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Colour word trouble

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 1999

B. A. C. Saunders
Affiliation:
Departments of Philosophy and Anthropology, University of Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgiumpop00127@mail.cc.kuleuven.ac.be
J. van Brakel
Affiliation:
Institute of Philosophy, University of Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgiump6679000@mail.cc.kuleuven.ac.be

Abstract

In reply to Wierzbicka's advocacy of semantic primitives we argue that talk of the semantic primitives (like to see) repeats the fallacies addressed in the target article at a higher level. In reply to Malcolm's plea for a Wittgensteinian grammar of colour words, we argue that he uses words like “we” and “us” too easily, falling into the trap of “silly relativism.” In reply to McManus's science of word counts, we reiterate the nineteenth-century criticism that this method is based on an illegitimate application of seemingly rigorous statistical methods.

Type
Authors' Response
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

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