Prototype theory Categorization lecture slides, Slides of Psychology

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CATEGORIZATION

PROTOTYPE THEORY

Prototype

 (^) prototype of a predicate is an object held to be very typical of the kind of object which can be referred to by an expression containing the predicate  (^) prototype- most typical member of a category e.g. prototype of the predicate man : man of medium height and average built, btw. 30 and 50 years old with no distinctive features or defects (in certain parts of the world) a dwarf or a muscular body-builder cannot be a prototype of the predicate man

Aristotelian categories

1. categories are defined in terms of a conjunction of necessary and sufficient features implies that m. can be absolutely determined e.g. two necessary and sufficient features for “man”: two- footed , animal  (^) law of contradiciton - an entity cannot both be and not be (both possess a feature and not possess it)  (^) law of the excluded middle – an entity must either be or not be, either possess a category or not possess it (either belong to a category or not)

2. features by which we define membership are binary f.are a matter of all or nothing; f. is either involved in the definition of a c. or it is not; an entity either possesses a f. or it doesn’t.  (^) f. is either present or absent and can take on only one of two values: [+] or [ - ]

4. all members of a category have equal status  (^) no degrees of membership in a c.; no entities which are better members of a c. than others  (^) are these classical c. sufficient to structure m. and knowledge?  (^) best applied to phonology

E. ROSCH

 (^) cog. s. do not reject Aristotle, but cannot be applied to many l. features  (^) Rosch: rigorous structural and TG approach in contradiction to the nature of l., notion of c. needs to be more flexible  (^) inspired by L. Wittgenstein and “family resemblances”  (^) category of games: “games form a family” (interrelationship we find in non-classical c.)

“Human Categorization”, “Principles of

Categorization”

 (^) Rosch’s experiments

1. New Guinea speakers of Dani-2 color lexemes (‘mili’ and ‘mola’), tought them English lexemes for various colors first learnt: prototypical red (moving away from the focal member dark r., cherry r., scarlet later & with difficulty)

2. no words for various geometrical shapes first learnt: circle & triangle  (^) perception-involved in v. learning; what is perceptually most salient is learnt first  (^) Conclusion:human k. is organized, but c. borderlines are not fixed but fluid and vague  (^) our knowledge: result of “MORE OR LESS PRINCIPLE”

Coleman & Kay

“Prototype Semantics: The English Word Lie” a) when you kill sb. and say you didn’t- prototypical lie b) when you say dinner was delicious- social lie btw.: gradation, structure of a category is defined according to the prototype range of gradation and prototype-determined by culture

 (^) “Application of a name to a thing is in general not a matter of yes or no, but rather of more or less. ”  (^) basic attitude of c.s.: our knowledge and meaning are encyclopedic e.g. natural category of birds: eagle-robin-chicken-penguin perceptual & cultural saliency  (^) category of vegetables: tomatoes-celery-potatoes-cabbage  (^) flexibility of categories connected to flexibility of concepts (development through life & physical surroundings and culture)

Scenes & Frames

 (^) rejects “ cheklist theories ” (inclusion in a category determined by a set of necessary and sufficient features)  (^) basic terms: SCENES & FRAMES  (^) scenes- prototypical images we have about entities (persons, objects, events); systems of concepts structuring and forming various aspects of human experience; “meanings are relativized by scenes”  (^) frames - systems of l. choice directly connected to scenes

Fillmore’s examples

 (^) ‘buy’ and ‘sell’- to understand the m. of these verbs, we need the knowledge of basic parameters: money, goods, sale= prototypical scene in which these verbs are used  (^) scenes differ from culture to culture (bargaining in the Middle East)= k. of the world  (^) Frames-lexical sets whose members index portions or aspects of some conceptual whole (can produce extensive nb. of sentences in which ‘buy’ and ‘sell’ appear, limited by grammar=k. of language )

Concluding remarks

 cog. semantics brought about flexibility in

the perception of l. structures and

connection btw. knowledge of l. and

knowledge of the world

 slight individual differences neutralised by

the prototype-shared knowledge