| Color terms in the sign system of human language are abstract concepts by themselves.When the abstract concept is used to denote color by human,the color term is endowed with rich extended meaning,associative meaning,symbolic meaning,etc.Human’s division and perception to color spectrum are gradual and continuous.But there are also genetic mutations caused by historical events and foreign culture.In most cases,the origin can be traced.Starting with the English basic color terms,this research studies the semantics of the five kernel concepts: black,white,red,yellow,and green from Swadesh 200-word list.First,All the words and meanings in the semantic field of the five concepts are searched out,and then,the etymology,the chronology of every derivative word and the chronology of every semantic meaning of the color words are traced.Based on that,the chronology table and the table of the semantic meanings of all the color words comes into being.Then their categories are classified according to their semantic prominent factors by using the prototype theory of cognitive linguistics.Meanwhile,the semantic maps of the five color categories are drawn by using the research method of the semantic map model.Then all the meanings of the five English basic color terms are synchronically contrasted with the meanings of the corresponding color terms in 22 other languages from the perspective of semantic typology.The appearance,evolution,and disappearance of the semantic meanings of the five basic color terms are described and explained in an attempt to probe the evolution course and developing mechanism of color terms in the 23 languages so as to find human’s cognitive similarities in the color field.This research consists of eight chapters.In chapter one,the researcher introduces the object and the range,the purpose and the significance of the study one by one,and then gives the general description of domestic and foreign research in color terms field.In the end,the theory and the research method of semantic typology and cognitive semantics used in this research are introduced.Chapter two to six are the main body of this study.These chapters study respectively the etymology,chronology,connotation and denotation of all the color terms in the semantic field of the five English basic color concepts of black,white,red,yellow,and green.They are contrasted with the meanings of the same color categories in 22 other languages in the way of semantic map.Chapter seven is the conclusion.The semantic similarities and the differences of the basic color terms in the 23 languages are summarized and the reasons are analyzes,and it also gives an explanation to the semantic evolution mechanism of the basic color terms in the 23 languages.Chapter eight is the comments on the innovation and weak points of this paper and the prospection of this study.The innovations in this research are as follows:Firstly,for the first time,all the words and meanings in the semantic field of the five basic color concepts are searched exhaustively in this paper,and their etymology,the chronology of each derivative word and all the semantic meanings of each color words are studied in detail chronologically.The process of the semantic development and evolution is described,analyzed,and summarized clearly.Secondly,for the first time,all the meanings of the five English basic color terms and the meanings of the corresponding color concepts in 22 other languages are specifically analyzed,contrasted and summarized.Both the scope of language families and language groups that the sampling of this paper covers and the number of meanings are unprecedented.The number of samples directly affects the correctness of summarizing the semantic evolution rules.Thirdly,for the first time,the meanings of color terms are vividly presented through semantic maps in this research,which clearly displays the process and the way of semantic evolution. |
