Semantika terminov cveta kitajskogo jazyka s pozicij teorii semantičeskix primitivov [Semantics of colour terms in Chinese: the theory of semantic primitives’ approach]

The approach of the theory of semantic primitives by Anna Wierzbicka is based on correlation of linguistic terms with basic universal definitions, known as semantic primes, i.e. elementary primitive meanings present in all human languages. According to this theory, colour terms can be associated with the following basic references: night, day, fire, sun, flora, sky and ground. The study of basic colour terms and their references in Chinese language discovered the conceptual differences in red-yellow part of the spectrum. The “macro-white” category appears to be more detailed than in A. Wierzbicka’s colour terms’ evolution order scheme.