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Correlations between the neurobiology of colour vision and the psycholinguistics of colour naming

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Summary

Neurobiological experiments demonstrate that colour sensation is perceived by the brain by processes which, in principle, follow the opponent colour pairs scheme proposed by Hering in 1874. Tests on colour naming in various European, Asian and Central American languages have shown that the opponent scheme is also reflected in psycholinguistics. The linguistic evolution of colour terms proposed by Berlin and Kay (1969) is correlated directly with the ontogenetic development of language in children as elucidated by Jakobson (1941). Colour vision is therefore a suitable field for interdisciplinary investigations of brain processes and linguistics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Technisch-Chemisches Laboratorium, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, CH-8092, Zürich, (Switzerland)

    Heinrich Zollinger

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  1. Heinrich Zollinger
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Dedicated to Prof. Roman Jakobson, Cambridge, Mass.

Acknowledgment. I thank Prof. Roman Jakobson, Harvard University and M.I.T., Cambridge (Mass.) and Prof. Elmar Holenstein, Ruhr-Universität, Bochum, Germany (formerly University of Zurich, Switzerland) for many stimulating discussions.

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Zollinger, H. Correlations between the neurobiology of colour vision and the psycholinguistics of colour naming. Experientia 35, 1–8 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01917840

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