On the Color- Vocabitlary of Children. 9 



years of age they often do name colors with accuracy, even 

 when not specially instructed. He mentions the case of a 

 boy four years old who, uninstructed in colors, recognized 

 and named red, yellow, green, and blue in the rainbow. 



Professor Holden has given an interesting account of inves- 

 tigations made to determine the vocabulary of children. ^ He 

 emphasizes the fact that the results show a much larger 

 number of words used by the young than is generally sup- 

 posed. His first case is that of a girl (M. H.). During her 

 twenty-fourth month she used 483 words. In all cases Pro- 

 fessor Holden excluded words not used with evident under- 

 standing of meaning, and all nursery rhymes, etc., learned by 

 rote. An examination of these 483 words shows not one 

 referring to color. Another girl (M. M. H.) used 399 words, 

 none of which indicate color. A boy (B. K.) used 173 words, 

 among which occur black and white, but none other referring 

 to color. It certainly is very remarkable that in none of the 

 cases described by Professor Holden was there a real color- 

 term employed, and in only one case was even black or white 

 used. 



Grant Allen's conclusions, based on experiments which he 

 does not describe, coincide with the above. " A child two 

 years old (or a little more) knows very well the names of 

 grapes, strawberries, and oranges ; but for purple, crimson, 

 and orange as colors it has as yet no appropriate verbal 

 symbols."^ 



Professor Holden intimates that the Acquisition of v/ords 

 about the beginning of the third year is very rapid ; hence it 

 is not improbable that Preyer's conclusion may have a quite 

 general application. On the other hand, it is possible that 

 children may know and use the names of colors without a 

 clear perception of their differences. They may learn from 

 the conversation of adults that certain objects have particu- 

 lar colors. They would then be able to apply these words 



1 Trans. Am. Philol, Assoc, 1877, p. 58 et seg,"On the Vocabularies of 

 Children under Two Years of Age." 



- T/ie Color-Sense : Its Origin and Development, p. 250. 



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