Printable View
I was wondering, does this happen in every language that the both the color and the fruit are named the same?
Do you know if this happens in every language?
Do you know which came first?
I have a possible answer, but first, let's brainstorm together!
I say that the fruit comes first, then the color is named after the fruit. Lemon, lime, tangerine, grape, plum are some I can think of in English.
Yesterday I talked to a Taiwanese national and asked him about this and they have a different fruit for the orange, the tangerine.
So to most of the orient, Tangerine is the color, not Orange.
It blows my mind a bit. ;)
I agree with Vicente. It seems the logical conclusion.
I'm a bit confused by the tangerine/orange comment. Are you saying that they call the colour orange "tangerine"?
Exactly. For example if you are wearing an Orange T-shirt in China/Taiwan and ask someone What color is this, they would say Tangerine, instead of Orange.
Ppl would respond "橘色" /Jú sè/, which literally means "the color of orange". :rolleyes: If we want to say orange as fruit we would use "橘子" /Júzi/ as orange the fruit.Quote:
Originally Posted by eidjit
Colors are a particular subject in linguistics. You have a similar situation with "galuboy" in Russian that is not exactly a "blue". It is a principle that the referent came before the linguistic sign, so tangerines or oranges are the source of the name instead of being named after the called.
This reminds me of the million question: "Which came first: the chicken or the egg?" :rolleyes:
Thanks Daniel R that kind of solves the question of the Thread!Quote:
Originally Posted by danielr
I've read it in a "Muy Interesante" Magazine, June 2017 editionQuote:
Originally Posted by iyuanobi
It's been discovered that The first chicken as we know it, came from an animal that had not evolved to be a chicken yet and laid an egg that would become it.
I found an article that says chickens are related to T Rex dinosaurs.
https://toptodayblog.wordpress.com/2...t-explained-2/
It seems like the circle of the chicken and the egg, but it isn't. Language is shaped according to reality, the referents, the environment. Language doesn't not shape our environment.
The discussion about language shaping our minds is in another thread ;)
Language was created to be able to name things. Hence, I'd say nouns came first, adjectives in second place. Every sentence says something about a noun. So, with that in mind, I'd say the fruit came first, and then the color.
How would you identify the statement of that linguistic universal? For instance, the sentence "it's warm" would fit it?Quote:
Originally Posted by francot
Well, I'd say the noun is implicit. It should probably be something like "The weather is warm", or "The air is warm," but implicitly you're stating something about a noun.Quote:
Originally Posted by danielr
Which thread is that?Quote:
Originally Posted by danielr
Sounds like a very interesting subject. If you can copy the link!
About the question at hand, I did some research over the weekend and found out that in ancient Japanese, the word for the color Orange didn't came from the fruit, but from the sky.
Later on to mingle more with western culture it was adopted to use Orange as fruit for the color.
I'll see to get the ancient asian KANJI for this later on the month from an Historian friend of mine.
OK, that could work. I have to check again my notes from the linguistics classes I took.