colourful language - say what you see

7/21/2019 Colourful Language - Say What You See

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Colourful Language: Say What You See

Eleanor MACLURE

London College of Communication, University of the Arts London

ABSTRACT

Say What You See is a research project that uses photography to create a visual record of

descriptive colour terms in English. It forms part of a larger investigation in to therelationship between colour and language produced for my MA Graphic Design Major

Project.

It presents photographs of objects that lend their names to descriptive colour terms to

create a visual connection between the words we use and the colours we see. The objects

are documented through simply presented still life photographs. The images aim to

encourage reflection on our habitual use of colour terms, consideration for the relationship

between colour and object and potentially a wider and more varied colour vocabulary.

1. INTRODUCTION

Since we developed the use of language, we have borrowed words from things in the world

around us to describe the colours that we see. Even what we now think of as abstract

colour terms like black, originally referred to something else like night.

Compared to the millions of hues our eyes can detect, our colour vocabulary isstartlingly limited. Despite appearing to be well defined and understood, our basic colour

terms are open to a surprising amount of interpretation and can be painfully imprecise,failing to truly capture the world we see. English has evolved to include thousands of terms

for colours, and yet only a tiny percentage of these exist as abstract terms. Most are re-appropriated from tangible things like lemons and lavender, as an attempt to articulate even

a fraction of the colours we experience.

It is believed that the word for pink originally came from flowers known as pinks (from

the genus Dianthus) due to their frilled petals relation to the 14th century verb to pink,still used today in the term pinking sheers. (Anon, 2012a) Our language has evolved

dramatically since then and, as with so many words, the ties to its origin have virtuallybeen lost. Far removed from its beginnings, the word pink is now widely understood as

referring to the rosy band of hues ranging from salmon to magenta.

Of the eleven basic colour terms that we have in English as defined by Berlin & Kay(1969), only orange is still regarded as descriptive, attributed to the hue of a ripe orange.

Originally derived from Sanskrit, the word first appeared in English, in the 14th century,

after the Persian and Arabic form, nranj, was adopted by European languages. (Anon,2012b)

While our vocabulary of colour terms has clearly evolved as our language has

developed, has our understanding of descriptive colour terms changed as this body ofwords has grown? How often do we consider the origin of the words we use and reflect on

the original colour of an object that now enriches out colour vocabulary and allows us to

articulate what we see in the world with a greater degree of precision or expression?


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2. METHODOLOGY

This project finds its origins in the nature of our colour vocabulary. I had begun to study

the types of words that are used to label colours, as background research for my wider

investigation into colour naming. Colour terms can be categorised in a number of ways.

Abstract colour terms only refer to the colour, while descriptive colour terms primarily

refer to an object but also refer to a colour. Colour Terms can also be defined as

monolexemic, comprised of one lexeme or word, for example green, or compound, made

from two words or more and usually employ the use of adjectives, for example light blue.

Using a wide variety of sources, I amassed a considerable body of colour terms.

Through this process it became apparent that a significant proportion of colour terms in

English are in fact descriptive, and their etymology could be traced back to a tangible and

often mundane object. As colour terms are used in a wide variety of contexts, from

everyday speech to descriptions of commercial goods, I was interested in how their use in

the vernacular related to the colour of the original object from which the term was derived.

I compiled a list solely of descriptive colour terms, collecting terms that represented

both a range of hues, including spectral and non-spectral, and a range of objects

incorporating foodstuffs, minerals and flora. Having exhausted all of the sources of colour

names collected as part of my wider investigation, it was clear that an editing process

would be required to create a feasible body of words to document.

I began by editing the list to only include descriptive colour names that weremonolexemic, so that the colours could be identified using only one word. I also narrowed

the criteria for the list to colour terms that could be easily identified. Although this

criterion was prone to a degree of subjectivity, it largely involved the removal of the most

obscure colour terms, for example cinnabar and porphyry, which are not in widespread use.

I edited the list further by removing terms that may not be perceived to clearly

communicate both the object and the colour term. For example, an image of lavenderwould be clearly identified as 'lavender', whereas an ivory figurine may be primarily seen

as a figurine rather than 'ivory'.

There can be considerable natural variation in colour among items that are not mass

manufactured. However, the aim of the project was not to try to produce a perfectly

accurate reproduction of the object, but provoke consideration for relationship between

object, language and colour. Rather than trying to acquire the most colour correct example

of an object/descriptive colour term, typical examples of the chosen objects were sort as

these were most likely to be encountered in a real life context.

A series of tests were conducted to ascertain the most appropriate lighting conditions,

camera settings and background to photograph the objects. All of the photographs weretaken against a white background, in natural daylight, using consistent camera settings and

at approximately the same distance. No colour correction was applied to the images,

however the images were cropped to give a uniform appearance for presentation and some

minor airbrushing was employed to remove dust or imperfections in the background of the

frame.

3. OUTPUT & DISCUSSION

As with other aspects of my wider investigation into the relationship between colour and

language this project generated a significant body of visual material so was originally


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presented in the form of a book. The photographs were displayed very simply, with one per

page, and minimal graphical intervention in the design of the layout. After severaliterations the images were sequenced by hue, to create a visual narrative throughout the

book and present the images in an aesthetically pleasing manner. No written identification

for the objects was provided alongside the images. As the title suggested, the purpose of

the project was to say what you see, to identify both the colour term and the object. Forreference a complete list of the colour terms/objects was included at the back of the book.

Examples of the images can be seen in figures 1-4, below, and all of the images can be

viewed in the original presentation format online, at this address:

http://www.issuu.com/eleanorbydesign/docs/say_what_you_see.

Figures 1-2: Images of amethyst and aubergine descriptive colour terms.

Figures 3-4: Images of fuchsia and lemon descriptive colour terms.

Although all of the objects were photographed with the express aim of providing a clear

indication of what the object was, it became evident that viewers found some objects more

straightforward to identify than others. In most cases this was due to a lack of personal

knowledge, such as the inability to identify the herb sage, or the semi-precious stone

aquamarine.

However, rather than being a failure of the editing process or photography, the addition

of a degree of uncertainty surrounding some images has created an opportunity for

reflection among viewers. It encourages the consideration of their own colour vocabulary

and use of colour terms, while confronting them with depictions of objects they may have

never observed the colour of.


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4. CONCLUSIONS

As a piece of visual research, this project has received a positive response, it presents

colour in an aesthetically pleasing manner while commenting on the relationship between

colour and language. It has created intrigue where images could not be immediately

identified and flashes of recognition between colour terms and their etymological origins.

On an aesthetic level the project has also proved to be successful, it has been used as a

sample to demonstrate the range of colours for an HP Indigo printer and the quality of

colour reproduction for Mohawk Everyday paper.

This project does not aim to present a true reproduction of the colours of objects. Rather

it is a visual reminder of where some of our words for colours come from, their inherentlydescriptive nature and their undeniable connection to the often-mundane objects in the

world around us.

REFERENCES

Anon., 2012a. Online Etymology Dictionary. Available online,

http://etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=pink&searchmode=n

one. Accessed: 05/05/13

Anon., 2012b. Online Etymology Dictionary. Available online,

http://etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=orange&searchmode=none. Accessed: 05/05/13

Berlin, B. & Kay, P., 1969.Basic colour terms: their universality and evolution. Stanford :Center for the Study of Language and Information.

Eleanor MaclureE-mail: [email protected]

Website: http://www.eleanormaclure.co.ukBlog: http://eleanormaclure.wordpress.com

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