著者

中津川 ゆき

出版者

東京女子大学言語文化研究会

雑誌

東京女子大学言語文化研究 (ISSN:09187766)

巻号頁・発行日

no.30, pp.89-116, 2022-03-31

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This article inquires into Japanese and English color terms, focusing on the words for ‘red’ and related color terms as used in Japan and the UK. Six Japanese color terms and four English color terms were selected, and research was done to determine how Japanese and English speakers use those different terms for different purposes.The results have revealed that Japanese categorization of the color terms in question differs from the way in which English categorizes its color terms. Japanese color terms are based on materials used to create the colors, while English categorization focuses on the differences in color tone. An inquiry was also done to analyze the usage of these terms in Japanese and English literature, classifying the objects described by the color terms into four groups: body-parts, clothes, other physical objects, and abstract notions. The results show that basic color terms ‘aka’ and ‘red’ are used for wider ranges of objects than other color terms.