Basic color categories in the Japanese language in reference to their
adjectival form1
Divna TRICKOVIC, The Faculty of Philology, University in Belgrade
The characteristics of the Japanese adjectives expressing color can be examined
in relation to other color terms or in relation to other adjectives. If they are perceived in
relation to other color terms, we are able to examine the characteristics of the
ADJECTIVES as color terms, while in relation to other adjectives we are examining the
characteristics of the COLOR TERMS. In this paper we are interested to find out which
features adjectives will exhibit in the broader range of Japanese color terms. For this
purpose, it was necessary to analyze certain number of color terms and to exhibit the
results of the analysis in a formal way. This sort of research contributes not only to the
survey of systematical relationship in the scale of color terms in the Japanese language
and its better understanding in the general linguistic sense, but it also points out the
potential differential feature of the Japanese adjectives that specifically distinguishes
adjectives from other parts of speech. This research did not have any direct model in the
literature so far, since its aims were rather unique and therefore imposed specific criteria
and methodology.
The lexical system of the color terms corresponds to a certain semantic field, but
also with physically concrete world. We have started from binding those two fields: the
external-material (the world of colors), and semantic-grammatical (the world of
grammatical category for adjectives and color terms as lexical-semantic field). The
premises we have gained from analyzing this synthesis are the following: 1. the objects
have the feature of being of a certain color, that is, the color is a feature, attribute of an
object; 2. in the language, the features of an object are considered as its attributes, and
attributes are usually manifested by adjectives, if adjectives as a part of speech exist in
that particular language; 3. only some of the color terms − namely those which are
etymologically old, morphologically simple and frequently used − are the basic and
prototypical terms of the color category.
After black and white which signal presence or absence of light, the colors that
follow as primary and etymologically oldest colors in the language as well as in nature
are red, green, yellow and blue. The eleven basic color categories as established by Berlin
and Key’s research, being at the same time the eleven basic (‘focal’) colors, are: black,
white, yellow, green, blue, brown, purple, pink, orange and gray. In the Serbian language,
for example, the basic color terms are white, yellow, blue, gray, red and black 2, and in
Japanese 白 SHIRO 'white', 黒 KURO 'black', 赤 AKA 'red', and 青 AO
'blue/green'3.
1
This work is based on the bigger research done by the author as her master thesis, defended in 2004,
Belgrade University.
Hlebec, Boris (1998): Pridevske izvedenice u značenju boje, Srpski jezik, No. 3/1-2, year III.
Filološki fakultet Beograd i Filozofski fakultet Nikšić, Beograd. pp. 323-334.
3 Cf. 柴田武 (1988):「色名の語彙システム」.『日本語学』, 特集：色彩語, Vol. 7, 1 月号. 明
治書院, 東京. pp.18-22
2
That means that, in the process of categorization, over seven million color
shades visible by human eye can be divided generally into eleven basic color categories
represented in the language through prototypical color terms. On the other hand, it tells
us that the system of color terms is only partially corresponding to the outside reality, so
that in the system of color terms not only hue, but human cognitive mechanism and
culture based on tradition, are also playing important part.
The question is how to set apart representative, or prototypical terms from the
numerous color terms, how to determine categories and their boundaries and members,
and how to establish relations between category members. The fact is that only few out of
many color terms can resist the ravages of time. Therefore, the core of the Japanese
language, the unchangeable parts in the mind of the Japanese nation, that have withstood
in the Japanese language until present day, was of a special interest to us. The
prototypical example is usually defined as the shortest and of the most often and most
frequent usage, as ‘the best example of the category’.
The most often examples of Japanese language basic color terms are four
I-adjectives: 白い /shiroi/ 'white', 黒い /kuroi/ 'black', 赤い /akai/ 'red' and 青い
/aoi/ 'blue/green'. The conducted research aimed to check the relation between their
grammatical markedness − since other color terms are mostly nouns; and the fact they
are the prototypical ones.
Depending on criteria, the color terms in Japanese language can be classified in a
different manner. As parts of speech in the Japanese language they can be nouns,
I-adjectives, NA-adjectives and adverbs. According to their morphology, color terms can
be simple, formed by derivation, or compounds. The color terms can be of limited and
unlimited usage i.e. they can be terms used in everyday conversations or terms highly
profiled by some technology or economy. They also can be classified to those
etymologically uncertain and those that still have, more or less, clear origin in word
primarily meaning something different from color. Further on, such words that help
building color terms but primarily mean something else can be names for plants, animals,
minerals etc., and they can become color terms by the similarity of its color, or by the
usage of that object or animate in the process of getting the color or dye, and this can also
be a way to classify them.
The color terms in this work are primarily used for determining basic semantic
color categories in the Japanese language. Upon defining categories as groups of color
terms with the certain common characteristics, we started by analyzing terms as members
of the groups, all in order to determine basic categories and relations between
term-members and categories themselves. After that, we could investigate color terms
from the point of view of their grammatical structure and the parts of speech they belong
to. Determining primary and secondary meanings of the color terms and, through that, the
position of adjectives in the lexical and semantic system of the color terms was of a
crucial importance for this research. In order to accomplish the goal we had set, the
dictionary data proved to be the best resource. The advantage of it lies in the fact that
dictionaries are firstly noting primary meanings, and after that they list secondary ones.
The primary meanings are expressed mostly by prototypical, representative terms of the
color categories.
Determining representative terms has proved the fact that from the broad scope
of color terms only limited number is of the general character, that is, only certain color
terms are prototypical terms of the color categories. The representative terms are of a
crucial significance for establishing coordinates of the color terms system. Judging from
the number of the terms in a category and from the number of the overlapped terms, we
have examined the total of 18 potential color categories in the Japanese language.
Since color terms are forming groups of terms, or color categories that are
entangled to each other with the large number of mutual term-members, relations inside
the categories are determined by those entanglements and by relations of the peripheral
members to the central member, i.e. to the representative member of the category.
Majority of the color terms has shown, in higher or smaller degree, complex nature and
belonging to few different categories or groups.
It is clear that color categories in the Japanese language are showing remarkable
variety, testified by the significant number of color terms. Nevertheless, among numerous
color terms, only four of them, 白 /shiro/ ‘white’, 黒 /kuro/ ‘black’, 赤 /aka/ ‘red’, 青
/ao/ ‘blue/green’, are recognized as ‘basic color terms’. Basic color term means that the
term is formed out of only one morpheme, that it is of a usual usage, that it can be used
for a variety of things and that is semantically not included in any other color term 4. That
means that, at the same time, basic color terms are representative terms of the basic color
categories, and that not all representative terms are basic color terms, nor are all
categories basic ones.
Our research has shown that color categories in the Japanese language are
connected unions that are mutually related in a different way making a sort of
hierarchical system. Those relations are best observed through comparison of the
representative terms of the categories. On the basis of all facts delivered in this work, we
have tried to graphically present the relation between color categories and subcategories
noticed in the Japanese language. The results of our research are, therefore, shown on the
graph no. 1. Naturally, all subtleness of those relations could not be presented in such a
simplified two-dimensional drawing.
As it can be seen from the graph no. 1, the system of the color categories in the
Japanese language is presented in relation to the opposition to light: dark, that we
considered to be in its basis. This regularity is reflected in the physical dependence of
colors on the light and in the linguistic nature of the terms, which is emphasized in the
Japanese language by existence of the subcategories specialized for more intensive,
darker nuances. As can be understood from the graph no. 1, the reddish and bluish colors
stand on the opposite sides, but both can be dark or light. The reddish ones, because of
the ‘bright’ quality, are determined as closer to ‘light’ ones, while the bluish ones,
because of the connection with the ‘color of the moonlight’, and because of the
connection between green and black in the perception of the Japanese people, are
considered more to be the ‘darker’ ones. From the both side ends of the reddish and
bluish colors, through intermediary, relatively less developed subcategories, the
categories of the yellow and brown color are developed.
From all cited as well as from the graphic presentations of the relations between
the color categories in the Japanese language, it becomes clear that color categories in the
Japanese language generally can be classified in the following way: to categories of the
colors from the gray scale − achromatic colors, from the red scale − reddish colors,
4
Kristal, Dejvid (1995): Kembrička enciklopedija jezika. Nolit, Beograd. p.106.
from the blue scale − bluish colors, and from the brown-yellow scale − yellowish and
brownish colors.
Graph no. 1: The relation between color categories in the Japanese language
LIGHT
Y
E
L
L
O
W,
K
I
Y
E
L
L
O
W,
R E D, A K A
Golde n,
kin
B L U E, A O
O
r
a
n
g
e,
Pink, momo
Purple,
mura
saki
K
I
Dark blue, kon
Crimson, kurenai
B
R
O
W
N,
dai
dai
Green,
midori
I
n
d
i
g
o,
C
H
A
Dark brown,
kasshoku
B
R
O
W
N,
C
H
A
ai
DARK
Dark brown,
kasshoku
However, even if we take into account their partially semantic dependence, there
still lingers the question whether fully developed categories, as green (midori) or purple
(murasaki) are, should be considered only as subcategories in this system. For example,
the morpheme 青 AO ‘blue/green’ can only in certain situations cover the semantic
space of the green color, which means that the morpheme 緑 MIDORI, as a
representative term of the subcategory green (midori), is only in limited number of cases
semantically contained in the morpheme 青 AO. The same is true for the purple and
gray color to which status of individual categories, and not only of subcategories, should
perhaps be given. But, if that is the case, the question that has to be answered is what the
criterion is, if it is not the color in the narrow sense of the word, which makes mentioned
four color terms basic in relation to other terms. This is the reason why we had to
examine color terms as members of the categories according to the semantic field they
cover and according to the parts of speech they belong to.
The root morpheme of the four basic color I-adjectives 白い /shiroi/ 'white', 黒
い /kuroi/ 'black', 赤い /akai/ 'red', 青い /aoi/ 'blue/green' add to the new words their
nominal meaning of the color. They can also add some of their figurative meanings
developed on the basis of the metaphorical transfer of the nominal meaning of the color,
or of the visual effect of the light those I-adjectives can also refer to. Such is the case, for
example, with the morpheme 白 SHIRO that, beside its nominal meaning of the white
color, can refer to 'empty' or 'unused', which are the meanings developed by the
metaphorical transfer of the meaning based on the similarity of the color effect (ex.
'white sheet, paper' = 'unused paper, with nothing on'). The origin of the morpheme 黄
KI, the representative term of the yellow category, is not clear, and it nominally means
color, from where it develops other figurative meanings, which makes it more similar to
the four basic color terms than to the other representative terms.
On the other hand, the representative morphemes of the other color categories in
the Japanese language, as is shown through the analysis, bring to the compounds usually
their nominal meanings that are not colors, or they can bring the meaning of a color, but
that new word cannot be used in some extended meaning developed through the meaning
of a color. For example, the morpheme 灰 HAI or the morpheme 鼠 NAZUMI,
although they are representative for the category of the gray color in the Japanese
language, to their compounds can bring almost exclusively their nominal meanings of the
‘ash’ or ‘rat/mouse’, and even the color terms are made by the metaphorical transfer of
their nominal meaning − ‘the color of the ash’, or ‘the color of the mouse’.
Talking about the ability to develop figurative meanings, except for the
morphemes 白 SHIRO 'white', 黒 KURO 'black', 赤 AKA 'red' and 青 AO
'blue/green', other terms are considerably limited. The morphemes 緑 MIDORI ‘green’,
紫 MURASAKI ‘purple’, 茶 CHA ‘brown’, 金 KIN ‘gold, golden’, and 紅
KURENAI ‘crimson’ can usually have only one figurative meaning that is generally
associated with a certain cultural phenomenon: the morpheme 緑 MIDORI is associated
with the ‘greenery’, and with the positive attitude toward its intensive, almost black
color; the morpheme 紫 MURASAKI is associated with elite that through the centuries
wore the purple clothes or the ornaments of that color; the morpheme 茶 CHA is
associated with the ‘tea’, extremely important beverage in the Japanese culture and
civilization; the morpheme 金 KIN, also, with its nominal meaning ‘gold’, has
developed figurative meanings in accordance with it; and the morpheme 紅 KURENAI
shows the connection with ‘the color imported from China that was used for make-up’,
thus, it is associated with the ‘feminine, womanlike’ color that originates from China.
The most of the analyzed color terms are nouns or they can be in the form of a
noun, while I-adjectives are the most frequent among the color terms which are not nouns.
The majority of the color terms is made with the word 色 IRO ‘color’ used as a suffix,
and depending on the depth of adaptation of the word as a color term in the everyday
conversation, in some cases the usage of the 色 IRO ‘color’ is compulsory, while in other,
it is optional. The regularity of the term does not matter nor does its broadness of
meaning, all colors and all color categories in the Japanese language can be or are
expressed by the representative term in the form of a noun. The four I-adjectives, 白い
/shiroi/ 'white', 黒い /kuroi/ 'black', 赤い /akai/ 'red', 青い /aoi/ 'blue/green' by their
stems can also function as independent nouns.
Apart from the recognized fact that 白 /shiro/ 'white', 黒 /kuro/ 'black', 赤
/aka/ 'red', 青 /ao/ 'blue/green' are the four basic colors in the Japanese language, it is
true that traditionally they are the only ones known as able to have the form of an
I-adjective as well as of other parts of speech, such as NA-adjectives or adverbs. To the
rest of the representative color terms that establish the basis of the coordinate system of
the color terms in the Japanese language such ability is not attributed and they can be
only in the form of nouns. The exceptions are I-adjectives for the yellow and brown color,
黄色い /kiiroi/ 'yellow' and 茶色い /chairoi/ ‘brown’, that are made from adjectivized
noun-compounds with the word 色 IRO ‘color’: 黄色 /kiiro/ 'yellow color' and 茶色
/chairo/ ‘brown color’. Thus, logically the question arises: if, as we have shown, most of
the color terms are nouns, and only a limited number of them can take the form of an
adjective or other part of speech, which is what distinguishes adjectives as a part of
speech in this set and which are the features of the adjectives expressing colors that nouns
with the same meaning do not have.
The terms which are not nouns can be in a form of an I-adjective, NA-adjective,
adverb and formative morphemes (morphemes which add meaning of a color to the
derived word, but independently do not function as color terms). The characteristic of
those color terms that are not nouns is the repetition of a very limited number of
morphemes in their structure. Actually, they are usually compounds or derivates made
from morphemes 白 SHIRO 'white', 黒 KURO 'black', 赤 AKA 'red', 青 AO
'blue/green', among which the first two can be found in a considerable number of
different words' forms.
Beside breadth of the semantic space characteristic to the morphemes 白 SHIRO
'white', 黒 KURO 'black', 赤 AKA 'red' and 青 AO 'blue/green', they also stand out
for their ability to express the meanings that emphasize different phenomenon of light:
the morpheme 白 SHIRO − ‘bright’, ‘glittering’; the morpheme 黒 KURO − ‘dark’,
‘gloomy’, ‘hidden’; the morpheme 赤 AKA − ‘glowing’, ‘clear’; the morpheme 青
AO − ‘unclear’, ‘pale’ or ‘dark’. This relationship toward the quantity and type of light
is influencing figurative meanings and emotional attitudes in the following way: ‘bright’
and ‘clear’ (= 白 SHIRO, 赤 AKA) are ‘good’ and ‘innocent’, and ‘dark’ and ‘unclear’
(= 黒 KURO, 青 AO) are ‘bad’, ‘wrong’ and ‘suspicious’. It is true vice versa as well:
what is ‘too clear’ or ‘overwhelmingly obvious’ (= 赤 AKA, 白 SHIRO) is also
considered as negative, and what by its ‘darkness’ acquired the quality of ‘being of
desirable intensity’ (= 青 AO, 黒 KURO) is evaluated as positive.
Thus, according to our observations, although in the Japanese language there are
all eleven basic color categories, as was established by Berlin and Kay’s research (1969),
and they make one very developed system of numerous term-members and subcategories,
it is noticeable that in the Japanese language there is one more system, older than the
basic color terms, which stands for the specific cultural attitude toward light. It is this
attitude, and not the one toward the colors, that have continued to be marked in the forms
of the words. The morphemes 白 SHIRO 'white', 黒 KURO 'black', 赤 AKA 'red' and
青 AO 'blue/green' are marked with the specific relation to light and lighting, especially
to the light characteristic for parts of day in the following way: 白 SHIRO is a feature of
a morning sky, frost, reflection of light on snow, that makes positive connotation of
clearness and innocence of the new born, and negative of the rawness and unsophisticated.
The 赤 AKA which is etymologically closest to ‘bright’, ‘light’ and ‘glowing’, also
belongs to the bright part of a day, that is to the brightest − noon of the summer day
when all colors stand out and glitter. This is, at the same time, the color of the sun, not
only according to the hue, but to the intensity of light. This makes its positive
connotations of sincerity and clearness, and negative as of obvious conspicuousness of
the unknown. The 青 AO stands for shades and evening. It is associated with the part of
a day when the greenery becomes of gloomy color shading more and more, and the
paleness of the moonlight, which, with its darkness and paleness, makes negative
connotations. It is also the color of the depths, of the sky and sea, that although
sometimes dark, can be of a rather pleasant color and lighting, which makes its positive
connotations. And 黒 KURO is the color of the pitch night, and therefore stands for total
absence of light that hides everything − that is its negative connotation; and, on the
other hand, that darkness does not make the color less intensive, it can rather add to it
some quality and shine, which makes its positive connotations.
In literature the importance of light for the basic color terms in the Japanese
language is also emphasized5. From this premise we can conclude that the quality of a
certain hue as a part of a meaning is later associated with the morphemes in question,
according to which basic color terms in the Japanese language do not necessarily have to
be much older than other representative color terms. That is, although, for example, the
morpheme 青 AO had existed for a long time in the Japanese language, it was primarily
used to describe the light phenomenon, and only later did it become the color term,
meaning it is not sufficiently examined whether the clearly distinguished reference to
‘blue/green color’ of the morpheme 青 AO existed in the language longer before the
morpheme 緑 MIDORI started to be used in the sense of ‘green color’. The answer to
this question would be significant because it could prove the existence of the two parallel
systems and principles of categorizations: one expressed through the system of color
terms, and the other expressed through the system of terms for the light phenomenon.
Those two systems in the evolution of the Japanese language probably in a certain period
clearly coexisted. Those are the questions science will still have to answer. The fact is
that only those four terms that are characterized with the special relation to the light can
form different parts of speech among the color terms, which suggests that in the form of a
word there is a hidden meaning based on a special process of cognition of light, and not,
or not only, of color.
Nevertheless, besides those four terms that can form I-adjectives, in the Japanese
language there are two more terms that can be put in the form of an I-adjective: 黄色い
/kiiroi/ ‘yellow’ and 茶色い /chairoi/ ‘brown’. It is believed that those two adjectives, as
Cf. For ex. 佐藤喜代治 (1988):「色彩語管見」,『日本語学』, 特集：色彩語, Vol. 7, 1月号. 明
治書院, 東京. pp. 14-17, where the author, according to the level of brightness, arranges color terms
from the brightest 赤 /aka/, over 白 /shiro/ and 青 /ao/, to the darkest 黒 /kuro/, which is
essentially the same as is noted here. Literally:「明暗の段階から言えば、「あか」「しろ」「あ
お」「くろ」という順序になるであろう。」(p.14).
5
mentioned before, appeared in the language relatively late and that their formation is due
to their suitable phonetic shape. For the representative terms of the yellow and brown
color in the Japanese language we cannot say they are very productive in making other
color terms, especially in comparison to the traditional four basic color terms. However,
the existence of the adjectival form for them throws new light on this problem, because if
the phenomenon of light cognition influences appearance of independent concepts that
partially equaled the terms for certain colors, what then influences the formation of the
adjectival forms and how is this phenomenon connected with those two terms for yellow
and brown? Based on which criterion have they satisfied the hidden laws and needs of the
Japanese language to be expressed in an adjectival form?
Evolution of the color terms in the Japanese language is generally examined on
the basis of usage examples of the four basic color terms from the written sources.
According to those etymological theories which partly match the Berlin and Kay’s
research (1969), the terms which appeared first were terms for white and black, which in
the languages that have only those two color terms cover the whole spectral and
non-spectral space of the color and light cognition, dividing it into warm and cold, light
and dark poles. The third term is the term for the red color, from what we conclude that
this term must have referred to emphasizing of the phenomenon of color i.e. glowing.
That is the case with the Japanese language as well. The fourth term that evolves in
language, according to Berlin and Kay (1969), is the term for the green or yellow color,
and in the Japanese language that is the term 青 /ao/ which refers to green and blue
color.
However, the etymology of the terms shows that the term 青 /ao/ primarily
referred to the semantic and cognitive space between 白 /shiro/ ‘white’ and 黒 /kuro/
‘black’ i.e. between light and dark, and only later did it become the opposite side of the
term 赤 /aka/, name for the bright, red color. In that sense, etymological process of the
four basic color terms in the Japanese language can be (and sometimes is) presented in
the following way6.
Graph no. 2, phase I
Graph no. 3, phase II
赤
赤
白
白
黒
黒
青
青
Our assumption is that, since the morphemes 白 SHIRO and 黒 KURO have
kept rather limited semantic depth reduced to expressing ‘light’ and ‘dark’ i.e. ‘white’
and ‘black’, the need to express chromatic polarization appeared. Namely, in the
Japanese language terms 白 /shiro/ and 黒 /kuro/ are easily distinguished because of
6
Cf. For ex. 飛田良文, 佐藤武義 (平成 14 年):『現代日本語講座、第 4 巻、語彙』. 明治書院,
東京. pp.15-18.
their achromatic features and they do not refer to either warm or cold colors in any
all-inclusive sense that could be expected in languages with only few basic color terms.
This need to express chromatic values is satisfied by appearance of the terms 赤 /aka/,
for which we assume that, at the beginning, referred to the ‘color in general’. This term
marks the beginning of evolution for the distinctive linguistic feeling for the color
phenomenon. Since the term 赤 /aka/ became associated with the phenomenon of
‘brightness’and thus started to represent warm colors, polarization was accomplished by
singling out the term 青 /ao/ which covers the semantic space of cold colors as a
counterbalance. In that sense, the system of the color terms in the Japanese language
perhaps does not follow the ordinary pattern of evolution, but rather exhibits one added
layer to the older system of categorizing based on polarized contrast of the light
impressions. This polarization in language is expressed through the form of I-adjectives.
The particularity of the Japanese language is that the system of terms for
chromatic colors developed separately from the original system of polarization of light
and dark, and warm and cold. The Japanese color terms which are nouns nominate the
color as a distinguished entity and, in a rather precise manner, describe its chromatic
value, its saturation and brightness. On the other hand, four basic color terms that can be
expressed in a form of an adjective do not have the same precision. For that reason
formation of the adjectives 黄色い /kiiroi/ ‘yellow’ and 茶色い /chairoi/ ‘brown’ is a
significant phase in the evolution of the Japanese language that should be carefully
examined at this moment. These two (relatively) newly formed adjectival terms can be
considered as the first trial to extend the autochthon system of color terms in relation to
the light phenomenon, and at the same time, the first modern case of overlapping of these
two autonomous systems of color terms and light perception that are of a parallel function
in the Japanese language. This, nevertheless, does not mean that in the future we can
expect easy transformation of the other representative color terms which are nouns into
the adjectival forms. The yellow and brown color, as can be seen from the graph no. 1,
can be considered as new poles that developed from the sides of reddish and bluish colors.
Only by such contrast of category’s poles, accompanied by appropriate phonetics’
adaptations, is it possible to satisfy the condition for forming the adjectival form of the
color term in the Japanese language. Thus, the third phase in the evolution of the basic
color terms in Japanese could be presented in the following way (graph no. 4):
Graph no. 4, phase III
赤
白
黄
茶
青
黒
Considering all the above mentioned,
we can conclude that the basic characteristic
of the Japanese adjectives that express color
lies in their specific semantic markedness. It is
manifested through a limited number of
morphemes that participate in formation of
color terms which are not nouns, including
adjectives. The breadth and generality of
Japanese adjectives expressing colors lead us
to the conclusion that they show the specific
process of categorization that is in the
language marked by the adjectival form. We
assume that the cause of this phenomenon lies in the specific attitude toward light and
lighting, and toward the poles of the chromatic system, that are expressed in the Japanese
language. The fact that the parallel system of color terms in the noun form coexist gives
us the right to assume that the Japanese language should be considered as a mixture of the
two structurally different linguistic systems. It is significant that with the appearance of
the terms for yellow and brown color in the form of I-adjectives, 黄色い /kiiroi/
‘yellow’ and 茶色い /chairoi/ ‘brown’, the mechanism deeply rooted in the prewritten
history of the Japanese language emerged again.
Literature
1. Berlin, Brent and Kay, Paul 1999. Basic Color Terms, Their Universality and
Evolution. The David Hume Series, Philosophy and Cognitive Science Reissues,
CSLI Publications
2. Hlebec, Boris (1998): Pridevske izvedenice u znacenju boje, In: Srpski jezik, No.
3/1-2, year III. Filološki fakultet Beograd i Filozofski fakultet Nikšić, Beograd. pp.
323-334.
3. Kato, Shigero (1995): On the Semantic Features of Japanese Adjectives, In: Tokyou
University Linguistics Papers (TULIP) 14. Pp.681-697.
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