[--- DOCUMENT BEGIN ---] [OCR'd version of the typewritten original. 20041214:18:22:58 ] World Color Term Survey INSTRUCTIONS TO FIELD WORKERS PLEASE READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS THROUGH. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, THEY CAN BE ANSWERED BY THE PERSON FROM WHOM YOU RECEIVED THESE MATERIALS. WE HOPE YOU FIND THIS MATTER INTERESTING. WE APPRECIATE YOUR COOPERATION VERY MUCH. The object of the study which you are participating in is to obtain the meanings of the words for colors in a variety of languages around the world. The meanings from the different languages will then be compared in order to answer questions regarding such things as the extent to which color words are translatable across languages. It has probably been your experience that difficulties may be encountered in translating words for color between European languages such as English and the languages of non-European peoples. Both the differences between languages in color words which make translation difficult and the universals in color naming across languages which make translation possible are scientifically interesting and may help advance our understanding of the process of translation. You are asked to gather data from twenty-five adult informants, as nearly as possible equally divided between males and females unless this imposes a great burden in your particular field circumstances. In so far as possible they should be monolingual. You have been provided with two sets of color stimuli. Both are contained in the 14-1/2" x 7-1/2" metal box. Please open that box now. You will find inside the box a piece of cardboard on which a large number of circular color patches of 1/4" diameter have been pasted. Please put this aside for the moment. In the box you will now see that there are six trays containing color chips enclosed in glass slide cases. There are 330 of these chips. Each of the first five rows contains 56 chips and the sixth row contains 50 chips. You will note that each slide case has a white side and a gray side. The chips have been packed with the white sides facing the front of the box and the grey sides facing the hinges. The color patch shows through the grey side. On the back (white) side of each chip there has been written a number between 1 and 330. The chips in the first row have been numbered, from front to back, 1-56, in the second row 57-112, ln the third row 113-168, ln the fourth row 169-224, in the fifth row 225-280, and in the sixth and last row 281-330. You will always present the chips to informants in the numbered order. The set of 330 loose chips contained in the slide cases constitutes the first stimulus set and will be used in the naming task, to be described below. The second set of stimulus materials consist of the piece of cardboard on which a large number (410) circular color patches have been glued. These are exactly the same colors as contained in the first stimulus set. The reason there are 410 of these as against 330 of the loose chips is, as you may have already noted, that the entire top and bottom rows of the array consist of 40 copies of the pure white and pure black chips, respectively. [--- end of page 1 ---] You will be asked to perform one task with each set of stimulus materials. As indicated above, the first task is called the naming task. The Naming Task The object is to get the informant to name, preferably with a single word, each of the 330 chips. This task will take about 40 minutes. (The second task should take less than five minutes.) It should be per formed on a sunny day if possible in the shade, not in direct sunlight. Please place on a table or on the ground between you and the informant (a) the box containing the chips and (b) a copy of the CODING BOOKLET for the study of color categories in unwritten languages. First, please fill in the information on the front page of the booklet regarding the informant's language, name, age, sex, etc. You may wish to precede or follow this with a certain amount of informal conversation to put the informant at ease. Depending on your personal relationship with the informant and his degree of sophistication in such things, you may wish to explain more or less about the nature and purpose of the study. When the informant appears reasonably at ease, please open the booklet to page 2 and proceed with the naming task. As you may be aware, many languages do not contain a word meaning "color". Yours may well be one of these. Experience has shown, however, that it is always possible to find some verbal formula to elicit color responses. Sometimes these translate to, "How has it been dyed?" or "How does it strike the eye?" or "What is its appearance with respect to red, blue, etc.?" and so on. Probably none of these three is just the thing needed for your language, but with a little experimentation you should be able to find a question that elicits color words. You will be aided in this by the stimulus objects themselves, which differ from each other only with respect to color. Please draw chip 1 from the box and hold it up so that the color patch faces the informant and the number faces you. Ask the informant to name the chip and record the name after the number 1 on the answer sheet. Then replace chip number 1 at the back of the first row of the metal box. Continue the same procedure with chips 2-56, until the informant has named all the chips in the first row and you have recorded all the names. (The chips in the first row are now back in their original order and ready for use on the next informant.) Now follow the same procedure with the chips in rows two through six. When recording the informant's response to each chip, please do a visual-mental check that the number on the back of the chip corresponds to the number of the line of the coding sheet on which you record the informant's response. Note that the procedure has been designed so that you never have to search for a chip and you never have to rearrange the chips. The next chip to be presented is always the chip at the front of the row you are working on, and after the full task is finished the chips are in their regular order and ready for presentation to the next informant. (Of course, if the chips should get spilled, they will have to be put back in the original order.) [--- end of page 2 ---] This task has been designed for a single worker, but if you have someone available to help you, it can be done even more easily by two workers, one handling the chips and the other recording the informant's responses. A Note on the Kind of Response We Are Looking For In this study we are interested primarily in basic color terms, that is the simple, frequently used, most general one-word designations of color. In English these include black, white, red, blue, etc., and exclude blond, greenish blue, scarlet. Blond lacks generality because it can be used only of hair and furniture; greenish blue is linguistically complex; scarlet lacks generality in that it is a kind of red. Of course, any such descriptive expression as the color of sea water is not a basic color term. We have found that in every language we have investigated so far there is a short list of between two and eleven simple words with which every color can be named. These are the basic color terms of the language. Usually it is easy to tell which are the basic color terms for a language, but occasionally one or more terms show up which require some judgment. Furthermore, it sometimes occurs that a given term is basic for some speakers but not basic for others. (In general, you may be surprised to find more variation between informants than you might have expected.) So, the shorter the informant's responses, the better for our purposes. We are interested in responses like "red" and not in responses like "the color of the blood of a toucan that has been dead for a few hours." You will find that when the informant limits himself to short responses, the task is much easier, quicker, and less strained for both of you. You may find it convenient to make one- or two-letter abbreviations for the basic color terms in the language you are recording, since a great many chips will receive the same name and this will save you a lot of time in recording the informant's responses. This is quite acceptable as long as you provide us with a clear key to the abbreviations. But please be consistent and always abbreviate the same way. Defining the Concept Basic Color Term Every language has an indefinitely large number of expressions that denote the sensation of color. Note, for example, the following English expressions: (a) crimson, (b) scarlet. (c) blond, (d) blue-green, (e) bluish, (f) lemon-colored, (g) salmon-colored, (h) the color of the rust on my aunt's old Chevrolet. But psychologists, linguists, and anthropologists have long operated with a concept of basic color term, or basic color word, which excludes forms such as (a)-(h) and includes forms like black, white, red, and green. Essentially, the basic color terms for a given speaker are the smallest set of simple words with which the speaker can name any color. However, the expression 'basic color term' does not have a unique operational definition. We use the following procedure for the determination of basic color terms. Ideally, each basic color term should exhibit the following four characteristics: [--- end of page 3 ---] (i) It is monolexemic; that is, its meaning is not predictable from the meaning of its parts. This criterion eliminates examples (e)-(h) and perhaps also (d). (ii) Its signification is not included in that of any other color term. This criterion eliminates examples (a) and (b), which are both kinds of red for most speakers of English. (iii) Its application must not be restricted to a narrow class of objects. This criterion eliminates example (c) which may pe predicated only of hair, complexion, and furniture. (iv) It must be psychologically salient for informants. Indices of psychological salience include, among others, (1) tendency to occur at the beginning of elicited lists of color terms, (2) stability of reference across informants and across occasions of use, and (3) occurrence in the idiolects of all informants. This criterion eliminates all the examples (a)-(h), most particularly (h). These criteria (i-iv) suffice in nearly all cases to determine the basic color terms in a given language. The few doubtful cases that arise are handled by the following subsidiary criteria: (v) The doubtful form should have the same distributional potential as the previously established basic terms. For example, in English, allowing the suffix -ish, for example, reddish, whittish, and qreenish are English words, but *aquaish and *chartreus(e)ish are not. (vi) Color terms that are also the name of an object characteristically having that color are suspect, for example, gold, silver, and ash. This subsidiary criterion would exclude orange, in English, if it were a doubtful case on the basic criteria (i-iv). (vii) Recent foreign loan words may by suspect. (viii) In cases where lexemic status is difficult to assess (see criterion (i)), morphological complexity is given some weight as a secondary criterion. The English term blue-green might be eliminated by this criterion. (The preceding discussion of the notion basic color term is taken, with some minor additions, from Brent Berlin and Paul Kay, Basic Color Terms. Berkeley: University of California Press. l969. PP. 5-7.) We mentioned above that different informants may have different sets of basic color terms. Some informants may lack entirely terms which are basic for others or they may have these terms but functioning as secondary terms. Situations like this occur frequently in languages that are undergoing rapid change, often in response to contact with European languages. For example, the traditional system may contain a single term covering both green and blue. But some informants, often younger ones, may have taken over either the term for green or the term for blue from a European language and restricted the meaning of the traditional term to that part of its original signification not included in the borrowed European term. This is just one example of many complex situations of this [--- end of page 4 ---] sort that may arise. Once again, we will welcome any comments you may wish voluntarily to make about situations such as this if they arise, but your much appreciated cooperation in the study certainly does not require you to so comment. The Focus Mapping Task As you may have surmised, the naming task is designed to elicit the informant's widest extension of his color terms. In contrast, the focus mapping task is intended to elicit the best example(s) of his basic color terms. A moment's reflection reveals that in addition to being able to say whether a given color is, say, red, we can also judge whether or not it is a good, typical, or ideal red. Please look now at the board with the 1/4" circular patches and ask yourself, "Which is the best example of red?" If you do this you will find it a fairly easy question to answer. Our experience shows that this is true generally across languages. People have an easy time looking at the board and pointing to one or a few chips which best exemplify each of their basic color terms. We would like you to elicit in the focus mapping task your informants' judgments of the best example or examples of their basic color words. If you have spent a long time working on your language, you will probably already know which terms fulfill the criteria which we have out lined above, and so deciding which terms are basic will be a straightforward matter. If you have just recently begun to carry out translation work on your particular language or if for any other reason you have doubts as to which terms are basic, please consider as basic terms for the purpose of this task any term elicited for five or more chips in the naming task. (You will recall that you have tried to discourage responses such as blue, greenish blue, robin's egg blue, bluish, etc. These are all modifications of a basic term and may be indicated in various languages by re duplication, addition of particular affixes or modifying words, and so on. If the total number of occurrences of a simple term plus its modifications exceeds five, please count the simple term as a basic color term for the purpose of the focus mapping task.) In performing the focus mapping task you will probably want to do something like the following. Place the fixed array of 410 k" circular color chips before the informant, hand him a pencil or a stick, and say something like, "Would you please indicate the best example of (native color term)?" Responses should be recorded on the back page of the scoring booklet labeled FOCUS MAPPING CODE SHEET. You will see that the coding sheet reproduces the array. Please indicate which chip or chips the informant gives as best examples for each color term by circling the dot(s) corresponding to the chosen chip(s) and connecting the native term to the circled dot(s) with a line. (You may consult the sample on the last page of the instructions.) This task should also be performed on a sunny day in the shade. Try to restrict the informant to a single chip in so far as possible, but if the informant insists that several chips are equally good representatives of a color you may accept this as final. Generally, if you can get the informant to choose a single chip as a judgment of applicability [--- end of page 5 ---] of the color term, please do so, but don't force him beyond a point where he appears to be mentally "tossing a coin". Summary of Instructions 1. Sample. Select twenty-five adult informants, in so far as possible monolingual. 2. Face Sheet. Interview each informant and fill out the name, age, and other questions. 3. Naming Task. a. Place on table or floor the full box of chips and the scoring booklet opened to the CODING SHEET FOR NAMING TASK. b. Starting with chip number 1: remove the chip; ask the informant to name it; record the response in the CODING BOOKLET; return the chip to the end of the row it came from. c. Complete row one in this way; then do in the same way rows two through six in order. d. Remember, two workers will make this task go faster. 4. Focus Mapping Task. a. Determine which of the expressions the informant gave as answers on the Naming Task are basic color terms. (When in doubt, consider as a basic color term any expression that -- together with its modifications -- occurred five or more times. A modification is an expression like light blue, bluish or greenish blue.) b. Have the informant indicate the best example(s) of each basic color term on the array of circular color chips, noting the chip(s) indicated, along with the native word, on the FOCUS MAPPING CODE SHEET on the back of the booklet. (Please see the sample on the last page of these instructions.) Try to restrict the informant's response to a single chip if possible. 5. When you have finished you should have twenty-five completed coding booklets, one for each informant. Each coding booklet should contain (a) "Face-sheet" information on the name, age, sex, etc., of the informant, (b) a completed CODING SHEET FOR NAMING TASK, (c) a completed FOCUS MAPPING CODING SHEET. 6. We will be deeply grateful for any comments you may have on any aspect of your data. Also if you have any questions or comments regarding the study as a whole, we will appreciate receiving them and will answer them to the best of our ability. [--- end of page 6 ---] Let us thank you again for your cooperation in this study. Without you, there would have been no way of doing it. We hope the results may be useful in many areas of linguistics, including the art and science of translation. If you have any comments or suggestions regarding this study we will be delighted to receive them. Brent Berlin and Paul Kay William Merrifield Department of Anthropology Summer Institute of Linguistics University of California 7500 West Camp Wisdom Road Berkeley, California Dallas, Texas 94720 75211 [--- end of page 7 ---] puhu (A0..40) O 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 A * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * A B * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * B C * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * C D * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * D E * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * E F * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * F G * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * G H * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * H I * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * I J * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * J O 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 FOCUS MAPPING TASK kapantu (G1) suwin (J0..40) wingka (G30) (Example of foci of basic color terms for Aguaruna Jivaro, Peru, South America) [Ranges in parentheses substituted for handwritten notations.] [--- end of page 8 ---] [ last modified: 20041215:11:41:40 ] [--- DOCUMENT END ---]