Meaning in Language: An Introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics

CONCEPTS AND MEANING

Chapter 3

A concept is “a mental construct that stands in a relation of correspondence to a coherent category of things in some world, prototypically the real world, but potentially also imaginary, fictional, or virtual worlds.”

Conceptual Category:

encompasses the mental construct and the category of entities

What is a concept?

a range of objectively different experiences treated as instances of one and the same type of experience.

CAT: enables us to see these as all belonging to a single type.

important for intellectual and social activity.

Codification of Experience

Concepts provide a locus for accumulating relevant information for a class of individuals or events.

This gives efficient way of learning from past experience

New knowledge acquired on the basis of interaction with one or more individuals can be easily generalized to other members of a category.

Recognition of a particular category make a much wider range of information about that individual available. If an individual belongs to a particular category, then this can make wide range of information about that individual.

Learning

Communication

Linguistic message is coded in terms of conceptual categories.

CLASSICAL Approach:

goes back at least to Aristotle

defines a category’s membership in terms of a set of necessary and sufficient criteria

Classical Approach

Lack of plausible analysis

Fuzzy boundaries

Internal structure of categories

Problems of Classical Approach

Has logical properties but is not error-free

It may identify correctly or incorrectly on any particular occasion.

Responsible for the truth values of utterances

Designed to improve with experience

Governs important logical relations between a concept and other concepts

Kind Detector

Prototype: best example of something

Natural conceptual categories are structured around the prototypes of the categories

Other items are assimilated to a category according to whether they sufficiently resemble the prototype

Prototype Theory

Subjects are asked to provide a numerical value as an estimate of how good an example of something is

GOE ratings may be strongly culture-dependent.

Goodness-of-Exemplar Ratings

Order of mention

Overall frequency

Order of acquisition

Vocabulary learning

Speed of verification

Priming

Prototypes Effects

Most inclusive level where best categories are created or exist

Most inclusive level for visual representation

Part and whole information is relevant

Level of the most rapid categorization

Simplicity of naming

Basic Level Categories

Score highly on distinctness

Have relatively low internal homogeneity

Names often differ from basic-level categories

Fewer defining attributes

Superordinate-level Categories

The “Guppy Effect”

The basis of GoE ratings and their interpretation.

Interaction among features

Context sensibility

Category boundaries

Degree of membership

Fuzzy boundaries

Problems of Prototype Model