It has been a long debate between the semantic relativists and the semantic universalists. The relativity semanticists believe that there are as many conceptual systems as there are languages, while the universal sema...It has been a long debate between the semantic relativists and the semantic universalists. The relativity semanticists believe that there are as many conceptual systems as there are languages, while the universal semanticists hold the view that language is a single conceptual system. Color words are frequently adopted as an evidence or counter-evidence. In the paper, the four English color words"white, black, green, red"will be contrasted with those of Chinese"白,黑,绿,红". Through the contrast, a tentative conclusion is drawn that the weak version of the semantic universality is probably more acceptable.展开更多
文摘It has been a long debate between the semantic relativists and the semantic universalists. The relativity semanticists believe that there are as many conceptual systems as there are languages, while the universal semanticists hold the view that language is a single conceptual system. Color words are frequently adopted as an evidence or counter-evidence. In the paper, the four English color words"white, black, green, red"will be contrasted with those of Chinese"白,黑,绿,红". Through the contrast, a tentative conclusion is drawn that the weak version of the semantic universality is probably more acceptable.
