Re: Explaining universal colour categories

On Tue, 10 Jan 2006, Herman Miller wrote:
>
> Yahya Abdal-Aziz wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > This link:
> >
> > http://adb.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/13/4/293
> >
> > is relevant to our discussion on conlang colours a while ago.
>
> "This item requires a subscription to Adaptive Behavior Online."
>
> Could you give a summary?

Alas, Herman; would that I could!  But sadly
I'm not yet rich enough to subscribe to every
journal that captures my interest ... :-(

Here is the essence of the abstract:
"Explaining Universal Color Categories Through a Constrained Acquisition
Process
Tony Belpaeme
University of Plymouth, UK

Joris Bleys
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Color categories enjoy a special status among human perceptual categories as
they exhibit a remarkable cross-cultural similarity. Many scholars have
explained this universal character as being the result of an innate
representation or an innate developmental program which all humans share. We
will critically assess the available evidence, which is at best
controversial, and we will suggest an alternative account for the
universality of color categories based on linguistic transmission
constrained by universal biases. We introduce a computational model to test
our hypothesis and present results. These show that indeed the cultural
acquisition of color categories together with mild constraints on the
perception and categorical representation result in categories that have a
distribution similar to human color categories."

So they're saying that the "universal colour
categories" [YA - which not everyone actually
agrees _are_ universal] need not be assumed
to be innate in humans, but can be explained
equally well by cultural transmission through
language "together with mild constraints on
the perception and categorical representation"
or "universal biases".

What those constraints or biases are, I don't
know.  To see whether this reduction has
better explanatory power than the simple
assumption that the categories are innate,
we'd need to know that.  Perhaps some list
member has access to the journal, either as a
subscriber or thru the Athens service ?

Regards,
Yahya

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