Tính điền dạng của màu cơ bản trong tiếng anh và tiếng việt dưới góc độ ngôn ngữ học tri nhận TT

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY
---------------------------------------

SUMMARY OF DOCTORAL THESIS

NGUYỄN ĐÔNG PHƯƠNG TIÊN

PROTOTYPES OF BASIC COLOUR TERMS
IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE
FROM A COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS PERSPECTIVE
(TÍNH ĐIỂN DẠNG CỦA MÀU CƠ BẢN TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ
TIẾNG VIỆT DƯỚI GĨC ĐỘ NGƠN NGỮ HỌC TRI NHẬN)

MAJOR: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS
CODE: 9 22 02 01

Hà Nội, 2021
1.

RATIONALE
1


Colour term has been studied in various research aspects as follows:
In terms of lexical aspect, in English, many researches have included the
role of culture factor in researching colour terminologies, rather researching
colour terminologies in separation. Researches by Geiger (1869); Conklin
(1955); Lakoff (1987); Kay and Maffi (1999) have influenced this current
dissertation since cultural element used to be ignored in considering the
connection between colour terminologies and their adoption. In Vietnamese,

Trịnh Thị Minh Hương (1999) paid more attention to lexical aspect, mainly
towards one colour term or some basic colour terms in Vietnamese language.
In terms of semantic viewpoint, in English, Kövecses (1986) and Lucy
(1992) lay the foundation for colour categories issue developed into colour
prototypes that must be performed based on the semantic features of colour
category. In Vietnamese, Hoàng Văn Hành (1982), Nguyễn Hoàng Phương
Linh (2014) and Lê Phương Thảo (2018) compare and contrast the semantic
values and meanings between colour terms in Vietnamese and English.
In terms of culture factor, in English, Chevalier and Gheerbrant (1997);
Wierzbicka (2006) provide further information and knowledge in connection
with the role of culture factor on the interestingly diverse international system
of colour symbols around the world. In Vietnamese researches, Nguyễn Khánh
Hà (1995) confirms the existence of the parallel connection between one
particular linguistic expression (a lexical word unit) and its associated typical
cultural national characteristics.
In terms of cognitive viewpoint, in English, this research direction based
on cognition element has been more popular and widely applied. Rivers (1897);
Brown and Lenneberg (1954); Berlin and Kay (1969); Heider (1971, 1972);
Rosch (1973, 1974, 1975) have been more aware of the fact that colour
categories should be represented in cognition in terms of a prototype (as the
2


most salient object referent) of the category surrounded by less-similarity
object referents. In Vietnamese, Lê Văn Thanh (2014); Hoàng Tuyết Minh and
Nguyễn Văn Quang (2015) identify the connection between the prototypes of
one basic colour and the associated objects in daily real-life situations close to
one community members’ life culture and cognition related to the similarities
and differences between Vietnamese and English culture and cognition system.
The researches above, concentrating one single colour term or some

specific colour terms in one language only, does not provide the most wideranging general picture with further detailed explanations with the subject of
linguistic and cognitive system within one native community. Therefore, a
research on basic colour terms from a different theoretical framework
(prototype theory) with a broader research scope must be conducted as soon as
possible with the hope to discover basic colour prototypes between English and
Vietnamese languages together with further explanations based on cultural and
cognitive perspectives for better understanding with reference to similarities
and differences between these two systems.
2.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The ultimate aim of this dissertation is to distinguish the prototypes and

the categories of basic colour terms in English and Vietnamese data from the
cognitive and cultural perspectives.
The following objectives are put forward for the detailed insight:
- Identifying the prototypes of basic colour terms in English and
Vietnamese data based on prototype theory.
- Classifying the classes and categories of object referents of basic
colour terms in English and Vietnamese data based on classes and categories of
object referents functioning as colour-term referents.
- Pointing out the similarities and the differences of the prototypes and of
3


basic colour terms in English and Vietnamese data from cognitive and cultural
perspectives.
3.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

In order to gain the aims of the study, this dissertation sets out the

following research questions with the hope to provide the insight into the
following concerns:
- What are the classes and the categories of basic colour terms in English
and Vietnamese data?
- What are the prototypes of basic colour terms in English and Vietnamese
data?
- What are the similarities and the differences of the prototypes of basic
colour terms in English and Vietnamese data from cognitive and cultural
perspectives?
4.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY
4.1.

Research subjects

Based on Berlin & Kay’s linguistic criteria, black, white, red, yellow,
green, blue, grey colour terms in English and đen, trắng, đỏ, vàng, xanh, xám
colour terms in Vietnamese have been asserted as the official research colour
terms targets in this dissertation.
Prototypes of basic colour terms in English and those in Vietnamese are
identified through comparative idioms formatted as + basic colour term + as +
object referent X structure in the study scope in English and Vietnamese data.
Idioms with comparative structures accumulated are from literary works in
English and Vietnamese data.
4.2.

Data criteria

4


Dissertation data is analyzed based on the following criteria:
Basic colour terms in English black, white, red, yellow, green, blue, grey
colour terms and đen, trắng, đỏ, vàng, xanh, xám colour terms in Vietnamese
are the research colour terms.
Comparative idioms comprise as + basic colour term + as + object
referent X structure in the study scope in English and Vietnamese data.
The prototype of one basic colour term is identified based on the highest
percentage; in other words, the object referent associated with one basic colour
term obtains the highest percentage is affirmed as the prototype of this basic
colour term.
On the subject of category classification from the total object referents of
basic colour terms in English and Vietnamese data, the following 06 classes,
namely: Flora, Fauna, Inanimate nature, Food and beverages, Man-made
objects, Body and bodily products have been the official classifying criterion in
this dissertation (Griber YA, Mylonas D, Paramei GV, 2018: 958-975).
The following criteria towards the comparing-contrastive procedure,
with reference to the categories of basic colour terms in English and
Vietnamese data, must be satisfied: (i) Comparing colour classes and categories
in terms of percentage in English and Vietnamese data. It should be noted that
colour class classification and category sub-classification is completely based
on the article by Briber et al. (2018). (ii) Comparing in terms of symbolic
meaning of each colour prototype in English and Vietnamese data. (iii)
Comparing in terms of cognitive and cultural features of each prototype of
basic colour terms in English and Vietnamese data.
4.3.

Methods of the study

This thesis is designed as a contrastive study using the mixed method
5


comprising both quantitative method and qualitative method: Qualitative
method and quantitative method, with bilateral relationships, are inter-twined in
analyzing prototypes of basic colour terms. Mixed research methods are
applied in the following means: identification of appearance percentage of
object referents is based on quantitative method whereas further explanations
for the distinctive features between English and Vietnamese languages depend
on qualitative method as well as the similarities and the differences among
these prototypes of basic colour terms in English and Vietnamese count on
contrastive method. The comparison of the prototypes of basic colour terms in
these two languages help gain more fine-grained insights the similarities and
differences associated with basic colour terms in two cultures.
5.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The first concentration is on the empirical studies on the subject of studies

on colour terms from the multi-aspect research orientation (particularly, from
lexical, semantic, cultural and cognitive perspectives) performed in English and
Vietnamese data. From this synthesized collection, the gap that these researches
have ignored or mentioned not as deeply as it could be should be the potential
research idea for further exploitation in this dissertation. That is to say, this
research is principally inspired by the unavailability of scholarly studies exploring
prototypes of basic colour terms based on cognitive and cultural explanations for
the identification of the similarities and differences between English and

Vietnamese data.
The difference between this dissertation research orientation compared
to other previous performances is the combination of prototype theory (in
which prototypes of basic colour terms are defined based on the highest
percentage of the most salient object referent associated with one basic colour
term) and colour class classification (namely, Flora, Fauna, Inanimate nature,
Man-made object, Food and Beverage, Body and bodily product) (based on the
6


shared attributes among these object referents attached to basic colour terms)
accompanied by further explanations from cognitive and cultural characteristics
for the obvious picture sketching the similarities and the differences between
English and Vietnamese data on the subject of prototypes of basic colour terms.
What is more, the theoretical background of the core elements forming
mainline research spine is explored, listing as prototype theory, naming theory,
categories, cognition and culture elements. Particularly, more knowledge
related to prototype theory (definitions of prototype term, developing stages of
prototype term and that of prototype theory) as well as categories (definition,
multi-aspect viewpoints, development history, classifying criteria) is another
focus of this theoretical section. Additionally, knowledge concerning cognition
and culture elements, the explanatory roles in this dissertation for the
similarities and the differences, are provided in terms of definitions from multiaspect perspectives besides distinctive national English and Vietnamese cultural
features.
For a more detailed description on the similarities and differences
between English and Vietnamese nations towards prototypes of basic colour
terms, more information on the subject of language-cognition-culture relation is
also supplied, in which the intertwined connection among these components is
additionally clarified for illustrating this complicated but interdependent
connection.

In terms of target research subjects, particular basic colour terms in
English and Vietnamese data (the specific basic colour terms in English and
Vietnamese, linguistic and physical features) as well as the overview on idioms
(definitions of general idioms, classification, details on comparative idioms,
researches on the subject of comparative idioms, distinctive national values
achieved from comparative idioms) together with explanations for languageculture-cognition relation are 03 other additional issues that are well paid
7


attention to in this section.
Last but not least, all of these descriptions as regards literature review
are expressed in the theoretical framework for a more visual demonstration.
The outcome that this overview of theoretical framework provides is later paid
attention to and succinctly elaborated in great details in the up-coming chapters
concentrating on describing and comparison-contrast parts.
In short, in order to obtain the goals of this study, the theoretical
framework to conduct the dissertation is formulated on:
(i) Basic colour terms as official research subjects are black, white, red,
yellow, green, blue, grey colour terms in English and đen, trắng, đỏ, vàng,
xanh, xám colour terms in Vietnamese.
(ii) Comparative idioms formatted as + basic colour term + as + object
referent X structure in the study scope in English and Vietnamese data is
collected from literary works. This is to identify object referent X associated
with basic colour terms in English and Vietnamese that are affirmed to express
richly typical national characteristics featuring distinctive national values, from
which, the hallmarks of natural world beauty, of physical and mental values and
of national spirit of English and Vietnamese are reflected in the most complete
way (Hoàng Văn Hành, 1976).

(iii) A category of one basic colour term consists of the object referents

associated with one basic colour term and basic colour categories are the object
referents of basic colour terms. In this dissertation, a category of a basic colour
term is defined as the collection of all the object referents associated with one
basic colour term withdrawn from comparative idioms that native speakers
have traditionally attached these object referents to one colour term.

8


(iv) A prototype of a basic colour term is identified from the list of object
referents associated with one basic colour term used by native speakers through
comparative idioms based on the criterion of occupying the highest
approximate percentage.
(v) Comparative criteria towards prototypes of basic colour terms and
colour classes and categories between English and Vietnamese are classified
according to the approximate percentage in identifying the prototypes of basic
colour terms as well as the classification of 06 classes (Flora, Fauna, Inanimate
nature object, Food and beverage, Man-made product, Body and bodily
product).
(vi) Explanatory tools for the similarities and differences between
prototypes of basic colour terms in English and Vietnamese data are based on
cultural element and cognitive background.

Comparative idioms
English data: as + color term + as + object referent
Vietnamese data: màu + như + đối tượng so sánh chuẩn

Object referents

06-Class classification

Category sub-classification
9


Prototypes
of basic color terms

Cognitive & cultural features

Figure 1.1: Theoretical framework of dissertation
6.

METHODOLOGY
Data collection of idioms in English and Vietnamese data and

subsequent research steps for the identification task of prototypes of basic
colour terms in English and Vietnamese is performed in the following details:
Dissertation data is collected from literary works in English and
Vietnamese data. This English and Vietnamese data as the authentic cultural
source reflects the experiences from the daily life of the indigenous community
and is definitely the rich source of information to identify the unique culturalethnic-thinking that creates the soul distinctiveness within one language.
Selecting the scope of such data sources is to have comprehensive and firm
confirmation on the representation of cognition in connection to basic colour
terms in English and Vietnamese data.
The internal-feature comparative method is applied in finding out the
representative examples as ‘central, salient, favorite, frequent, good, typical’
object referents to be compared to equivalent characteristics of the target colour
terms. In linguistic practical usage, colour terms are defined based on the
comparison between colour term characteristics to the features of the typical
10

object referents or the particular representatives in the natural world. In other
words, colour terms are defined in the visual method: pointing out the typical
objects carrying the mentioned colour terms.
Based on as + basic colour term + as + object referent X structure in
the scope of the study in English and Vietnamese data, X is considered as the
object referent as the best example with the most central characteristic of this
specific basic colour term.
The appearance percentage of the object referents is the focus during
comparing processes to X object referents, in English data, in the following as
+ basic colour term + as + object referent X structure in the scope of the study
in English in order to identify the prototypes of black, white, red, yellow, green,
blue, grey colour terms in English data.
Similarly, the same procedure, in Vietnamese case, is performed on as +
basic colour term + as + object referent X structure in the scope of the study in
Vietnamese data with the purpose of identifying the prototypes of đen, trắng,
đỏ, vàng, xanh, xám colour terms in Vietnamese data.
6.1. Procedures
In order to fulfill the task of data collection and analysis, procedures take
place in the following steps:
Step 1:

In linguistic practical usage, colour terms are defined based

on the comparison between colour term characteristics to the features of the
typical object referents or the particular representatives in the natural world.
Comparative idioms formatted as ‘colour terms + as/như + object referent X’
and black, white, red, yellow, green, blue, grey, đen, trắng, đỏ, vàng, xanh, xám
colour terms in English and Vietnamese languages are the key words to be

concentrated in terms of English and Vietnamese data.

11


In other words, all the tokens or examples with comparative structures
and containing black, white, red, yellow, green, blue, grey, đen, trắng, đỏ, vàng,
xanh, xám colour terms are selected. More specific comparative structures are
identified as below: as black as X, as white as X, as red as X, as yellow as X, as
green as X, as blue as X, as grey as X, đen như X, trắng như X, đỏ như X, vàng
như X, xanh như X, xám như X structures in English and Vietnamese data.
Step 2:

From these structures above, the collection associated with

one specific colour term from every single ‘X’ object referent from initial
examples from English and Vietnamese data is determined. Based on as +
basic colour term + as + object referent X structure in the scope of the study in
English and Vietnamese data, X is considered as the object referent as the best
example with the most central characteristic of this specific basic colour term.
On the subject of data criteria, the internal-feature comparative method is
applied in finding out the representative examples as central, salient, favorite,
frequent, good, typical object referents to be compared to equivalent
characteristics of the target colour terms.
To be more specific, further outcomes regarding the total tokens and the
number of associated object referents are depicted as below:
- 144 and 132 tokens consisting black/đen colour terms introducing 58
and 62 object referents, respectively.
- 154 and 112 tokens composing white/trắng colour terms presenting 60
and 56 object referents, respectively.

- 55 and 106 tokens holding red/đỏ colour terms proposing 25 and 54
object referents, respectively.
- 27 and 34 tokens carrying yellow/vàng colour terms bringing in 20 and
26 object referents, respectively.

12


- 19, 21 and 46 tokens comprising green/blue/xanh colour term
suggesting 13, 20 and 25 object referents, respectively.
- 10 and 16 tokens including grey/xám colour terms establishing 09 and
07 object referents, respectively.
Step 3:

The appearance percentage of the object referents is

the focus during comparing process to the X object referents, in English data, in
the following as + basic colour term + as + object referent X structure in the
scope of the study in English in order to identify the prototypes of black, white,
red, yellow, green, blue, grey colour terms in English data.
These object referents are collected based on their appearance frequency
and transferred into the finalized appearance percentage before concluding on
the prototypes of each basic colour term in English and Vietnamese data (the
most salient object referent with the highest appearance percentage). Similarly,
the same procedure, in Vietnamese case, is performed on as + basic colour
term + as + object referent X structure in the scope of the study in Vietnamese
data in order to identify the prototypes of đen, trắng, đỏ, vàng, xanh, xám
colour terms in Vietnamese data.
Step 4:

The object referent with the highest appearance percentage

as the best example or the most typical referent or the most representative
object is concluded as the prototype of one specific colour term. The list of
object referents associated with one basic colour term is defined as comprising
the list of objects having the characteristics of one colour or looking like a
colour.
Further outcomes related to the prototypes of basic colour terms are
concluded as below:
- In English data, night, snow, blood/rose, corn, emerald, sapphire,

13


badger are the prototypes of black, white, red, yellow, green, blue, grey colour
terms.
- In Vietnamese data, mực, ngà, son, nghệ, tàu lá, tro/gio are the
prototypes of đen, trắng, đỏ, vàng, xanh, xám colour terms.
Step 5:

These object referents associated with one basic colour

term are classified into 06-class (Flora, Fauna, Inanimate nature, Food and
beverage, Man-made object, Body and bodily product) as well as category subclassification.
Step 6:

These prototypes of basic colour terms in English and

Vietnamese data are described (with the concentration on the gaps among these
object referents in order to figure out the similarities and the differences) and

explained from cultural-cognitive perspectives so as to draw the conclusions on
the connection between these prototypes of basic colour terms and national
linguistic and cultural characteristics.
6.2.

Data analysis
After data collection, data analysis in the study is performed as follows:
On the subject of prototype, category and class classification, object

referents associated with basic colour terms in English and Vietnamese data
from comparative idioms are to be analyzed in the following directions:
In class classification, the object referents associated with one particular
basic colour term is classified into 06 categories (Flora, Fauna, Inanimate
nature, Food and beverage, Man-made product, Body and bodily product).
For category sub-classification, the object referents within one class
classification are further sub-divided into one specific category based on the identical
features.
Regarding prototype identification, the object referent with the highest
14


appearance percentage is concluded as the prototype of one specific basic
colour term in English and Vietnamese data.
On the subject of comparison and contrast research objective, two
specific tasks are to be performed as below:
With reference to prototype comparison, the prototypes of basic colour
terms in English and Vietnamese data are to be compared and contrasted on
colour term pairs between English and Vietnamese data (black/đen,
white/trắng,

red/đỏ,

yellow/vàng,

green/blue/xanh,

grey/xám)

for

the

conclusions, based on cognitive-cultural features, on the similarities and the
differences towards basic colour terms between English and Vietnamese
systems, especially on the distinctive national prototype selections.
7.

CONCLUSION

7.1.

Recapitulation
This dissertation theoretical framework has followed the currently

popular research trend: Prototype theory playing the central mainline role
together with category classification of the prototypes of basic colour terms
formatted as + basic colour terms + object referent X structure in the scope of
the study in English and Vietnamese data collected from literary works
strengthened by supporting cognitive-cultural featured explanations.
In terms of prototype identification of basic colour terms in English and

Vietnamese data, the outcomes are presented as follows: in English data, night
as prototype of black colour term, snow as prototype of white colour term,
blood/ rose as 2 prototypes of red colour term, corn as prototype of yellow
colour term, emerald as prototype of green colour term, sapphire as prototype
of blue colour term, badger as prototype of grey colour term, whereas, in
Vietnamese data, mực as prototype of đen colour term, ngà as prototype of

15


trắng colour term, son as prototype of đỏ colour term, nghệ as prototype of
vàng colour term, tàu lá as prototype of xanh colour term, tro/gio as prototype
of xám colour term.
Regarding the class classification of these prototypes, the 8 prototypes
(night, snow, rose, blood, corn, emerald, sapphire, badger) of black, white, red,
yellow, green, blue, grey colour terms in English data and 6 prototypes (mực,
ngà, son, nghệ, tàu lá, tro/gio) of đen, trắng, đỏ, vàng xanh, xám colour terms
in Vietnamese data share no coincidence in 11 category sub-classification
(Plant, Grain, Flower, Leaf, Omnivore, Fauna organ, Milieu, Precious metal,
Chemical compound, Artifact, Bodily product) within 05-class classification
(Flora, Fauna, Inanimate nature, Man-made object, Body and bodily product).
Such findings prove that culture-specific referents of basic colour terms in
English data are completely different from those in Vietnamese data.
Related to the new findings of this thesis, this research outcomes share
some similarities in selecting the most typical object referents as prototypes
towards: đen colour term by Trịnh Thị Thu Hiền (2002); white colour term by
Trần Thị Lan (2001), Trịnh Thị Thu Hiền (2002), Nguyễn Văn Quang (2017);
red colour term by Trịnh Thị Thu Hiền (2002), Lê Văn Thanh (2014); đỏ colour
term by Trịnh Thị Thu Hiền (2002); vàng colour term by Trịnh Thị Thu Hiền
(2002); xanh colour term by Trịnh Thị Thu Hiền (2002). Besides, totally new

prototypes (corn, night, ngà, emerald, sapphire, badger, tro/gio) have been
firgured out compared to the outcomes of previous studies. In short, this
dissertation has brought out the new following outcomes: night, rose, corn,
emerald, sapphire, badger prototypes of black, red, yellow, green, blue, grey
colour terms in English data as well as nghệ, tro/gio prototypes of vàng, xám
colour terms in Vietnamese data.
7.2.

Concluding remarks

16


The most representative object referents associated with basic colour
terms in English and Vietnamese with the highest appearance percentage are
concluded as the prototypes of basic colour terms in English and Vietnamese
data. These prototypes, as the deeply underlying potentials in lexical semantic
structures and expressed under the form of comparative idioms, have been
constructed during thinking, cognitive procedure through time together with the
development history of one certain community in terms of thinking and
linguistic history that are brought to fruition in some certain contexts,
especially comparative idioms. These object referents (permanently, availably
and readily carrying this specific colour to compare to one particular colour
term) forming the prototypes of basic colour terms in one language do reflect
the coherent relationship between subjective reality and national cognition
system as well as demonstrate each national psychological viewpoint connected
to particular national events in social life, cultural history and traditional
customs. These prototypes, hard to be explained in terms of the original
originating source, are unique and distinctive typical for national cognitive and
cultural features.

It is surprising to recognize how English and Vietnamese peoples
perceive, connect, name and select the closest, the most familiar, the most
typical, the most salient object referent for each colour term. This overall
picture comprising similarities and differences is the distinctiveness between
different cognition systems representing different social-cultural nations. Every
community member within personal living community shares personal
experiences on the subject of the selection of object referents associated with
basic colour terms and this knowledge, this habit has been spread from
generations to generations in a particular living community in their daily
habitual life. Through historical development and changes in the new periods,
more dimensions concerning this selection in terms of basic colour terms have
17


become more diverse and distinctive, even identical from one community to
another. From this, more information in terms of living conditions, national
thinking, life perspectives are revealed. From the orientaton as one intangible
activity to thinking activeness, a language is valued as one unique means to
encode other various aspects colsely connected to culture element, in which the
prototypes of basic colour terms in one language express the most distinctive
and individual national features.
Vietnamese and English peoples have their own similar and/or different
ways to perceive and cognize colours; therefore, each national culture carries
similar as well as distinctive features typical and salient for their own culture.
Further knowledge related to living environment, national characteristics,
national thinking and social-cultiural features between English and Vietnamese
nations is presented and explained in as deep details as possible. From this
background, world-view pictures expressed in prototypes and categories of
basic colour terms bring in the different outcomes in cognitive and cultural
features between English and Vietnamese data. The similarities among

prototypes and categories of basic colour terms in English and Vietnamese data
further demonstrate the common features shared between English and
Vietnamese communities during the mutual stable and long-term business
corporation,

international

communication

and

cultural

exchange

and

interference process. From the identicalness among the object referents as
representatives in categories in English and Vietnamese data, this knowledge
additionally verifies the similarity between English and Vietnamese nations
towards basic colour terms; in other words, universal thinking trend has been
introduced and imported from English culture to Vietnamese culture and vice
versa. In other words, due to the social developing trend, the cultural exchange
absolutely brings in new introduction, in terms of linguistic contact-transfer
methods towards cognitive viewpoints of basic colour terms.
18


On the other hand, the differences in the prototypes of basic colour
terms in English and Vietnamese comparative idioms originate from the

difference in viewing the world due to the different national viewpoints. This
distinction or distinctiveness among the two nations results from the nonsimilarity in meaning quantity or abstractness and specificity or the distinctive
symbolic guidance originated from the individually distinguished national
features and values in historical, geographical, lifestyle, habits and rituals,
customs, regional, religious, economic development and growth aspects. The
differences between English and Vietnamese data reflect the completely typical
for English and Vietnamese thinkings towards the same physical subject nature
world, originating from psychological features, local regulations among native
speakers as well as the overwhelming dominance from natural contexts, socialcultural features in individual nation.
Through this study on prototypes and categories of basic colour terms in
English and Vietnamese data, it can be concluded that the following elements
(living conditions, national features, cultural-cognitive thinking) are deeply
impacted, especially due to the language-cognition-culture relation. Besides
obvious differences between the two systems, some identical similarities,
regarding special and unique connections between object referents and basic
colour terms, are typically distinctive for English and Vietnamese systems that
reflect the special vision towards the world in different ways.
In short, the knowledge from the prototypes of basic colour terms in
English and Vietnamese data reflects human beings’ viewpoint, thinking and
description towards this physical world through languages. Therefore, thanks to
languages, different ways describing this world can be introduced, resulting in
a more lively and vivid linguistic meaning but also strengthening and restructuring human beings’ thinking and awareness.
7.3.

Implications
19


The rich and diverse source of cultural-historical idioms in English and
Vietnamese nations is expressed through the use of basic colour terms, in

which, the use of basic colour terms in comparative idioms is not simply fixed
word collocations; rather, new symbols, new meanings, new viewpoints have
been attached through the use of various object referents classified in various
categories, various classes associated to each basic colour term in idioms. The
linguistic meaning of basic colour terms, in addition to the general experiencehistorical element, is comprised of other elements typical for English and
Vietnamese cultures. As a result, basic colour terms carry both connotative
meaning and expressive meanings that have always been rich in cultural and
national characteristics typical for English and Vietnamese nations; in which,
expressive meanings are greatly affected from national features in geography,
culture, religion, general worldview and personal outlooks on life and the
physical world around. The findings from this study further consolidate the fact
that each prototype and 06-category classification of one basic colour term does
manifest one distinctive national cultural signal towards reflecting a certain
way of experiencing and constructing the world or a linguistic picture of the
physical world.
The differences from cultures to cultures are affirmed to result in
communication misunderstanding. To communicate and to interpret from one
language to another is not an easy task since this academic fluency requires,
besides phonetic systemic production and facial and bodily language network,
the certain understanding of the complicated culture-language-cognition
relation. Consequently, it is advised to acquire more cultural values of one
linguistic community in order to master one foreign language. From the
background that linguistic use results in one certain cultural framework decides
the way language learners arrange word order for a meaningful sentence as well
as the way to think and to assess the objective physical world reality, teachers
20


and learners of English and Vietnamese languages can understand the
prototypes and categories of basic colour terms in English and Vietnamese in

particular and raise their awareness related to the potential similarities and
differences in the other language in general.
What is more, native and/or non-native speakers are facilitated with
deeper knowledge of the cognitive and cultural characteristics between the two
communities, especially for the benefit of cultural shock avoidance. To be able
to use a foreign language, the learner should be knowledgeable in history and
culture of the target language. Currently, the process of cultural exchange
among nations is taking place strongly that can only take place when the
speaker and the listener be equipped with history length and cultural features of
the target community. The knowledge of the enriching cultural and national
distinctive features being presented through prototypes of basic colour terms
helps readers understand the similarities and distinguish the differences so as to
grasp the underlying messages conveyed when reading literature works or
national idioms.
Concerning the possibility of applying this research outcomes into the
practical teaching and translation contexts, the condensed and synthesized
knowledge on the subject of prototypes and category classification of basic
colour terms in English and Vietnamese data can be used as beneficial teaching
material with the hope of discovering more deeply the diverse semantic
meaning and cognitive-cultural features as regards the prototypes and
categories of basic colour terms in English and Vietnamese data and of
transferring this to learners with limited awareness on this subject. To some
extent, foreign language teachers, with the fully equipped knowledge in terms of
culture-cognitive explanations related to prototypes and categories of basic
colour terms in English and Vietnamese data, are more confident in assisting
learners during their acquisition of another foreign language, especially, towards
21


the achievement of cognitive-cultural characteristics for a better understanding of

the similarities and the differences between the two linguistic systems. Based on
this foundation of the similarities and the differences between English and
Vietnamese data in terms of basic colour terms, teachers and learners are able to
individualize their personal methods in self-study and self-discovery of other
prototypes of basic colour terms in English and Vietnamese data from other data
sources. This practical application helps introduce cognitive linguistic
knowledge into the renovation mission of language teaching methodology in
general.
In terms of the possibility of applying dissertation outcomes into the
practical English-Vietnamese and/or Vietnamese-English translation subject, the
analysized-described content and the finalized outcomes in this dissertation can
be one reliable and beneficial reference source for the misson of designing
teaching material and compiling English-Vietnamese and/or Vietnamese-English
dictionaries or reference materials for advanced translation and interpretation
courses. From the research mission on prototypes and categories of basic colour
terms in English and Vietnamese data, this research orientation is expected to be
expanded systemically in a more authentic and professional way at the broader
data scope with the purpose of completing and supplementing teaching and
reference materials for teaching and studying English and/or Vietnamese languages
as well as in English-Vietnamese and/or Vietnamese-English translation practice in
meeting the requirements of translation quality at the most optimal level.
7.4.

Limitations and suggestions for further study
Were this dissertation performed in the extensive data collection, especially

in literary works (always as the long-term literary source accumulated from the
general cultural community as well as expressing the private individual usage of
one member in this community) withdrawn from traditional folk works to modern
literary works, there would be a more all-embracing and profound conclusion in

22


terms of the cultural interference and interchange between one culture to another
thorugh different historical developing stages besides the adjustment within
English and Vietnamese thinking. All of which results in the contribution one
literary interdisciplinary research direction from linguistics under the new
viewpoint. This must be one hard but interesting mission due to the ensured
potential practical outcomes in theoretical verification. This future thesis should
have collected as many object referents from more resources (corpus, literary
works) for more reliable and trustworthy prototype collections that are completely
typical and representative for English and Vietnamese cognition systems.
In terms of implications for further research avenues, there should be
another research at a broader scale expanding to all basic colour terms in English
and the equivalent Vietnamese colour terms. This expanded-scaled thesis would
absolutely provide the more general and overall world-view pictures between
English and Vietnamese nations. Furthermore, this dissertation concentrates on
basic colour terms formatted as single root words, not on derivational colour terms
or colour term collocation. There should be another dissertation at a broader scope
concentrating on other formations of colour terms with more various and diverse
lexical formations (for example, derivational words) for a more general and allembracing research scope.

LIST OF ARTICLES RELATED TO DISSERTATION CONTENT

1. Nguyễn Đông Phương Tiên (2018). An overview of basic colour terms in
English

and

Vietnamese.

International

Research

Symposium

Proceedings (Linguistics Foreign Language Education Interdisciplinary
Fields). ULIS, VNU (696-707).
2. Nguyễn Đông Phương Tiên (2019). Prototypes of ‘blue’, ‘green’ and
‘xanh’ colours in English and Vietnamese literary works from cognitive
23


viewpoint. International Research Symposium Proceedings (Linguistics
Foreign Language Education Interdisciplinary Fields). ULIS, VNU
(810-820).
3. Nguyễn Đông Phương Tiên (2019). Prototype of white colour in English
and prototype of trắng colour in Vietnamese from cognitive perspective.
Language and Life Journal (11), 25-30.
4. Nguyễn Đông Phương Tiên (2020). Điển dạng màu ‘đen’ trong tiếng
Anh và tiếng Việt từ ngữ liệu một số tác phẩm văn học Anh và Việt. Từ
điển và Bách khoa thư (02). 81-88 + 93.
5. Nguyễn Đông Phương Tiên (2020). A comparison on category
classification of black and đen and white and trắng colour terms in
English and Vietnamese data. Language and Life Journal (5B). 52-61.
6. Nguyễn Đông Phương Tiên (2021). A comparison on category classification
of green and blue and green color terms in English and Vietnamese data.
Journal of Science, Hanoi Open University (No 75, 01/21). 58-66.

24