Semantic Expansion of Primary Colour Adjectives: A Cognitive Semantic Analysis

This study investigates the semantic expansion of primary colour adjectives merah (red), biru (blue), and kuning (yellow) within classical Malay texts using a cognitive semantic framework grounded in Prototype Theory. Drawing on 443 tokens extracted from the Malay Concordance Project (MCP) corpus, the research reveals that these adjectives function not merely as descriptive terms but as culturally embedded conceptual tools that encode emotion, ideology, and social identity. Through prototype mapping and semantic domain analysis, the study demonstrates how literal meanings evolve into symbolic and connotative expressions across genres such as hikayat, pantun, and syair. The findings affirm that meaning in classical Malay discourse is context-sensitive and culturally mediated, offering insights into the cognitive mechanisms that shape linguistic symbolism. This research contributes to the advancement of Malay cognitive semantics and highlights the relevance of Prototype Theory in analyzing culturally grounded lexical structures.

Cognitive semantics, Prototype Theory

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