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Humanities
- ISSN: 2155-7993
- Journal of Modern Education Review
The Ancient Greek Lexicon of Colours between
Universalism and Relativism
Emanuele Miranda
(University of Perugia, Italy)
Abstract: We aim to investigate characteristics and complexities of ancient Greek chromatic lexicon in the wake of the discussion triggered by the well-known theory formulated by B. Berlin and P. Kay in 1969 (eleven universal basic colour terms appear according to an evolutionist-implicational sequence articulated in 7 stages), thus further understanding, from a neo-relativistic perspective, specific ways of conceptualizing and verbalizing colour in Greek culture. This investigation is carried out through the analysis of a corpus particularly representative: Aristophanes’ comedies. For various terms and epithets new and original explanations and translations are presented with respect to tradition, stressing the importance of socio-cultural factors (e.g., technology of production of purple), and also
using modern anthropological comparisons (e.g., Hanunóo system from the Philippines) or concepts of Cognitive Linguistics, such as “prototype”. We will see how this type of approach allows to solve some secular “aporias” related to the subject, and how the universalist hypothesis of the two American scholars as well as the notion of basic color term, neglecting important connotative, diachronic and cultural aspects, are inadequate to describe, understand and interpret ancient Greek chromonymy, both for the richness and structural complexity of the latter and for its peculiar diachronic development.
Key words: Ancient Greek, colour term, linguistic relativity, prototype, purple