a lighter blue category. Focal‐color data for azzurro and celeste suggest that both are candidate terms for this putative category …”

“…They vary in salience across dialects, but each is embedded in its own cultural constellation of set phrases and associations . In standard Italian, blu is significantly darker in focus and range than the two alternatives …”

“…19 In standard Italian, blu is significantly darker in focus and range than the two alternatives. [20][21][22] It appears, then, that some language communities are content to apply a single BCT across the "blue" sector of the color gamut, whereas for others, the difference between light and dark blue is so glaring as to require separate terms. This raises a broader question: What factors contribute to these cultural variations in the perceptual prominence of "lightness"?…”

An online color naming experiment in Russian using Munsell color samples

“…21,23,25,28 This is also in accord with observations on color vocabularies in English, 4 Hungarian, 79 and Italian. 80 To a great extent gender differences in color naming are considered to have social and cultural origins: due to predominant upbringing patterns, women develop a greater awareness of color, reflected by its elaborated linguistic representation, and a finer appreciation of differences between colors. 28,47 The similarity of inter-gender differences in color lexicon of Russian speakers (this study) and English speakers 37-45,73-75 may, though, reflect both "nurture", that is, gender-specific patterns of socialization, similar in modern Russian society and the Anglo-Saxon world, and the "nature" origin of the phenomenon, that is, genetically determined inter-gender differences in the visual system (summarized in reference38).…”