Changes in Muṯallaṯ Arabic color language and cognition induced by contact with Modern Hebrew

Letizia Cerqueglini

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/110979 Copy

Description

Title

Changes in Muṯallaṯ Arabic color language and cognition induced by contact with Modern Hebrew

Author(s)

Letizia Cerqueglini

Issue Date

2021

Keyword(s)

• linguistics
• language
• cognition
• Arabic
• Hebrew

Abstract

I show how Modern Hebrew color terms influence linguistic and cognitive color categories in young native speakers of Muṯallaṯ Arabic who are also fluent in Modern Hebrew and exposed to Israeli culture and lifestyle. Muṯallaṯ Arabic is a Palestinian variety spoken in Israel. I compare basic color terms (BCTs) and cognitive categories (CCs) in Traditional Muṯallaṯ Arabic (TMA, speakers over age 65) and NeoMuṯallaṯ Arabic (NMA, speakers under age 40). Results are compared to Modern Hebrew BCTs. Fourteen men and 14 women were tested for each group. Linguistic data came from spontaneous speech, direct questions (‘what color is this object?’ ‘what has X color?’), and stimuli: 1. a naming task on the complete Munsell chart tested at three different levels of saturation (with chips submitted in a fixed random order), 2. culture-specific stimuli to elicit BCTs’ association with objects/materials, and 3. director/matcher tasks. A cognitive test was performed on TMA and NMA speakers to detect influences of Modern Hebrew BCTs acquired by NMA speakers in adulthood on NMA cognition. The experiment is a modified version of Winawer et al.’s objective, perceptual discrimination task (2007), performed through fifty triads of color squares shown on the computer screen. Subjects had to choose which of the bottom squares matched the color of the top square. Results show that NMA has different BCTs and CCs than TMA: BCTs found in both TMA and NMA have slightly different foci and markedly different boundaries. TMA BCTs and CCs reflect desaturated and brightness-based categories, while NMA BCTs and CCs are hue-based and closer to those of Modern Hebrew. NMA color terms increase in number via associations with prototypical referents (‘lemon-yellow’> ‘yellow’) borrowed from Modern Hebrew. Acquisition of Modern Hebrew BCTs in adulthood reshapes both NMA BCTs and CCs.

Publisher

Studies in the Linguistic Sciences: Illinois Working Papers

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/110979

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