Students become field anthropologists and conduct a study in cognitive linguistics focusing on color terms. Virtual books introduce the physiology of color perception, the physics of light, and current methods of data gathering using a Munsell Color Chart. Students start by being a subject in their own study and then interview three virtual informants from three different cultures. Data from 10 different cultures allow students to search for similarities and differences in the way that different cultures cut-up the world into color categories. This exploration will lead the student into the heart of the long-standing dispute between relativism and universalism. This module not only serves as an introduction to cognitive linguistics, but it provides an empirical study that can be used to illuminate the traditional philosophical dispute between realism and non-realism (e.g., idealism, relativism, instrumentalism).

Both the lab and video introduction are Flash files that will play in any browser that has a recent Flash plug-in. To download a new Flash plug-in, go to Adobe.

MODULE COMPONENTS:

Credits: