Cultural Elements in Secondary Basic Color Terms in the Serbian Language

This chapter aims to assess the inextricable relationship between language and culture based on the meanings of Serbian secondary basic color terms (BCTs)—namely, braon, brown, ljubičasta, purple, roze or roza, both ‘pink’, narandžasta, orange, and siva, gray. The obtained data reveal conceptual meanings that appear to be (1) universal across numerous cultures, e.g., ‘orange’ → fire, warm, ‘pink’ → femininity, and (2) culture-specific, e.g., ‘orange’ → Cedevita (a refreshing, originally orange vitamin drink), ‘pink’ → Pink televizija (a privately owned, national radio station and TV channel in Serbia). Accordingly, all secondary color names are, to some degree, cultural constructs which both reveal and preserve a culture’s collective experience and provide insight into the more personal view of the colored reality. Moreover, the technical definition as well as the most objective denotation for a secondary BCT—e.g., ‘orange’ = ‘the color between yellow and red’—does not reveal much about the way native speakers of Serbian experience the color ‘orange’. If, however, ‘orange’ is compared to the color of bright sunsets and fruits like oranges and tangerines, the picture becomes clearer. Colors have also been known to create emotions and inspire emotional associations, e.g., ‘orange’ is associated with happy, joyful, optimistic, etc.