Therefore, aresearch on basic colour terms from a different theoretical frameworkprototype theory with a broader research scope must be conducted as soon aspossible with the hope to disc
Trang 1-SUMMARY OF DOCTORAL THESIS
NGUYỄN ĐÔNG PHƯƠNG TIÊN
PROTOTYPES OF BASIC COLOUR TERMS
IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE FROM A COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS PERSPECTIVE
(TÍNH ĐIỂN DẠNG CỦA MÀU CƠ BẢN TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT DƯỚI GÓC ĐỘ NGÔN NGỮ HỌC TRI NHẬN)
MAJOR: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS
CODE: 9 22 02 01
Hà Nội, 2021 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY
Trang 21 RATIONALE
Colour term has been studied in various research aspects as follows:
In terms of lexical aspect, in English, many researches have included therole of culture factor in researching colour terminologies, rather researchingcolour terminologies in separation Researches by Geiger (1869); Conklin(1955); Lakoff (1987); Kay and Maffi (1999) have influenced this currentdissertation since cultural element used to be ignored in considering theconnection between colour terminologies and their adoption In Vietnamese,Trịnh Thị Minh Hương (1999) paid more attention to lexical aspect, mainlytowards one colour term or some basic colour terms in Vietnamese language
In terms of semantic viewpoint, in English, Kövecses (1986) and Lucy(1992) lay the foundation for colour categories issue developed into colourprototypes that must be performed based on the semantic features of colourcategory In Vietnamese, Hoàng Văn Hành (1982), Nguyễn Hoàng PhươngLinh (2014) and Lê Phương Thảo (2018) compare and contrast the semanticvalues and meanings between colour terms in Vietnamese and English
In terms of culture factor, in English, Chevalier and Gheerbrant (1997);Wierzbicka (2006) provide further information and knowledge in connectionwith the role of culture factor on the interestingly diverse international system
of colour symbols around the world In Vietnamese researches, Nguyễn Khánh
Hà (1995) confirms the existence of the parallel connection between oneparticular linguistic expression (a lexical word unit) and its associated typicalcultural national characteristics
In terms of cognitive viewpoint, in English, this research direction based
on cognition element has been more popular and widely applied Rivers (1897);
Trang 3Brown and Lenneberg (1954); Berlin and Kay (1969); Heider (1971, 1972);Rosch (1973, 1974, 1975) have been more aware of the fact that colourcategories should be represented in cognition in terms of a prototype (as themost salient object referent) of the category surrounded by less-similarityobject referents In Vietnamese, Lê Văn Thanh (2014); Hoàng Tuyết Minh andNguyễn Văn Quang (2015) identify the connection between the prototypes ofone basic colour and the associated objects in daily real-life situations close toone community members’ life culture and cognition related to the similaritiesand differences between Vietnamese and English culture and cognition system
The researches above, concentrating one single colour term or somespecific colour terms in one language only, does not provide the most wide-ranging general picture with further detailed explanations with the subject oflinguistic and cognitive system within one native community Therefore, aresearch on basic colour terms from a different theoretical framework(prototype theory) with a broader research scope must be conducted as soon aspossible with the hope to discover basic colour prototypes between English andVietnamese languages together with further explanations based on cultural andcognitive perspectives for better understanding with reference to similaritiesand differences between these two systems
2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The ultimate aim of this dissertation is to distinguish the prototypes andthe categories of basic colour terms in English and Vietnamese data from thecognitive and cultural perspectives
The following objectives are put forward for the detailed insight:
- Identifying the prototypes of basic colour terms in English andVietnamese data based on prototype theory
Trang 4- Classifying the classes and categories of object referents of basiccolour terms in English and Vietnamese data based on classes and categories ofobject referents functioning as colour-term referents
- Pointing out the similarities and the differences of the prototypes and ofbasic colour terms in English and Vietnamese data from cognitive and culturalperspectives
3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
In order to gain the aims of the study, this dissertation sets out thefollowing research questions with the hope to provide the insight into thefollowing concerns:
- What are the classes and the categories of basic colour terms in Englishand Vietnamese data?
- What are the prototypes of basic colour terms in English and Vietnamesedata?
- What are the similarities and the differences of the prototypes of basiccolour terms in English and Vietnamese data from cognitive and culturalperspectives?
4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
Prototypes of basic colour terms in English and those in Vietnamese are
identified through comparative idioms formatted as + basic colour term + as +
Trang 5Idioms with comparative structures accumulated are from literary works inEnglish and Vietnamese data
4.2 Data criteria
Dissertation data is analyzed based on the following criteria:
Basic colour terms in English black, white, red, yellow, green, blue, grey colour terms and đen, trắng, đỏ, vàng, xanh, xám colour terms in Vietnamese
are the research colour terms
Comparative idioms comprise as + basic colour term + as + object referent X structure in the study scope in English and Vietnamese data.
The prototype of one basic colour term is identified based on the highestpercentage; in other words, the object referent associated with one basic colourterm obtains the highest percentage is affirmed as the prototype of this basiccolour term
On the subject of category classification from the total object referents ofbasic colour terms in English and Vietnamese data, the following 06 classes,namely: Flora, Fauna, Inanimate nature, Food and beverages, Man-madeobjects, Body and bodily products have been the official classifying criterion inthis dissertation (Griber YA, Mylonas D, Paramei GV, 2018: 958-975)
The following criteria towards the comparing-contrastive procedure,with reference to the categories of basic colour terms in English andVietnamese data, must be satisfied: (i) Comparing colour classes and categories
in terms of percentage in English and Vietnamese data It should be noted thatcolour class classification and category sub-classification is completely based
on the article by Briber et al (2018) (ii) Comparing in terms of symbolicmeaning of each colour prototype in English and Vietnamese data (iii)
Trang 6Comparing in terms of cognitive and cultural features of each prototype ofbasic colour terms in English and Vietnamese data.
4.3 Methods of the study
This thesis is designed as a contrastive study using the mixed methodcomprising both quantitative method and qualitative method: Qualitativemethod and quantitative method, with bilateral relationships, are inter-twined inanalyzing prototypes of basic colour terms Mixed research methods areapplied in the following means: identification of appearance percentage ofobject referents is based on quantitative method whereas further explanationsfor the distinctive features between English and Vietnamese languages depend
on qualitative method as well as the similarities and the differences amongthese prototypes of basic colour terms in English and Vietnamese count oncontrastive method The comparison of the prototypes of basic colour terms inthese two languages help gain more fine-grained insights the similarities anddifferences associated with basic colour terms in two cultures
The first concentration is on the empirical studies on the subject of studies
on colour terms from the multi-aspect research orientation (particularly, fromlexical, semantic, cultural and cognitive perspectives) performed in English andVietnamese data From this synthesized collection, the gap that these researcheshave ignored or mentioned not as deeply as it could be should be the potentialresearch idea for further exploitation in this dissertation That is to say, thisresearch is principally inspired by the unavailability of scholarly studies exploringprototypes of basic colour terms based on cognitive and cultural explanations forthe identification of the similarities and differences between English andVietnamese data
Trang 7The difference between this dissertation research orientation compared
to other previous performances is the combination of prototype theory (inwhich prototypes of basic colour terms are defined based on the highestpercentage of the most salient object referent associated with one basic colourterm) and colour class classification (namely, Flora, Fauna, Inanimate nature,Man-made object, Food and Beverage, Body and bodily product) (based on theshared attributes among these object referents attached to basic colour terms)accompanied by further explanations from cognitive and cultural characteristicsfor the obvious picture sketching the similarities and the differences betweenEnglish and Vietnamese data on the subject of prototypes of basic colour terms
What is more, the theoretical background of the core elements formingmainline research spine is explored, listing as prototype theory, naming theory,categories, cognition and culture elements Particularly, more knowledgerelated to prototype theory (definitions of prototype term, developing stages ofprototype term and that of prototype theory) as well as categories (definition,multi-aspect viewpoints, development history, classifying criteria) is anotherfocus of this theoretical section Additionally, knowledge concerning cognitionand culture elements, the explanatory roles in this dissertation for thesimilarities and the differences, are provided in terms of definitions from multi-aspect perspectives besides distinctive national English and Vietnamesecultural features
For a more detailed description on the similarities and differencesbetween English and Vietnamese nations towards prototypes of basic colourterms, more information on the subject of language-cognition-culture relation isalso supplied, in which the intertwined connection among these components isadditionally clarified for illustrating this complicated but interdependentconnection
Trang 8In terms of target research subjects, particular basic colour terms inEnglish and Vietnamese data (the specific basic colour terms in English andVietnamese, linguistic and physical features) as well as the overview on idioms(definitions of general idioms, classification, details on comparative idioms,researches on the subject of comparative idioms, distinctive national valuesachieved from comparative idioms) together with explanations for language-culture-cognition relation are 03 other additional issues that are well paidattention to in this section
Last but not least, all of these descriptions as regards literature revieware expressed in the theoretical framework for a more visual demonstration.The outcome that this overview of theoretical framework provides is later paidattention to and succinctly elaborated in great details in the up-coming chaptersconcentrating on describing and comparison-contrast parts
In short, in order to obtain the goals of this study, the theoreticalframework to conduct the dissertation is formulated on:
(i) Basic colour terms as official research subjects are black, white, red, yellow, green, blue, grey colour terms in English and đen, trắng, đỏ, vàng, xanh, xám colour terms in Vietnamese
(ii) Comparative idioms formatted as + basic colour term + as + object referent X structure in the study scope in English and Vietnamese data is
collected from literary works This is to identify object referent X associatedwith basic colour terms in English and Vietnamese that are affirmed to expressrichly typical national characteristics featuring distinctive national values, fromwhich, the hallmarks of natural world beauty, of physical and mental valuesand of national spirit of English and Vietnamese are reflected in the mostcomplete way (Hoàng Văn Hành, 1976)
Trang 9(iii) A category of one basic colour term consists of the object referentsassociated with one basic colour term and basic colour categories are the objectreferents of basic colour terms In this dissertation, a category of a basic colourterm is defined as the collection of all the object referents associated with onebasic colour term withdrawn from comparative idioms that native speakershave traditionally attached these object referents to one colour term
(iv) A prototype of a basic colour term is identified from the list ofobject referents associated with one basic colour term used by native speakersthrough comparative idioms based on the criterion of occupying the highestapproximate percentage
(v) Comparative criteria towards prototypes of basic colour terms andcolour classes and categories between English and Vietnamese are classifiedaccording to the approximate percentage in identifying the prototypes of basiccolour terms as well as the classification of 06 classes (Flora, Fauna, Inanimatenature object, Food and beverage, Man-made product, Body and bodilyproduct)
(vi) Explanatory tools for the similarities and differences betweenprototypes of basic colour terms in English and Vietnamese data are based oncultural element and cognitive background
Trang 10Figure 1.1: Theoretical framework of dissertation
Data collection of idioms in English and Vietnamese data andsubsequent research steps for the identification task of prototypes of basiccolour terms in English and Vietnamese is performed in the following details:
Dissertation data is collected from literary works in English andVietnamese data This English and Vietnamese data as the authentic culturalsource reflects the experiences from the daily life of the indigenous communityand is definitely the rich source of information to identify the unique cultural-ethnic-thinking that creates the soul distinctiveness within one language
Prototypes
of basic color terms
Cognitive & cultural features
Trang 11Selecting the scope of such data sources is to have comprehensive and firmconfirmation on the representation of cognition in connection to basic colourterms in English and Vietnamese data.
The internal-feature comparative method is applied in finding out therepresentative examples as ‘central, salient, favorite, frequent, good, typical’object referents to be compared to equivalent characteristics of the target colourterms In linguistic practical usage, colour terms are defined based on thecomparison between colour term characteristics to the features of the typicalobject referents or the particular representatives in the natural world In otherwords, colour terms are defined in the visual method: pointing out the typicalobjects carrying the mentioned colour terms
Based on as + basic colour term + as + object referent X structure in
the scope of the study in English and Vietnamese data, X is considered as theobject referent as the best example with the most central characteristic of thisspecific basic colour term
The appearance percentage of the object referents is the focus during
comparing processes to X object referents, in English data, in the following as + basic colour term + as + object referent X structure in the scope of the study
in English in order to identify the prototypes of black, white, red, yellow, green, blue, grey colour terms in English data
Similarly, the same procedure, in Vietnamese case, is performed on as + basic colour term + as + object referent X structure in the scope of the study in Vietnamese data with the purpose of identifying the prototypes of đen, trắng,
đỏ, vàng, xanh, xám colour terms in Vietnamese data.
6.1 Procedures
In order to fulfill the task of data collection and analysis, procedures takeplace in the following steps:
Trang 12Step 1: In linguistic practical usage, colour terms are defined based
on the comparison between colour term characteristics to the features of thetypical object referents or the particular representatives in the natural world
Comparative idioms formatted as ‘colour terms + as/như + object referent X’ and black, white, red, yellow, green, blue, grey, đen, trắng, đỏ, vàng, xanh, xám
colour terms in English and Vietnamese languages are the key words to beconcentrated in terms of English and Vietnamese data
In other words, all the tokens or examples with comparative structures
and containing black, white, red, yellow, green, blue, grey, đen, trắng, đỏ, vàng, xanh, xám colour terms are selected More specific comparative structures are identified as below: as black as X, as white as X, as red as X, as yellow as X, as green as X, as blue as X, as grey as X, đen như X, trắng như X,
đỏ như X, vàng như X, xanh như X, xám như X structures in English and
Vietnamese data
Step 2: From these structures above, the collection associated with
one specific colour term from every single ‘X’ object referent from initial
examples from English and Vietnamese data is determined Based on as + basic colour term + as + object referent X structure in the scope of the study in English and Vietnamese data, X is considered as the object referent as the best
example with the most central characteristic of this specific basic colour term
On the subject of data criteria, the internal-feature comparative method isapplied in finding out the representative examples as central, salient, favorite,frequent, good, typical object referents to be compared to equivalentcharacteristics of the target colour terms
To be more specific, further outcomes regarding the total tokens and thenumber of associated object referents are depicted as below: