Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

What we talk about when we talk about color

View ORCID ProfileColin R. Twomey, View ORCID ProfileGareth Roberts, View ORCID ProfileDavid Brainard, View ORCID ProfileJoshua B. Plotkin
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.29.319517
Colin R. Twomey
1mindCORE, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
2Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Colin R. Twomey
  • For correspondence: crtwomey@sas.upenn.edu jplotkin@sas.upenn.edu
Gareth Roberts
1mindCORE, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
3Department of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Gareth Roberts
David Brainard
1mindCORE, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
4Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for David Brainard
Joshua B. Plotkin
1mindCORE, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
2Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Joshua B. Plotkin
  • For correspondence: crtwomey@sas.upenn.edu jplotkin@sas.upenn.edu
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

Names for colors vary widely across languages, but color categories are remarkably consistent [1–5]. Shared mechanisms of color perception help explain consistent partitions of visible light into discrete color vocabularies [6–10]. But the mappings from colors to words are not identical across languages, which may reflect communicative needs – how often speakers must refer to objects of different color [11]. Here we quantify the communicative needs of colors in 130 different languages, using a novel inference algorithm. Some regions of color space exhibit 30-fold greater demand for communication than other regions. The regions of greatest demand correlate with the colors of salient objects, including ripe fruits in primate diets. Using the mathematics of compression we predict and empirically test how languages map colors to words, accounting for communicative needs. We also document extensive cultural variation in communicative demands on different regions of color space, which is partly explained by differences in geographic location and local biogeography. This account reconciles opposing theories for universal patterns in color vocabularies, while opening new directions to study cross-cultural variation in the need to communicate different colors.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted September 30, 2020.
Download PDF
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
What we talk about when we talk about color
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
What we talk about when we talk about color
Colin R. Twomey, Gareth Roberts, David Brainard, Joshua B. Plotkin
bioRxiv 2020.09.29.319517; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.29.319517
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
What we talk about when we talk about color
Colin R. Twomey, Gareth Roberts, David Brainard, Joshua B. Plotkin
bioRxiv 2020.09.29.319517; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.29.319517

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Animal Behavior and Cognition
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (2408)
  • Biochemistry (4756)
  • Bioengineering (3294)
  • Bioinformatics (14573)
  • Biophysics (6586)
  • Cancer Biology (5125)
  • Cell Biology (7365)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (4308)
  • Ecology (6817)
  • Epidemiology (2057)
  • Evolutionary Biology (9836)
  • Genetics (7305)
  • Genomics (9463)
  • Immunology (4502)
  • Microbiology (12579)
  • Molecular Biology (4897)
  • Neuroscience (28074)
  • Paleontology (198)
  • Pathology (796)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (1372)
  • Physiology (1993)
  • Plant Biology (4447)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (965)
  • Synthetic Biology (1293)
  • Systems Biology (3889)
  • Zoology (716)