Multilingual Color Dictionary: Contextual Implications in Using Color Vocabulary

Dicionário multilíngue de cores: implicações contextuais no uso do vocabulário das cores

Claudia Zavaglia • São Paulo State University (Unesp), Brazil • claudia.zavaglia@unesp.br

Sabrina de Cássia Martins • São Paulo State University (Unesp), Brazil • sabrina.martins@unesp.br

1. Introduction

In a few words, lexicon represents people’s culture inasmuch it verbally expresses all the experience acquired by a community in its course of history (Biderman, 2001). The intrinsic connection between lexicon and culture characterizes lexical studies’ complexity, since new lexical units are constantly created to verbalize actions, thoughts, everyday events, technical-scientific concepts, cognitive processes that merge language, culture, history and society.

In this work our object of study is phraseologies composed of color names. Our analysis is based on data collected for the elaboration of the Multilingual Color Dictionary - MCD, a multidisciplinary project developed at São Paulo State University (Campus of São José do Rio Preto) that includes Portuguese, Italian, English, Spanish and French languages. Thus, based on MCD entries in Italian > Portuguese and English, as well as Portuguese > Italian and English, we will provide some examples of color phraseologies whose content, or meaning, on one hand, are totally transmissible, and on the other, examples that are not.

Undoubtedly, the usage of such complex units in language is consolidated by the socio-historical and cultural movement of a given society. This progress leads to individual choices in the discourse production, but also to contextual comprehension (Álvarez, 2012). Consequently, in order for users to recognize these complex units and also improve the ability to understand and make use of them in communication, it is necessary to develop semantic and pragmatic skills in addition to accumulating knowledge about cultural and linguistic history (Colson, 2004).

In the following pages we firstly reflect on how the principle of Linguistic Relativism (Arcaini, 1991; Zavaglia, 1996; Lee, 1996) influences the study of color names, reinforcing their contribution to lexical expansion. Secondly, we emphasize the lexicon cultural character, as well as the necessity of considering the context of use in communication among cultures. Thirdly, we reiterate the role of metaphors in the construction of this vocabulary; and lastly, we mention examples obtained during the elaboration of MCD of linguistic symmetries and asymmetries in Italian > Portuguese and English, then in Portuguese > Italian and English.

2. Theoretical Framework

2.1. Lexical Universe and Linguistic Relativism

According to Berlin & Kay (1969), the Linguistic Relativity is the prevailing doctrine among American linguists and anthropologists of the twentieth century. This principle, which comes from the thesis of Cultural Relativism advocated by Franz Boas, explains that each language has its own way of building experiences. Therefore, each language has a semantic arbitrariness compared to all other languages.

Exponents of Linguistic Relativity studies are Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf. In Sapir’s words, our linguistic habits justify our interpretation choices of the world. For this reason, two or more languages are not similar enough to represent the same social reality. For Whorf (1956), in his turn, the language spoken by an individual influences how he/she perceives reality. The linguistic system in our minds organizes our apprehensions of the world. Put differently, we delineate, organize in concepts and assign meanings as we do because we are part of an agreement solidified through our speech and encoded in language standards. Furthermore, language influences human cognition as well as it systematically standardizes the experiences, shaping ideas and interactions. Thus, divergent existing meanings into different linguistic systems cause misunderstandings in communication between cultures.

Lee (1996), in a study of Relativism Theory disseminated by Whorf, states that what varies in languages is the conceptual processing instead of thought. According to Lee (1996), if the conceptual operations on perceptual data vary, the experience, which is the only reality we actually know, also changes. The principle of Linguistic Relativity deals precisely with these conceptual or experiential ramifications of a given linguistic source. Generally speaking, this principle considers how language mediates the relationship between environmental variations that inhabit the human being and changes in cognitive processes of perceptual kind.

The theory of Linguistic Relativism supports that lexicon is «an organized symbolic categorization which classifies in a unique way human experiences of a culture» ^[1] (Biderman, 1981, p. 133). In this regard, Eco (1985:63 apud Moraes Filho, 1995, p. 65) also asserts that:

When an individual verbalizes the name of a color, he/she is not pointing directly to a state of the world (reference process). Instead, he/she is correlating this term to a unit or to a cultural concept. This articulation of the term is obviously determined by a given sensation. However, the translation from sensory stimuli to a perception object is likewise determined by the semiotic relationship between the linguistic expression and the meaning or content culturally correlated to the meaning. ^[2]

From the moment we postulate that each linguistic universe has an inherent way to decode and define world conceptions, color names domain is represented according to the idiosyncrasies of each culture, that is to say, in a connotative and subjective way. Hence, color perception will be linguistically represented in a different way from one culture to another.

Through a comparative analysis between Italian and French languages, Arcaini (1991) advocates the influence of socio-cultural and historical characteristics of a people in the linguistic use of color names. For the aforementioned author, it is necessary to analyze the symbolic use of color throughout history, both synchronically and diachronically. In addition to examining the relationship between perception and naming, there is a need to observe the dynamism inherent to language. Moreover, Arcaini (1991) also argues that the study of color names should prioritize, in the first place, properties established between color names and natural languages; and in the second place, how these properties are used and understood by speakers.

Fresu (2006) complements Arcaini’s (1991) discourse as she reiterates the importance of considering the implications of cultural and symbolic values to the construction of linguistic structures formed by color names in denominating or describing the reality of a given culture.

In accordance to this, Jorge et al. (2003) continue:

Colors create interfaces with other areas of language-culture and they are a favorable place to interdisciplinarity, both in a synchronic and diachronic perspective. The richness of color vocabulary is the result of a plural and multifaceted view where subjectivity, affectivity and aesthetics are combined. Colors do not correspond to stagnant elements. On the contrary, they emphasize the dynamism and creativity of a language-culture, being dynamic objects in the traductological process. ^[3] (p. 127).

The chromatic phrases are included in this immense set of lexical units, in which linguistic and semantic differences are inherent in cultures and in speech communities. Certainly, color phrases are a unique linguistic microsystem full of meaning and syntactic-semantic-pragmatic richness.

2.2. Contextual implications in communication between cultures

According to Schogt (1992), on philosophical and epistemological issues of the relationship among languages, thought and the extra-linguistic world, the assumption that different languages delineate different realities implies that communication between two people that do not share the same mother tongue would be impossible even if one of them has learned the other’s language. This is because, the author continues, even those who have learned a second language remain attached to their mother tongue’s system values.

Although it would be an exaggerated assumption to accept the impossibility of intercultural communication, Schogt (1992) emphasizes the difficulty to completely deny this assumption, inasmuch it is generally agreed that each language focuses on specific elements of extra-linguistic world, creating abstract notions that other languages may not apprehend or may not give importance to.

For this reason, context assumes a fundamental role in this process, since translation is a linguistic unit developed within a social framework and historical situation, hence it fulfills a particular function. Thus, the socio-cultural environment and the prior knowledge should be concomitantly analyzed in order that social interaction could be established.

Socio-cognitive context is crucial for communication between two nations. Indeed, their cognitive contexts must be at least partially similar for inter-subjective understanding. Their language, encyclopedic, episodic, procedural, macro and super-structural or schematic and interactional knowledge must be partly shared. Focus given to socio-cognitive context in which the reader/speaker is inserted prioritizes extra-textual role in the interpretation. According to Fish (1980, p. 342), this issue is the result of ideological processes and institutional authority. Meanings are not present in text, but are constructed by the «interpretive community» that assigns interpretation to them.

However, interpretation will always be unequivocal within the interpretative community as a conventional system. As a result, a consensus regarding the interpretation of terms or phrases is established. In fact, individuals share norms or principles that may (not) be accepted in a given community, and inserted in a given social-cultural context. Hence, it is the interpretive community that reads the text in a specific context and that allows the use of certain phrases used in different contexts/cultures, and that accepts the translational equivalences.

To conclude, the color universe is an interesting field of study, since it calls attention to peculiarities of each language and culture. At the same time, it allows the explicitness of inter-subjective, as well as intercultural and inter-linguistic differences. In the present work, peculiarities and differences are demonstrated by (non) equivalence among Portuguese, Italian and English. These (a)symmetries are understood here as complements given by each language to conceptual/verbalization deficiencies of the other languages (Benjamin, 1971).

2.3. Metaphors in the construction of chromatic phrases

According to Arcaini (1991), the comparative analysis of color vocabulary requires the observation of the semantic/metaphorical level, where differences are more evident. In fact, every culture is endowed with a semantic arbitrariness in the reality description that differs from other cultures and that organizes the lexical universe in a particular way. Regarding color vocabulary, since each culture experiences the spectrum in a certain way, values assigned to the chromatic domains differ from culture to culture.

Concerning the phraseological units composed of color names, one of their characteristics is the idiomaticity. In this context, a special role is reserved to metaphor, a language mechanism considered essential for understanding many aspects of conceptualization of our day-to-day life experiences and which characterizes speakers’ creativity. In Lakoff and Johnson’s (2007) terms, as well as other semantic phenomena, metaphor establishes a close relationship with culture because the conceptual system is also culturally-based. Therefore, metaphor is based on conventional models organized into systematic relations, and contributes to categorization and understanding of experiences.

Kövecses (2005; 2010) observes the existence of differences and similarities in the construction of metaphorical domains and in the linguistic representation of reality. Similarities come from the sharing of metaphorical structure, resulting from coincidence, by different cultures, through knowledge transmission and universal properties related to the human body. Differences, however, derive, firstly, from some principles that guide the key concepts, which vary from culture to culture; and secondly, from distinct linguistic forms to express the same conceptual metaphor.

Ultimately, we note that variations can occur even within the same culture, from individual to individual, depending, for example, on social, geographical and historical factors. All these possibilities, namely, variations within the same community as well as contact between people and, consequently, language and cultural influences, lead to metaphors change. Moreover, they lead to the creation of new metaphors and, in turn, enable new expressions to arise in order to bring metaphors to life, characterizing changes and vividness of languages.

3. Methodology

The MCD is based on Arcaini’s (1991) and Zavaglia’s (1996) works, which constitute the dictionary fundamental corpus. Dictionary source languages are Italian and Portuguese, and this dictionary also brings the equivalents in English, Spanish and French.

Its macrostructure includes simple or complex lexical units, phraseologies and technical-scientific terms of several areas, since they contain at least one of the following color names in their linguistic structure: arancio/laranja, azzurro, blu/azul, giallo/amarelo, verde/verde, rosso/vermelho, nero/preto, bianco/branco, rosa/rosa, grigio, cenere/cinza, bruno/marrom.

Regarding the microstructure, it contains the following information items:

1. Spelling, grammatical and syntactic properties;

2. Area of expertise;

2. Translation of source language headwords in Portuguese/Italian, English, French and Spanish, as well as their synonyms;

3. Context of use in the source and target languages;

4. Definition written in Portuguese for Italian-Portuguese direction, and in Italian for Portuguese-Italian direction.

It is important to note that the web was used as Corpus for context extraction, a more viable option due to vocabulary low frequency characteristics. In addition, the web as a corpus provided evidence for equivalent search and for definition elaboration. In their turn, definitions were exclusively elaborated for the MCD, according to contexts of use as well as other reference works.

In the next section, we will exemplify the (a)symmetries among Italian, Portuguese and English languages.

4. Discussions

Searching for equivalents in the target languages resulted in the categorization of the translation process in two major groups:

I. Correspondence between source and target language, whose lexical items are translatable and fully correspond in both languages, and

II. Non-correspondence between source and target language, as exemplified below.

4.1. Chromatic symmetries between languages

Before referring specifically to cases of non-linguistic equivalence between contextually dependent items, we should consider some complex and phraseological units that maintain a degree of symmetry among the aforementioned languages.

a. For plants and animals widely distributed, i.e., concrete and objective reality, there is isomorphism and linguistic symmetry among languages (Table 1: Isomorphism and linguistic symmetry for plants and animals):

Table 1: Isomorphism and linguistic symmetry for plants and animals.

b. For footballing vocabulary, once it is a global sport, there are symmetries in all linguistic universes under study (Table 2: Isomorphism and linguistic symmetry in footballing vocabulary):

Table 2: Isomorphism and linguistic symmetry in footballing vocabulary.

c. Also for expressions regarding cultural reality, since they illustrate widely known historical episodes or actual facts, there is isomorphism and linguistic symmetry among the three languages (Table 3: Isomorphism and linguistic symmetry in cultural expressions):

Table 3: Isomorphism and linguistic symmetry in cultural expressions.

d. The same symmetry was observed in idioms originated from metaphors based on body and brain functioning (Table 4: Isomorphism and linguistic symmetry in idioms based on body and brain functioning):

Table 4: Isomorphism and linguistic symmetry in idioms based on body and brain functioning.

e. When there is a similarity between the domains involving the metaphorical expression (Table 5: Isomorphism and linguistic symmetry in domains involving the metaphorical expression):

Table 5: Isomorphism and linguistic symmetry in domains involving the metaphorical expression.

4.2 Chromatic asymmetries among languages

Chromatic non-isomorphism existing among languages is prominent in cases where:

f. There are unique socio-cultural realities, as well as historical events that belong to a group of people. In the absence of a translation, an explanatory expression was inserted (Table 6: Linguistic asymmetry in culturally-marked expressions.):

Table 6: Linguistic asymmetry in culturally-marked expressions.

g. Phraseologies originated from different metaphorical domains, although representing the same reality. Such differences derive, firstly, from some principles that guide the key concepts and that vary from culture to culture; and secondly, from distinct linguistic forms to express the same conceptual metaphor (Table 7: Cultural variation in representing cultural metaphors):

Table 7: Cultural variation in representing cultural metaphors.

h. In letter (d), it was pointed out that symmetries in idioms originated from metaphors based on body and brain functioning. However, asymmetries were also found (Table 8: Linguistic asymmetry in idioms based on body and brain functioning):

Table 8: Linguistic asymmetry in idioms based on body and brain functioning.

i. Some idioms are inherent to the source culture. In the absence of a translation, an explanatory expression was inserted (Table 9: Non-isomorphism and linguistic asymmetry in culturally-marked idioms):

Table 9: Non-isomorphism and linguistic asymmetry in culturally-marked idioms.

j. Similarly, for typical Brazilian products, without a translation in source languages, an explanatory expression was inserted (Table 10: Non-isomorphism and linguistic asymmetry in expressions that denominate typical products):

Table 10: Non-isomorphism and linguistic asymmetry in expressions that denominate typical products.

5. Conclusions

The above examples illustrate the vast universe that surrounds color vocabulary. Despite similarities, which broadly speaking are correlated to cultural diffusion, it is impossible to ignore lexical distinctiveness regarding color vocabulary. In fact, the lexicon expresses the speakers’ subjectivity and the contextual implications, and the social and political notions that constitute each language emanate from culture.

Thus, in Brazil, sugar-cane aguardente has its place in our culture together with other alcoholic beverages that are not white, but yellow, for example, beer or whiskey. However, only this alcoholic beverage has in its common denomination a color name, that is branquinha. It also maintains its domination over other alcoholic beverages that have the same color (vodka, for example), but are not typical of our country.

Similarly, the Italian expression arte bianca, i.e., bakers’ work, the art of making bread or decorating other foods such as cakes and pastries , is not crystallized in Portuguese and English. In these two languages, possible translations are arte de padeiro and baker's art or bread making, respectively. On the other hand, for the Italian expression cooperative bianche, i.e., Christian social organizations, there is not an equivalent in Portuguese. In English, on the contrary, there is white (Catholic) co-operatives, a lexical unit that contains a color name.

There are also cases in which color names differ from one language to another, although there is an equivalence in meaning. For example, the Italian expression di punto in bianco, i.e., unexpectedly , has as equivalent in English out of the blue. Therefore, the equivalent expression exists, and it is also composed of a color name, but in a different chromatic subdomain. In Portuguese, on the contrary, the equivalent is de uma hora para outra, without a color name. In Portuguese there is also the expression de ponto em branco, structurally similar to the Italian one, but its meaning is carefully. In fact, vestido de ponto em branco in Italian is vestito di tutto punto.

Lastly, we emphasize that the absence of a chromatically marked translation can generate unusual situations. An example of this is the semantic non-correspondence of chromatic subdomains among languages in study, specifically illustrated in letter (i), azul de saudade, from Portuguese into English. In the target language, the color blue does not denote intensity, as in Portuguese, but sadness. Another example concerns the terminological non-correspondence in drug classification. In Brazil, tarja preta refers to a black stripe on the medicine pack, which restricts the consumption of these products, requiring a doctor's prescription. In most countries, by contrast, general medicines may only be sold on prescription.

Furthermore, due to the inherent limits for each culture, the color domain used to designate a particular event or object can be different among languages. For instance, the name imprensa marrom in Portuguese has as its equivalent in Italian stampa gialla, and in English yellow journalism. While in Portuguese language the preferred domain is marrom/ brown, in English and Italian, there is the use of another color name, i.e., yellow/giallo. Nevertheless, the statement that the color name yellow expresses in Italian and in English the same meaning as brown in Portuguese reclaims 50's traditional concept of translation as the transportation of meanings across languages.

Nowadays, following the developments in the field of Translation Studies, instead of searching for linguistic equivalences, we should try to find the discursive correspondences across cultures. In other words, there is no equality on language level. However, on the discourse level we are able to deal with the differences in context. As a result, imprensa marrom as well as stampa gialla and yellow journalism are equivalents on one level but non-equivalents on another.

Finally, the linguistic plurality is grounded on its complementary nature, as each entity complements its counterpart in a mutual interaction, realizing its otherness in the (perhaps illusory) identity of its relationship with other (non) equivalents.

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Fecha de recepción: 15/08/2021

Fecha de aceptación: 10/11/2021