The paper aims at comparing Wittgenstein's discussion of color exclusion in his (1929) to Johnson's doctrine of determinable and determinate expounded in his (1921). I first (Sects. §2–§4) summarize Wittgenstein's developments about the incompatibility of elementary propositions and about the logic of color statements. In the second part (Sects. §5–§7), I present and discuss Johnson's doctrine in relation to Wittgenstein's development. In a third conclusive moment (Sect. §8), drawing on a early work of Prior, I argue that the distinction made by Wittgenstein and Johnson between predication and determination should be looked at from a long term historical perspective.