# Color naming reflects both perceptual structure and communicative need

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1805.06165 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.06165/

## Key facts

- Cited by 13 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 16 May 2018.

## Built on by (most cited first, 13 of 13)

- [Conceptual similarity and communicative need shape colexification: an experimental study](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.11024/) (2021)
- [The Emergence of the Shape Bias Results from Communicative Efficiency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.06232/) (2021)
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- [The Geometry of Representational Failures in Vision Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.07025/) (2026)
- [Shades of confusion: Lexical uncertainty modulates ad hoc coordination in an interactive communication task](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.06546/) (2021)
- [Perceptual Structure in the Absence of Grounding for LLMs: The Impact of Abstractedness and Subjectivity in Color Language](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.13105/) (2023)
- [ELCC: the Emergent Language Corpus Collection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.04158/) (2024)
- [Recursive numeral systems are highly regular and easy to process](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.27049/) (2025)
- [Name Your Colour For the Task: Artificially Discover Colour Naming via Colour Quantisation Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.03434/) (2022)
- [Learning Efficient Recursive Numeral Systems via Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.07170/) (2024)
- [PACE: Procedural Abstractions for Communicating Efficiently](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.20120/) (2024)
- [A Cognitively Grounded Bayesian Framework for Misinformation Susceptibility](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.09483/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Gibson et al. (2017) argued that color naming is shaped by patterns of communicative need. In support of this claim, they showed that color naming systems across languages support more precise communication about warm colors than cool colors, and that the objects we talk about tend to be warm-colored rather than cool-colored. Here, we present new analyses that alter this picture. We show that greater communicative precision for warm than for cool colors, and greater communicative need, may both be explained by perceptual structure. However, using an information-theoretic analysis, we also show that color naming across languages bears signs of communicative need beyond what would be predicted by perceptual structure alone. We conclude that color naming is shaped both by perceptual structure, as has traditionally been argued, and by patterns of communicative need, as argued by Gibson et al. - although for reasons other than those they advanced.