Color Terms In Folk Tales: A Cross-Cultural Study

Abstract

The relative salience of color terms in folk tales from forty cultures is examined in this study. The authors test the hypothesis that a significant, positive association exists between the relative salience of color categories in folk tales and the evolutionary sequence proposed by Berlin and Kay (1969) to account for cross-cultural differences in color lexicons. The results support the hypothesis. While minor intercultural variations in basic color term salience are found, there is a strong, and possibly universal, tendency for the salience of color terms to correspond to the postulated evolutionary sequence. Additionally, it appears that the evolutionary order is related to the number of different classes of objects to which color terms are applied. We argue that the evolution of basic color lexicons is promoted by an increase in cultural complexity generally and, more specifically, by an increase in the diversity of material culture and technological development.