Chapter published in:
Progress in Colour Studies: Cognition, language and beyond
Edited by Lindsay W. MacDonald, Carole P. Biggam and Galina V. Paramei
[Not in series 217] 2018
► pp. 301–313

The journey of the “apple from China”

A cross-linguistic study on the psychological salience of the colour term for orange

| Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (UCSC), Milan, Italy
The designations of the orange fruit in Indo-European languages very often literally meant “apple from China”. Citrus species were known in the Chinese cultural area in the fifth century BCE and glossed in c.100 CE, but there is no basic colour term for orange in Modern Standard Mandarin. This colour category is psychologically salient, but it is still inseparable from a concrete object in the mind of a native speaker, and can therefore be defined as starting to become basic. This article also suggests modification of Berlin and Kay’s (1969: 6) first criterion for basicness in colour terms: applied to Chinese, a term should be monomorphemic and, moreover, monosyllabic – rather than just monolexemic – since almost every syllable is a morpheme in Chinese.
Keywords: colour naming, colour categorization, orange colour, basic colour term, Chinese
Published online: 26 November 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/z.217.16bog
Bibliography

Bibliography

Dictionaries

BKRS
= Bol’šoj kitajsko-russkij slovar’ [The Big Chinese – Russian Dictionary] 1983, ed. by I. M. Ošanin. 4 vols. Moscow: Nauka. Also: http://​bkrs​.info/, accessed on 31 July, 2017.
Cíhǎi 辞海
[“Sea of Words” Encyclopaedic Dictionary] 1994, ed. by Shū Xīnchéng (舒新城. 2 vols. Beijing: Zhōnghuá shūjū.Google Scholar
Lin, Yutang
1972 Chinese – English Dictionary of Modern Usage. Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong.Google Scholar
OED = Oxford English Dictionary
1989, ed. by John Simpson, and Edmund Weiner. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Updates online at http://​www​.oed​.com, accessed on 20 April 2017.
Shuōwén = Shuōwén jiĕzì jīn shì 说文解字今释
[Modern Explanation of the Shuōwén jiĕzì ] 2001, by Xu Shen; ed. by Tāng Kějìng 汤可敬. 2 vols. Chángshā: Yuèlù shūshè.Google Scholar
TLIO = Tesoro della lingua italiana delle origini
1997– http://​tlio​.ovi​.cnr​.it​/TLIO/, accessed on 1 April 2017.

Non-dictionary references

Baxilina, Natal’ja B.
1975 Istorija cvetooboznačenij v russkom jazyke [A History of Colour Names in Russian]. Moscow: Nauka.Google Scholar
Berlin, Brent, and Paul Kay
1969 Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press. Second edition 1991.Google Scholar
Blench, Robert
2008 “A History of Fruits on the Southeast Asian Mainland.” In Linguistics, Archaeology and the Human Past, ed. by Toshiki Osada, and Akinori Uesugi, 115–137. Occasional Paper 5. Kyoto: Indus Project, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature.Google Scholar
Bogushevskaya, Victoria
2016 “Of Oxen and Horses: Semantic Shifts in Early Chinese Colour Lexicon.” In Papers of the 12th International Conference on Languages of Far East, Southeast Asia and West Africa (LESEWA), Lomonosov Moscow State University, 16–17 November 2016, ed. by B. V. Kasevič, A. Ju. Vixrova, and I. M. Rumjanceva, 42–51. Moscow: Jazyki Narodov Mira.Google Scholar
Bottéro, Françoise
2017 “Chinese Writing.” In Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics, ed. by Rint Sybesma, Wolfgang Behr, Yueguo Gu, Zev Handel, C.-T. James Huang, and James Myers, vol. 1, 595–605. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Čelyševa, Irina I.
2007 “Sistema cvetooboznačenij ital’janskogo jazyka” [The System of Colour Names in the Italian language]. In Naimenovanija cveta v indoevropejskix jazykax: sistemnyj I istoričeskij analiz [Colour Naming in Indo-European Languages: The Systematic and Historical Analysis], ed. by Aleksandr P. Vasilevič, 243–266. Moscow: KomKniga.Google Scholar
Cottin, Roland
(ed.) 2002 Citrus of the World: A Citrus Directory. Version 2.0 – September 2002 San Giuliano, Corsica: SRA: INRA-CIRAD.Google Scholar
Frumkina, Revekka M.
1984 Cvet, smysl, sxodstvo: Aspekty psixolingvističeskogo analiza [Colour, Meaning, and Similarity: Aspects of a Psycholinguistic Analysis]. Moscow: Nauka.Google Scholar
Hsiao, Janet H., and Garrison W. Cottrell
2009 “What is the Cause of Left Hemisphere Lateralization of English Visual Word Recognition? Pre-Existing Language Lateralization, or Task Characteristics?” In Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, ed. by N. Taatgen, and H. van Rijn, 881–886. Austin, Tex.: Cognitive Science Society.Google Scholar
Huang, H. T.
2000 Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 6, part 5. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Joubert, André
1888 Histoire de la baronnie de Craon de 1382 á 1626. Paris: Émile Lechevallier. https://​archive​.org​/stream​/histoiredelabar00joubgoog#page​/n501/, accessed on 30 December 2017.
Kay, Paul, Brent Berlin, Luisa Maffi, William Merrifield, and Richard Cook
2009 The World Color Survey. Stanford, Calif.: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar
Kay, Paul, and Chad K. McDaniel
1978 “The Linguistic Significance of the Meanings of Basic Color Terms.” Language 54 (3): 610–646. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Krjukov, Mixail V., Leonard S. Perelomov, Mixail V. Sofronov, and Nikolaj N. Čeboksarov
1983 Drevnie kitajcy v èpoxu centralizovannyx imperij [Ancient Chinese during the Time of the Centralized Empires]. Moscow: Nauka.Google Scholar
Lǐ, Hóngyìn (李红印
2007 Xiàndài hànyǔ yánsècí yǔyì fēnxī 现代汉语颜色词语义分析 [Semantic Analysis of Contemporary Chinese Colour Terms]. Beijing: Shāngwù.Google Scholar
Li, Xiaomeng, Rangjin Xie, Zhenhua Lu, and Zhiqin Zhou
2010 “The Origin of Cultivated Citrus as Inferred from Internal Transcribed Spacer and Chloroplast DNA Sequence and Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism Fingerprints.” Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science 135 (4): 341–350.Google Scholar
Liú, Yúnquán (刘云泉)
1990 Yŭyánde sècăi měi 语言的色彩美 [The Beauty of Colours in a Language]. Hefei: Ānhuī jiàoyù chūbănshè.Google Scholar
Lü, Ching-Fu
1997 “Basic Mandarin Color Terms.” Color Research and Application 22 (1): 4–10. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Morton, Julia F.
1987 Fruits of Warm Climates. Miami: Florida Flair Books. Available online: https://​hort​.purdue​.edu​/newcrop​/morton​/index​.html, accessed on 28 November 2016.
Needham, Joseph, Gwei-Djen Lu, and Hsing-Tsung Huang
1986 Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 6, part 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Paul, James Balfour
(ed.) 1905 Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 6. Edinburgh: H. M. General Register House.Google Scholar
Scora, Rainer W.
1975 “On the History and Origin of Citrus”. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 102 (6): 369–375. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Servillo, Luigi, Alfonso Giovane, Maria Luisa Balestrieri, Andrea Bata-Csere, Domenico Cautela, and Domenico Castaldo
2011 “Betaines in Fruits of Citrus Genus Plants.” Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 59 (17): 9410–9416. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Shí, Yùzhì (石毓智)
1990 “Xiàndài hànyǔ yánsècí de yòngfǎ” 现代汉语颜色词的用法 [The Usage of Contemporary Chinese Colour Names]. Hànyǔ xuéxí 3: 18–22.Google Scholar
Thomson, Thomas
(ed.) 1815 A Collection of Inventories and Other Records of the Royal Wardrobe and Jewelhouse… Edinburgh: [privately printed].Google Scholar
Vasilevič, Aleksandr P.
2007 “Ètimologija cvetonaimenovanij kak zerkalo naciolan’no-kul’turnogo soznanija” [Etymology of Colour Names as a Speculum of Ethno-Cultural Cognition]. In Naimenovanija cveta v indoevropejskix jazykax: sistemnyj I istoričeskij analiz [Colour Naming in Indo-European Languages: The Systematic and Historical Analysis], ed. by Aleksandr P. Vasilevič, 9–28. Moscow: KomKniga.Google Scholar
Vermaas, Emmelot
2017 “Chinese as a Monosyllabic Language”. In Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics, ed. by Rint Sybesma, Wolfgang Behr, Yueguo Gu, Zev Handel, C.-T. James Huang, and James Myers, vol.1, 432–435. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Warburton, David
1999 “Sīni ‘Blue’ and Burtuqāli ‘Orange’: An Historical Note on Early Chinese Coffee Cups”. In The Language of Color in the Mediterranean, ed. by Alexander Borg, 148–151. Stockholm: Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis.Google Scholar
Wenren, Jun
2013 Ancient Chinese Encyclopaedia of Technology: Translation and Annotation of the Kaogong ji (The Artificers’ Record). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Wǔ, Tiěpíng (伍铁平)
1999 Móhu уǔyánхué 模糊语言学 [Fuzzy Linguistics]. Shànghǎi: Shànghǎi wàiyǔ jiāoxué.Google Scholar
Xú, Cháohuá (徐朝华)
2003 Shànggǔ hànyǔ cíhuì shǐ 上古汉语词汇史 [History of Old Chinese Lexicon]. Beijing: Shāngwù.Google Scholar
Xu, Weiyuan
2007 A Study of Chinese Colour Terminology. Munich: LINCOM.Google Scholar
Yáo, Xiǎopíng (姚小平)
1988 “Jīběn yánsècí lǐlùn shùpíng – jiān lùn hànyǔ jīběn yánsècí de yǎnbiàn shǐ” 基本颜色词理论述评 —— 兼论汉语基本颜色词的演变史 [On the Theory of Basic Colour Terms and on the Evolution of Chinese Basic Colour Terms]. Wàiyǔ jiàoxué yǔ yánjiū 外语教学与研究 1: 19–28.Google Scholar
Yè, Jūn (叶军)
2001 Xiàndài hànyǔ sècǎicí yánjiū 现代汉语色彩词研究 [A Study on Contemporary Chinese Colour Names]. Hūhéhàotè: Nèiménggǔ rénmín.Google Scholar
Yee, Cordell D. K.
1994 “Chinese maps in political culture”. In The History of Cartography, vol. 2, Book 2: Cartography in the Traditional East and Southeast Asian Societies, ed. by John B. Harley, and David Woodward, 71–95. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Zhao, Jin-yao, Li Li, Fei-peng Jiao, and Feng-lian Ren
2014 “Human plasma protein binding of water soluble flavonoids extracted from citrus peels”. Journal of Central South University 21 (7): 2645–2651. CrossrefGoogle Scholar