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Re: NATLANG: Colors

From:Mark P. Line <mark@...>
Date:Wednesday, April 21, 2004, 23:12
David Peterson said:
> Oh, I just remembered one. One universal (and I'm pretty sure this is a > universal) is that a language will have *at most* 11 *basic* color terms
That's what they say, alright. But saying that it's a "linguistic universal" that languages will have at most 11 basic color terms -- even stipulating the possibility of adequately operationalizing the concepts of "basic" and "color term" such that the purported "universal" is not simply a logical consequence of these definitions -- is a bit like saying that it's an "economic universal" that no human has a net worth of more than $50 billion. I would only be inclined to even listen to talk about such an economic universal if it came with some sort of well-founded reasoning as to what it is about the economic system that might give rise to such a universal. I would only be inclined to even listen to talk about such a linguistic universal if it came with some sort of well-founded reasoning as to what it is about humans and human language that might give rise to such a universal. It doesn't, so I'm not. -- Mark

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Nik Taylor <yonjuuni@...>