| The present study is colour terminology research, focusing on such colour terms as awo and midori in old Japanese, and grey in Old and Middle English. At the same time, the present study pays attention to both the diversity of colour phenomena and the rule governed nature of language expressing those phenomena, and it presents not only such a viewpoint as goes beyond the conventional hue-based discussion of colour semantics, but also reconsideration of the concept of basic colour terms.;The present study regards "basicness" (the degree of being "basic") of colour terms as the degree of usefulness to express the diversity of colour phenomena, and assumes that the more derivatives a colour term has and the more phenomena it can express, the more basic that colour term is. In accordance with this way of thinking, the present study researched the process of the derivative development of English colour terms. In the diachronic process each colour term has developed derivatives, such as a verbal form, an adverb form, and so on. This is, at the same time, the process of colour terms obtaining "basicness" and being integrated into the whole structure of the English language.;As to grey in Old and Middle English, and awo and midori in Japanese, old text was closely examined from a philological viewpoint. So far the meaning of grey has been regarded as ambiguous as to the "shining" sense and chromaticity. It can not be denied that grey somewhat entailed chromatic aspects and the "shining" sense though the typical word to express the "shining" sense was white. Next, awo and midori in old Japanese text seem to have denoted the overlapping areas of hues, there being possibility that they both meant "blue" and "green." As to these two Japanese colour terms, the present study regards the word formation as an important factor which divides their meanings. Through the diachronic research on grey, awo and midori, it can also be said that the measures to understand colour phenomena in old times were different from the way we now understand colours. |
