现代日语基本颜色词再考

Basic Color Terms in Contemporary Japanese Re-examined

一般认为,现代日语的基本颜色词有11个,即白、黑、赤、青、黄、绿、茶、紫、桃、橙、灰,与美国人类学家伯林和凯的假说概括的一致。但参照伯林和凯的假说中有关基本颜色词的语义标准,从词的形态、派生义项、能产性、词性等方面,对上述11个颜色词进行综合比较分析后得出如下结论:现代日语基本颜色词的数目仍与古代日语的相同,即"赤、白、黑、青"4个词。

It is generally believed that there are 11 basic color terms in Contemporary Japanese, ie., white, black, red, blue, yellow, green, dark brown, purple, pink, orange and gray, which seem consistent with the hypothesis of American anthropologists Berlin and Kay. However, a comparative analysis in terms of form, derivation, productivity and grammatical functions, with reference to the semantic standards for basic color terms set by Berlin and Kay, shows that there are four basic color terms in Contemporary Japanese, ie., red, white, black and blue, the same as those in Ancient Japanese.