Culture and Colour Naming

Abstract

Throughout the preceding chapters I have made an effort to remain within the scope of the universalist tradition in colour language research initiated by Berlin and Kay. There are two main reasons for this. The first is that the tradition is, in its own terms, interesting as well as problematic and, as such, worthy of serious consideration in its own terms. Those outside the actual research tradition often seem to imagine that colour-language research ended with the publication of Basic Color Terms. This, as we have seen, is false. The second reason has to do with the fractious debates that still take place in the expanded context of the tradition. The criticism of Berlin and Kay-style claims has not ceased but has continued, more-or-less unabated for the past thirty years.