Cognitive Linguistics CroftCruse 4 Categories concepts and meanings

Cognitive Linguistics Croft&Cruse 4: Categories, concepts, and meanings, pt. 1

4. 1 Introduction • Functions of conceptual categories: – Facilitate learning over nonidentical events – Planning requires generalization across individuals – Communication cannot contain all detail – Economy of knowledge storage and retrieval

4. 1 Introduction • Ways to look at categories: – As collections of entities, with central prototypes and peripheral members – How the members of one category differ from those of another category – Level of categorization

4. 2 The classical model of category structure • Classical categories – are defined by necessary and sufficient features – have clear, rigid boundaries – have no internal structure

4. 2 The classical model of category structure • Q: What are the problems with classical categories?

4. 2 The classical model of category structure • Q: What are the problems with classical categories? • A: – many everyday concepts cannot be defined in terms of necessary and sufficient features – category membership is often scalar, not absolute – the boundaries of categories are often “fuzzy”

4. 3 The prototype model of category structure • There is an alternative to the classical model that avoids its drawbacks….

4. 3. 1 Graded centrality • It is easy for people to rate the GOE (goodness-of-example) of certain items in relation to a category, and this correlates with frequency, order of mention/learning, family resemblance, verification speed, and priming top-scorer for VEGETABLE low-scorer for VEGETABLE

4. 3. 2 The representation of conceptual categories • There are two ways to look at categories: – As a list of properties/features, which are not necessary or sufficient, but which characterize the prototype, which is an idealization of the category – As an organization in terms of similarity to an idealized member [These are very similar approaches and do not have to be distinguished. ]

4. 3. 3 Levels of categorization • The basic level category has properties more salient than either the superordinate or subordinate levels…

4. 3. 3. 1 Basic level categories • Q: What is special about basic level categories (car, apple, dog, knife, table)?

4. 3. 3. 1 Basic level categories • Q: What is special about basic level categories (car, apple, dog, knife, table)? • A: – Most inclusive level with characteristic patterns of behavioral interaction, for which a clear visual image can be formed, at which part-whole information is represented – Level used for everyday neutral reference – Level most rapidly accessed in categorization

4. 3. 3. 2 Superordinate level categories • Q: What do we know about superordinate level categories (vehicle, fruit, furniture)?

4. 3. 3. 2 Superordinate level categories • Q: What do we know about superordinate level categories (vehicle, fruit, furniture)? • A: – within-category resemblance is relatively low – fewer defining attributes – one attribute tends to connect basic-level to superordinate-level categories – superordinate categories are often named with mass nouns and tend to be morphologically complex, whereas basic-level categories are named with count nouns that are morphologically simpler

4. 3. 3. 3 Subordinate level categories • Q: What do we know about subordinate level categories (hatchback, Granny Smith, card table)?

4. 3. 3. 3 Subordinate level categories • Q: What do we know about subordinate level categories (hatchback, Granny Smith, card table)? • A: – less distinct from neighboring categories – not more informative than basic-level – frequently morphologically complex

4. 3. 4 Shortcomings of prototype theory • Simplistic nature of feature list – cannot account for interaction of factors • Odd number paradox – people will score GOE even if there is a necc&suff criterion (1, 3, 5 are “better examples” of odd number than 135 or 10, 975…) • Where do features come from? • Why are some categories mutually exclusive? • Boundaries – where are they and how do they behave?

4. 3. 5 The frame-based account of prototype effects • Frames, ICMs can guide us toward a better understanding of the structure of cognitive categories.