English Colour Terms

Contents......Page 4
Acknowledgements......Page 8
0.1 Preliminaries......Page 11
0.2 Aims......Page 12
0.3.1 Introduction......Page 13
0.3.2 The use of computerised text corpora - problems and solutions......Page 15
0.3.3 Statistics......Page 16
0.3.4 The terms......Page 17
0.4 On the terminology of the dimensions of colour......Page 20
0.5 Overview of the book......Page 22
1.2.1 Basic Color Terms......Page 25
1.2.2 The later development of the B&K theory......Page 29
1.2.3 Vantage theory - cognitive modelling at the fringe of the paradigm......Page 32
1.2.4 The quest for verification outside anthropology......Page 33
1.3 An alternative position - some criticism of the BCT theory......Page 35
1.4 My own position......Page 37
1.5 Colour semantics based on texts: historical studies of colour terminology......Page 39
1.6 The study of non-basic colour terms......Page 41
1.7 Summary......Page 42
2.2 Principles of categorisation......Page 43
2.3 Situation, context and mental spaces......Page 48
2.4 Characterising meaning......Page 51
2.4.1 Domain, network and attribute......Page 52
2.5 Conceptual processes......Page 59
2.5.1 Metaphor......Page 60
2.5.2 Metonymy......Page 61
2.6 Two perspectives of meaning: semasiology and onomasiology......Page 66
2.6.1 The semasiological perspective: important sense relations......Page 67
2.6.2 The onomasiological perspective......Page 69
2.7 Summary......Page 73
3.2 Word frequency......Page 75
3.2.1 The problem of yellow......Page 78
3.2.2 The proportions of colour term categories......Page 79
3.2.3 Frequency and age......Page 81
3.3 Colour terms as nouns......Page 83
3.4 Colour - colour combinations......Page 88
3.5.1 Derivational morphology......Page 92
3.5.2 Inflectional morphology......Page 99
3.6 Colour terms in different subcorpora......Page 102
3.7 Summary......Page 105
4.1 Introduction......Page 107
4.2 Classifying adjectives......Page 108
4.2.1 Three classes of attribute modifiers......Page 109
4.3 Planes and valence relations......Page 112
4.4 Compounds, phrases and lexicalisation......Page 116
4.5 Type modification in two different corpora......Page 120
4.5.1 The OED......Page 121
4.5.2 The BoE......Page 126
4.6 Decoding the process......Page 131
4.8 Summary......Page 140
5.1 Introduction......Page 143
5.2.1 The standardisation approach......Page 144
5.2.2 Dictionary definitions......Page 145
5.2.3 Summary......Page 148
5.3.1 The motivation......Page 150
5.3.2 The process of creation......Page 152
5.4.1 Polysemous relations......Page 155
5.4.2 Hyponymy......Page 159
5.5 A case study of ECT synonymy - domain preference and salience......Page 160
5.5.1 The semasiological perspective......Page 164
5.5.2 The onomasiological perspective......Page 167
5.6 Summary......Page 169
6.1 Introduction......Page 171
6.3 The marked use of saturation terms......Page 172
6.3.1 The pattern......Page 176
6.3.2 A look at some individual examples......Page 180
6.3.3 Theorising the effects......Page 186
6.4.1 Colour terms and emotions in the BoE......Page 189
6.4.2 Results......Page 190
6.5 Summary......Page 194
7.1 Introduction......Page 197
7.2 Previous studies......Page 199
7.4 Figurative colour expressions and classificatory use......Page 204
7.5.1 Part-whole metonymy......Page 206
7.5.2 Part - part metonymy......Page 211
7.6.1 Local networks and valence structure......Page 216
7.6.2 Domain logic......Page 220
7.7 Figurative use of ECTs......Page 222
7.8 Summary......Page 225
Concluding Remarks......Page 227
Prospects for further research......Page 231
Bibliograpghy......Page 233
Appendix 1.  Description of the Bank of English Corpus......Page 254
Appendix 2.  Regular Expressions Eliminated via Automatic Commands......Page 257
Appendix 3.  Frequency of Colour Terms in the Bank of English......Page 261
Appendix 4.  Definitions of Colour Terms......Page 265
Appendix 5.  English Colour Terms and their Age......Page 273