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Lexicalization patterns in color naming: A cross-linguistic perspective
Edited by Ida Raffaelli, Daniela Katunar and Barbara Kerovec
[Studies in Functional and Structural Linguistics 78] 2019
► pp. 83–108

“Brightness” in color linguistics

New light from Danish visual semantics

| Roskilde University

This chapter scrutinizes the discourse of “brightness” in color linguistics. Drawing on insights from visual semantics and linguistic anthropology, and challenging the universal applicability of “brightness”, the study provides new evidence from Danish. The chapter provides a new analysis of the lexicogrammar and linguaculture of lys ‘light, brightness’ in relation to color. The Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach is used to provide detailed semantic explications for three grammatical devices based on lys (lys, lys-, and lyse-), along with an analysis of three Danish lys + color compounds lyserød, lysegrøn, and lyseblå. Based on the evidence from Danish and other studies in visual semantics, the chapter calls for a renewed focus on the non-chromatic aspects of visual meanings, and for a metalinguistic reform in color linguistics.

Keywords: color linguistics, brightness, visual semantics, Natural Semantic Metalanguage, Danish
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Visual semantics
  • 3.Methods
    • Semantic primes
  • 4.Linguaculture and lexicogrammar
    • 4.1The meaning of lyserød
    • 4.2The meaning of lysegrøn
    • 4.3The meaning of lyseblå
    • 4.4Summary
  • 5.Back to “brightness”
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgment
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 9 October 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sfsl.78.05lev
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