The process of construction of the color lexicon as a collected system

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K13224
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Linguistics
• Research Institution: Keio University
• Principal Investigator: IMAI Mutsumi 慶應義塾大学, 環境情報学部(藤沢), 教授 (60255601)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 心理言語学 / 色語

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research investigated how children build up the language‐specific system of the adult‐like color lexicon. We had 3‐, 4‐, and 5‐year‐old Japanese‐speaking children and adults produce names for 93 color swatches. The results showed that children of all ages were able to apply most of the chromatic words to the colors close to the center of each category, but even 5‐year‐olds struggle to delineate the boundaries between the words. Furthermore, the model analyses revealed that broad‐covering and high‐frequency words are mapped to the center of the lexical category earlier. However, cross‐individual consistency in adults' use contributed most strongly for the adult‐like boundary delineation. The results suggest that the process of system construction consists of at least two steps (i.e., mapping words to their category center and finding appropriate boundaries between neighboring words), with the quantity and the quality of the input contributing differently to the steps.

Free Research Field

発達心理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

色語の獲得を困難にする要因の一つは、色語の指し示す色カテゴリーの範囲が文化依存であり、状況によって大きく異なることにある。そのため、各色語彙の頻度や使用場面などについても検討に加えて研究に取り組む必要がある。こうした研究に取り組むことで、言語の持つ恣意性という言語獲得の本質に関わる問題がクローズアップされる。こうした問題は、養育の現場において言葉の獲得を促そうとする行為が、単に辞書的に大事な単語を重点的に教えるといった安易な指導では行えないことを示唆している。こうした示唆は、社会的にも還元可能な成果であり、意義あるものと考えられる。