Presenter: Alvin Shih, Mikhail Tan

Title: Linguistic Difference: How Do English and Mandarin Speakers Differ in Their Emotional Associations with Color Terms?

Abstract

This research is based on our interest in finding out the differences of color terms across distinct languages. We are into this area since we believe it's a way to show the cultural differences and how each culture understands nature. Previous research such as Lin et al.(2001) concluded that British English and Taiwanese Mandarin speakers share broad agreement in basic color categories, since the eleven basic color names are widely used in both languages. Moore et al.(2000) (2002)strengthen that point by showing that the organization of basic colors is largely shared, and Wuerger et al.(2012) add points to this agreement by showing that language still matters in real-time processing. What is not yet clear is what's the definition of each color in emotions. This study will ask participants to describe why they name a certain emotion with a certain color word. Also, we'll set up interviews which ask people what their feelings or imagination are when they hear a color term they have heard. We expect the findings to show that the Mandarin speakers may share some similar emotions feelings on a same color with English speakers. However, one limitation of our research is that some participants' background may affect the result. For instance, a Mandarin speaker who lived in Canada for long time may understand the color under English culture.

Biography

Alvin Shih is an international student of Vantage art student at the University of British Columbia. His research is focus on linguistic differences and he's interested in finding cultural distinctiveness through words in languages.

Mikhail Tan is a first-year student in the Vantage Arts program at UBC. He interested in study how each language(culture) describing a certain item. His future plan is to learn more about the history background under terms in order to comprehend the different cultures better.