SPALVĄ ŽYMINČIŲ BŪDVARDŽIŲ VARTOJIMAS ANKSTYVOJOJE VAIKYSTĖJE
THE USAGE OF COLOUR TERMS IN THE EARLY CHILDHOOD

Summary/Abstract: This study investigates the main features of colour terms acquisition in Lithuanian. Longitudinal observation method has been applied for the research: the data of four Lithuanian children (two boys and two girls) during the period of early childhood has been analysed. After analysis of all adjectives used in the speech of four Lithuanian children, it can be concluded that the colour is the most abundant semantic group in their language. Colour terms make up 27—53% of all adjectives that denote physical properties. Although colour markers are used very frequently, the children make a lot of errors using them. Adjectives that belong to the semantic group of colour are among the most difficult to acquire and they are used incorrectly even at the end of the period under investigation. The results have shown that in the early period of language acquisition the most frequent colour names are red, green, yellow, and blue. Very often children confuse these names of colours: the colour names red and green are used instead of all other colour names. Besides, it has been observed, that children are using under-extension strategy, i.e. colour names are often used in collocations that are related to just one object, and only later the scope of meaning is being broadened and colour names are being related to more diverse words. The study of the Lithuanian language has confirmed results of other languages that initially children acquire ‘primary’ colour names (white, black, red, green, yellow, blue), and later — ‘derived’ colour names (brown, grey, pink, purple, orange) (according to Berlin and Kay’s (1969) hierarchy). However, the analysis has not confirmed the order in which colours should be acquired according to Berlin and Kay’s hierarchical order. The analysis of ‘derived’ colour usage has revealed that the understanding of prototype is important for the acquisition of these colour names— children are using a similar colour name for an unknown colour, if the colours share a prototypical property.

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