AmericanFolklorehomeBrentBerlinandPaulKaylinguistsinthe"basiccolorterms:theuniversalityofresearchandtheoryofevolution"(Berlin&Kay1991[1969])inhisbook,alargenumberofliteratureandempiricalresearch,andnearly100kindsofAComparativeStudyoflanguage,asumof11colorterms,inclusiveoftheirrelationshipwereasfollows:black(black),white(white),red(red),green(green),yellow(yellow),Blue(blue),Brown(brown),purple(purple),Orange(orange),pink(pink),gray(gray).
BerlinandKaythatthe11basiccolorwords(basiccolorterms)foundinavarietyoflanguages,thisistheresultofhumanphysiologicalvisualsystemareparticularlysensitivetocertaincolors,soastopromotesensitivityintheareasoflanguagereflected.BerlinandKay'scolorisgenerallyassumedthatsemanticsisbuiltonthebasisofneurophysiology.Kay&McDaniel(1978:130)takesasimilarviewofnaturethatcanintheorythereisalotofcolorwordsinfactperceivedbythehumanvisualsystem,thegeneralcharacteristicsoftheconstraints,thesmallnumberofitsclassificationdirectlyfromthepeopleofthevisualnerveColorperception(perceptionofcolor)wasareflectionmode(Foley1997).Basiccolorwordsimplythattheprincipleoftheuniversalityofthepeopleoftheobjectiveworldofhumancognitivecoloridentityorsimilarity,butalsofromlanguagedifferences.Thisshowsthattheexchangeofdifferentlanguagesintermsofcolorcorrespondstotheexistenceofsemanticrelationships.
However,linguistsarehuman(Sahlins1976,Tornay1978,Saunders1992)isthecolorofthesemanticsoftheneurophysiologyofdecisionscritical,andculturalfactorsputforwardinthebasiccolorofthewordallegedinthesystemandplayanimportantroleinregulating,culturalColorisintheprocessofcognitiveandperceptualimportantindependentmedia(autonomousintermediary).WeierZithanthecard(Wierzbicka1990)pointofviewgoesfurther,hethinksthecolorofthewordmeaningcannotbethecolorofthevisualnervereflection,butspeakingthelanguageofpeopleofcoloronthesecognitiveunderstanding,"Languageisareflectionofthepsychologicalratherthanbrainactivity"(Wierzbicka1990:163).Accordingtothecolorofthewordculturalrelativityhypothesis,thedifferentculturesofthepeoplesintheareaofenvironmental,socialhistory,customs,ideasofthinking,religion,nationalpsychologyandthereexistmanydifferencesincolorwithadifferentculturalbackground,inthevisualAndcausedpsychologicalandsymbolicassociationswillbedifferent.
Sofar,thecolorcodeisstillintheresearchoftwoparallelandcomplementarytheoreticalresearch.Evolutionisatheorybasedonthecolorofthebasicresearch;theotherisbasedonsociallinguistics(ie:thatthelanguageandculture)isbasedonresearch(YANGYong-lin,2003).Evolutionarytheory,whethernaturalorculturalrelativismtheory,thereisenoughresearchtoprovetheexistenceofthereasonablenessoftheresearchoncolorwordsindifferentlanguages,culturesandnon-responserelationshiphassignificance.
Inthepracticeoftranslation,tothesourcelanguage(sourcelanguage)colorwordsbycarryingalltheinformationequivalenttothetargetlanguagetranslation(targetlanguage)readers,andinthetargetlanguagereadershaveamindoftheauthorofthesourcelanguageandculturalexpectations