英汉基本颜色词的象似性初探

Probe into the Iconicity of English and Chinese Basic Color Terms

人类学家、语言学家Berlin和Kay在合著《基本颜色词》中提出了“语义特征普遍性的假设”,该理论认为在颜色词的语义场中,不同语言之间存在共性。语言符号的象似性研究打破了“语言任意性”原则一统天下的局面,为语言学研究向多元化、纵深化方向发展开拓了思路。本研究以此理论为基础,结合语言认知理论,从英汉基本颜色词出现的顺序、语义特征及范畴三方面探讨其象似性,从而论证人类语言是普遍性和相对性的紧密结合。

The study of iconicity of the linguistic signs has broken the monopoly of arbitrariness of the linguistic signs, which becomes a hotspot in today＇s cognitive linguistics and means a lot in understanding the relationship between language and cognition. From the perspective of cognitive linguistics and in combination with the theory of universality in semantics proposed by Berlin and Kay, the paper probes into the iconic laws of basic color terms in English and Chinese so as to prove that the universality of order, semantic features and categories in English and Chinese basic color terms.