Cover not available
Part of
Progress in Colour Studies: Cognition, language and beyond
Edited by Lindsay W. MacDonald, Carole P. Biggam and Galina V. Paramei
[Not in series 217] 2018
► pp. 269–283

Chapter 14
Black and white linguistic category entrenchment in English

| University of Perugia, Italy

The objective of this chapter is to discuss the cognitive entrenchment of the linguistic categories black and white in association with pleasant and unpleasant in English through a semantic application of the Implicit Association Test (IAT). This study continues earlier linguistic research of implicit associations with basic-color-term couples. The results reveal the cognitive entrenchment of the categories and support the hypothesis that there are underlying conceptualization processes that guide semantic color/object associations. The embodied experiential grounding of darkness/night and lightness/day as the basis for our understanding of black and white emerges with the elaboration of a complex of conceptual metaphors that culminates in knowing is seeing (good is seeing) – experiential motivation of language and thought.

Keywords: black, cognitive entrenchment, conceptual metaphor, Implicit Association Test, white
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The Implicit Association Test
    • 2.1Cognitive entrenchment
    • 2.2The paradigm
    • 2.3The IAT structure
      • 2.3.1The basic color targets
      • 2.3.2The test blocks
    • 2.4Parameters of evaluation
    • 2.5Criticism of the IAT paradigm
  • 3.Methodology, results, and discussion
    • 3.1Methodology
      • 3.1.1The IAT stimuli
    • 3.2B&W IAT 1 results
    • 3.3B&W IAT 2 results
    • 3.4Discussion
      • 3.4.1Conceptual metaphor
      • 3.4.2Guiding conceptualization patterns with good is white – bad is black
      • 3.4.3The metaphor complex
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 26 November 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/z.217.14san
References
Azar, Beth
2008 “IAT: Fad or Fabulous?” Monitor on Psychology 39 (7): 44.Google Scholar
Bagli, Marco
2016 “A Light in the Darkness, Making Sense of Spatial and Luminance Perception.” In Meaning, Mind and Communication: Explorations in Cognitive Semiotics, ed. by Jordan Zlatev, Göran Sonesson, and Piotr Konderak, 349–362. Frankfurt am Main & New York: Peter Lang. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cooper, William E., and John Robert Ross
1975 “World Order.” In Functionalism, ed. by Robin E. Grossman, L. James San, and Timothy J. Vance, 63–111. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar
Croft, William, and D. Alan Cruse
2004 Cognitive Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Davies, Mark
2008– The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA): 520 million words, 1990– present. Available online at [URL], last accessed 23 May 2017.
Evans, Vyvyan
2007 A Glossary of Cognitive Linguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Greenwald, Anthony G., and Mahzarin R. Banaji
1995 “Implicit Social Cognition: Attitudes, Self-esteem, and Stereotypes.” Psychological Review 102: 4–27. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Greenwald, Anthony G., Debbie McGhee, and Jordan Schwartz
1998 “Measuring Individual Differences in Implicit Cognition: The Implicit Association Test.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 74: 1464–1480. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Greenwald, Anthony G., Brian A. Nosek, and Mahzarin R. Banaji
2003 “Understanding and Using the Implicit Association Test, I: An Improved Scoring Algorithm.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 85: 197–216. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2015 “Statistically Small Effects of the Implicit Association Test Can Have Societally Large Effects.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 108 (4): 553–561. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Inquisit software
Available online at [URL], last accessed 7 March 2017.
Johnson, Mark
2008 [2007] The Meaning of the Body: Aesthetics of Human Understanding. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kay, Paul, Brent Berlin, Luisa Maffi, William R. Merrifield, and Richard S. Cook
2009 The World Color Survey. Stanford, Calif.: CSLI.Google Scholar
Kövecses, Zoltan
2010 Metaphor: A Practical Introduction. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lakoff, George
1990 [1987] Women, Fire and Dangerous Things. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson
1999 Philosophy in the Flesh. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
2003 [1980] Metaphors We Live By. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, George, and Mark Turner
1989 More Than Cool Reason. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lane, K. A., Mahzarin R. Banaji, Brian A. Nosek, and Anthony G. Greenwald
2007 “Understanding and Using the Implicit Association Test, IV: What We Know (So Far).” In Implicit Measures of Attitudes: Procedures and Controversies, ed. by Bernd Wittenbrink and Norbert Schwarz, 59–102. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Langacker, Ronald W.
2008 Cognitive Grammar: A Basic Introduction. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McConnell, Allen R., and Jill M. Leibold
2001 “Relations Among the Implicit Association Test, Discriminatory Behavior, and Explicit Measures of Racial Attitudes.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 37 (5): 435–442. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nosek, Brian A., Mahzarin R. Banaji, and Anthony G. Greenwald
2002 “Harvesting Intergroup Implicit Attitudes and Beliefs from a Demonstration Web Site.” Group Dynamics 6 (1): 101–115. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Project Implicit
Available online at: [URL], last accessed 7 March 2017.
Sandford, Jodi L.
2010 “I Can Tell You What Color It Is.” Cognition and the Brain in Language and Linguistics, ed. by Marcella Bertuccelli Papi, and Francisco José Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez. Textus 23 (3): 719–735.Google Scholar
2011a “Conceptual Metaphor and the Interaction Between Color and Light: light is color, seeing is receiving light, seeing is color .” In AIC 2011: Interaction of Colour & Light in the Arts and Sciences, Conference Proceedings, ed. by Verena M. Schindler, and Stephan Cuber, 706–709. Zurich: pro/colore.Google Scholar
2011b “The Figure/Ground Conceptual and Concrete Spatial Relation of Color Metaphor.” In Space and Time in Language: Language in Space and Time, ed. by Mario Brdar, Marija Omazic, Visnja Pavicic Takac, Tanja Gradecak-Erdeljic, and Gabrijela Buljan, 69–78. Frankfurt & New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
2015 “The Implicit Association in English of the Semantic Categories brown and grey with pleasant .” In Colour and Colorimetry Multidisciplinary Contributions XI B, ed. by Maurizio Rossi, 289–301. Santarcangelo di Romagna: Maggioli.Google Scholar
2016 “Cognitive Entrenchment of Color Categories and Implicit Attitudes in English.” In Colour Language and Colour Categorization, ed. by Mari Uusküla, Geda Paulsen, and Jonathan Brindle, 40–61. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar
2017 “You Are the Color of My Life: Impact of the Positivity Bias on Figurativity in English.” Figurative Language We Live by: The Cognitive Underpinnings and Mechanisms of Figurativity in Language, ed. by Annalisa Baicchi, and Alexandra Bagasheva. Textus 30 (1): 223–239.Google Scholar
Schmid, Hans-Jörg
2016 “Why Cognitive Linguistics Must Embrace the Social and Pragmatic Dimensions of Language and How It Could Do So More Seriously.” Cognitive Linguistics 27 (4): 543–557. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2017 “A Framework for Understanding Linguistic Entrenchment and Its Psychological Foundations.” In Entrenchment and the Psychology of Language Learning: How we Reorganize and Adapt Linguistic Knowledge, ed. by Hans Jörg Schmid, 9–36. Boston: APA & De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, Anna
1996 Semantics: Primes and Universals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Uberman, Agnieszka
2023. COLOUR NAMING: SEMANTICS OF THE COLOUR WHITE IN ENGLISH AND POLISH LEXICON. Lege artis. Language yesterday, today, tomorrow ► pp. 147 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 22 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.