SALIENT COLOR TERMS IN 4 LANGUAGES

Elicited lists of color terms were used to investigate the relative sa lience of basic and nonbasic color terms in four languages. Salience w as operationalized in terms of frequency of mention and mean rank sequ ence of appearance on the lists. Primary basic terms were generally fo und to be the most salient, followed by derived basic and nonbasic ter ms, in that order. However, in some of the group lists the nonbasic te rms beige, turquoise, navy blue and sky blue were found to have higher frequencies of mention and/or higher mean sequence ranks than some de rived basic terms. The possible basicness of these terms is discussed.