title: Phylogenetic approach to the evolution of color term systems.
abstract: The naming of colors has long been a topic of interest in the study of human culture and cognition. Color term research has asked diverse questions about thought and communication, but no previous research has used an evolutionary framework. We show that there is broad support for the most influential theory of color term development (that most strongly represented by Berlin and Kay [Berlin B, Kay P (1969) (Univ of California Press, Berkeley, CA)]); however, we find extensive evidence for the loss (as well as gain) of color terms. We find alternative trajectories of color term evolution beyond those considered in the standard theories. These results not only refine our knowledge of how humans lexicalize the color space and how the systems change over time; they illustrate the promise of phylogenetic methods within the domain of cognitive science, and they show how language change interacts with human perception.
authors.affiliation: College of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523.
authors.forename: Hannah J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Haynie
authors.affiliation: Department of Linguistics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511 claire.bowern@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Claire
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9512-4393
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bowern
mesh_terms: D003116:Color; D003118:Color Perception; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language / Q000266:history; D010802:Phylogeny; D012660:Semantics
keywords: Australian languages; cognitive science; color; evolution; linguistics