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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. 213–236

Complex color denomination in French and Occitan

| University of Oxford
| University of Lyon
| Lattice, CNRS, ENS & Université Sorbonne Nouvelle

In this chapter, we investigate color naming in French and Occitan. It is well known that French, compared to other Romance languages, has a tendency to be very analytic. This raises the following question: do speakers of French and other Romance languages (here, Occitan) differ in morphological strategies used to express meaning in the semantic domain of color? To investigate this question, we compare the color descriptions provided by speakers of French (N = 20) and speakers of Occitan (N = 20). The results show some striking differences between the two languages in lexical and morphosyntactic strategies used to name colors. Speakers of Occitan employ secondary color terms using a variety of derivational suffixes, which are absent from the French data despite their existence in the language.

Keywords: color naming, Romance, French, Occitan, experimental studies, morphological complexity
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methodology
  • 3.Color naming strategies in French and Occitan
    • 3.1Simple terms: Primary terms and analogy
    • 3.2Derived terms
    • 3.3Compounds
    • 3.4Modifying expressions
    • 3.5Complex descriptions
  • 4.Naming strategies and variation among participants
  • 5.Discussion and concluding remarks
  • Abbreviations
  • Acknowledgment
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 9 October 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sfsl.78.10bac
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